Apologies for the hiatus in USL-1 week previews. Things have normalized after traveling and several other commitments, I should now be able to continue putting these out on a weekly basis.
-Minnesota Thunder at Vancouver Whitecaps
The week begins with a match that might not be terribly exciting for fans around the league. Minnesota, with the worst record in the league visits Vancouver – last year’s champions. Seeing how Minnesota has been playing this season, you would normally guess this would be easy to call. Wrong. Minnesota has kept losing, but at least they’re being competitive and usually keep the score to within one goal (excepting that ridiculous 5-1 loss in Portland last month). They even played Portland to a 1-1 draw last week – no easy feat as the Timbers are without a doubt the strongest team so far this season.
On the other hand, Vancouver has played the fewest matches of any USL-1 side (12 games). The Whitecaps’ season has also been somewhat erratic – they have won and tied just once in their last 5 USL-1 matches. Their last game was two weeks ago against the City Stars in Cleveland where they only managed to come out with a 2-2 draw.
What to expect: probability says that Vancouver wins – the Whitecaps are playing at home where they are usually hard to beat. Still, Minnesota could put up a good fight.
-Puerto Rico Islanders at Rochester Rhinos
Fox Soccer Channel’s USL match of the week on Friday night. I will be posting a detailed match-preview of the Islanders’ game soon.
-Carolina RailHawks at Charleston Battery
The regional rivals meet for the second time this season on Saturday when the RailHawks make the trip to Charleston.
The Battery currently sit on 1st place in the USL table with 30 points but the RailHawks are not far behind with 24 points and two games in hand. Charleston won 1-0 against Montreal last week to climb to the top of the table again after being behind Puerto Rico. The team continues to reply overwhelmingly on the strong defense and a solid Goalkeeper – having allowed only 6 goals against them in the entire season. Offensively they are consistent but not much of a threat as they average almost 1 goal per match (15 goals in 16 matches).
The RailHawks will have an uphill battle in trying to win against the league leader on the road. Carolina went winless for the month of June and have the sad honor of being the only team to lose to Minnesota so far this season. The Railhawks coach was quoted after losing to the Islanders that they have to sit down and re-evaluate their performance. It will be interesting to see if the coach can turn things around.
What to expect: Charleston is the clear favorite here. The Battery keep playing well, very boring, but they get the job done – and they remained undefeated at home, having only allowed 2 goals in Charleston all season. The RailHawks will come out hungry for the win so a tie wouldn’t be surprising.
-Montreal Impact at Minnesota Thunder
The Impact have been a mixed bag this season. After going deep into the CONCACAF Champions League last year they were expected to play particularly well coming into the USL this season. Instead, Montreal began the season winless in their first 6 games. They turned things around a bit and in June they won 3 of their 5 matches. Then when things looked as if they were stabilizing, they went down 4-0 to Portland two weeks ago and 1-0 to Charleston at home last week. Montreal is still a better team than Minnesota so they need to come out with the win.
Minnesota will be traveling back home from a Thursday night game in Vancouver. The trip and the outcome of that game against the Whitecaps will surely affect how they perform when they receive take on Montreal on Saturday.
What to expect: Even if they get a decent win against Vancouver, Montreal is still the favorite here.
-Portland Timbers at Austin Aztex
Portland meets Austin for the first time ever on Saturday. Portland currently sits in 3rd place, behind Charleston and Puerto Rico, but they have 2 and 3 games in hand compared to the Battery and Islanders respectively. The Timbers remain undefeated at home where they have had spectacular games like the 4-0 beat down of Montreal on June 28th or the 5-1 rout against Minnesota the week before that. But even with this success, they have underperformed on the road – having a 1-1-5 (W-L-T) record away from home.
The Aztex, in typical expansion-team fashion, are a mixed bag of results. They lose horribly on the road, but then at home can perform decently. Aided by the fact that their field is extremely narrow, they can manage to put up a good defense against visiting teams.
What to expect: While I would expect Portland to win, their bad record on the road coupled with Austin’s smart use of their field point towards a possible draw or even an upset.
