Charlotte, Dayton finish scoreless

It was a night of missed chances in Charlotte as the Eagles and Dayton Dutch Lions, who were opening their campaign, finished in a scoreless stalemate. The closest either came to scoring on the night came nine minutes in when Charlotte’s Jorge Herrera free kick took a deflection and ricocheted off the far post.  A couple of opportunities went for naught courtesy of Eric Reed saves.

The Eagles are now 0-1-1 following last week's season opening loss, 2-0, to Orlando City. Charlotte hosts Charleston Tuesday and Harrisburg Friday in upcoming action as Dayton travels to Pittsburgh Saturday.

LD Update: MLS friendly & Player Movement

NASL: The Atlanta Silverbacks signed local product Borfor Carr, who played briefly with the club’s reserve team a year ago after returning from a stint with Romanian club CS Concordia Chiajna.

USL Pro: The Harrisburg City Islanders have had a split of a news day. First, the club announced its annual friendly with MLS affiliate Philadelphia Union. The game is set for June 12.  The club then announced the retirement of two-year City Islander Jason Hotchkin. The North Carolina native made a name for himself closer to home, leading the Charlotte Eagles to the league final in 2004 before spending some time in Germany (TuS Koblenz) and Sweden (IK Brage). He came back and played for the Wilmington Hammerheads and Philadelphia Kixx, who he guided to an MISL title. He also played for the New Jersey Ironmen (MISL) and Cleveland City Stars (USL-1) before moving to Harrisburg… In South Carolina, the Charleston Battery got goalkeeper Andrew Dykstra back. The netminder, caught behind a duel for the DC job, was loaned back to the Battery, whom he played for last year after two seasons and 17 appearances with the Chicago Fire.

USL PDL: The North Sound SeaWolves continue to develop the 2012 roster, bringing back three local players from last year’s team… In Florida, the Ocala Stampede added FIU and former New Zealand youth international center back Joe Dawkins to the roster.

USL W-League: The DC United Women brought back four of its top players from a year ago, including W-League All-Conference selection Marisa Abegg… On the other coast, the Vancouver Whitecaps Women signed two players: W-League/WPSL veteran defender Jenny Jeffers and England youth international midfielder/striker Demi Stokes.

Stories Of the Day: Too Much Hype

Three big stories in the media today, arguably all with too much hype…

MLS Southeast Expansion: Major League Soccer officials concluded their recent trip to the Triangle (North Carolina) for exploratory discussions, which included the NASL Carolina RailHawks, regarding expansion to the region. The trip comes not to long after a similar visit to Florida, where they met with Orlando City of USL Pro. The league, through Don Garber, has been very clear about expansion. Team 20 WILL be in New York City.

Until then, it would be nice if everyone jumped off the crazy train and just treated relaxed a little when it comes to potential expansion. Things are going well and there is no need to add more expansion buzz for a few more years.

Mullan Melodrama: With Colorado coming to Seattle Saturday with Brian Mullan in the lineup, everyone has been keenly focused on Steve Zakuani’s devastating injury suffered a year ago. It all seems to be about how the team and fans are going to react to the return of Mullan, though Zakuani says “My advice [to the fans] is let it go and use that energy to support the team,” Zakuani added. “The guys will need it.”

That’s a good thought. And though I would probably get skewered a bit from the fans for suggesting it, it would be nice to see the media let it go as well. Players do stupid things all the time, but obsessing over the visiting team only distracts the home club from focusing on what they need to do. And with Colorado sitting third in the conference and coming in with a new coach this year, it would be wise not to let side stories leave the club in the bottom half of the table.

Schmoozing in Vancouver: The Whitecaps revealed today - what they termed a major strategic announcement - the addition of former Vancouver Olympics chief John Furlong as the new executive chair of the club. The announcement was vague in what role Furlong will play with the club.

According to this report from Steven Sandor, the decision grew out of a casual chat Whitecaps owner Greg Kerfoot had with Furlong several weeks ago, prompting the response of being surprised by Furlong himself. That tidbit makes this sound like one of the many lower division attempts at swaying public officials by forming ‘advisory councils’ comprised of city officials and prominent figures that meet on a few occasions. I have never really seen any of these councils amount to much more than their obvious intent to make important people feel special and included.

On the surface it would appear like a good addition, but the Vancouver Olympics were of the Winter variety, having no connection whatsoever to the sport of soccer. Hopefully Furlong has connections in the corporate and political world via the Olympics that will pay off for the Whitecaps, though that would have been more beneficial when they were trying to build their own stadium prior to the renovation of BC Place.

US Futsal to face defending champ in CONCACAF Championship

The United States Futsal learned its opposition for the 2012 CONCACAF Futsal Championship, set for July 2-8 in Guatemala, Thursday. Drawn into Group A, they will face Panama, defending champion and host Guatemala and the winner of the playoff between Canada and El Salvador.

The US squad, headed by MISL Milwaukee Wave powerhouse coach Keith Tozer, concluded a one-week camp with 18 players in Torrance, Calif. last week.

The U.S. has won the CONCACAF championship twice, in 1996 and 2004. In 2008, the USA reached the Futsal World Cup but failed to advance out of the group stage. For the first time in the qualifying tournament’s history, CONCACAF will send four teams to the Futsal World Cup in Thailand, being held from Nov. 2-18, 2012. The eight teams will be split into two groups of four teams each. The top two teams from each group advance to the semifinals and earn places at the FIFA Futsal World Cup.

Canada and El Salvador will both head to Guatemala, where they will determine the last qualifier in a two-leg playoff on June 28 and 29, also at the Domo Polideportivo in Guatemala City.

LD Update: Player Signings & Previews:

Coming Up in the NASL: Coming off a pair of scoreless draws, the Carolina RailHawks and Atlanta Silverbacks look to get their first goals of the campaign in hopes of getting their first win. Also on Saturday evening, co-leader Fort Lauderdale Strikers host the defending champion Minnesota Stars while Week 1 losers FC Edmonton and Tampa Bay Rowdies square off looking for their first points, and goals, of the season. On Sunday the expansion San Antonio Scorpions make their home debut against Week 1 winner Puerto Rico Islanders.

Coming Up in USL Pro: Four clubs kick off their seasons in three of the four matches in Week 2 action. The Dayton Dutch Lions open up on the road against Week 1 losers Charlotte Eagles in Friday’s only contest. On Saturday, the Rochester Rhinos and LA Blues both begin 2012 play when they meet in California. The other contest is the continuation of the 20th Anniversary series between the Richmond Kickers and Charleston Battery, who will again don the retro 1993 kits as they square off at Blackbaud in rematch of last week’s 2-1 Battery win. The weekend wraps up with Week 1 winner and defending champion Orlando City hosting the season-opening Wilmington Hammerheads.

LD Update: Player and sponsor signings

PDL Signings: Four in-state additions announced by Mississippi Brilla… Five players are returning for the Philadelphia Union’s PDL affiliate Reading United AC… Four players are also returning for the second-year North Sound SeaWolves, including Seattle Sounders Supplemental Draft pick Abdul Aman

Corporate Signings: Los Angeles Galaxy sponsor Herbalife continued to show that it is not all about the top flight, renewing its partnership with the PDL’s Fresno Fuego for 2012… USL Pro club Orlando City announced the addition of multitude of sponsors, four of them national.

Stories Of the Day: Retroactive

Before Chelsea was unveiled as the MLS All-Star opponent, the topic of the day appeared to be retroactive punishments…

Out of England: The referee saw the foul, therefore, according to FIFA and the England FA no punishment could be handed out to Manchester City’s Mario Balotelli for a nasty studs-up challenge on Alex Song of Arsenal this weekend. "Retrospective action can only be taken in scenarios where none of the Match Officials saw the players coming together.”

In the U.S. of A: In Major League Soccer, however, New England’s Shalrie Joseph got more than his game-issued yellow card for his tackle from behind on FC Dallas’ Ricardo Villar. The league suspended the Revolution captain one game in addition to the levy of a fine. 

The retroactive punishment situation is becoming an increasingly discussed topic. Whether or not a ball crosses the line in any given league match is nothing in comparison to a grizzly tackle that takes a player out of the lineup for weeks, if not months at a time. It is still amazing that in this modern time of the sport when we all know that perceptions can greatly vary based on the angle in which you are viewing an incident, that FIFA has not amended this rule to give leagues more latitude in assessing penalties for match behavior.

And as frustrated as some fans may be, let me tell you that it can be just as bad for league officials who have their hands tied. As a long-time league administrator at USL, there were countless times when things occurred off the ball that we could not do anything about either due to lack of evidence or because of the laws of the game. Worse yet were red cards that could not be rescinded. There were almost always at least one or two cases each year in which a foul was either not as bad as the referee though or completely feigned by the player being fouled. But unless the player received the red card out of mistaken identity, there was nothing you could do.