LD Update: NASL Game Night; PDL-MLS friendly

Special Drillers retro shirts for FC Edmonton Sunday evening

FC Edmonton 1:0 Fort Lauderdale Strikers - The hosts had a tough task for nearly an hour, losing Antonio Rago to a red card in the 33rd minute for taking down Abe Thompson. They found a little luck in a diving save from Lance Parker on Thompson's resulting penalty attempt. Playing with 10, Edmonton found some luck when Shaun Saiko connected with Michael Cox in the 66th minute. Andy Herron, returning from an MCL injury for the Strikers, apparently re-aggravated the injury, departing after a half-hour. - MORE

PDL News: Reading United AC took their MLS affiliate to the brink in a friendly Saturday evening, falling 3-2 to the Philadelphia Union.

LD Update: NASL & USL Pro Game Night; PDL signing

The expansion San Antonio Scorpions proved they are not going to be pushovers in the NASL with a second consecutive win Saturday evening and the Rochester Rhinos sent a message that Orlando City will likely have to keep looking over their shoulders if they plan to repeat as regular season champions.

LD Update: Antigua wins; Weekend previews; International signings

Antigua Barracudas 3:2 Charlotte Eagles - After two weeks off, the island club showed no rust. They immediately took the advantage through Peter Byers in the 12th minute. Jorge Herrera tied the contest up eight minutes before the break, but Stefan Smith scored two in five minutes to give them a commanding 3-1 lead on the hour mark. A tally from Luke Williams, though, made the finish a close contest.

NASL Previews: Saturday night features three matches with teams looking to end winless streaks. First, there is the first-ever meeting between San Antonio Scorpions, who come to North Carolina still searching for their first-ever victory after finally ending their scoreless status last week at home.  And though the Carolina RailHawks have the second best goal total in the league, all they have to show for it are three draws and a loss... The Atlanta Silverbacks are at home looking to end two frustrating streaks with the Minnesota Stars visiting. They have draws in all three games this season, and last year went without a point against Minnesota. The fell, 1-2, at home in the first meeting and were blanked the rest of the way, falling 3-0 and then 2-0 twice... The other host, Tampa Bay Rowdies, are in the complete opposition situation having posted an unbeaten record against rival Fort Lauderdale last year. They finished level, 1-1, at Fort Lauderdale in the opening game of the series and then beat the Strikers in the next three with a 4-2 home win and then a pair of 2-0 shutouts. 

USL Pro Previews: Friday night's lone contest is a meeting of old foes with a unique history as the Charleston Battery play host to the Pittsburgh Riverhounds. The Battery went winless against the Riverhounds last year with a pair of scoreless draws and two losses. It was unusual for Charleston, which had not lost a regular season game against Pittsburgh since their first-ever meeting in 1999, a stretch of nine games (5-0-4). The only other odd note is that Pittsburgh had won the only playoff series between the two with a two-game sweep in a 2001 season in which they did not face one another.

LD Update: MLS signings and friendlies

Dynamo blank Laredo Heat: In the midst of an off week, the Houston Dynamo broke from intra-squad play to face the USL PDL’s Laredo Heat, picking up an easy 5-0 win – rosters not available – at the Houston Amateur Sports Park.

Not a lot can be gleaned this far before the season for a USL PDL team because the college players do not report until May 1, but the Heat are one of a handful of teams that tend to have a number of older players. “Under normal circumstances we would not be playing teams such as the Dynamo so early in the preseason,” General Manager J.J. Vela said. “However, because of their schedule and the start of their season we welcomed the challenge to firstly help them out with an exhibition game and also to see what we have in order to secure the best players for our Premier Development League season.

The Dynamo, “ramped up a bit” following the loss at Seattle according to Brad Davis were expected to utilize much of their squad.  “I think we’ll mix it up,” Dynamo coach Dominic Kinnear said about his planned approach to Thursday’s match. “We’ll probably make a lot of changes like we’ve done in preseason.” 

Philadelphia Union to play affiliate Reading: The MLS club and its affiliate, Reading United AC, will continue their series of friendlies with a third installment. The Union will face the PDL club Saturday, June 9 at Albright College’s Shirk Stadium. Last year the two clubs played to a 1-1 draw at the end of May.

Battery bring in Sanyang: There seems to be an unexpected pipeline between Seattle and Charleston, SC. The Sounders have signed two former Battery players in Osvaldo Alonso and Alex Caskey over the years. Now it looks like it is a two-way path as former Sounder Amadou Sanyang was added by Charleston along with University of Washington product Taylor Mueller.

Despite only being 20, Sanyang has already been around MLS for three seasons having originally signed with Toronto FC at the age of 17. The Gambia youth international spent last season with the Sounders.