Fetzer Field has a bit of magic to it for the UNC women's soccer program, no doubt. And the freshmen seemed to feel that magic instantly as they provided the spark for North Carolina in its 1-0 win over UNC-Greensboro Tuesday. Since 1979 the program notched 253 wins out of 266 matches on its home turf.

"I've had a couple of losses on this field, and it's just the worst feeling in the world," senior Heather O'Reilly said. "I hope it never happens to me again while I'm here, and I'll fight until it doesn't."

>> Read Nicki Jhabvala's full story at the Daily Tar Heel.

For away matches (and at other random times), RailHawks fans gather in our online chat room to discuss the RailHawks match, soccer in general, and just about anything else we've got on our minds. Feel free to join the discussion below.

If no one is hanging out in the chat room, you can find more RailHawks online discussion in our forum on BigSoccer.com or in our FaceBook Group.

If you'd rather have TSF news in your e-mail inbox each day rather than having to remember to visit the website to see what's new, you have two options.

First, we provide a daily email service which will send you a single email each day there is a new article on the TSF site. The email will contain the full story and you can read it right in your inbox or simply click on the link in the email to read it on the website. To signup for this daily email service, type your email address in the form below:

A second option is to join the TSF YahooGroups mailing list. This mailing list is the official email news and discussion source for the supporters club. This mailing list is open to the general public (i.e., you do not have to be a dues-paying member of the Club to join) and will feature not only all the news articles posted on the TSF website, but also frequent discussion of interest to soccer fans in our area.

This is an unmoderated discussion forum and is intended to provide a socially interactive forum for soccer fans in the Triangle area. To subscribe to our YahooGroups Mailing List, please click here to be taken to the YahooGroups website.

Adrian Serioux has played for Milwall and the Houston Dynamo of MLS, but he got his start in the USL.

Born in Scarborough, Ontario in 1979, Serious has seen action recently with the Canadian national team, earning 9 national team caps to date. After playing college soccer for the University of New Haven, Serioux started his pro career with the Toronto Lynx in the A-League. He then moved to England and Millwall. Serioux, renowned for his long throw-ins, once set up a goal against Leicester City with a throw-in from the half-way line.

Serioux joined MLS in March 2006, signing with the MetroStars, leaving England in order to take care of his ill mother. However, he never played for the club, as he was traded to Houston for Danny O'Rourke before the regular season started.

For more information on Adrian Serioux, please visit Wikipedia.

Carla Overbeck was officially inducted into the US Soccer Hall of Fame today in Oneonta, NY. Overbeck, whose entire post-prep career has been intertwined with soccer in the Triangle, joins Alexi Lalas and Al Trost in the 2006 Hall of Fame class. Phil Anschutz was also honored during the ceremony with the National Soccer Medal of Honor.

Overbeck is currently an assistant with the Duke women's soccer team. She played professionally for both the Raleigh Wings and the Carolina Courage. Carla is a 1990 graduate of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where she was a part of the women's team that won the NCAA National Championship in each of the 4 years she played for the Tar Heels.

USSoccer.com has full coverage of Hall of Fame weekend including an excellent Overbeck photo gallery and the audio of Carla's induction speech.

College Soccer News has named Cary native and Athens Drive alum Brian Ackley their first player of the week for the 2006 season. Ackley continued his goal scoring streak (and added an assist too) on Sunday as Indiana bested UAB 2-1. CSN also handed out honoraries to other players with Triangle area ties -- Duke's Michael Videira and Campbell's Richard Jata were both named to Team of the Week.

Some of the best college soccer coverage I was able to find this weekend is coming from the student newspapers at our local schools. Here are a few of the articles I picked up off their sites today:

• Lewis proves goal-den in opening tournament (Jesse Baumgartner, The Daily Tarheel)
  
• Men's soccer begins season with a sweep (Matt Brooks, The Daily Tarheel)
  
• (Men's) Soccer splits opening games (Dennis Burton, The Technician)
  
• Wolfpack women win two (J. Mike Blake, The Technician)
  
• Pack still looking for answers up front (Josh Harrell, The Technician)
  
• Balanced attack carries Blue Devils to 2 victories (Taylor Field, The Chronicle)
  
• Duke (Women) win 2 despite tough test Sunday (Sean Moroney, The Chronicle)
  

Wow! We're getting to be an old hand at this! This show took a lot less time to put together than the first two, but hopefully you'll enjoy it just as much.

Episode 3 brings to a conclusion the three-part interview with Carolina Railhawks Managing Partner Chris Economides. Tonight we talk about player development, RailHawks broadcast plans for next season, and Triangle Professional Soccer's plans for Women's Soccer and Lacrosse at SAS Soccer Park. Plus, we finally answer that burning question about Chris' favorite BBQ sauce.

After you listen, be sure to send me some ideas for the upcoming episodes of the podcast at info@trisoccerfan.com



Correction: During the podcast, I mention that Ronnie Pascale had a shutout in the USL-2 final. What I should have said was that he "almost" had a shutout, giving up one goal in stoppage time, but hanging on for the win.

Stephen Bickford, a sophmore forward at UNC and Green Hope (Cary) High School alum, will be sharing his thoughts on the Tar Heels season with Triangle Soccer Fanatics throughout the year.

Justin Hughes posted his 10th shutout in his last 12 matches as UNC held off the University of Central Florida 1-0 on Sunday afternoon under a scorching sun in Winston-Salem. The Tar Heels started brightly, theatening repeatedly down the left side and then scoring from a Garry Lewis header in the 10th minute. From there, the match settled into an even, if uninspired affair. UCF threatened to level the game several times in the second half but were repeatedly denied by the solid performance of Hughes in net. Stephen Bickford participated as a sub in both halves, totalling just over 40 minutes of playing time on the day and recorded one shot on goal.

---

TSF: The game started well for the Heels but the team seemed to fade fast. Was the heat or the quick turnaround from Friday's match this early in the season a factor today?

Bic: I don't think either factor affected us. The big difference from today was that not many of the players fulfilled their individual responsibilities. At this level of play variables such as the heat or minimal recovery time should not be a major factor in a match, and I don't think that was the case with today's game either.

TSF: You played up top today on both the right (in the first half) and the left (in the second). Do you have a preferred position to play and why?

Bic: I just like playing forward. Which side I'm playing doesn't really matter although from watching game tapes I seem to favor the left side. I think this came about during club soccer when I didn't mind having to use my left foot more often than my teammate who wasn't quite as comfortable with his weak foot.

TSF: With the team struggling for offense in the second half and UCF pushing forward, Justin Hughes made a few key plays to keep the equaliser at bay. How important is it for the team to have someone with Justin's skill and experience as your last line of defense?

Bic: Justin is the best college goalkeeper in the world. When you have somebody who possesses his amount of skill, you're much more confident in the team's ability to succeed.

TSF: UNC had one of the top recruiting classes in the country this year. As the newcomers are integrating themselves into the fold, has any of the freshmen or transfers stood out particularly in your eyes over the first two matches?

Bic: Zach Loyd, Bill Dworsky, and Garry Lewis have all played a considerable amount so far in the early part of this season. The three of them are integrating rather nicely and each has an important element of their game that can contribute to our success this year.

TSF: The competition level ratchets up a bit next weekend as Ohio State and Penn State come to Chapel Hill for the Carolina Nike Classic. What do you think Coach Bolowich will have the team working on next week in practice based on the two matches you've got under your belt now?

Bic: Tactics and such are top secret, but I wouldn't be surprised if training this week had an offensive emphasis.

---

For those interested in learning more about Stephen's collegiate career. Bickford wrote a journal for ESPN's Soccernet last season chronicling his first year as a Tar Heel. The archives of these journals can be found here.

Both the Tar Heels and Wolfpack struggled Saturday with unfancied opposition, but Justin Hughes produced his 10th shutout in his last 12 career matches to make Garry Lewis' 10th minute header stand up for the Tar Heels to beat University of Central Florida 1-0 in their second and final match of the Wake Forest / adidas Classic at Winston-Salem. In the day's second match, Wake Forest bested William & Mary by the same 1-0 scoreline giving them a 6-0 aggregate and 6pts from two games to take the tournament title.

The Wolfpack, playing their second game in 24 hours were less fortunate, losing 0-2 to Hartford. The Wolfpack fell behind in the 17th minute when former Louisburg College and Raleigh Elite PDL alum Gary Muir banked a corner kick in off an NC State defender. Daniel Antunez would add the insurance goal for the Hawks in the 64th minute.

>> Photos from the Tar Heels v. UCF match are available on Flickr.

As the last two area Division I sides to kickoff the collegiate season, the men's teams from NCSU and Campbell both secured home wins Saturday to start their 2006 campaigns. The Wolfpack beat St. Francis of NY 1-0 on the strength of freshman Sean Campbell's first career goal while the Camels got two goals from Richard Jata to beat longtime rivals UNC-Wilmington 2-1.

Fans will get a second chance to win a season ticket to the Carolina RailHawks, as the club has just announced a new contest - Name the Mascot.

“We're excited about this contest,” said Chris Economides, managing partner of the RailHawks. “As the number of entries for our Name the Team contest showed, the Triangle is full of many creative people. We can't wait to see what ideas our fans come up with for the mascot. Now that we know what a RailHawk is from the recent unveiling of the Carolina RailHawks new name, logo and powerful story of its rich history, we're going back to imaginative Triangle area soccer fans to give them a chance to win season tickets in exchange for creating a mascot for the team.”

2005 Athens Drive High graduate and former CASL Elite standout Brian Ackley has gotten his sophmore campaign at Indiana off to a smashing start, heading home Indiana's only goal as they started the season with a 1-0 victory of Creighton in the Mike Berticelli Memorial Tournament at the University of Notre Dame. Ackley, who made 11 appearances for the Hoosiers during his rookie campaign, continues a goal scoring streak started in preseason that has seen him score the only goal in three consecutive 1-0 wins for IU.

Stephen Bickford, a sophmore forward at UNC and Green Hope (Cary) High School alum, will be sharing his thoughts on the Tar Heels season with Triangle Soccer Fanatics throughout the year.

UNC downed William & Mary 2 - 0 on Friday night to open the 2006 season. The Tar Heels got goals from Ben Hunter and Stephen Bickford. Bic's goal came less than 5 minutes after he entered the match as a first half sub when fellow sub Brian Shriver played Stephen through, allowing him to touch the ball away from the on-rushing keeper and score from an acute angle. Shriver and Bickford almost repeated their goal-scoring partnership in the second-half when Bickford started a 60-yard give-and-go with Shriver but was just denied his brace on a great save from William & Mary keeper Kris Rake.

---

TSF: Coming into this game out of the pre-season, what was the team's focus tonight?

Bic: Our main focus was to take the match to our opponent and not concede any goals. In our preseason matches we were the dominant team but we wouldn't finish our opponents off. We wanted to change that tonight.

TSF: Clearly you did that tonight. What would you say was the major difference tonight?

Bic: Everybody really took care of their individual responsibilities. When you take care of your specific task, it's hard for the team not to win.

TSF: A good all around effort. Who would you single out as man of the match?

Bic: Ted Odgers was very solid in the back and if I had to pick a single MVP it would be him.

TSF: You connected well with Brian Shriver. Can you talk a little about Brian's game?

Bic: Brian and I have always played well when paired together. His style is similar to mine and therefore i believe we can anticipate each other very well.

TSF: Looking ahead to Sunday's match with UCF, what are key areas the team needs to focus on improving?

Bic: I think simply being more efficient in front of goal. If I recall, I believe we had about 25-30 shots and only 2 goals. (editor's note: 23 shots, 11 on goal)

---

While Stephen may have singled out Ted Odgers as Man of the Match, you would have been hard pressed to find many at the stadium last night that would argue that Stephen did not deserve similar recognition for his super-sub performance in route to scoring his second career goal for the Tar Heels.

The UNC Tar Heels women soccer team lost their first opening day match since 1983 as they fell on the road to the Texas A&M Aggies in double overtime 1-0. The Tar Heels men's team faired better as they took a 2-0 victory over William & Mary at the Wake Forest/adidas Classic in Winston-Salem.

Both Duke sides won their home openers as the Men dropped Hartford 5-2 before the Women took St. Louis down 3-1. In other local action the NCSU women opened with a 2-0 win over Western Carolina as the Campbell women fell 0-2 away to Elon.

>> Pictures from the UNC Men v. William & Mary match are available on Flickr.

The Technician, NC State's student newspaper, previews both the upcoming men's and women's season soccer season in today's edition. Dennis Burton explores how the loss of key seniors like 2005 leading scorer Aaron King and goalkeeper Jorge Gonzalez will impact the 2006 squad. Burton explores the theme further in another piece about the pending goalkeeper dual between junior Tom DeStefano and redshirt freshman Chris Widman.

Over on the women's side, J. Mike Blake previews the 2006 season for coach Laura Kerrigan's side. The women kickoff their season at 5pm Friday against Western Carolina at Method Road while the men host St. Francis of New York at 2pm Saturday. Both team's are back in action again Sunday at Method Road with the men hosting Hartford at 1pm and the women squaring off against the Seahawks of UNC-Wilmington at 4pm.

The Richmond Kickers and Charlotte Eagles are set to square off Saturday, August 26th in Richmond to contest the USL-2 Championship. The match will be broadcast live at 7:00pm EST on Fox Soccer Channel.

The Kickers and the Eagles met 4 times during the USL-2 regular season with the Kickers taking a 3-0-1 advantage from the series. However, Charlotte is fresh off a 6-1 aggregate drubbing of Pittsburgh in the semifinals while Richmond struggled to best Cincinnati 2-1 to advance to the final match.

Future RailHawks supporters will be keen to keep an eye on USL-2 assist leader Chris Carrieri and USL-2 goalkeeping wins leader Ronnie Pascale. Both players have been rumored to be prime candidates to join the Carolina franchise next Spring.

With advancement to the second round assured ahead of tomorrow's first round match with France, UNC Tar Heel teammates Tobin Heath and Casey Nogueira stay loose with a "juggle off" to bide their time in Moscow awaiting their next U20 World Championships match.

>> See the video at USSoccer.com

US Soccer has announced the roster for the fall semester of their residency program. Among the attendees will be '90 CASL Elite defender Nick Millington. The Raleigh native will join 39 other U17s at the Bradenton Academy in Florida where he and his teammates will focus on preparations for the FIFA U17 World Championships to be held in South Korea in September of 2007.

The 40 U.S. players live on campus at the IMG Academy and train daily under the guidance of U17 national team coach John Hackworth and assistant coaches Keith Fulk, Raul Diaz Arce, Tim Mulqueen and Brian Maisonneuve. Started in 1999, the residency program has become the crown jewel of US Soccer's youth development effort and boasts world class alumni like Bobby Convey, Oguchi Onyewu, Landon Donovan and Demarcus Beasley.

UNC Tar Heels fans will have another way to catch the women's team this year beyond the one match scheduled for Fox Soccer Channel broadcast. Learfield Sports has teamed up with TarHeelBlue.com to webcast six of the women matches this season.

The following games will air live here at TarHeelBlue.com. All are ACC contests.

• Thursday, September 21 vs. Florida State, 8 p.m. (also telecast on FSC)
  
• Sunday, September 24 vs. Miami, 1 p.m.
  
• Sunday, October 1 vs. Maryland, 1 p.m.
  
• Thursday, October 12 vs. Boston College, 7 p.m.
  
• Sunday, October 15 vs. Virginia Tech, 1 p.m.
  
• Friday, October 27 vs. Wake Forest, 7 p.m.
  

Trevor Gorman of Tar Heel Sports Marketing will serve as the play by play voice of UNC women's soccer during this season's broadcasts. Should the Tar Heels advance to the NCAA Tournament and be selected to host games other dates could possibly be heard live at that time. Tentative NCAA home dates could include November 10, November 12, November 18 and November 25.

UNC played their final tune-up, their annual Blue-White intrasquad scrimmage tonight at Fetzer Field. This was the last chance the Tar Heels had to work out any kinks before they start to defend their Soccer America pre-season #1 selection against William & Mary next Friday in Winston-Salem.

The teams were split into two rosters, with the Blue roster looking like it was stocked more with the names you'd expect to be in the starting lineup against Wililam & Mary on the weekend. But it was White that struck first on a fabulous piece of individual skill from sophmore Stephen Bickford. Bickford, getting his first start since spraining his MCL earlier this pre-season, received the ball at midfield on the left side, shrugged off a challenge from Garry Lewis, did the same to Dave Boole, froze another defender at the top of the box with a touch to his right that played him into space, and blasted a twenty-two yard rocket past a frozen Justin Hughes.

Corey Ashe then answered for the Blue squad in the second half when Zach Lloyd's cross from the right flank was misplayed by Abe Chenathara right into the path of the on-rushing Ashe who gave second half White keeper, freshman and Cary native, Brooks Haggerty little chance to prevent the equalizer. Other standouts among the Tar Heels' newcomers were U17 national team midfielder Eddie Ababio who looked very comfortable with the ball at his feet and 6' 4" freshman David Rodriguez who used every inch of his height to his advantage in defense.

Photos from the match are available at Flickr.

Apex High School is the pre-season number 1 for North Carolina 4-A schools and Green Hope (5), Cary (7) and Broughton (10) all start the season in the top 10 as the North Carolina High School soccer season kicks off on Monday.

Apex opens the season at home against Chapel Hill at 7pm while Green Hope hosts Jordan at 6:30pm. Broughton kicks off their season on Tuesday against Athens Drive while Cary gets things underway on Wednesday at Southeast Raleigh.

For full high school schedules, scores, rankings, and more, please visit the Eurosport NC High School Scoreboard.

A second-half stoppage time goal from Raleigh's Casey Nogueira iced today's match between the USA U20 Women's National team and Argentina as the Yanks advanced to the quarterfinals on the back a 4-1 victory. With 6 points from 2 games, the Americans are assured a place in the quarterfinals but still have a first round game with France to play on August 24th. Adams, Rostedt, and Long joined Nogueira on the score sheet as the US women bounced back from a tough, but victorious performance in their first game against the DR Congo to dominate the Argentines in Moscow.

We're back with Episode 2 of the RailHawks Underground. In this episode, we continue our interview with RailHawks Managing Partner Chris Economides and focus on Chris' ambitions for next season, his coach hunt, and how he'll stock the roster for next season.



I'm going to try to get into a regular weekly podcast schedule, with new episodes going up late on Sunday evenings. Point your favorite podcatcher (like iTunes) at the feed at http://feeds.feedburner.com/TriSoccerFan to have the latest episode of the RailHawks underground waiting on you every Monday morning.

As always, I encourage you to use the comments section to provide feedback as we work through the kinks in the process of bringing you a weekly podcast about soccer in the Triangle.

Rising UNC Tar Heel freshman Tobin Heath is part of the local delegation participating in the U20 Women's World Championships in Moscow. The US is off to a good start with a 2-1 victory over DR Congo and is set to face Argentina in Moscow at 8am (EDT) Monday morning.

Heath checks in from Russia in the latest podcast from USSoccer.com.

Area colleges continued to put the finishing touches on their Fall preparation with a series of friendlies around the Triangle and across the state today. While the Campbell Men and Women beat their respective alumni sides 4-1 and 3-1 in Buies Creek, the Tar Heels travelled to Boiling Springs for a 1-1 draw with Gardner-Webb. Duke's women side put up 4 while only allowing 1 away to UNC-Greensboro while their men's side battled pre-season #2 Connecticut to a 1-1 draw at Koskinen Stadium.

While UNC has to be a little concerned about injuries sustained by Corey Ashe and Michael Callahan during the Gardner-Webb match, it will probably ease their minds a little that Stephen Bickford returned from his sprained MCL with a 30 minute run out in the main game and about 60 minutes in a reserve squad follow-on match, scoring 2 in the 6-1 reserves win.

Pictures from the Duke v. UConn match are posted on Flickr and remember that you can click on any of the matches listed in the Match Calendar at right for match reports, box scores, pictures, and more.

Next up on the collegiate schedule is UNC's annual blue-white scrimmage on Monday evening. The match, at 7pm at Fetzer Field, is free to the public and the players will sign autographs after the match.

I'm sure some will call me a bandwagon jumper (I can live with that), but Reading are my team this year in the Premiership. After waiting through 3 early games today (and really, since last March when it became clear the Royals were going up), I FINALLY got to see Reading play a match in the Premiership -- and boy was it a rollercoaster! After going down 2 inside the first 20 minutes, Reading looked like they were going to be Premiership pretenders, but then they turned out the quality that they showed last year in the Championship and stormed back to a 3-2 victory.

I've been following Bobby Convey since he became the youngest player (at that time) to sign with MLS in 2000. I was disappointed when Convey's tranfer to Tottenham fell through; delighted when he went to Reading. I suffered through Bobby's uneven first season in the Coca-Cola Championship and then revelled in Reading's historic promotion run in 2005-6. I told anybody that would listen that Convey should start for the USA over Beasley at the World Cup (easy to say now isn't it?). Today sort of felt like a "Our Bobby's all grown up moment" for someone that has been following his career for so long (more so than him playing in the World Cup, oddly).

Anyway, over the last few years of following Reading through the web, I've come to love the match reports that RichardL posts over on BigSoccer. A Berkshire resident and lifelong Reading supporter, RichardL recaps every Royals match in his own particular way. Check out Richard's recap of today's 3-2 Premiership debut v. Middlesborough.

The NC State men’s soccer team got to go through a dress rehearsal before the 2006 season starting next weekend, as the Pack took the field Saturday morning for an intrasquad scrimmage. The Pack’s offense had a strong showing on the day with two goals for the White team, and multiple shots off the post or crossbar.

Junior El Hadj Cisse led the scoring, with two goals on the day. Moving from his midfield spot of the last two seasons, Cisse is moving up to forward and proved today to be a serious scoring threat. Cisse’s first goal started with sophomore Jack Weedon taking the ball down the right wing and finding freshman Alan Sanchez at the top of the 18-yard box. Sanchez quickly found Cisse who slotted the shot into the lower right corner. Cisse’s second goal came off a free kick from 25 yards out.

>> Read the rest at GoPack.com

5 local collegiate players have been named to the 2006 Missouri Athletic Club Hermann Trophy Watch List compiled by the National Soccer Coaches Association of America. UNC's Heather O'Reilly made the women's list, joining fellow Tar Heels Michael Harrington and Justin Hughes in the hunt for college soccer's most valuable player award. Rounding out the local players on the 2006 edition of the watch list are Michael Videira (Duke) and Willy Guadarrama (Campbell).

Soccer America has picked the North Carolina Tar Heels as their pre-season number one. It's the first time the Tar Heels have topped that poll since they won the national championship in 2001. Soccer America showed a lot of love to the ACC, placing 4 teams in the top 6, and 7 in the top 20. The Tar Heels were also picked 4th in the NSCAA/adidas pre-season poll with Duke picking up the 14th spot in that poll.

It's going to be another great season of soccer in the ACC!

Former Scottish U-19 National Team member Kirsten Lawrence has been named an assistant coach with the Campbell University women’s soccer team. A member of Campbell’s 2004 Atlantic Sun Conference championship squad, Lawrence returns to the program after spending the 2005-06 academic year as a graduate assistant coach with the Campbell women’s swimming team.

She will assist in all phases of the Fighting Camel program, including administrative duties, recruiting, on-field instruction and summer camps. Lawrence holds the Scottish Football Association Early Touches coaching license.

In yesterday's News & Observer, Tim Stevens IDs some local area prep athletes to keep an eye on this Fall. The soccer players include:

• T.J. Beaulieu -- Apex senior forward led Cougars with 29 goals during 24-0-1 season in 2005
  
• Gordon Brown -- Raleigh Christian senior keeper recorded seven shutouts for 15-2-1 N.C. Christian School Association champion in 2005
  
• Will Craven -- Sanderson senior keeper earned soccer coaches all-state honors playing on a 23-2-1 club in 2005
  
• Tommy Drake -- Chapel Hill senior forward and Clemson recruit was a coaches all-state selection in 2005 (pictured at right)
  
• Sean Haglund -- North Raleigh Christian senior junior had 23 goals, eight assists in 2005; committed to Wake Forest
  
• Tyler Lassiter -- Wake Forest-Rolesville senior midfielder named to coaches all-state team in 2005
  
• Mustafa Qomaq -- Southeast Raleigh senior midfielder scored 38 goals for 14-9-0 club; earned coaches all-state honors in 2005
  
• Jeff Spario -- Clayton senior midfielder (12 goals, 14 assists in 2005) chosen to coaches all-state team
  

College soccer news has included four Triangle area collegiate players on its pre-season All-America list. Duke's Michael Vidiera made the first team, while Campbell's Willy Guadarrama and UNC's Andre Sherard are second team all-americans. UNC's Michael Harrington joins the list as a third-team selection.

Welcome to the RailHawks Underground. The podcast that takes you deeper into professional soccer in the Triangle than any of our other local media dare go!



Our very first episode of the The RailHawks Underground features Part 1 of my interview with Chris Economides, Manager Partner of the Carolina RailHawks. In this episode, I quiz Chris on the naming of the franchise, why his ownership group picked the Triangle for their expansion target, why he thinks pro soccer will work THIS time in the Raleigh-Durham area, and what he learned about soccer in Cary from a season full of exhibition matches.

This is our first attempt at producing a podcast so bear with us as we figure this technology out. I'd love to hear your feedback on the podcast and whether or not you like this approach to bringing you news through the TSF website.

The Underground will continue next Monday with Part 2 of my Economides interview as we move our discussion into his pending coaching decision, how players will be brought into the franchise, his on field expectations for next season, player development philosophies, his ambitions to expand into the women's soccer and lacrosse markets in the Triangle, and a few other topics.

Josh Elliott scored twice and assisted on another goal to lead Campbell to a 4-1 win over visiting Richmond Tuesday night in a men’s soccer exhibition at the Eakes Athletic Complex.

Camel freshman Vince Petrasso tallied a pair of goals in his first outing with the Orange & Black and Julian Fulton added two assists as the Camels recovered from a 1-0 half-time deficit with two strikes in an 8:17 span early in the second half.

Campbell continues its pre-season schedule Friday in a 4:00 p.m. kick-off at Elon before hosting its annual Alumni match on Saturday at 3:00.

Yesterday we reported about Broughton grad Casey Nogueira representing the Triangle, and her country, at the 2006 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Championship. Well, Casey's not the only Triangle area resident headed to Moscow for the tournament. Chapel Hill resident Kim Oberle has been selected as one of two American officials to preside over matches at the youth championship. Oberle, a FIFA Assistant Referee, will run lines while Massachusetts' Jennifer Bennett will receive center assignments. The pair join American Sandra Hunt who will also attend as one of the two referee instructors at the tournament.

Oberle, who those in attendance at the recent USA Women v. Canada match at SAS Soccer Park should recognize as the senior AR in that fixture, is a member of the Durham Youth Council and holds the position of Recreation Manager (Youth Services) for the City of Durham's Parks & Recreation department.

Instead of practicing with their Tar Heel teammates for the upcoming Fall season Raleigh's Casey Nogueira and fellow incoming Tar Heel freshman Tobin Heath met up with their US Women U20 teammates at JFK airport over the weekend as the team headed to Russia for the 2006 FIFA U-20 Women’s World Championship. The World Championship will be held from Aug. 17-Sept. 4. The U.S. team opens the tournament on Aug. 18 against the Democratic Republic of Congo. After opening Group D against the Africans, the USA faces Argentina on Aug. 21, and finishes first round play against France on Aug. 24. With no TV coverage of the event in the States, fans are stuck following the action on USSoccer.com's MatchTracker.

Nogueira, who is a rising freshman at UNC, moved to Raleigh after her freshman year of high school. She played two years for Broughton before graduating from high school early. Casey won the South Regionals with the '87 CASL Spartan Elite in 2005 and advanced to the club soccer national championships at U-17s, finishing third.

Looks like Setanta will be having a free preview next weekend for the opening of the English Premier League season. The free weekend runs Saturday, August 19th and Sunday August 20th according to the Setanta site.

Customers with DirecTV should have access to the following EPL matches:

• Sat 7:30am ET: Sheffield Utd vs Liverpool
  
• Sat 9:30am ET : Arsenal vs Aston Villa (kickoff 10am)
  
• Sat 2:30pm ET: West Ham vs Charlton (same-day delay)
  
• Sun 8:30am ET: Man Utd vs Fulham
  

Since the free preview will be for the whole weekend, and not just when the EPL is on, the following games will also be available in addition to lots of Rugby and Aussie Rules football:

• Sun 6:30am ET: PSV vs NEC Nijmegen
  
• Sun 11:30am ET: Toulouse vs Nice
  
• Sun 2:30pm ET: Bordeaux vs Lyon
  

I added a new feature to the site over the weekend. You'll notice a new block on the right sidebar called "Match Calendar". The feature is powered by Google Calendar and pulls in data from the XML calendars from our local sides as well as the US National Team and displays a rolling calendar of both recent matches and upcoming matches.

Clicking the link on one of the fixtures will take you to Google Calendar entry with either details about the upcoming match, or in the case of past events, the entry will link you to match reports, box scores, photos, etc.

The feature is still in "beta" and I'd love to hear your feedback on new ways to expand this feature for our site. Let me know what you think.

The Tar Heels began their 2006 season with a 1-1 exhibition draw at Davidson while neither team found the back of the net as the Blue Devils hosted Coastal Carolina for their first tuneup of the year.

Carolina's David Boole scored on 70 minutes as freshman Bill Dworsky recorded his first assist in Tar Heel blue. Boole's goal, also assisted by Michael Callahan, cancelled out Robby Hoaks' 8th minute chip of Justin Hughes. The Tar Heels were without sophmore forward Stephen Bickford who sprained an MCL in practice Saturday and is day-to-day.

In Durham, neither team found the back of the net but Duke head coach John Rennie was pleased with the display just 4 days after the Blue Devils started practice. "The goals will come but I was very happy with our defensive effort. I thought we shut them down very well. It was a quality team and a good result."

Duke plays their next exhibition on Wednesday, August 16th away to UNC-Greensboro while the Tar Heels see their next pre-season action on Saturday at Gardner-Webb.

Triangle FC took on DC United today in Super Y-League action out at SAS Soccer Park. I shot some photos of both the U17 Boys match and the U15 Girls match and posted them on Flickr. Hopefully I can make it out tomorrow to some of the CASL Elite v. DC United matches out at Thomas Brooks at 1pm & 3pm.

A collection of soccer schedules and calendars of interest to TSF readers, available in HTML, XML, and iCAL formats.

Triangle Soccer Fanatics Event Calendar

Campbell Men 2006 Schedule

Campbell Women 2006 Schedule

Duke Men 2006 Schedule

Duke Women 2006 Schedule

NCSU Men 2006 Schedule

NCSU Women 2006 Schedule

UNC Men 2006 Schedule

UNC Women 2006 Schedule

USL First Division & W-League 2006 Schedule

Major League Soccer 2006 Schedule

US National Teams Schedule

Former Southeast Raleigh High and TFC defender, and current Duke sophmore Darius Barnes was named to the PDL Southern Conference All-Conference team for his performance this year with the Raleigh Elite. Not only was Barnes solid in defense for the Elite, but his pace up the right flank and his dangerous long throw-ins added an offensive threat for Raleigh. Barnes was easily the most impressive player in my opinion throughout the season for our PDL side. UNC standout Ben Hunter joins Barnes on the all-conference team for his play with the Carolina Dynamo this season.

Local soccer fans can catch Barnes playing with his collegiate side this weekend as the Blue Devils play a pre-season exhibition against Coastal Carolina on Sunday, Aug 13th at 5pm at Koskinen Stadium in Durham.

Yesterday, the women's pre-season ACC poll tabbed UNC, Duke, and NC State to finish 1st, 4th, and 9th respectively. Today, the men's poll predicts exactly the same finish for our three local sides.

UNC received the most first place votes, but 5 of the 9 times received at least one first place vote perhaps foreshadowing what is going to be another fantastically competitive year in the ACC on the men's side.


2006 Preseason ACC Men's Soccer Poll
School Points 2005 Record
1. North Carolina (4) 73 17-4-3 (3-3-2)
2. Virginia (1) 65 12-5-3 (6-2-0)
3. Maryland (2) 62 19-4-2 (7-1-0)
4. Duke (1) 56 12-5-3 (3-3-2)
5. Clemson (1) 47 15-6-3 (2-4-2)
6. Wake Forest 38 13-8-2 (1-5-2)
7. Virginia Tech 33 10-5-5 (3-2-3)
8. Boston College 16 5-9-2 (0-6-2)
9. NC State 15 11-7-1 (4-3-1)


I stayed up very late last night to watch the DC United v. Real Madrid game from Seattle on Comcast (thanks DirecTV!).

Boy, I'm glad I did. It was a great game with both teams attacking each other constantly. Cassano scored first for Madrid on a laser shot after Perkins had stoned Van Nistlerooy earlier. Then about 3 minutes later DC had a beautiful build up with Adu crossing the ball all the way across the box to Gros, who played it back to Gomez who hit Moreno at the top of the box who laid off a ball for Eskandarian who buried his twenty yard shot. Absolutely brilliant one-touch passing from United.

The ACC coaches posted their preseason poll votes for the women's 2006 soccer season today and I'm sure it comes as no surprise that the Tar Heels are once again favored to top the conference. Perhaps the biggest surprise is that they only received 8 of 11 first place votes, with Florida State collecting the other 3 top votes. Duke was tabbed to finish 4th while the Wolfpack came in at ninth in the preseason poll.


2006 Preseason ACC Women's Soccer Poll
School Points 2005 Record
1. North Carolina (8) 118 23-1-1 (9-1-0)
2. Florida State (3) 104 20-4-1 (8-2-0)
3. Virginia 97 18-6-1 (8-2-0)
4. Duke 91 14-6-1 (6-4-0)
5. Boston College 73 13-6-2 (5-4-1)
6. Wake Forest 63 9-9-1 (4-6-0)
7. Clemson 55 9-9-2 (4-5-1)
8. Maryland 47 5-11-3 (3-5-2)
9. NC State 28 6-12-0 (2-8-0)
10. Miami 26 8-11-1 (2-8-0)
11. Virginia Tech 24 6-10-3 (1-7-2)


EPLTalk had a great podcast interview this past week with Shane O'Rourke, president of Setanta Sports. The interview covers all kinds of fantastically interesting ground about what viewers can expect from Setanta Sports this season and in the future. But several points were quite interesting to me:

• Setanta will be raising their prices to $14.99/month to offset the costs of EPL, Bundesliga, and French league matches they will be adding to the channel this Fall.
  
  
• Setanta is about to finalize a deal with ITVN which would allow broadband users to use a set-top box to stream Setanta Sports USA directly to their television. The cost would be identical to that you'd pay through DirecTV and the set-top box, normally $99, could be obtained free with a 1-year commitment to Setanta. This channel is an exact simulcast of the Sports channel (not the separate Setanta Broadband service).
  
  
• Down the road (not in the near term), O'Rourke sees splitting Rugby and Soccer into two separate Setanta channels.
  
  
• Setanta will be showing a TON of Euro 2008 qualifying (8-10 games per week during qualifying weeks).
  

I think the ITVN deal will come as welcome news for those with DISH Network or Cable that can't switch to DirecTV just to get Setanta and I can't really complain about the price rise considering the amount of new content they are adding to the channel.

Ranked No. 3 in the College Soccer News Preseason Top 30 Poll, the University of North Carolina men's soccer team opens practice Wednesday in Chapel Hill. The Tar Heels reported to campus Tuesday and begin with two-a-days today.

Guided by 18-year head coach Elmar Bolowich, Carolina returns 10 starters from a team that advanced to the quarterfinals of the NCAA Tournament a year ago. The Tar Heels bring back 95 percent (39 of 41 goals) of their scoring from a year ago with senior forward Ben Hunter (13 goals) leading the way. UNC also returns all four defenders and senior goalkeeper Justin Hughes from a defense that posted a school-record 15 shutouts.

>> Read the rest of the story at TarHeelblue.com

Those of you that read my site regularly know that TriSoccerFan is a labor of love. I don't get paid anything to do this, we don't make ad revenue through the site, etc. It's a pretty thankless effort save for the kind emails that I often get from my readers (which I thoroughly appreciate!). But every now and then, there is a little reward for all the hard effort.

Yesterday in the mail, I received a copy of Issue 01, 2006 of Wednesday: The Official Matchday Programme of Sheffield Wednesday Football Club. An Owls supporter who had been reading the TSF site during the SWFC tour of the States recognized my name in the photo credits of some of the pictures and was kind enough to send me a copy.

I knew the communications director at SWFC had asked about using my pictures in print, but I never imagined that they would use them so prominently and prolifically throughout the magazine. This may be just about the coolest thing ever to come of my amateur photo work for the TSF site!

In addition to the table of contents photo of Deon Burton above, here are some other pages that included my photos. Click on the image to see the full size picture. The original photos as they appeared on this site can be found here and here.

     

After the story a few days ago about the new stadium construction for NC State, several readers dropped me notes about other area soccer field improvements underway.

A few months ago, we wrote about how the drought had impacted area fields and some of the field improvements that CASL had planned for the fields under their management. It looks like some of these improvements are starting to come to fruition and the biggest news is that CASL is moving forward with artificial turf at the WRAL stadium field and also on field 25. This should provide two excellent surfaces for play at WRAL when completed.

In addition, players in the Fuquay-Varina area will be happy to know that lights have been added to the two fields on Old Honeycutt while a third field is in development.

Brian McBride recently retired from international soccer as one of the most prolific and well-respected goal scorers to ever pull on the stars & stripes, but did you know that his illustrious international career began in the USL? The time spent playing in Milwaukee with future USA international teammate Tony Sanneh would pay huge dividends in Korea as Sanneh and McBride combined once again just as they had done many times for the Rampage to secure a 3-2 victory over Portugal in 2002 World Cup.

McBride played varsity soccer at Buffalo Grove High School, under coach John Erfort, where he led the Bison to a state championship in 1988, his junior year. Later, as a professional, he signed a contract with Nike with the condition that the boys' varsity soccer team receive new uniforms every two years. McBride's support of his old school team continued when he attended numerous training sessions there during a spell out from his professional team, Columbus Crew, with a blood clot.

After an illustrious career with Saint Louis University, from which he graduated in 1993, McBride played the 1994 season with the Milwaukee Rampage of the USISL where he netted 17 goals in 18 appearances. McBride then spent two season with VfL Wolfsburg in Germany before returning to America in 1996 for the inaugural season of Major League Soccer, for whom he was the first overall pick of the MLS Inaugural Draft. McBride would proceed to play eight years with the Columbus Crew, amassing 62 goals (tied for the club record with Jeff Cunningham) and 45 assists in 161 league games, before his move to England. In 2005, he was named to the MLS All-Time Best XI.

Following the inaugural season of collegiate soccer on Fox Soccer Channel, the NSCAA and Fox Sports have expanded their agreement for the the 2006 season, this time including women's collegiate soccer in addition to the men's coverage.

Fox is readying their schedule to broadcast 12 men's and 8 women's regular season matches and no fewer than 7 of those 20 games include North Carolina-based sides. Each match will be broadcast at 8pm EST except those noted by an *, which will be broadcast at 8pm PST. The following schedule is subject to change, so as they say...check your local listings:

Date	M/W	Matchup
9/6	Women	Marquette @ St. Louis
9/13	Women	Cincinnati @ Louisville
9/14	Men	Connecticut @ St. John’s
9/15	Men	North Carolina @ Clemson
9/21	Women	Florida State @ North Carolina
9/22	Men	Coastal Carolina @ UNC Greensboro
9/27	Women	Oklahoma State @ Texas A&M
9/29	Men	Duke @ Maryland
10/4	Women	Princeton @ Rutgers
10/5	Men	UCLA @ UC Santa Barbara*
10/6	Men	Maryland @ North Carolina
10/11	Women	Duke @ Wake Forest
10/12	Men	Stetson @ South Florida
10/13	Men	Washington @ Stanford
10/19	Women	Portland @ Santa Clara*
10/20	Men	Indiana @ Penn State
10/25	Women	Long Beach St. @ Cal State Fullerton*
10/26	Men	William & Mary @ Old Dominion
10/27	Men	Wake Forest @ Virginia
11/3	Men	Yale @ Brown

Goldstar SC is offering a free soccer clinic this Wednesday for children 4-18 years old at their soccer complex southwest of Apex on Old US-1. The clinic, scheduled for 5:30pm - 7:00pm on August 9th, is open to all local players, regardless of club affiliation or skill level.

Children are encouraged to wear cleats and shin guards if they have them and to bring a water bottle or something to drink and a soccer ball (with their name on it in permanent ink). Moms/Dads/Guardians will need to remain at the fields with their children for the duration of the free clinic.

Campbell University is predicted to repeat as Atlantic Sun Conference men’s soccer regular season champions by the narrowest of margins in a pre-season poll of league head coaches.

The Fighting Camels, who won the 2005 regular season title with a 13-6-1 overall mark and 7-1-0 A-Sun record, totaled 55 points in this year’s polling, one more than ’05 A-Sun tournament champ Stetson. Mercer, which received four first-place votes (two more than both Campbell and Stetson), was third in the balloting with 53 points.

A few months ago I ran into Alan Sullivan, the President of the North Carolina Glasgow Rangers Supporters Club. We were both in Woody's over in Cary watching Champions League matches on Setanta.

Alan told me that the Rangers supporters club meets regularly there to watch Rangers matches (and sometimes Celtic matches too) as well as lots of European matches on Setanta's premium PPV package. In addition, Woody's in Cary has the Setanta Sports USA channel so between the PPV package they have and the DirecTV channel, there's plenty of soccer on at Woody's.

Alan says that Woody's routinely opens early for the Saturday and Sunday morning matches and the club charges a $20 cover charge for events that are part of the pay-per-view package (wife and kids free!). All funds go back to the bar and staff to cover their expenses for the package and for opening early.

For more information on the club, or their match-watching events, contact Alan or one of the other club officers.

Bulldozers began to move earth this week as construction on North Carolina State's new soccer stadium got underway. The project, which is scheduled to be completed in time for the 2007 soccer season, will place a new soccer field in the center of the Derr Track complex. A new track and lighting for the facility are part of the upgrade underway to the site in the heart of the NCSU campus at the corner of Cates Avenue and Morrill Drive. Completing the project will be a concourse featuring a press box, restrooms and other amenities.

For 20 years, the Wolfpack have had to manage their schedules around the fact that Method Road did not have lights. The added scheduling flexibility as well as the easier access from campus should provide a major upgrade for both the men's and women's programs starting next season.

Live video of today's Milk Cup final between the US U20 Youth national team and Paraguay will be webcast live courtesy of BBC Northern Ireland at 3pm EDT Friday.

The US roster includes former Tar Heel midfielder Dax McCarty and current Wake Forest defender Julian Valentin.

One of my favorite podcasts is Radio Clash, a program produced out of London which includes mash-ups, mixes, weird covers and more. The regular host Tim turned this week's show over to some guest hosts who took a World Cup theme to the program.

The show really doesn't have that much to do with soccer (save a few songs), but I thought it was a good excuse to introduce my readers to one of my favorite podcasts.

Former UNC Tar Heel Eddie Pope has retired from international soccer. Listen to him speaking of his retirement on the podcast at US Soccer. Pope's 11-year international career included nine World Cup matches played since 1998 and 82 appearances overall.

I'm up in Boston for some work-related business (getting a preview of the future of collaborative software from IBM's Lotus team!) but here's a few items of interest from the world of soccer today:

• On his blog, the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle Jeff DiVeronica suggests that current Montreal Impact assistant coach Peter Pinizzotto may be in the running for the RailHawks coaching position but speculates that with the sudden unavailability of John Harkes, that Scott Schweitzer may have moved into pole position.
  
  
• US Open Cup Results of regional interest:
  * Carolina Dynamo falls 2-4 to Houston
  * Wilmington losses late to Red Bull NY 1-2
  * Charleston equalized with FC Dallas in stoppage time, then traded goals in extra time before losing on penalties.
  
  The remainder of the results can be found here.
  
  
• Mike H has a recap of the USA U20s match against Denmark in the Milk Cup which they drew 2-2 (McCarty assisted again, this time from a corner). The draw was good enough to put the US youth side into the final on Friday v. Paraguay
  

Former UNC Tar Heel Dax McCarty captained the USA U20 Men's National Team to a 3-0 rout in their opening match of the 2006 Milk Cup. The prestigous youth tournament, held annually in Ballymena, Northern Ireland gives the holders, the American U18 squad from 2005, a chance to defend their titles as (technically) a U19 side against the likes of Wales, Denmark, Turkey, Paraguay, and the hosts Northern Ireland.

McCarty skippered Thomas Roengen's side in the opening match, turning in a masterfully dominant midfield performance that had the BBC Northern Ireland commentator gushing with comparisons of McCarty's play to that of former England international Francis Lee.

The Americans posted all three goals inside 35 minutes. The second coming when McCarty pulled down a failed Wales corner clearance and laid it back to Tony Beltran who blasted a 30 yard shot off a defensive deflection and into the net. McCarty rounded out he scoring when Bolton striker Johann Smith found Dax at the top of the box, who took a handful of back-and-forth touches turning the Wales defense inside-out before blasting a right-footed shot past the Wales keeper from 20 yards.

4 minutes later, Smith again provided McCarty in a give-and-go situation and the best the Wales defense could do was level McCarty inside the box to stop the attack on goal. The penalty drawn, McCarty handed the ball to his provider Smith who failed to convert the holder's fourth goal of the match.

The US plays their final qualifying round match on Wednesday against Denmark. Their final match of the Milk Cup will be Friday and based on the 3-0 win against Wales, the USA is in a good position to advance to the title match pending a good result against the Danes.

A full video replay of the match is available on BBC online and a match report is posted on US Soccer's website.

I'm planning to interview Chris Economides, Managing Partner of the Carolina RailHawks sometime in the next couple of weeks (as soon as both of our travel schedules allow us to be in the same place again).

I thought I'd solicit questions from the TSF readership for the interview. Do you have a question that you would like to pose to the guy that picked up his life and moved to Cary, NC and is taking a chance that USL-1 soccer will work in the Triangle, this time around?

Please click here to add your question in the comments section and I'll try to use as many as I can in the interview. Look for the Q&A to best posted here in about 2 weeks time.