USL Rochester Rhinos

Rhinos Look to Bounce Back against Richmond

May 29, 2014 - United Soccer League Championship (USL)
Rochester Rhinos News Release


The Rochester Rhinos are hosting the Richmond Kickers on Friday, May 30th at 7:35PM in Sahlen's Stadium. The Kickers enter the match with USL PRO's best goal scoring record after their first ten matches of the season, while the Rhinos boast the league's second best defensive record with six goals conceded in their first nine matches. Both teams will be playing in their first match of a two match weekend on Friday night.

After conceding three goals in their 3:1 season opening defeat to Orlando City, the Rochester Rhinos have only conceded four goals in the last eight matches. The Rhinos used their defense to go on a seven match unbeaten streak that ended on Friday, May 23rd when Rochester lost 1:0 to Sacramento Republic FC in Sahlen's Stadium. Rookie goalkeeper John McCarthy has a 3-0-2 record with a 0.20 goals-against average and four clean sheets in league play this season. Rochester limited the high scoring Kickers to one goal in their 1:1 draw in Richmond on May 2nd.

"We got off to a good start defensively this season, and we made a good showing for ourselves in Richmond when we played them earlier this month." Rhinos head coach Bob Lilley said. "We'd like to renew our focus on doing the things that made us successful this weekend. We want to defend further up the pitch, increase our work rate, and be as organized as possible against Richmond on Friday night."

The Richmond Kickers are USL PRO's highest scoring team with 24 goals in their first ten matches this season. Four Kickers are listed among the top ten in league goals scored. George Davis IV leads the way with seven goals and two assists for 16 points, and he is second in USL PRO in both goals scored and points. Matthew Delicate is fifth in the league with five goals while Michael Seaton and Kyle Porter both have three goals. Five players on the Kickers have two or more assists with Collin Martin leading the way with three assists. Richmond has scored two or more goals in seven of their ten matches, three or more goals in four matches, four goals twice, and five goals once in their explosive start to the season.

"Richmond has a lot of weapons, and they have been scoring goals regularly this season." Lilley said. "I think we had a plan in Richmond and executed it about as well as you can without actually winning the game when we gave up a goal in stoppage time. However, the two weeks after we played them they scored four goals against Arizona and then four more against OKC. They have a lot of attacking personalities who can break you down if you're not careful."

Rochester and Richmond are both playing two games this weekend. Richmond will be in Harrisburg on Saturday night, while the Rhinos will be in Dayton on Sunday night. Friday night's match will be the third match of four during a nine day period from May 23rd to June 1st. Rochester opened the run with a 1:0 loss to Sacramento and then defeated Reading United AC 2:1 in added extra time on Tuesday night to advance to the Fourth Round of the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup.

"Obviously it's a lot of matches in a short period of time for both teams. We're doing the best we can to deal with the schedule, but it's a challenge for the players to recover and consistently prepare themselves for the next game. It's important for us to get a result on Friday night after losing against Sacramento last weekend." said Lilley.

Tickets for any match on the Rhinos home schedule will be available by by calling (585)454-KICK (5425), by visiting the MVP Health Care Box Office at Sahlen's Stadium, or by visiting ticketmaster.com. Rochester Rhinos season tickets, flex packages and group ticket sales are also currently available.



United Soccer League Championship Stories from May 29, 2014


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