September 15, 2007

Report from the RE/MAX (including Golden Cupcake presentation)

Stressful game in Atlanta tonight as the Silverbacks won 2-1 over Rochester in game one of the quarterfinals. Atlanta went up early on a Warren Ukah special. Ukah crashed the box, the ball took a couple of deflections off the keeper and Ukah, and Warren found the right touch to place the ball in the goal. All of his goals over the last few weeks have been of the same variety, it says a lot for finishing the play, doesn't it?

The Rhinos stepped up their game after the goal, and leveled the score ten minutes later via a great shot from outside the box. Ryan McIntosh got a hand to it, but couldn't keep it out. The rest of the first half was fairly even.

Rochester and Atlanta went back and forth for the first part of the second half, until Golden Cupcake award winner Tony McManus went down with an injury. It took a while for the Atlanta midfield to get settled after McManus left the game, and Rochester took control. Unfortunately for the Rhinos, they didn't really put McIntosh under too much pressure though. Just when things looked destined for a 1-1 draw and a tough road in Rochester, substitute Anthony Wolfe was found unmarked at the far post on a Luis Liendo corner for the game winner. Looks bad for Rochester when the smallest guy on the field scores the game winning goal on a header, doesn't it?

A one goal lead won't be easy to defend on Sunday in Rochester, but that's the task Atlanta has been left with. We'll see if McIntosh and the boys are up for it.

Postgame, Tony McManus was presented with his Golden Cupcake award for the year. I think he forgot about his injury for a little while...The Cupcake love was spread all around, I think we might even have a new fan...









Best of luck to the Silverbacks players and coaching staff as they head to Rochester for Sunday's game!

12 comments:

El Güero said...

I think I might have to quit my job.

HOW DID I MISS OUT ON THIS??????????????????????????????????????

Anonymous said...

It is well established that you guys don't like Smith but the bottom line is that he is the one that put this team together and he is the only coach to ever win a playoff game in franchise history.

Anonymous said...

I have a question for you cupcakes. Why were you people a part of the supporters group when the Silverbacks were stuggling and now that they are successful you are not participating with the W109?

Anonymous said...

I know that you really hate it but the Silverbacks won 2-1.

Anonymous said...

Yeah, it was pretty...

(wait for it...)

SWEET.

Longshoe said...

Anonymous comments rule:

- No, I don't always agree with all of the coach's decisions. How many coaches can you honestly say you agree with EVERY decision they make? I've said from the beginning that this is a quality roster, and one that should be competing for a championship. I had a problem early in the season when they weren't playing up to the level that they should've been. That has been corrected and the team is doing well.

-I still don't always agree with all of the decisions, but the job's getting done right now. That's all you can ask for in the end.

-Technically, the franchise history goes back to include the Ruckus years and Lothar Osiander was the first coach to win a playoff game in franchise history, 1995 over Montreal in the league semis.

-I don't participate with W109 for personal reasons. They have nothing do with anyone other than me. You can still be a fan and not sit there, right?

-Shouldn't everybody be happy that the Silverbacks won the game rather than trying to start crap here? Celebrate people!

-And no, I don't hate it that the Silverbacks won. If I hated the team, I wouldn't waste my time and money going to all of the games.

Have fun Gorillas!

Anonymous said...

How the hell can you end a post with:

"Best of luck to the Silverbacks players and coaching staff as they head to Rochester for Sunday's game!"

and then have someone think you wouldn't be happy about them winning? How is occasionally criticizing the team somehow translated into being haters of the team?

It's just like on the forums -- some of us used to criticize the team/coach/organization on there when they were deemed to be underperforming -- and some other people thought we were traitors trying to undermine or sabotage the team or something. We were upset because they WEREN'T winning and we thought they SHOULD have been. We WANT them to win, dumbasses!!!

And as far as not participating with W109 -- with me, it's personal reasons, also. I don't dislike any of them, and still hang out with all of them at the pre-game tailgates...

(Finally -- my "SWEET" response was written in answer to the first comment, if that wasn't clear. I didn't realize at the time of writing it that there were three other unapproved comments ahead of mine.)

Anonymous said...

Anyways, back to the guys on the team, as has very often been pointed out - they're all great players and have done an outstanding teamwork, as evidenced by the results. Many outstanding characteristics have been said about many players - such as Tony, Hayes, Antoniuk, Bobo, Buete... and ALL the other guys. Nevertheless, the relevance of the team's captain during this season (and the past two) shouldn't be overlooked. While carrying the responsability of the teamwork in and out of the field, he also is the liaison between the coaching staff, club administrators and the players. Maybe he doesn't score over 10 goals or makes 15 assists, but he has played in every single game during this season and his leadership and sportsmanship are very important to the teams achievements. Every single player in this extraordinary team is very special - overall they're nice guys, working their tails off to make a living in the sport they love - even if that means making BIG family sacrifices. But, if you ask me (and you probably shouldn't, since I've only been a fan during this season) - Rios should be presented with at least a little "bizcochito"... extra icing =)

Longshoe said...

I agree with the last anonymous on Rios. He hasn't been as active on the stat sheet as he has been in past seasons, but he's probably been more important. He has a lot more responsibility playing on the left wing (I still think we'd be better off by flipping Buete and Rios, but that's just my opinion) and has handled it better than I thought he would.

I'm sure we can spare some frosting for Rodrigo...

Anonymous said...

I'm sure he'd like that... Thanks ;-)

Longshoe said...

We are talking about Betty Crocker frosting, right? She's awesome...

Anonymous said...

Is there any other kind...?