PROFESSOR DUERR >>
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
The USL Second Division is well under way and my expansion team, the Cleveland City Stars has done very well thus far. My name is Glen Duerr and I am #17 on the City Stars, but I also double as a second-year doctoral candidate in the department of Political Science at Kent State University. Hence my column name, “The Professor.”
It has certainly been a challenge, balancing soccer with my academic commitments, especially in the midst of a pre-season where players were competing for spots and I was trying to complete papers, assignments and presentations in addition to my dissertation research trip to the Andalusian and Catalan regions of Spain, and a six-hour exam that I had to pass to stay in the program.
Despite all this, it has been an enjoyable ride thus far and I am blessed to have an excellent group of teammates to help me through the process.
By way of an introduction I will start with my background, which is almost as crazy as my life. I was born and raised in the south-east of England in a town called Gillingham (which has a team in the English First Division), but moved to Toronto, Canada at age 15 when my dad was transferred overseas on business. I then moved to Kent, Ohio to start my doctorate in Political Science in 2006 where I aspire to become a tenure track professor in the next few years. Therefore, I have the great fortune of being a citizen of all three countries, since my dad is from the U.S., and would be eligible to play internationally for all three - Steve McClaren, Bob Bradley and Dale Mitchell… I am STILL waiting by the phone.
I completed my B.A. in History and Political Science at the University of Western Ontario and my M.A. in Political Science (International Relations) at the University of Windsor.
I will use this column to discuss the Cleveland City Stars, provide some thoughts on the USL and throw in any interesting points pertaining to politics; although, I will attempt to avoid overly academic discussions such as my epistemological approach - I lean towards positivism. With that being said, I will proceed with my thoughts on the Cleveland City Stars season so far and try to provide some insight on what is going on at our expansion club.
Being one of three expansion clubs entering the USL Second Division this year, we faced numerous uphill battles. First, in any league, it is difficult to have immediate success as an expansion team. Second, the other expansion teams, Bermuda Hogges and Crystal Palace Baltimore had some major donors behind them and strong reputations. Yet, we persevered and signed a number of high profile domestic and foreign players including Mark Schulte, Derek Potteiger, Chris Lemons and Nigel Codrington.
From this sound base of experienced players, we entered regular season play with high expectations, despite our reservations on actually how good the opposition would be. Our first three games were on the road in Cincinnati, Baltimore and then Cincinnati again. We managed to defeat the Cincinnati Kings 2-1 in our inaugural match, which was uplifting for everyone in the organization because it got us off to a good start against a team that made the playoffs last year.
With confidence high, we then traveled to Baltimore to play against our expansion cousins, Crystal Palace Baltimore, in beautiful Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium. We were victorious once again, winning 4-0, and I managed to come off the bench for a few minutes and got an assist. It was a tremendous victory for our club, but we also knew that Crystal Palace was a better side than the result indicated and that their results would improve. Their 1-1 draw against Richmond last week evidenced that.
The final game of our opening road swing brought us back to Cincinnati to face the Kings for the second time. We came away with a bruising 2-1 victory and a full nine points from our opening three games. The friendly confines of Krenzler Field awaited us and we looked forward to playing in front of our home fans.
Our home opener against the New Hampshire Phantoms almost never happened after some mid-week rain nearly prevented the dome from being removed over Krenzler Field. The weather, however, eventually obliged and we were able to keep the game at Krenzler. This was very fortunate for Cleveland City Stars fans as they were treated to an exciting affair that produced a last-minute game winning goal from former Scotland youth international, Adam Moffat. Our 3-2 victory was a relief for all involved with Cleveland City Stars as we continued to march up the league standings into second place.
The next game at home, however, proved to be a bit more disappointing. Our 0-0 draw with the Wilmington Hammerheads was a dull affair with few chances created. We understood that every point in this league had to be earned and we had to give credit to the Hammerheads for getting two results on their road trip through Ohio as they had drawn 2-2 with Cincinnati two days earlier.
This past weekend we were on the road again, this time in Harrisburg to face the City Islanders. After going 2-0 up, we conceded two goals in the second half to split the honors with our hosts. We now sit third in the table with a record of 4-0-2, which has been a great start for us as an expansion team. However, we have drawn the last two games in a row which has stalled our rise up the table. The games do not get any easier either, with our third match against the Cincinnati Kings next week. The Kings will certainly be trying to avenge the results from earlier in the season and we will have work hard to earn the victory.
That’s it for the inaugural edition of “The Professor.” I will update you next week on our match versus the Kings and discuss our inner-city outreach initiative.
‘The Professor’ Glen Duerr
