PROFESSOR DUERR >>

Thursday, June 14

Before I talk about our inner city initiative, I will take the opportunity to discuss this week with the City Stars and the USL Second Division. In league play, we took on the Cincinnati Kings in our third of four meetings this year. Thus far, we have taken the share of the spoils against the Kings, but we knew that they would be itching for revenge and that their chances of making the playoffs, in part, hinged upon how they did against us.

We prepared diligently throughout the week, focusing on both attacking and defensive aspects of our play in addition to grueling fitness sessions including the dreaded “beep test”. We also welcomed back three of our players who played for the Columbus Crew reserve team on loan against the Chicago Fire on Monday. Andrew Peterson got a full ninety minutes in a 1-0 win over the Fire; whilst, Skelly Kellar and Adrian Balc did their part off the bench.

On a personal note, I managed to injure my hamstring in the warm-up at our Monday morning training session. Who gets injured playing touch rugby? As a result, it became a frustrating week for me attempting to rehab an injury, rather than compete for a spot in the lineup. I was not alone on the injured reserve, however, with many of my teammates joining me.

There was further sad news as it marked the departure of our Assistant Coach, Jake DeClute who accepted a coaching job at Gordon College in Boston. Jake was a great asset to the team - he was a true “player’s coach”- and will be sorely missed.

The game with Cincinnati was a tentative affair with both sides exercising caution. We managed to break the stalemate, however, just before halftime with an Adam Moffat backheel. Adam has been stellar so far this year and is now our top goalscorer. He has a bright future and will be looking to move up and possibly challenge for a place on the Scottish National Team, where he played for a number of years at the youth level.

In the second half, the game opened up a bit more with both sides producing attacking opportunities. The Kings had some opportunities, but Hunter Gilstrap made some good saves to keep our lead in tact. Towards the end of the game, we defended well and managed to walk away with another three points bringing our record to 5-0-2 and 17 points.

In the lead up to the game this weekend, all ten teams were scheduled to play at almost the exact same time. The top four teams (Charlotte, Richmond, Cleveland and Harrisburg) had opened up a four point gap on the other six teams and this week may have had playoff implications. After the weekend, this gap increased to seven points. It is too early to really discuss the playoffs, but a significant gap has emerged.

Crystal Palace Baltimore looks the most likely to close the gap with a 1-0 upset over Charlotte. We must be careful, however, with our game against Western Mass next weekend because they too can close the gap quite quickly.

The Inner City

As players in USL, it is easy to get caught up in the day-to-day rigors of playing soccer at a professional level. However, I feel it is important to give back to the respective communities in which we play in order to build into the jurisdiction that has given us this platform and opportunity to realize our dreams.

At the Cleveland City Stars, it is a priority to give back to the community and we have done so with a creative mix of outreach and help from our sponsors. Each week, the vast majority of our players head into the inner-city to participate in various soccer programs for “at-risk” youths and attempt to teach them strong moral character during the sessions. In this way, the students learn that character matters and that their life chances improve with good social decisions.

We see it as a social responsibility to touch the lives of inner city youths who do not necessarily have the same opportunities in life that we have been blessed with. It is by no means a panacea for the ills of people with lesser socio-economic means, but in our own way, “we serve the city and change the world” as our team slogan declares.

On top of our inner city outreach, our reserve team just returned from a tour of Haiti (May 31-June 10). Part of this tour included giving away items that USL fans donated to us during our away match against Crystal Palace Baltimore and our home game against the Wilmington Hammerheads. It was certainly heartwarming to see the generosity of the fans and to work together with our rivals for this noble cause.

Our reserve team had a successful tour playing to a 2-1 loss against the Haitian U-17 National Team in the Port-au-Prince in front of 18,000 fans in the national stadium. They then went on to play games in Arcahaie, St Marc and Cap-Haitien ending up with a record of 2-2 against First and Second Division teams across the country. Their final game was back in Port-au-Prince against the Haitian national futsal team (I am yet to find out the result).

Final Notes

I would also like to take the opportunity at the end of my journal to welcome back the Pittsburgh Riverhounds to the league in 2008. The Riverhounds had been a fixture in the USL since 1999 and it will be great to have them back in our league after a one year hiatus. We will be looking forward to another local rivalry and enjoy the prospect of taking on the Riverhounds.

‘The Professor’ Glen Duerr