Just Keep Rolling

Rose City 2 - 0 Pennsylvania

Count the Flyers lucky on this one. Scoring only two goals is a quick way to lose games in the BSL but Giles Barnes and Eric Alexander got it done this week. That puts the Flyers riding a seven game winning streak back into relevance headed into a big match against the CD Gunners with just six weeks left in the season. Expecting the streak to end sooner, rather than later is a good idea but a loss next week could drop the Boys in Red back out of the playoff race. A few more wins will be required to really lock things up this season.

MCQ standings are a bit more solid. The Rose City continues to share the honor of only remaining club undefeated in qualifying with the OC Zodiac and the next two teams trail by seven points each. That's not an iron-clad grip yet, but with the weeks winding away quickly it could turn into one without much notice. Expect the next few weeks to really resolve things for a lot of teams in both sets of standings.

Week Nineteen Wrap Up

Rose City 5 - 3 Second City


Rose City finished the week with an impressive win over Second City. Marco Di Vaio scored his first MLS goal and got two points in the BSL with the goal and an assist. Bringing Di Vaio in is starting to look like a really smart move from the Flyers front office. He's producing, helping the club's still low APG and will be a genuine threat all next season if the club can hang onto him. Three more points came from Rosales, the Captain, Mike Magee, and a clean sheet from Josh Saunders.

More interestingly is what's shaping up at the end of the season. Alamo City and Pennsylvania are tied in the standings with 40 points but they appear along side one another next week in the Game of the Week. This could give Rose City some room to slide into a position to threaten the Honors Trophy, but no one seems to be talking about it! It's true that these two excellent teams would need to show some bad form for the final three weeks of the season, but Rose City isn't out of it yet!

Continuing the post-season implications, a win or tie next week should clinch a playoff birth for the boys in red. They currently sit in 3rd in the Standings with 37 points and 6th in Majors Cup Qualifying with 13. The last three weeks of the season could make all the difference for the Flyers both for the Honors Trophy and a chance to participate in the Majors Cup. To that end, we look to Week Twenty.

Gold Coast visits in Week Twenty, carrying a record of 6-10-3 and 21 points. While they're not contending for a playoff spot, pride is still on the line and the team has scored at least two points in each of their last four outings. Tune in here for all the news, scores and lineups.

Week Seventeen Recap

The Flyers were done in by the Battle in week seventeen 3-1. It's a painful score for Rose City who were looking to maybe top the standings again with a win. The only point on the board was a score from Saunders who kept the net clear for his first start. Once again the coach underestimated Kosuke Kimura, leaving him on the bench when he scored for the second time. To make matters worse, he would have come in had he been placed higher on sub list thanks to Bill Hamid's straight red.

The rest of the season is more or less downhill, with Rose City simply defending their playoff position against would-be spoilers like Spartans, Second City, and the CD Gunners for the last five weeks. That doesn't mean the team isn't taking the end of the season seriously though. A string of well placed wins here, paired with a few lucky shots to the Battle and Stoners could still hand the Flyers the Honors Trophy. Come back for all the rest of the action.

Week Seventeen Lineup

Okay folks! This is where the rubber hits the road. Rose City is sitting squarely in third place and has a chance to make it even better. They're playing the first place Battle in the Match of the Week and a win means moving up at least one (maybe two) places in the standings. It looks like they're a lock for the playoffs barring some sort of implosion. Now's the time to push for the Honors Trophy and win first place in our first BSL season.

The Battle lost the first meeting 4-3 this year and they surely will be coming for revenge. Rose City needs to hold out, put a good number of points on the board, and probably get a little lucky to pull this one out. Cross your fingers for the Suns to down Pennsylvania as well and you might see the Flyers back on top.

Starters
Steven Beitashour
Marvin Chavez
Marco Di Vaio
Mike Magee
Adam Moffat
Darlington Nagbe
Mauro Rosales (Captain)
C.J. Sapong
Josh Saunders (Keeper)

Subs
Justin Braun
Kosuke Kimura
Dan Kennedy (Keeper)

Lineup has changed as of 3pm PST. Bjorn Runstrom has been dropped. Josh Saunders will start at GK. Dan Kennedy will take the bench.