April 26th 2003
Pittsburgh Riverhounds® @ Atlanta Silverbacks
Kick-Off: 6:00pm
Location: The Dekalb Memorial Stadium, Dekalb County,GA
Tailgate: 4:00Pm
Weather: Day - 77°F :: Night - 55°F Partly Cloudy :: Max. Humidity: 76 %
2002 Seasons results -
Saturday June 15
Atlanta Silverbacks @ Pittsburgh Riverhounds : 7:35pm Kick-off : Result : 1-4
Sunday August 25
Pittsburgh Riverhounds® @ Atlanta Silverbacks : 6:00pm Kick-off : Result : 3-2 OT
After Last seasons 2 defeats at the hand of the Pittsburgh Riverhounds, the Silverbacks can only be looking to put old scores right and start this seasons schedule off with a win in front of the home fans.
The Riverhounds® have made some great signings in the off season and have looked to strength a squad that should have done better last season.
The Riverhounds® best signings this year has to be former MLS'er and local talent, Justin Evans, a scrappy midfielder with a great touch, and Eric Ongao, defender, NAIA player of the year and played on the Kenyan national team.
Pittsburgh have a couple of other signings who should also help improve their overall play.
Based on the latter part of last season, Thiago Martins, who was scoring in droves, has got to be the key man for the game against Atlanta, David Flavius should be a nice complement to him in the forward line.
Although the player talent and, just as important, chemistry, has improved from last year, The Riverhounds® biggest improvement is at the management level with the hiring of Tim Carter as head coach.
The Atlanta Silverbacks have also had a busy off season with the release of head coach Brett Mosen and the hiring of new head coach Jacenir Silva.
With no official news release on the playing situation it makes it very difficult to guess how well the Atlanta Silverbacks will play against the Riverhounds® on the season opening day.
Velko Iotov, Alan Woods, Byron Mitchell, Jordy Broder, Bryheem Hancock, John Barry Nusum and Carl Fletcher are the 7 players that the fans of the Silverbacks have assumed will be Returning for the 2003 season opener.
Bryhem Hancock was the "Backs" 1st choice goalkeeper for much of the 2002 season and is a welcome return to the roster.
John Barry Nusum has been billed as "The Next Big Thing" to happen to soccer here in Atlanta but the man to watch will have to be the very talented Velko Iotov.
If Velko can repeat some of his performances from last season then the "Backs" won't go to far wrong on the opening day.
Some names that have be linked to the club Martin Klinger (Signed by Brett Mosen), Scott Mora, Ramon Luna, Lucas Okolie, Joard Odera, Shaker Asad (formerly of the Revolution), David Moore and Josh Barton.
Atlanta will have hopefully signed some of the players from the above list, If so the team would have to expect nothing but the best from the former MLS players and hope the younger players can out run some of the Riverhounds®.
With coach Silva at the helm of the Atlanta Silverbacks, you would hope to see a great passing game and great runs from all players, will 2 weeks pre-season be a major factor when it comes to opening day?
The Riverhounds® will be looking to impress and take it to a lot of teams in the seasons opening games, they could be the dark horse of the league this year and will need to get a good start.
The Atlanta Silverbacks have been branded as "weak" for the season so we will have to wait and see how "weak" the team really is on opening day of the season?.
