RICHMOND, VA - (Friday, June 16, 2000) - The Richmond Kickers (8-4-0 overall record) are riding high after their 3-0 win over the Colorado Rapids of MLS on Wednesday night. They are hoping to duplicate their recent showing when they face the Pittsburgh Riverhounds tomorrow night at U of R City Stadium at 7:00PM.
The Kickers will face a Riverhounds squad that will most likely be very tired. By the end of the weekend Pittsburgh (4-4-1, 5th place in Atlantic Division) will have played 3 games in 4 days. After a 2-1 loss to the Rochester Raging Rhinos in a U.S. Open Cup match Wednesday night, Pittsburgh traveled to Raleigh for a meeting tonight against the Capital Express and then back up to Richmond for Saturday's meeting.
One of three expansion teams in the A-League in 1999, the Riverhounds finished with a 16-12 record and made it to the second round of playoffs. The Kickers and Riverhounds first and only meeting was on June 13th 1999, when the Riverhounds defeated the Kickers 1-0 off of an own goal by defenderPaul Lekics.
No Coaches?
The Riverhounds, the 1999 A-League organization of the year, will be without Head Coach John Kowalski for Saturday night's match against the Kickers. Coach Kowalski was awarded a one game suspension after last weekend's red card ejection against the Atlanta Silverbacks. Assistant Coach Paul Child was also suspended for a red card during that game, but the league will allow him to coach on Saturday night and serve his suspension next week. A red card suspension takes effect 7 days after the incident occurs.
Players To Watch
Kickers: Forward Dwayne DeRosario (5g, 3a, 13 points), midfielder Tony Williams (1g, 1a, 3 points), and goalkeeper Mike McGinty (6 shutouts, a 0.89 goals against average)
Riverhounds: Forward Mike Butler (3g, 0a, 6 points), forward David Flavious (2g, 1a, 5 points), and defender Nick Terlecky (2g, 0a, 4 points).
Quotes
Head Coach Leigh Cowlishaw comments, "Confidence is sky-high at the moment, but it's time for my players to wake up out of wonderland and get down to winning A-League matches and reach the playoffs - our main priority."
"It was a great win on Wednesday night, but starting Thursday morning we were back to business and ready to re-focus for Saturday night's match against Pittsburgh," states Director of Soccer Operations Billy Hallock. "Pittsburgh is a very good team that has had some bad breaks so far this year; I don't foresee this as an easy game by any means."
Saturday is PowerBar Night at U of R City Stadium. Bring a PowerBar wrapper or Ukrop's receipt showing PowerBar purchase and get free admission compliments of PowerBar. Also the first 500 fans through the gate also get a PowerBar water bottle.
For more information regarding the 2000 Richmond Kickers check out our web-site at www.richmondkickers.com. For season ticket information, please call 644-KICK. The Richmond Kickers are an A-League franchise and a developmental team for D.C. United, Tampa Bay Mutiny, and Dallas Burn of Major League Soccer.
