In part because of following the US Open Cup I realized that the level of play in the USL PRO was decent. When I looked up the list of USL PRO teams, I didn't find one close to where I live, but in the USL PDL I found the Rough Riders who play only a half hour from where I live. So I took my youth soccer team to see a match last Saturday. I and the kids loved it. We saw the women and the men play. And I thought the level of play was great.

The men's team put on a good show, scoring 5 goals against a reeling Westchester FC side that some how managed to get a goal in in the last minutes of the match.

Unfortunately, I couldn't get out to the match against the Brooklyn Knights last night, but I was pleased that the Knights official Twitter feed kept me up-to-date on the Rough Riders 4-2 victory. The Metropolitan Oval sounds like a cool place to watch soccer. I'll have to make a point of visiting for a future game.

I'll be attending as many Rough Rider home games as I can for the rest of the season. I already have tickets for the Wed, 27 June match against Ocean City Nor'easters and a Rough Riders scarf. Cheers!

The Rough Riders defeated the New Jersey Rangers FC last night, 3-1. I haven't seen any official match reports yet, just Tweets.

I'll see if I can't get out to Huntington sometime again this season. It's about an hour and 20 minutes from my house (with no traffic). Last year the RR actually hosted the USL PDL Eastern Playoffs and I got to see current NYRB GK Ryan Meara play for the Jersey (Ironbound) Express. The perfect example of current USL PDL players of today turning into the future MLS stars of tomorrow.

I wish I had been more attuned to the RR scene last year. That would have been a treat to see Ryan Meara. But of course I wouldn't have known he was going to get the call up to NYRB, but still.

The match report for last night's match is now up on the RR site.

well I actually did need to go back into my gameday program in order to make sure that it was the same Ryan Meara because I wasn't exactly sure how a kid from Yonkers and who played college ball at Fordham could end up on a minor-league team from Newark, NJ.

The next few of the Rough Riders matches might prove to be interesting since they are only 4 points behind Jersey Express at the moment and they play them on Wednesday at NJIT. If the RR can pull out a win, that would be big. Then matches against Reading United and Ocean City following. The top of the table could get shuffled in the next ten days. Or not. But given that I've already got tickets for the RR v Ocean City match, it would be cool if the RR were playing to grab or keep the top spot in the division.

Just got back from this evening's match against Ocean City. This was definitely a game of two halves. Rough Riders dominating the first 40 minutes. But OC found a way through the RR defense in the final minutes. 1-1 at the half. OC looked like a different team during the 2nd half and the RR stopped winning the ball and started conceding. OC finished on top, 2-1.

Another loss for the Riders yesterday, in Bermuda. The Hogges have now won two matches. The Rough Rider are sitting in 5th place with 18 pts and 3 matches left. If they win all three, that'll be 27 pts. If the New Jersey Rangers can lose their last two and stay at 26 pts the Riders could possible climb up into 4th. But it ain't lookin' good.

I found this on the USL website:



So really, the only interesting competition left is for second place. Oh well.

Brooklyn gave the Riders a Rough time in the first half, but the Riders kept nipping at the Knights heels, always answering back with a goal of their own. A couple of quick breakaways in the second half was the difference in the game. Rough Riders came away the victors, 5-3.

I think that the Jersey (Ironbound) Express are still alive in the current playoff race...they play at NJIT in Newark and might also be worth following.