USSF D-II: Baltimore hosts day-game, while Portland travels to Rochester

Posted Aug 4, 2010 by Nick Murray

Updated Aug 4, 2010 at 11:49 AM

A day-game in Baltimore, while Portland continues its road-trip in Rochester in Wedneday’s USSF Division II action.

MIAMI (2-8-9) AT BALTIMORE (5-9-5): A 2 p.m. kickoff should provide interesting conditions for the sides as the bottom two teams in the NASL Conference square off.

Miami is now five points adrift at the bottom of the conference after losing two straight games under new manager Daryl Shore. Despite boasting the league’s third-leading scorer in Paulo Araujo Jr., who has seven goals this season, the Blues haven’t won since June 12.

Baltimore remains on the fringe of the playoff race, but has been inconsistent in its form of late. The Eagles earned a 2-1 victory on the road against Montreal on July 18, but took only one point from their last two games, both at home. A win would put the side only one point out of the playoff positions and with seven games in their last 11 at home they could be a threat to knock one of the teams currently headed for the playoffs out.

PORTLAND (7-6-6) AT ROCHESTER (9-5-6): The second and third-placed teams in the USL Conference meet with Rochester looking to build off a road trip that saw it win twice in three games.

The Rhinos have had just over a week off after their 1-0 victory in Carolina last Tuesday. Now sitting second in the USL Conference, and third overall, the Rhinos trail Austin by five points for the conference lead but hold a six point advantage over the third-placed Timbers.

Portland has earned four points in the first three games of a four-game road trip and was boosted on Wednesday by the signing of forward Ibad Muhamadu from Dutch side FC Dordrecht. The Timbers have been led offensively by Ryan Pore who leads the league with 11 goals, but have received little in the way of secondary scoring, rookie Bright Dike the only other player with multiple goals this season.