Triangle Soccer Fanatics

Charleston Southern Derby Roadtrip Logistics

Wed, 8 Jul 2009 07:20:14 -0400

On Saturday, July 11th, the RailHawks travel to Charleston to defend the Southern Derby Cup (a trophy we have never lost). After the 2-1 loss at WakeMed Soccer Park earlier this season, Carolina will need at least a two goal victory at Blackbaud Stadium to secure the Cup. According to the Derby rules, any scoreline of a 1 goal victory from Carolina would lead to the two teams sharing the spoils and of course, a draw or a loss by the RailHawks would turn the prize over to the Battery.

Triangle Soccer Fanatics will be making the roadtrip to Charleston en masse. All fans joining TSF at Blackbaud will receive free match tickets in our section. Please make sure you have contacted us if you are planning to go so we can secure your tickets.

Please be sure to wear orange and bring all your RailHawks scarves, flags, noisemakers, streamers, etc. We want our boys to KNOW we are there in support when they walk out of the tunnel and hear us all game long.

Here are some matchday logistics you should know about if you are traveling:

Recommended Pub: The Three Lions Pub on the premises of Blackbaud Stadium is tremendous, but unfortunately is "Season Ticket Holders Only" on match days in Charleston. In the past, we have managed a limited number of passes for traveling supporters to visit the pub after the match. If you are looking for a great, soccer-friendly pub that isn't too far from the grounds, TSF recommends Madra Rua Irish Pub located near the corner of E. Montague Ave. and Virginia Ave. Any pub with a Bobby Convey Reading FC jersey hanging on the wall gets TSF's full endorsement!
Pre-Match Event: Prior to the main event Saturday night, Blackbaud stadium is hosting the Clash of the Carolinas, an all-star match pitting some of the best high school players in South Carolina vs. their counterparts from North Carolina. The girls kick off at 3pm and the boys follow at 5pm. I have been told that you should be able to enter and leave the stadium during this event with no issue to return.
Tailgate: TSF will be tailgating together with the Charleston supporters from 6pm. They have always showed us great hospitality during our visits and the tailgates have always been fun. TSF will provide a cooler full of non-alcoholic beverages, some food (likely pizzas /wings / etc), and picnic supplies. You are encouraged to bring your own alcoholic beverages (if desired) and some other foods if you like. The tailgate location is on the East side of Blackbaud Stadium and is clearly marked on the satellite view of the stadium below.
Tickets: Tickets will be distributed at the tailgate. Please see Jarrett Campbell at the tailgate BEFORE 7:15pm to pick up the tickets. After that time, you are on your own!
March In and Seating: We will march in together at about 7:25pm. I'm not sure where our seats will be physically located, but generally we have stood in Section E1 (marked on the map below).
Post-Match Plans: Post-match plans will be made after the game depending upon what the group wants to do.

If you have any questions about the roadtrip, please drop us an email at roadtrip@trisoccerfan.com and we hope to see you in Charleston Saturday night!

TSF announces 33% discount on individual RailHawks match tickets for club members

Mon, 13 Apr 2009 08:22:00 -0400

Looking for a good justification to spend $25 on a 2009 Triangle Soccer Fanatics membership? If the season ticket deals, complimentary American Outlaws membership, the exclusive RailHawks car magnet, and various other freebies and discounts didn't entice you, perhaps $4 off each individual match ticket will convince you to become a member of TSF in 2009 and support the supporters!

If you buy just 7 total tickets to any of the RailHawks matches in 2009, the membership would more than pay for itself!

As TSF members, you will be able to purchase $8 tickets in the Spectator section of WakeMed Soccer Park. This allows you to buy tickets either in advance or on matchday at the same price. The discount applies to all tickets you buy online through eTix.com (not just your personal ticket), waives any applicable online convenience charges, and best of all, you can print the ticket at home and avoid standing in line at the box office for Will Call.

Click Read More below for simple instructions on how to use the eTix system to purchase discount tickets or click Join TSF to become a premium member and have your discount promotion code emailed to you.1. Visit the schedule on the team's website and choose the "Buy Tickets" link that corresponds to the match you want to attend.

2. At the prompts on the ticket-buying page, choose the following options (see picture below for reference):

* Select Tickets By: Section
* Section: Any of the 200s sections, such as 204
* Adult: number of tickets you'd like to purchase at the discount rate
* Promotion Code: enter the code you will receive when you join the club

3. Click "Continue", review your order, and click "Continue" again.

4. You will be prompted to enter your credit card information into the secure checkout form, agree to the terms and conditions, and then click "Purchase"

5. When your purchase is complete, you will print your tickets on your home computer so please make sure you have access to a printer before purchasing.

To begin taking advantage of this special 33% discount ticket rate for TSF members, use the Join Now form on this website and we hope to see you at WakeMed Soccer Park soon!

Adi�s, Santi

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 20:58:05 -0400

Santiago Fusilier, certainly a fan favorite of those in the 204 Depot, has been dropped from the RailHawks' 2009 roster. Triangle Offense has more.

Here are some of TSF's favorite moments from the RailHawks' 2008 co-offensive player of the year.

How to keep up with the latest TSF News by Email

Sat, 21 Mar 2009 11:40:18 -0400

Many of the readers of Triangle Soccer Fanatics follow our daily news updates about the RailHawks and our supporters club via email, rather than visiting the site on a daily basis or using our RSS Feed in their favorite feed reader (like MyYahoo! or Google Reader).

If you are one of those regular readers, you may have noticed that since we debuted the new Twitter-based site a few weeks ago the amount of news you have been seeing in your daily emails has been greatly reduced. Without going into the gory technical details, this is because most of our stories are no longer posted directly on the TSF site but rather linked in to the site via Twitter.

If you would like to continue to get email updates of all the stories and headlines posted here on the Triangle Soccer Fanatics website, we suggest you sign up for the free Twilert service which will send you a daily, weekly, or monthly email update (your choice!) of everything posted to this site.

To signup for the Twilert email service, visit www.twilert.com and create yourself a new account.Once you have an account and are logged into the service, create a new Twilert in three easy steps:

1. Type the word "trisoccerfan" in the Create a Twilert field
2. Choose the frequency of your updates
3. Click the Create a Twilert button.

In about 24 hours, you'll start receiving an email with every message that we post on the TSF website plus you'll also get an alert any time someone posts a response to one of our articles on Twitter.

If you would prefer to limit the messages in this periodic email to only the headlines posted directly by TSF (and not the responses), you can customize your Twilert by clicking edit as show below:

You will be presented with a number of options to filter your Twilert. Feel free to customize any of these fields but the one that will limit your messages only to those officially posted by Triangle Soccer Fanatics is to use the people field to limit the from this person field to "trisoccerfan" as shown here:

We will be discontinuing our previous email service at the end of March so if you are a current subscriber, please follow these directions to start a Twilert email service so that you don't miss a headline!

RailHawks 25 Man Roster for Tonight's Match

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 09:29:00 -0400

Here's a first look at the full RailHawks' roster for tonight's match against the New England Revolution.

Notably, there's a few players on this roster that have not yet been officially announced by the team:

GK - Caleb Patterson (Australia)
D - Devon McKenney (Cleveland)
F - Gavin Glinton (Turks & Caicos)
M - Nate Norman (Rochester, MI)
D - Amir Lowery (Washington, DC - via Wake Forest University)

Also, it looks like Rennie has named former Birmingham City midfielder Richard Huxford his assistant while NCSU goalkeeper coach Dan Popik will coach the keepers.

On the Revolution's roster are two recent graduates of Duke and former RailHawks U23s Darrius Barnes and Michael Vidiera. Of course, local basketball and soccer fans may also remember New England's Jay Heaps from his dual-sport stay at Duke.

Man Utd v. Liverpool Viewing Saturday at XL Soccer World

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 18:55:51 -0400

Don't have Setanta at home and scrambling around looking for a place that will be open early Saturday morning to watch the massive Premier League clash between Manchester United and Liverpool?

Have no fear...Rich King over at XL Soccer World has come to the rescue of local Premier League fans. XL Soccer World will open up early on Saturday especially for the match. Kickoff is at 8:45am eastern daylight time on Saturday, March 14th and XL Soccer World will be charging a $5 cover charge which will get you a cup of coffee to chase the sleep from your eyes and a bar stool to watch the game on the big screen TV.

XL Soccer World is located at 5600 Hillsborough Street in Raleigh and will open at 8:30am Saturday morning for the match.

Podcast: Coach Rennie Talks Revolution on the Bull and the Buzz

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 16:25:00 -0400

RailHawks' coach Martin Rennie and the voice of the RailHawks Dean Linke were on 850AM The Buzz and 620AM The Bull earlier today for the Carolina RailHawks Spotlight talking about Saturday's upcoming exhibition match against Major League Soccer's New England Revolution. I'm very much intrigued by Rennie's promise of a couple of "unannounced surprises" that he makes toward the end of the short interview.

Click here to download the Carolina RailHawks Spotlight for March 11, 2009 in MP3 format

McClellan, Stokes depart RailHawks

Fri, 27 Feb 2009 05:46:42 -0400

Two year RailHawks' veterans and fixtures in the Carolina starting lineup since the team's inception, Chris McClellan and David Stokes will not be back for the 2009 season. The pair have not been re-signed by coach Martin Rennie for the upcoming league campaign.

McClellan joined the RailHawks' in 2007 after coming through the open tryouts process and beating out expected regular starter John O'Hara for the lead goalkeeping spot. The RailHawks' #0 started 55 of 58 regular season games for Carolina over two seasons, amassing a 1.24 goals against average during his career in the Triangle.

Stokes anchored the RailHawks' defense in 2007 and helped establish it as one of the stingiest in the league during the inaugural season campaign. In 2008, Stokes' scored his only point for the RailHawks in his 34 league games, a goal from a Steven Curfman corner to salvage a draw at home against Seattle.

RailHawks sign Premier League veteran Paul Ritchie

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 17:58:09 -0400

The Carolina RailHawks have announced another MAJOR signing today with the news that former Manchester City and Bolton Wanderers defender Paul Ritchie has joined the club.

Paul Simon Ritchie began his career with Heart of Midlothian of Scotland�s Premier League in 1992, where he quickly gained a reputation as a promising defender, earning a regular first team place and winning Scotland under-21 caps. He had 133 appearances with Hearts, his favorite team, and scored six goals. After seven years in Scotland, Richie went to the Bolton Wanderers of the English Coca Cola Championship. While at Bolton, he helped the team reach the FA Cup and League Cup semifinals.

In 2000, Ritchie transferred to Glasgow Rangers but was immediately sold to Manchester City of England�s Premier League. While at City he had the opportunity to play with players of the caliber of Claudio Reyna and for current New York Red Bulls coach Juan Carlos Osorio. After a brief stint on loan at Portsmouth and Derby County, Ritchie transferred to Wallsall of England�s League One, before ending at Dundee United where he was also one of the captains of the team.

Paul Ritchie has also represented Scotland in several U-21 matches and seven first team matches. He scored his first and only goal against the Czech Republic in 1999 and has played against England and Germany among others.

WOW! Between Romero and Ritchie, our defense is going to be one of the most skilled that USL has ever seen!!!

RailHawks investor Bob Young begins process for new USL-1 team in Canada

Wed, 25 Feb 2009 13:57:14 -0400

According to TSN.ca, RailHawks minority owner Bob Young apparently believes his investment in the Carolina RailHawks' is so wise, he is looking to purchase a second team through his Canadian Football League interests in Hamilton, Ontario:

"As a minority owner of the USL's Carolina Railhawks, I'm personally aware of the growing popularity of USL soccer across North America and would be thrilled to see a Hamilton team play in a league with the great Montreal Impact and Vancouver Whitecaps franchises," Young said in a statement.

"We have been investigating the economic viability of a professional soccer team in Hamilton for a number of years and with the possibility of a new stadium on the horizon, we felt that this is the right time to begin the application process."