Stormwatch912

Teams have played two or three games this season (Sorry, most teams have. Omaha, meanwhile, still has only played one game and has their game scheduled for tomorrow postponed as we'll see below) and so far, there's everyone else, and there is Knoxville. One Knox has two wins on the season with victories against Charlotte and preseason favorites Lexington on their record. They've scored two goals in each game while only surrendering one in their two games and have looked like the team to beat.  Now, it's wild to make any grand proclamations about teams this early in the season. Knoxville has played two games. It's 9% of their season. No one needs to get carried away and crown them just yet. Having said that, they've looked very good in both of their matches and with a regular season that's only 22 games long, getting wins early is never a bad thing.  Knoxville has four different scorers so far. Angelo Kelly-Rosales is one of those who has scored and far and a...

  Darin Van Tassell, Tormenta Co-owner and antagonist in our little story below.  It's the middle of the week, so let's get a little weird with a hypothetical question.  Suppose, way back when Tormenta Co-Owner Darin Van Tassell was a college professor , he had a student who didn't do well in his class and blamed Van Tassell for it. (We're going to assume it was the one student who gave him a "OK" rating on Rate My Professor... for comparison, he got 28 ratings of "Awesome.")  For whatever reason, this student could see into the future and know that one day his college professor would own a soccer team and spent years developing his kid to be a soccer prodigy while at the same time, instilling a deep animosity towards Van Tassell and everything he stands for. In 2024, it's finally time for this student's revenge. He's ready to unleash this soccer prodigy on to League One, but only on the condition that he can play against Tormenta every w...

Photo Credit: Alex Ashton The third time was the charm for Tormenta as South Georgia got its first League One win of the season as goalkeeper Ford Parker had another outstanding performance and the offense took advantage of Richmond's defensive miscues to come away with a 3-1 win Saturday night in Virginia. Conor Doyle, Niall Watson and Mason Tunbridge all scored  while Parker came up big with seven saves for the second consecutive week, including showing his quick reflexes early when Richmond was able to get to the endline and cut the ball back to the six yard box. Parker was able to get a hand down to stop the shot. Minutes later, Doyle opened the scoring in the fourth minute. Following a deflected shot from Nick Akoto, Doyle stepped up as the ball settled 23 yards out and Doyle took the shot on his first touch and fired it to the upper left part of the goal past longtime Tormenta keeper Pablo Jara to put Tormenta ahead 1-0. Parker, who has won USL League One save of the week two...

Sunset at Tormenta Stadium remains undefeated. So it's been a minute since I've written anything here. Sorry about that. Sometimes real life gets in the way of a blog. It'll happen again. Thanks for your understanding and patience. A lot has happened since we last met so lets get to it.  On Saturday, Tormenta got a late goal from Niall Watson in the closing minutes of stoppage time snatched a draw from the jaws of defeat. There's a link below to my story in the Statesboro Herald about that game.  On Tuesday, I watched my kid's soccer team go up 1-0, give up two goals to fall behind and then score with three minutes left in regulation to force overtime where a...let's be charitable and say it was questionable...  handball call in the box against Statesboro resulted in the game winning penalty kick as the Blue Devils fell 3-2. You, however, were likely following along Tormenta's U.S. Open Cup first round game that saw Nick Akoto score early in the match and To...

On the first day of preseason training, Tormenta invited local media out to watch practice and have it serve as a meet and greet for various media relations and front office staff members. There are several new faces to go along with others that have been with the team for a while and it was certainly nice to get to meet the newcomers and catch up with those who were returning. Eventually I got in to a conversation with one of the people who had been there before and the discussion turned to their upcoming preseason game. He asked if I was going to be there and I told him it all depended on my son's soccer schedule. He smiled and said "You have to be at your kid's games." He snapped his fingers and said "those years go by in a flash so you definitely need to be there."  As it turned out, my kid did have a game the same night as the first Tormenta preseason game and, in fact, started his first varsity game that night. I missed the Tormenta game and while I en...

Tonight my kid plays his ninth soccer game in 12 days with only one of those nine being a home game. (He plays both varsity and JV if you're trying to figure out what kind of monster the high school has to be to schedule that many games in that time frame.) Friends, that's a lot of time on the road and, frankly, I'm worn out. Our entire family was in bed by 9:15 last night. Are we cool if we don't have a super long preview for Saturday's game? Consider this a brief preview for Tormenta's matchup Saturday as they take on Forward Madison back at the friendly confines of Tormenta Stadium. At some point someone is going to come up with a great nickname for the stadium that will catch on. If I start calling it the Storm Shelter are you going to object? (You should object, I'm sure you can come up with something better.) Tormenta comes in  having fallen to Fuego last week 2-1. Madison, meanwhile, will be opening their 2024 campaign in Statesboro where they are 3-1...

It makes sense Mayor Quimby is here, I promise. Well, as much sense as any of my header photos ever make. My uncle in South Carolina was some kind of elected official in the small town where he and my aunt lived. I don't remember what it was exactly. He certainly wasn't mayor but he was something where every few years he'd have to file paperwork and run a campaign. My brother, ever helpful as he was, suggested a campaign slogan for our uncle one year. It was simple enough to remember and, much to our disappointment, he decided against it. The proposed slogan was "Vote for Uncle Wendy" because, as my brother put it, who isn't going to vote for their uncle? It turns out he didn't need that slogan as he won reelection every time until he decided not to seek reelection.  What does any of that have to do with Tormenta or even, more broadly, League One? Nothing really, but it's March Power Rankings Time where nothing has anything to do with anything. We just...

The result wasn't what Tormenta wanted Saturday night. Two early goals proved to be too much to overcome as a late Gabi Rodriguez goal wasn't enough as Tormenta fell to Central Valley Fuego 2-1 at Tormenta Stadium. The win for Central Valley is their third straight season opening win for Fuego and the first career win for their new head coach Jermaine Jones. Fuego, in fact, has never lost a season opener in their team's history. Tormenta, meanwhile, falls to 2-3-1 in season openers all time. I'm not sure what this  actually means. It's possible it means nothing except Tormenta has won twice, lost three times, and drew once in season opening games. Not every statistic tells you something important and certainly they're not predictive. Sometimes a stat is just a stat. With the turnover teams undergo year to year, it seems unlikely that something that happened even three years ago would affect anything for the 2024 season. I'm inclined to believe statistics lik...

Sunset at Tormenta Stadium never disappoints It's almost here friends.  Tomorrow the long offseason ends and we get an actual match that counts. The new look Tormenta team takes on the new look Fuego squad led by former U.S. Men's National Team star Jermaine Jones making his coaching debut for Central Valley. "We know preseason is all process, process, process. Opening night is about results and we're not hiding from that fact," Tormenta Manager Ian Cameron said. "We'd like to, and our full aim, is towards getting a win and getting off to a really good start. Twenty-two game season this year, it's different than other years and you have to start strongly, so that's first and foremost what's on the mind of everybody." In addition to the result on the field, Cameron has other aspects of his team that he'll be looking for. "Beyond that, of course, in sports, things can go for you or they can go against you. It's the identity of ...

Why is Anne Hathaway here? You'll have to read to find out. I’m not big on making predictions for sports. When you make a prediction a part of you is wanting that to come true just so you can be right. And right about what? A lucky guess? Sports, like history, are only interesting because nothing is inevitable. Sure, we can have a pretty good idea of what might happen or is even likely to happen, but we watch because of that chance we’ll see something we’ve never seen before.  If you're looking for more preseason predictions content, please head over to LeagueOneUpdater for a more in depth preview. But just because I don’t like doing something doesn’t mean I won’t do it for you. So in the spirit of fun and the belief that none of us can know the future, let’s take a swing at some bold (if unlikely) predictions for each team for the 2024 season.  Chattanooga Red Wolves - Red Wolves Head Coach Scott Mackenzie escapes serious injury when he is attacked by an actual Red Wolf dur...

Sunset over Tormenta Stadium Saturday Night Today's blog title is a choose your own adventure. I can't figure out a fun headline about doing the Charleston, but you're all smart, witty, clever people who are also all above average levels of attractiveness and have discerning taste, so I am sure you'll come up with something great to use as a headline.  It’s our last preseason game. Next week I get to direct you to the Statesboro Herald website for an actual game recap as the season starts. You know how game stories work. We hit the highlights, apply a narrative to the flow of the game and then have players and Manager Ian Cameron explain what went right, what didn’t and what that means for the team going forward.  But it’s preseason still, so what are we looking for? Do we want a game story? Do we want reflections on the game? Do we want to hear about how Rich Flemings blows out the speakers on the PA system every time he goes to announce the starters for Tormenta? (Ok...