2011 Fourside Senators season
The 2011 Fourside Senators season was the second season in the Fourside Senators's existence. Juan Manuel Lillo was the teams' head coach for the entirety of the team's season.
Synopsis
The team, as of the SuperDraft, had not hired a manager. Although the owner had said that a manager had to simply sign the contract, lasting through the 2011 season, it had not been offically announced yet. Reports say that the manager would be announced sometime during January. The Senators traded their second and third round picks to Seattle and New England, respectively, only to get them back (albeit two draft picks lower) from Chivas USA and Portland. The team would have had the first-round draft pick had Vancouver and Portland were not going into the season as expansion teams. They wound up drafting Perry Kitchen, much to the dismay of the fans. Also, no goalkeepers had been drafted, and fans were dissappointed about that.
D.C. United and the Senators have agreed to hold a cup with each other in the season's series: the winner shall recieve the Queen's Cup. About one or two months before the season began, the Senators signed manager Juan Manuel Lillo to a 1-year contract and hired assistant coach Richie Williams to a 1-year deal as well.
The season opened up dissappointly, with the Sens losing to Houston 3-1, but eventually tied Vancouver to a scoreless draw a week later. After losing to the LA Galaxy and the NY Red Bulls, the Senators reached 20 games without a win, an MLS record. However, on April 16, the Senators beat the Seattle Sounders 5-1, bringing Le Toux's goal total to 3, Mwanga's goal total to 2, and also having one goal for Swartzendruber and Juan Diego Gonzalez.
Within the next four games, though, only one goal was scored by a Senator, that being of Juan Diego Gonzalez. On May 12th, it was announced that Ivan Becerra, Cristian Arrieta, and Zach Pfeffer were traded to Dallas in exchange for Edson Edward and Fabian Castillo. The trade was done after Becerra went off the gates on a horrible start, only recording one shot and three yellow cards to his name, and not having played in a game since April 9. The trade was speculated for quite some time, but it had not attracted suitors, so manager Lillo had compiled "some other players" to fill in Becerra's void. However, in the next game, against FC Dallas, Becerra scored the game winner to give Fourside a 2-1 loss. Lillo wasn't too pleased, so he gave rude gestures to Becerra. Not surprisingly, Becerra tried to fight back, but was restrained by his new teammates. Lillo was fined $30,000 USD for this.
The team won the 2011 Micronesian Championship, for the second straight year in a row, earning their place in the 2011-12 CONCACAF Champions League Preliminary Stage, when the Sens went 2-1 in the group stage and winning the semi-finals and the finals. The Sens then lost to Chicago, and then drew against Toronto FC, as well drawing against defending MLS champions Colorado.
The next game was against Real Salt Lake. Fourside went down to 10 men early when Swartzendruber was red-carded, despite being tackled himself. The Sens wound up losing 1-0. The Sens then beat Vancouver 2-1 after scoring to break the tie in stoppage time.
Shortly after the game, it was rumoured that Brad Knighton was to lose the starting goaltender to Micronesia's starting goaltender in the Gold Cup, Evan Newton. Also, it was reported that Danny Califf had lost captaincy of the team, and that Fourside will not have a permanent captain for the time being.
After beating D.C. United in the first leg of the Queen's Cup 3-1, the team had scored more goals than they allowed for the first time in their franchise history. It was also the first time the Sens had won three games in four games. Soon afterwards, the Sens lost two straight games, to San Jose and New England. Juan Manuel Lillo then sprouted interest in signing Free Agent Owen Hargreaves. The Senators decided to hold their first leg of the Champions League Preliminaries in the MLS season when they faced Seattle on the 23rd of July. They tied 1-1.
On August 2, 2011, the Senators signed Hargreaves to the end of the season. He nearly scored on his debut, but it was ruled offside. On August 4, the Sens tied with Seattle in the Preliminary round at home to win the aggregate on scoring the away goal in Seattle (scored by Danny Mwanga). This is the first time a Micronesian team will be represented at the CONCACAF Champions League. The team is in Group D with Mexico's Monterrey, Guatemala's Comunicaciones and Costa Rica's Herediano.
In Late August Michael Orozco Fiscal's loan ended and Fourside, nearing the cap, had to let Fiscal go back to his old club to San Luis in Mexico. The club named goaltender Evan Newton as their captain - they had no captain since June. Manuel Lillo, who called up Newton early in the season when Brad Knighton was underwhelming, and Newton had since led Micronesia to their first quarterfinal Gold Cup appearance since 2001.
In the month of September the team played a hectic eight games during the month. Only seven were planned in the first place. The first game was the most frantic - the game had been delayed due to rain. Lillo responded by pulling out an umbrella, signalling that it was fine to play, but his umbrella shredded to pieces within seconds. The game was called at halftime, tied 0-0. During the post-game interviews, Lillo claimed that the playing conditions were suitable. About 30 seconds later, the power went out and the interview had to be stopped for two minutes before Lillo quietly left the room.
After beating out Portland, the Sens tied to C.S. Herediano in CONCACAF Champions League play in the rescheduled game, then lost again a week later. In between the two games, the Sens also lost to Columbus. After the CONCACAF double header, the Sens lost to KC and then to C.S.D. Comunicaciones in Group Round action. In the final leg of the Queen's Cup, the Sens tied D.C. United 1-1, giving the Sens a 4-2 win on aggregate. In the same game, Sebastien Le Toux scored his 30th goal with the franchise, having more than double of Danny Mwanga's goals with the team (he had 13). The final game of the CONCACAF Champions League saw Fourside go down to Monterrey 1-0.
The last three games of the season saw the Sens tie Chivas USA in a scoreless draw, beat Toronto FC 1-0, and lose to the New York Red Bulls 2-0 to end the season. The team (and the General Manager Laurence McCarthy) was criticized the entire season for not making enough trade during the season. It is expected that the Senators make lots of trades throughout the off-season.
Regular season games
Date | Team | Location | Final Score | W-L-T Record |
---|---|---|---|---|
March 19, 2011 | @ Houston Dynamo | Robertson Stadium | 1-3 | 0-1-0 |
March 26, 2011 | Vancouver Whitecaps | Virgin Stadium | 0-0 | 0-1-1 |
April 2, 2011 | @ Los Angeles Galaxy | The Home Depot Center | 0-2 | 0-2-1 |
April 9, 2011 | New York Red Bulls | Virgin Stadium | 1-2 | 0-3-1 |
April 16, 2011 | Seattle Sounders FC | Virgin Stadium | 5-1 | 1-3-1 |
April 23, 2011 | @ Real Salt Lake | Rio Tinto Stadium | 0-1 | 1-4-1 |
April 30, 2011 | San Jose Earthquakes | Virgin Stadium | 1-1 | 1-4-2 |
May 7, 2011 | @ Portland Timbers | PGE Park | 0-3 | 1-5-2 |
May 11, 2011 | Los Angeles Galaxy | Virgin Stadium | 0-2 | 1-6-2 |
May 14, 2011 | @ FC Dallas | Pizza Hut Park | 1-2 | 1-7-2 |
May 21, 2011 | Chicago Fire S.C. | Virgin Stadium | 1-3 | 1-8-2 |
May 28, 2011 | @ Toronto FC | BMO Field | 1-1 | 1-8-3 |
June 4, 2011 | @ Colorado Rapids | Dick's Sporting Goods Park | 0-0 | 1-8-4 |
June 11, 2011 | Real Salt Lake | Virgin Stadium | 0-1 | 1-9-4 |
June 18, 2011 | @ Vancouver Whitecaps | Empire Field | 2-1 | 2-9-4 |
June 22, 2011 | Sporting Kansas City | Virgin Stadium | 3-1 | 3-9-4 |
June 25, 2011 | Chivas USA | Virgin Stadium | 0-1 | 3-10-4 |
July 2, 2011 | @ D.C. United | RFK Stadium | 3-1 | 4-10-4 |
July 9, 2011 | @ San Jose Earthquakes | Buck Shaw Stadium | 1-3 | 4-11-4 |
July 16, 2011 | @ New England Revolution | Gillette Stadium | 0-1 | 4-12-4 |
July 23, 2011 | @ Seattle Sounders FC | Qwest Field | 1-1 | 4-12-5 |
July 30, 2011 | Colorado Rapids | Virgin Stadium | 0-2 | 4-13-5 |
August 3, 2011 | @ Chicago Fire S.C. | Toyota Park | 1-1 | 4-13-6 |
August 8, 2011 | Houston Dynamo | Virgin Stadium | 3-1 | 5-13-6 |
August 13, 2011 | FC Dallas | Virgin Stadium | 0-2 | 5-14-6 |
August 20, 2011 | @ Columbus Crew | Columbus Crew Stadium | 1-2 | 5-15-6 |
August 28, 2011 | New England Revolution | Virgin Stadium | 2-0 | 6-15-6 |
September 10, 2011 | Portland Timbers | Virgin Stadium | 1-0 | 7-15-6 |
September 17, 2011 | Columbus Crew | Virgin Stadium | 0-2 | 7-16-6 |
September 24, 2011 | @ Sporting Kansas City | Sporting Park | 1-2 | 7-17-6 |
September 29, 2011 | D.C. United | Virgin Stadium | 1-1 | 7-17-7 |
October 2, 2011 | @ Chivas USA | The Home Depot Center | 0-0 | 7-17-8 |
October 15, 2011 | Toronto FC | Virgin Stadium | 1-0 | 8-17-8 |
October 20, 2011 | @ New York Red Bulls | Red Bull Arena | 0-2 | 8-18-8 |
Other games
Goal Scorers
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