The Islanders come into the game with consecutive 1-0 (and 1-0) wins this past weekend at Juan Ramon Loubriel stadium; and along the way they leap-frogged Charleston into first place in the USL standings.

The Islanders handed the Battery their first two losses of the year and Bill “The Wall” Gaudette was named Player of the Week for the two shutout wins. John Krause also made the Team of the Week for his ‘alajuelazo‘ (last minute goal) scored in stoppage time to win the first of the two games this past weekend.

The former 2009 USL league leaders Charleston Battery, once the Islanders main rival (rivalry defined due to the many games both teams played in contrast to other teams) have become a Puerto Rican punching bag. The teams have faced each other 20 times in 6 years, with the Islanders wining 11 of the encounters, tying 8, and losing 2 to the Battery.

The Battery’s only win came at home in Charleston over the Islanders was a 2-1 result four years ago (July 22, 2005). Charleston’s other win was 1-0 result in the return leg of the 2006 USL Quarterfinals in Bayamón, Puerto Rico.

The Islanders have outshot Charleston 27 to 15 alltime. The Puerto Ricans have shutout the Battery 11 times (5 wins and 6 draws) and have only allowed Charleston to score 2 goals three times ever (1 loss and 2 draws).

The Islanders have gone undefeated against Charleton in 4 of the last 5 regular USL seasons. What the Puerto Ricans have not accomplished is to win all their matches against the Battery in a single season.

That feat will be accomplished tonight in Charleston!

John Krause scored an ‘alajuelazo‘, the only goal of the game with only a few seconds left in stoppage time as the Islanders defeated the Charleston Battery 1-0 at Juan Ramón Loubriel, in Bayamón.

Jonathan Steele took a 93′ corner kick, Cristian Arrieta headed for a miss, Fabrice Noel lightly shot and the Battery keeper Dusty Hudock stoped but could not control; John Krause found the loose ball and the rest is history… ¡¡¡Alajuelazo!!!

The Charleston Battery lost their first game in 13 games this season. The Islanders get 3 points for the match which gets the Puerto Ricans dangerously close to take the lead at the top of the standings away from the Battery when they face Charleston again on Saturday.

They were 0-1-2 [W-T-L] this season on the road (a tie and a loss in Austin, and a loss in Vancouver), before defeating the Thunder in Minnesota 2-1, mind you, unnecessarily painfully.

But a win is a win, and the Islanders really needed one!

The Islanders were winless in 6 games (starting with the lost CFU Championship Cup plus 5 league games) including 3 losses (the last 2 straight) and 2 draws in their last five.

The Islanders had to wait for a 90′ minute goal to defeat the Thunder, Minnesota did almost everything right tonight. Had it not been for the game ending goal he allowed, the Thunder keeper Nicolas Platter should have been the player of the game. He had 9 saves (facing 11 shots), some of which were spectacular!

The Thunder deserved at least the draw; but at the very last minute of the game, it was the Islanders who took the 3 points for the win on a cross net by Domenic Mediate which the Thunder keeper could not reach. A 90th minute alajuelazo by Mediate, his first goal of the season and first ever with the Islander uniform.

Jonathan Steele (who missed the first 5 games of the season due to injury) scored twice tonight, but saw his first goal (18′) annulled due to an offside call. His goal on minute 67′ tied the hostilities 1-1, four minutes after the Thunder had taken the initial lead on a goal headed in by Lawrence Olum (63′) after a corner kick from Ricardo Sanchez.

Bill Gaudette earned his 3rd win of the year as he faced 10 shots and saved 5. Kendall Jagdeosingh had 3 shots, while Sean Fraser and John Krausse had 2 each.

The Islanders are now in 5th place in the USL standings with 12 points, 10 points behind the leaders Carolina Railhawks, with one game in hand.

The last time Puerto Rico and Rochester met was in the 2008 USL Semifinals. And what a memorable semifinal was it!

After falling 2-0 in Rochester in the first leg, the Islanders went home to Juan Ramón Loubriel and won it all!

At the end of regulation the Islanders had won the 2nd leg 2-0, tying the semifinal’s aggregate 2-2. The game went into 30 minute overtime, and in the very last minute of overtime Cristian Arrieta scored the winng goal, an alajuelazo, to send the Islanders to the 2009 Final!

The Islanders were 2-1-0 [W-T-L] against Rochester last year in the regular season, and have a 6-4-7 record against the Rhinos alltime.

The Islanders last regular season loss to Rochester was on August 12, 2007.

Both teams have only played on game in 2009 so far. The Islanders won their season opener 2-1 against Vancouver Whitecaps, while the Rhinos lost their opening match 1-0 to the Carolina Railhawks.

The Islanders will face Vancouver tomorrow night at Juan Ramón Loubriel stadium in Bayamón in the Puerto Rican’s season opener, in what some call the 2nd-leg of the 2008 USL Final.

The 2005 & 2006 middle-bottom table (standings) Puerto Rico Islanders lost 4 games in a row to Vancouver. The 2007 playoff quality Islanders tied 2 games that year against the Whitecaps. 2008 was our best season yet, when the championship contender Islanders went undefeated against them with a regular season 1-2-0 [W-T-L] record, defeating Vancouver for the first time ever 1-0 on their last regular season encounter with a late-goal by Noah Delgado on the 89th minute.

That goal by Delgado on the 89th minute against Vancouver gave birth in Puerto Rican Spanish to a new word: the “alajuelazo“. While this new Boricuan Spanish soccer term made reference to a previous Islanders opponent, the Liga Deportiva Alajuelence from Costa Rica in the 2008-09 CONCACAF Champions League, the term itself was coined after the Vancouver win by El Nuevo Dia’s reporter Osman Pérez Méndez.

Below is a quote (translated to English) of Osman’s newspaper article on the Vancouver win:

Last night at the Juan Ramón Loubriel stadium in Bayamón there was another well expected duel, this time between the best two teams in the current USL-1 season, the Puerto Rico Islanders and the Vancouver Whitecaps, and the “Orange Troops” applied the “alajuelazo formula” to the Canadian team with an 89th minute goal that sealed the 1-0 Islander win, before a crowd that once again saw a frenetic game ending finish, celebrating on their feet.

The previous alajuelazo infered in the article, and after which the term was coined, took place just two nights before against Liga Alajuelence. In that game, with the Islanders down 0-1 in the 87th minute, a slow rolling ball into the box was dived on by the goalkeeper at the corner with his momentum carrying him over the line. Kendall Jagdeosingh charged at the play and as the netminder tried to take his hand off the ball so as to not handle it outside the box, the striker stole it, turned and fired it into the far side netting from the right flank of the box to tie the game 1-1.

Then in the 89th minute a lofted free kick from Jonathan Steele was met inside the box by the head of an Alajuelense defender, but the deflection sent the ball backwards toward goal and into the chest of Taiwo Atieno, who made sure to bury this attempt as it dropped to his feet, giving the USL-1 Islanders a 2-1 shocking victory as they held on to down the 2004 CONCACAF Champions Cup winners.

Tomorrow the Whitecaps face this season’s heavy favourites, one of the best 4 teams in the CONCACAF, a Champions League Semifinalist, the best team in the CONCACAF outside of Mexico; the 2009 USL-1 Champions to be Islanders.

To the USL-1 teams, watch out, an unstopable train is coming; to the Whitecaps, move over, you are the first ones in the way…

The Islanders managed to win 12 times at home this year: 8 times in the USL, including a 3-0 overtime win in the Semi-Finals against the Rochester Rhinos; a 1-0 win over the Trinidad & Tobago’s Pro League Champion San Juan Jabloteh to win the Caribbean Football Union’s 3rd berth to the CONCACAF Champions League; a 2-1 come from behind win over Costa Rica’s Liga Deportiva Alajuelense in the tournament’s preliminary round; a 2-1 win over Panama’s 5-times champion Tauro FC and a 3-1 win over the current Mexican champions Santos Laguna in the 1st round group stage of the tournament.

The Islanders were looking for their last win at home this year in front of 7,500 fans against Municipal in the Champions League, to get a step closer to the Quarter Finals of the tournament to be played next March, and to eliminate the Guatemalans from the tournament.

But Puerto Rico’s 19 shots in the game were no match for Municipal’s Panamanian goalkeeper Jaime “The Saint” Penedo, who with 14 saves, kept the Islanders at bay, and earned the win after the game’s lonely goal by Mario Giovany Acevedo in the 85th minute.

As fate had it, the Municipal hopes for the Quarter Final round faded with this win, as they still got eliminated from the tournament. Municipal needed to score at least 2 away-goals against the Islanders, to keep their hopes to move on to the next round in case of a three-way tie for 2nd place in the group standings (had Tauro tied the Islanders and Municipal defeated Santos in the final week).

The Islanders will visit the Tauro in the Panama on Wednesday October 29th, to define the 2nd qualifier from Group D in the CONCACAF Champions League.