At the Red Card Sports bar, the Rinos hosted the 2021/22 end of season awards night on Thursday, April 14th 2022. The Rino’s Fury, the Rino’s Rangers and the Rino’s Bulldogs were all in attendance for an enjoyable evening with team quizzes, season recaps, funny awards and the performance awards.
We want to thank the Red Card Sports Bar for hosting the event and sponsoring the club during the 2021/22 season.
The Vancouver Metro Soccer League (VMSL) recently hosted their 2020 Annual General Meeting, during which they made award presentations for the 2019-20 season. We would like to extend our congratulations to coaches Blaise Nkufo and Randy Samuel who were jointly awarded Coach of The Year for their efforts leading Rino’s to the 2019-20 VMSL Premier Division Title! Over the course of 22 matches split between the two coaches, the team recorded 16 wins, and finished with both the highest goals scored (63), and least conceded (21) in the division.
Coach Blaise started the team off on the right track, posting a dominant 8W-0D-2L record over the first 10 games of the season, while finding opportunities for some of the club’s talented young players to earn meaningful minutes and contribute to the team’s success as they continued their development. Blaise’s aspirations around player development then lead to his hiatus as he travelled to Europe and Africa to both strengthen his pro club connections and scout additional talent. At the time of his departure the Rino’s Premier team was entrenched at the top of the VMSL Premier division table, and well on their way to being crowned champions.
After a short transition period, Coach Randy took the helm and under his watch the team rattled off an equally impressive 8W-1D-2L record, including victories over two teams they had previously lost to. Randy had to navigate some significant turbulence during this period as several players departed the team to chase their dreams of playing soccer professionally. With a steady hand he guided the team forward, and if it weren’t for cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we’re confident they would have had another terrific Provincial Cup run.
Congratulations to both coaches, and the entire team on a memorable 2019-20 VMSL Premier Division season!
Rino’s Vancouver SC will be running pre-season trials for players interested in earning roster spots in Premier and Division 1 for the upcoming 2020/21 Vancouver Metro Soccer League (VMSL) season.
Serious and committed players with high-level experience (semi-pro, top-level senior amateur, university/college varsity, premier youth league, etc) are invited to contact us via the player recruitment form below.
Rino’s Fury will be running pre-season trials throughout July and August 2020. The team is preparing to compete in Division 1 of the Vancouver Metro Soccer League (VMSL), with the aim to challenge for silverware.
During the season, the team will train twice per week at a central location near downtown Vancouver, easily accessible via transit, and will play once per weekend at various fields around Metro Vancouver.
Serious and committed players with high-level experience (university/college varsity, top-level senior amateur, premier youth league, etc) are invited to contact us via the player recruitment form below.
The Rino’s Fury are delighted to announce a lucrative sponsorship deal with Red Card Sports Bar.
Red Card Sports Bar is part of the Viaggio Hospitality Group in Vancouver, BC. The bar is one of the most popular sports bars in the city and offers patrons live screening of all major sporting events.
The partnership is another major step forward for the Rino’s Fury aspirations to return to the top of BC soccer.
The staff, players and wider Rino’s community would like to thank Red Card Sports Bar for investing in the team. We are looking forward to celebrating many victories in our new home on Smithe Street in downtown Vancouver.
Long-serving club man, Derrick Freedman, has been appointed Sporting Director. Derrick will be responsible for all club operations. The role will include player recruitment, sourcing partnerships, and sponsorships and building the foundations to push the club forward to compete with the best teams in British Columbia.
Derrick’s first port of call was to identify and hire a new head coach to cultivate a winning mentality. After months of negotiations, Derrick and the club are happy to announce that Andrew Norton will be the new head coach. Andrew will be responsible for all coaching and tactical work with the team. A former Middlesbrough FC academy coach, Andy has developed a technical playing style that he will breed into the team this season.
The dynamic duo has brought silverware to the club in the past and the fans can’t help but dream of Division One success this season.
Derrick and Andy during the provincial cup semi-final with Rino’s Fury
The countdown is on to the 2018/19 winter VMSL season!
This year Rino’s Vancouver SC will be fielding 5 teams in the Vancouver Metro Soccer League (VMSL) Premier, First, and Second Divisions, as well as Masters Div 1 (Over 35 and Over 45)
There are spots available at every level, and each team will have a dedicated staff to ensure a quality experience. If you are passionate about soccer and committed to showing up to training and matches throughout the winter then drop us a line at info@rinosvancouver.com with a brief bio including your age, and where you’ve previously played.
We are wishing the best of luck this week to Ahmed Alghamdi (#23 – far left of the photo) of our Rino’s Tigers Premier team who is currently taking part in the training camp of the Saudi Arabia youth national team.
Ahmed has been training in the Blaise Soccer Elite Training INCacademy for several years and playing with Rino’s Tigers in the VMSL under the guidance of Blaise Nkufo since he was 14 years old.
If he performs well he will be added to the roster of the Saudi team that will compete in the upcoming Asian Football Confederation U-19 Championship tournament.
Congrats to Rino’s Vancouver SC Tigers for winning the 2018 Richmond Regional Summer League Premier Divison! Ending with a 5-3-2 record and +15 Goal differential.
There’s a new name on the Vancouver Metro Soccer League (VMSL) Imperial Cup.
Rino’s Tigers lifted the famous 105-year-old trophy for the first time in their history following a 2-0 victory of Croatia SC at Coquitlam’s Percy Perry Stadium on Saturday afternoon.
For a match between two high scoring teams, that had produced 13 goals in their two league meetings this season, the anticipated goalfest didn’t come, with both defences standing strong again some dangerous attackers. That said, both teams had chances to make this a far more high scoring game, but they were unable to bury them.
Rino’s came out strong from the off and dominated the first half.
The opening ten minutes were marked by some fierce tackles flying in from Croatia, and you started to worry that TSS Rovers may be missing some of their Rino’s players for the new PDL season the way things were shaping up, but things soon settled down and both teams concentrated on getting the first goal.
Rino’s were looking the more dangerous, with Croatia find themselves caught offside several times from a high Tigers backline.
The best of the early chances fell to Whitecaps Residency alumni Declan Rodriguez in the 20th minute, after a spell of concerted Rino’s pressure. Connor Glennon went on a nice run up the right, playing the ball back to Erik Edwardson at the top of the box. The Portland Pilot midfielder played a neat ball to Rodriguez in front of goal and his cheeky back heel from the edge of the six yard box was blocked by the legs of Croatia’s keeper, Ante Boskovic.
Rino’s squandered another couple of good chances, with Rodriquez firing into the side netting and another Whitecaps Residency alumni, Daniel Sagno, blasting over, but Tigers weren’t to be denied and they finally got the go-ahead goal when Rodriguez finished at the near post from a tight angle in the 36th minute.
Rino’s were well deserving of their one goal lead at the half, but Croatia came out to make a game of it in the second.
The game became end to end, with both teams having a number of chances to grab the next goal. Tigers’ Matteo Polisi came close twice, with a free kick and then drilled a low one to Boskovic’s near post.
Croatia responded with a Johnny Sulentic free kick of their own that just zipped over, before Sulentic just failed to connect an outstretched leg to a great ball to the back post.
As Croatia pushed hard for the equaliser, they left themselves short at the back and Rino’s smelt blood.
Edwardson fired over from a good position, before crashing one off the bar. Boskovic had to come up big to keep Croatia in the match, saving from Rodriguez at the near post and then turning a Glennon chance just past the post, when it looked certain he’d score in the 66th minute.
Tigers thought they’d finally doubled their lead two minutes later when Matteo Polisi turned in a deflected Rodriguez cross, but he was deemed to have been in an offside position when the pass was made.
Both teams had a couple of close calls, before Edwardson wrapped it up for Rino’s in the closing minutes, picking his spot to finish a Glennon pass after a quick breakaway.
And that was that. Rino’s Tigers were the 2018 Imperial Cup champions.
You can see our highlights video from the match, as well as the trophy presentation, below.
After achieving promotion back to the VMSL Premier from Division 1 last season, it’s been a great year back in the top flight for Rino’s and a great achievement for the players and personally for head coach Blaise Nkufo.
“I’m very glad,” Nkufo told AFTN after Saturday’s win. “I think we deserve it. The first half we played very good football. The second half, we were not in control, but I think we created a lot of chances. We could have won by a big score, but at the end of the day, we managed to win. I’m very happy for the team and also for myself as a coach.”
