The Atlanta Silverbacks are an experienced side. They sport six former WUSA players and were a 2007 W-League Championship finalist. Tonight at WakeMed Soccer Park, that experience shone through as the Silverbacks took the young RailHawks Women squad, made up mostly of university underclassmen, to school in a 5-0 rout.

Former WUSA standout Christine Latham scored two goals and W-League veteran forward Sarah Steinmann tallied a hat-trick en route to the final scoreline. The RailHawks never gave up the fight, coming close to getting on the scoreboard in the last 10 minutes when Captain Thori Byran headed a well-placed corner wide of Whitmore's net.

The RailHawks return to action next Saturday, May 24th against the Carolina Dynamo, a team they beat in their inaugural match 2-0.

The Carolina RailHawks announced today that they have partnered with Panera Bread, naming the bakery-cafe the Official Caterer of the Carolina RailHawks Women. In addition, the Panera logo will be featured on the Carolina RailHawks Women’s team jerseys at home and away games.

“We are honored to feature Panera Bread as the jersey sponsor of the Inaugural Carolina RailHawks Women’s team,” said RailHawks President and General Manager Chris Economides. “We are proud to wear such a solid community-oriented company name like Panera at all of our games and in everything we do.”

The new Carolina RailHawks Women’s jersey, featuring the Panera Logo, will make its WakeMed Soccer Park debut at the much-anticipated Women’s home opener on Friday, May 16th at 7:30 PM. Fans will be treated the historical return of competitive women’s soccer to the Triangle and exciting, high energy match. Tickets for the event are available by calling the LGFCU Box Office at 919-859-KICK (5425).

The Panera Bread bakery-cafes in the Triangle are owned and operated by Joe Bastian, his wife Diane and his sister, Casey Bastian. They have eleven bakery-cafes in the Triangle, one in Greenville, one in Pinehurst, and one opening next month in Morehead City.

"We're thrilled to be able to partner with the RailHawks Women in their launch into the Triangle," said Joe Bastian, President of Breadwinners at the Triangle, the local entity of Panera Bread. "Soccer has a great tradition in this area, and we have always enjoyed great support from the many soccer fans throughout the region, so we are really pleased to support this great addition to our community."

Source: RailHawks press release

United Soccer Leagues announced today the W-League Team of the Week for the fourth week of the USL season and the first edition of the W-League Team of the Week for the year, honoring Carolina RailHawks forward Casey Nogueira as Player of the Week, respectively.

Nogueira helped get the RailHawks off to a great start to their season by scoring one goal and adding one assist against neighboring rivals the Carolina Dynamo. The RailHawks get back into action next Friday with their home opener against the Atlanta Silverbacks, but will be without their homegrown starlet, who has been called into the US U20 national team camp.

The Confederation of North, Central American and Caribbean Association Football (CONCACAF) announced the format of the 2008 CONCACAF Champions League today. 24 teams from Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Pamana, the Caribbean and the United States will take part in the tournament that will begin in late August and conclude in April of 2009.

The Champions League will replace the Champions Cup tournament as the method of determining the CONCACAF representative in the FIFA Club World Cup. The United States will submit four representatives to the competition: the Major League Soccer (MLS) Cup champion and runner-up, the MLS regular season champion and the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup champion.

As a semifinalist in last year's Open Cup, the RailHawks were only two wins away from a berth in the new CONCACAF tournament. Should the RailHawks, or any of our USL counterparts, manage to win the 2008 edition of the Open Cup, they would likely be granted a spot in the 2nd edition of this tournament (assuming no major changes in format after the first year).

For more on the CONCACAF Champions League and the US Open Cup champion's place in it, please visit USOpenCup.com.

For the second week running, Dan Antoniuk is in the USL-1 team of the week.