A View From The Southside #1

There’s no denying that the game on Wednesday was pretty dire stuff. The Impact had promised to put on a good show for their fans. That seemed to mean wasting time for most of the second half and showing themselves up for the scum that they are.

It was the biggest waste of time in Canadian football in fact since Toronto’s annual production of playoff merchandise.

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The Sportsnet commentators for Wednesday night’s Voyageurs Cup match in Montreal were woeful. It was almost enough to drive you to listening to the French chick on RDS. Aye, right.

Between them going on about DouDou and Aaboubou, I wasn’t sure if they had a bad stutter or to expect Yogi Bear to have a shot in the commentary box and talk about picnic baskets.

The doddery duo seemed to get confused a little too easily, especially when the Caps were warming up Simon Thomas.

It was the most confused I’d been watching a game since an English Championship match a couple of years ago between Wolves and West Brom. I spent the whole match looking for a player on the pitch called Ray Darby, but to no avail. It was strange for I was sure that I heard the announcer in the pre match promo telling me “to stay tuned to see the big black cunt Ray Darby”. Ears clearly playing tricks again.

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For those of you wondering why the Montreal Ultras were so quiet at Wednesday’s game it was due to them having a beach party, complete with inflatable beach balls, crocodiles and even a paddling pool.

No one had seen such a collection of plastics in the stands since the last match at BMO Field.

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I’ll admit I was a bit down after the match, so decided to head downtown to one of our sponsor pubs to drown my sorrows. I soon cheered up though when I got sitting beside a table of three pretty girls.

The first was from Ottawa. Really into politics. She said her father taught her everything she knew. The second was from Vancouver. Really into hiking and the outdoor life. She said her father taught her everything she knew. The third girl was from Montreal. Really into sex….

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Unfortunately we have to finish on a more sombre note.

I received an email during the week asking me if I would donate some money to help fund a funeral for a former Montreal player. The email was asking for a dollar.

Sceptical, I replied asking “only one dollar to bury a Montreal player?”

I got a reply confirming yes, so have now sent them ten bucks along with a note which says “Here’s a tenner. Bury nine more of the bastards.”

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[For background to this new section of the Blog see the Southsiders Forum. Apologies for the lack of updates in the Blog recently. Remember though that you can check out the daily AFTN Football Blog HERE which often has a Whitecaps and North American slant.]

Caps Fail To Get Job Done

Going in to tonight’s match at Saputo Stadium in Montreal, the Caps knew exactly what they had to do. Win.

It didn’t matter if it was by a barrowload or a scrappy one goal counter, the three points were all that mattered if they were still to harbour hopes of lifting the 2010 Voyageurs Cup.

Buoyed by a 2-0 victory at home to Rochester over the weekend, that belied the Caps pressure and possession in the game, the most pleasing aspects were that we got ourselves back on the scoresheet again and Jay Nolly and the backline increased their time without conceding a goal to a staggering 418 minutes.

The big question surrounding tonight’s match of course was which version of Montreal Impact would turn up. As it turned out it was a slightly weaker version of their first team, but still a strong line up. On paper at least. On grass it turned out they were shit.

Vancouver dominated the first half, but apart from Cornelius Stewart forcing Whitecaps reject Serj Djekanovic into a great point blank save after 9 minutes, we had little to show for all their possession and seven shots.

With no changes at half time, the Caps continued where they left off and dictated the play, getting their reward five minutes into the half when Ansu Toure drove home from just inside the box, with the help of an Impact deflection.

1-0 Caps and cue wild celebrations on the west coast.

The worst thing Vancouver could do now was to sit back and try and defend their lead. It’s just not something we seem capable of doing. Thankfully they didn’t and continued to push for a clinching second goal.

Vancouver joy lasted twelve minutes though when Montreal equalised against the run of play. Philippe Billy was left shockingly unmarked at the back of the box and drilled home an Eddie Sebrango pass.

Game back on.

Vancouver kept pushing and kept dominating whilst Montreal seemed bizarrely content to timewaste whilst drawing a meaningless match for them.

As the game went into the last ten minutes, Montreal decided to start to play some football and had some chances to kill of the game and Vancouver’s hopes. As it turned out, Vancouver managed to do that themselves.

With the clock ticking down, Montreal reminded everyone why they are Canada’s shame, continuing to waste time, clearly happy to finish bottom of the table again.

The final whistle gave Toronto their second successive Canadian Championship, leaving Vancouver to wonder about the what ifs and face a meaningless game in Toronto next week.

Disappointing all round. We can’t paper over that fact. At least in tonight’s game though Vancouver left the field with some honour still intact.

*** POSTNOTE – Just to add a wee edit, as we touch on in the comments below, since the original post was made as I was going out the door and was pissed off! Vancouver got what they deserved due to their impotent attack. There’s no taking away from that. We did not score enough goals and have no-one to blame but ourselves. Toronto deserve the Championship this year. Hopefully that should make us hungrier next year. Mon the Caps ***

Promoting Football The North American Way – Part 2

On April 15th in the Blog, we asked if Scottish clubs could boost attendances by taking a leaf out of how some North American clubs promote themselves.

Obviously good football on the pitch plays a big role in getting bums on seats, but that aside using fans to promote the matchday experience to other fans is quite popular over in Canada and the US.

The original question came about when I got the opportunity to take part in a new advertising campaign that the Vancouver Whitecaps were running. The final ads are now finished and live around the city. Here’s how they turned out (you can click them to enlarge the pic). I think they’re excellent and capture the importance of fans in the game. An importance that is missing from the other big North American sports. Would they make you give up watching the game on tv and head to a game? Hopefully and it would be fun to have something similar at Bayview or wherever else:

Claude Watch: New Club, New Crisis

Now we don’t like to kick a man when he’s down, but in Claude Anelka’s case we’ll make an exception.

A few weeks ago we reported on Claude the Fraud’s inglorious return to football with AC St Louis in North America’s NASL. Well it hasn’t got much better for poor Claude.

St Louis’ league campaign is now seven games old and the team find themselves with a record of one win, one draw and five defeats. They’re sitting on 4 points and are bottom of both the NASL Conference and USSF-D2 single table standings. Hmm, this all seems a little bit familiar!

Now we will be fair for a second. St Louis just recorded a 1-1 draw last Saturday in a very tough place to visit, Portland Timbers PGE Park. They also recorded the team’s first ever win on May 1st when they beat the equally poor Crystal Palace Baltimore 1-0, thanks to a goal in 52 seconds from Manuel Kante, the player that caused Claude to start the game mentioned in the post above with just ten men!

We were saddened by this victory of course as it was also Claude’s first ever victory as a senior football manager. We hoped he’d just have plodded along without ever winning, like his spell at the Rovers. If Baltimore hadn’t been caught so cold, he’d still be awaiting that first win. Damn them!

In this time St Louis have seen their attendance fall from 5,695 in their home opener to just 2,985 for their second home game against Baltimore. With another home game, against Tampa Bay, tomorrow, it will be interesting to see how much more it has fallen. The Club can’t afford for this to be the case.

Now to give you some background, St Louis used to be a hotbed in US football. We kept being told that it was a “great soccer city”. The current AC St Louis side is the city’s first outdoor professional men’s side for 30 years. They had the Stars for ten years in the old NASL. Hopes were high for the franchise and they had even been bidding for MLS membership before settling on the NASL. There has been talk of building a brand new, state of the art 18,500 seated new stadium if they were to get a MLS franchise.

The Club were expected to be a huge success story. The future for the growth of football clubs in the States. Now they appear to be in a very perilous position with reports coming out that they may not have enough money to see out the season and they may have to fold. Other reports suggest they will see out the season but then fold, possibly with the help of a buyout from league management.

For more details and background surrounding these problems, check out these excellent articles at Inside Minnesota Soccer and St Louis Globe-Democrat.

It’s a shame for the true football fans in the city who have desperately been waiting for a team to return. They deserve much better but clearly there hasn’t been as many of those as expected to keep the team as a viable proposition. Some are already commenting that they should have known that the writing was on the wall from the start when a man with no pedigree like Claude Anelka was appointed manager!

Claude’s position is also now rumoured to be under review and he could be set to leave the club, having failed once again to show that he has what it takes to be a football manager. I do feel for the St Louis fans though through all this. They didn’t deserve to start of their team with a man like this at the helm and if the Club does go to the wall it’s a huge blow for growing the game in the States.

We asked last time, why would someone give him another chance to fail? I’m sure the St Louis fans will soon be asking this in numbers. Of all the football managers currently looking for work around the world, why would someone give this clown a job? That’s what the St Louis fans need to be asking now.

Interesting resume Claude now has. 2004 nearly helped to ruin Raith Rovers Football Club. 2010, different country, different town, new club in crisis.

I know that St Louis’ current problems lie way deeper than Claude Anelka but it’s the manager at the helm that is ultimately responsible for bringing the crowds in through performances on the pitch. St Louis badly need to get the crowds in at the moment if they are to save their future as a club and Claude’s team don’t seem capable of giving the winning performances on the pitch that are needed.

Claude Anelka’s Magic Wand. Everything it touches turns to shit.

Whitecaps Left With Toughest Route To Cup

If Vancouver Whitecaps are going to be crowned Nutrilite Canadian Champions for the first time then they’re going to have to do it the hard way.

With a potential Champions League qualifier against Honduran side CD Motagua at stake, a point from last night’s match against Toronto did little to help the cause. Sure it keeps us in it, but we’re on a life support machine and we’re just waiting for someone to flick that off switch. Don’t be surprised if that person stinks of garlic and has a baguette under his arm and a beret on his head.

A third goalless draw in a row, albeit the most entertaining of them, was frustrating if not a surprise. I went into the match expecting a 1-0 defeat but getting a point doesn’t excite.

Let’s not beat around the bush here, Toronto were poor. Call them what you will, a makeshift side, an experimental side, a weakened side. Whatever they were it wasn’t the top TFC out there either in personnel or performance. If we can’t score against that, then there’s not a lot of hope out there if we go to BMO in two weeks time needing a win to clinch the trophy. It won’t be a lesser TFC facing us on the park that day.

To get to that stage of course we have to beat Montreal next week in Quebec. I won’t go down the whole “they owe us” a weak team saga again, as it’s getting boring now I know. I actually hope they don’t put out a weakened side as if they do and we fail to beat them, then that just leaves the Caps looking like chumps. I’d rather win in glory or go down to a full strength side.

I know some of the Toronto fans would love Montreal to play a weak team to shut us up about last year, but as if they will really. I think the quote of the day about it all was from Teitur when he was quoted in the Globe and Mail as saying: “I’m actually expecting them to send the junior team”.

Back to last night’s game, Toronto were outplayed for most of the match and by the second half there only really looked like being one team who would score. Now that’s based on possession obviously as opposed to our scoring prowess, but we did have some great chances in the last ten minutes to give ourselves an easier qualification route to the Champions League.

We so lack a spark up front. Marcus Haber can’t do it all. He can’t create and score at the same time. He needs help and when he returns to West Brom soon then we’ll really be in the shit.

There were some positives from the game –

* Cornelius Stewart was outstanding and is becoming a real find

* Greg Janicki’s commitment to the cause, whilst still suffering a weeping head injury is wonderful to see and what you want from your players

* The return of Martin Nash, as second half sub, added some bite into the middle of the park and some much needed authority. Looking ahead to future MLS years, if only he was a few years younger

* Another clean sheet for Jay Nolly and the backline. Three goals conceded in eight competitive matches is immense

That last point is what gives us the chance going in to the last two games of the tournament.

We’re not conceding. That’s a great base. Two more games without letting in a goal gives us the get out clause of just needing one spark of brilliance in each match to take us through. It won’t be pretty but what the hell, I’ll gladly take it.

I’ve been saying this for weeks now and it HAS to happen at some point. We will all of a sudden click and the goals will come. Not sure from whom but it will happen and then by October we’ll be wondering what all the fuss was about. We just need it to click in the next fortnight.

Mon the Caps.

Whitecaps Need To Blitz TFC From Kick-Off

Well tonight is the big one. Our Nutrilite Canadian Championship hopes can be ended if we lose to Toronto at Swangard tonight.

A win puts us in a very good position and even a draw keeps us in the hunt, but with all to do. Exciting stuff and what the trophy should be all about. Taking aside the fact that obviously we want to win, it would be bad for how the tournament will be perceived if there are two meaningless games left.

Toronto are starting to look like they are finally clicking as a team, but it does kind of depend on what team turns up at times with them on the road. Whether injuries, especially to de Guzman, are likely to keep some out of the starting line up we don’t know. Could be injuries. Could be fatigue. Could all be a smokescreen. I tend to think the latter.

From a Caps point of view, what is very important is that we try and create as intimidating an atmosphere in the Southside this evening. Loud, noisy, obnoxious, abusive. It’s never been more important.

It’s also important we mix it up on the pitch from the start. If any of the doubtful players are playing then we need our guys to go in with some crunching challenges from the get go. If someone has a sore ankle, target it.

Every year this is the home game I most look forward to. With our inability to score at the moment, but great defensive showings, it’s not going to be a high scoring goalfest. TFC are the favourites, but let’s hope all our pieces click into place at just the right time.

We can’t play for a draw. We can’t be defensive. We need to just go for it from the off. We need to play on any tiredness and make them wonder what’s hit them.

C’mon the Caps. Do us proud.

*** The Southsiders will be having a pre-match tailgate party at the southeast corner of Swangard Stadium in Central Park from 5.30pm. Come one, come all. Special burger and hotdog combo deals (with chips and pop) will be available to purchase. The weather is gorgeous at the time of writing so should be a great night ***

BC Place Construction Cam

Going downtown over the weekend, you couldn’t help but notice how weird the Vancouver skyline is without the BC Place roof. I’ve only been living here for a couple of years and I find it strange, so it must be really weird for those who have been used to seeing it since 1983.

The deflation on May 4th marked the end of an era but the start of a new one, as work began on transforming the old venue into a first class sporting stadium to host the MLS Vancouver Whitecaps next summer, along with the CFL Lions.

As a sad old anorak of many years, I love seeing stadium renovations/building taking shape. It’s been great to see the temporary Empire Stadium come together. I’d still prefer us to be playing there than BC Place (obviously Waterfront Stadium is still my first option), but it’s still exciting to be moving to the dome as well.

If you want to see how the BC Place contructions and renovations are taking shape then there’s a construction cam for all you fellow saddos HERE!

Be fun to see it in all it’s stages as MLS excitement builds.

All We Are Saying Is Give Us A Goal……Or At Least Some Shots

Another Saturday. Another goalless draw. Maybe I should just start using a template for the blog.

I’m sure it’s not going to be like this for the rest of the season, but at the moment it’s hard to see this changing or where exactly our next goal is going to come from.

The Whitecaps recorded their third scoreless draw of the season yesterday, their second consecutive one, and their second less than inspiring match against Montreal in eleven days. Isn’t it great that Montreal are MLS bound now so that we can look forward to many more years of crap matches between the two sides.

The positive ones amongst us are taking solace in the fact that it wasn’t as bad as last week’s match against Baltimore. That wouldn’t be hard. I’ve seen impromptu games in the park that were better than that snoozefest.

This week was better. There were improvements, there were some good individual performances (Janicki, Akwari and Sanchez were my standouts) but we still have no real attacking threat. We looked more like a cohesive unit. We strung passes together, at times, and we did have the ball in the net twice, but both goals were ruled offside.

The signs are there that things are coming together and there’s a long way to go in the League season, but what we really want is for the magic wand to be waved to make everything perfect for this coming Wednesday’s crucial Nutrilite Championship game against Toronto. It’s not looking promising, let’s put it that way!

Defensively we’re looking strong. Two goals conceded in six league matches is phenomenal. Four goals scored on the other hand, not so much. It still sees us leading the NASL Conference, but when Austin Aztex can be leading the early single table standings, I think that shows you the quality of this year’s USSF D2.

I won’t go on yet again about how the attack is the area of concern etc etc. I’m sure you’re all sick of hearing about that by now. The most frustrating thing about Saturday’s game though was the constant punt, punt, punt.

Route one football isn’t the horrible stigma it’s made out to be you know. I’ve watched enough of it in my time. It has it’s place and when you have a tall man like Marcus Haber leading your attack, it can be a big boon to your chances.

When you are resorting to punting constant high balls up to 5 foot 5 tall Randy Edwini-Bonsu then perhaps it’s time to review the tactical aspect of the team a little bit. Either that or the quality and sensibilities of the players providing those balls.

Randy should be going wide, skinning the defender and delivering the cross to Marcus. Not the other way around.

Perception of how we played on Saturday is very interesting. Statistically it tells a different tale. We had 8 shots yesterday. That was actually three less than the week before against Baltimore. We did manage an extra shot on target though – a massive two in the game.

I can’t fault Marcus and the rest of the attack though. You can only piss with the cock you’ve got, as we say in Scotland. Possibly the fact that Montreal had a huge useless dick on the field in Peter Byers may have led to shrinkage.

The midfield is woeful at the moment when it comes to attacking flair. More importantly, we have no one who seems to get the creative juices of the team flowing.

We are in desperate need of an old fashioned half back (for those of a certain age!). A holding midfielder. Someone who can be a Billy Bremner/Norman Hunter style tackler. We need bite, we need hard challenges and someone who can put themselves about a bit. Johnny Steele could provide this if he can get himself fully match fit physically and mentally.

Looking ahead to Wednesday, if DeRo and de Guzman are carrying knocks, as is suggested, a couple of crunching early tackles should take care of those problems. Big Z could be just the man to leave that foot in just that little bit too long, but not long enough for the ref to see much wrong.

With Toronto starting to look better each week, and coming of what was a huge away draw for them down in LA, we need to get the advantage right away and being right dirty bastards from the off, but clever with it, should do the trick.

It might not be pretty, but after the last three matches, I don’t care how we get the win, we just need to get it.

Mon the Caps.

Montreal Loss Leaves Whitecaps Knowing Exactly What Needs To Be Done

Well that’s us halfway through this year’s “exciting” Nutrilite Canadian Championship and we now know what scenarios Vancouver Whitecaps face in their three remaining matches.

Toronto ran out 1-0 winners at Montreal, in the latest bore-a-thon in the tournament (following hot on the heels of our contribution last week). With games like the last two, maybe it’s good that Sportsnet decided to only show this year’s matches on their East and West channels. These games might put the Canadian public off domestic football for a while if they were shown nationally.

The game was played in front of a disappointing crowd, as the Montreal public followed their Vancouver counterparts last week and decided to stay at home and watch men’s figure skating instead. To be fair to them, they didn’t exactly miss much at Saputo Field. It was dull as dishwater.

I went into the game with a three wishes: a 0-0 draw; an injury or two match suspension for de Guzman; an injury to Matt Jordan. Sadly, none of these things materialised. Fucking lying genie.

Montreal’s defeat now ends their hopes for glory this year, so I’m looking forward to the Caps facing a weakened B team in the game there in a fortnight. Of course we can be pretty sure that’s not going to happen, but if they have any scruples and sense of decency then that would be the case. The way we’ve been playing mind you, I wouldn’t back us to get the job done even against such a side.

The Impact’s elimination now sets Vancouver two paths to qualification:

(1) If the Caps record two wins and a draw in their three remaining games then we win the Championship by a point, maybe two, no matter how we achieve this scenario

(2) If the Caps lose in Montreal, but beat Toronto home and away then we win the Championship by a point

If the Caps lose in Montreal, beat Toronto once and draw with Toronto once, we’re out. Any loss to Toronto ends our Champions League dreams for another season.

A defeat next week will also make the final two games in the tournament irrelevant and that won’t be good for Canadian football or the tournament’s attempt at getting regular TV coverage.

So what it all boils down to is that it’s all in Vancouver’s own hands this season. We can’t blame anyone else this year if we don’t do the business. It’s going to be tough, especially with our lack of firepower currently, but at least we’re looking strong defensively. I just hope that Teitur doesn’t set the stall out for not getting beat next Wednesday.

Now is the time for the players to step up. Reclaim your pride from last year and show the country why you will always be Canada’s team.

Do We Really Want Our Money Back?

Watching your team lose is bad enough. Watching them get thumped is even worse, especially if you’ve had to travel for that privilege.

On a few occasions in recent years, clubs have felt so bad that they’ve refunded the fans their costs of watching the shambles. The most high profile of those this season was Wigan, following their 9-1 hammering at Spurs in November. The players themselves decided to make the gesture to their 400 strong travelling support.

Captain Mario Melchiot commented at the time that “we feel that as a group of players we badly let down our supporters. This is a gesture we have to make and pay them back for their tremendous loyalty”.

I’m not sure if they’re going to do the same after yesterday’s 8-0 debacle at Stamford Bridge. Maybe nine is the magic number or maybe they’ve realised that they could be pretty skint by the end of each season at this rate. Alternatively they could just play better. I think the fans would prefer that to getting cash refunds all the time.

There’s been other similar instances in the UK over the years, but it’s usually been on a pretty small scale.

The latest Club to offer such a refund though is in America. Seattle Sounders suffered a 4-0 thumping by LA Galaxy at home on Saturday, in front of a club record breaking MLS attendance of 36,273.

They played horrid and Sounders general manager, and part owner, Adrian Hanauer said after the game “That wasn’t Sounders soccer and it was quite frankly embarrassing, humiliating and the fans don’t deserve that”. Easy to say such words but even better when the Club back it up with a huge gesture.

And we really are talking huge here. The Club has made the decision to refund all season ticket holders for Saturday’s game. The refund won’t be in cash, but in the form of a credit for next season’s season ticket package. That’s not them shirking the payout, as Seattle had a 96% renewal rate on their season tickets for this year. So how many season tickets are we talking about? A massive 32,000! That’s one hell of a lot of dollars to be crediting fans with, so well done to the Club for that.

Not all fans have been receptive to the idea. Some for reasons that I’ve mentioned above. They’d rather the team just did better than give token gestures. Others think it’s a classy move by the front office.

Where does it all end though? What triggers such a move? A huge defeat, an embarrassing defeat to a much lower team or a local rival, a shit performance or just one where the players don’t look to be trying hard enough?

I watched a really poor game on Saturday night. Vancouver Whitecaps and Crystal Palace Baltimore (yeah, don’t ask) played out a scoreless bore draw where each team forced just one save for the entire 90 minutes. The Caps could have been called Craps. It was woeful and two hours of my life I’m not getting back. I deserved to be paid for watching it, not just have a refund! That said, the draw put Vancouver on top of their division so was it really that bad.

The danger when clubs start to issue refunds like this is not just criteria, but the fact that you’re creating an atmosphere where fans expect it. I’m sure the Wigan fans could argue that they got their refund once for an eight goal hammering, wny not every time.

Looking at East Fife’s just finished season, and some other clubs, if they started issuing refunds every time they played crap, we’d get a pretty cheap season. If they backdated that, then I could possibly retire!