PMS: Can We Play Canadian Teams Every Week?

AFTN’s PMS – Post Match Summations

It’s going to be a battle next Wednesday evening at Empire.

Both teams know what they need to do to advance to the final. Montreal have nothing to lose and will be going for it big time. The Caps need to hold tight, not make any silly mistakes but importantly, they need to take the game to Montreal and not sit back and defend the lead. We simply can’t play like that and will be punished.

Under the Empire lights, it’s going to look majestic.

Vancouver’s slim 1-0 victory at Stade Saputo this evening, wasn’t the best performance we’ll see from a Whitecaps side this season, but it was a hard fought and deserving win that will give the team a huge confidence boost. You can read our match report of the game over at Prost Amerika.

Can we only beat Canadian teams though?! The win was our first since the opening day victory against TFC. If we keep that record going of course, we’ll be CONCACAF Champions League bound!

It was a bit of a lacklustre performance at times this evening, but a win is a win. The conditions won’t have helped but we did seem to struggle to get fully going at times.

Davide Chiumiento was kept pretty quiet and it took Russell Teibert a little bit of time to get going. Once he did though, he had a fantastic game and it’s good to see him back in the starting eleven. Man of the Match for us.

It was also good to see Mouloud Akloul start his first game since his broken ankle last April. Why in midfield though? That was a bit baffling when playing him at the back and moving Rochat to left back again would surely have made more sense. He didn’t do it for me I’m afraid as centre mid.

The defence played pretty solidly on the whole though, but Jay Nolly’s handling gave us a few scares along the way. Slippery ball or poor goalkeeping? You be the judge.

That Hassli and Camilo partnership still isn’t clicking. Camilo looked liveliest in the first half and Eric was pretty subdued for most of the game. The control he showed for his shot in the second half when he brought the ball down from the air was fantastic though. Move of the match. No booking either!

The other move of the match was the one that led to the only goal of the game. How Terry Dunfield ended up completely unmarked between two Impact defenders is a mystery but he took that header with aplomb.

The goal could be vital with the away goals rule in effect. Any sloppy defending though next week and we’ll soon lose that advantage.

A final word for the referee Carole Anne Chenard. We’ve roasted her before in this blog but we always believe in giving full credit where credit’s due and she had a great game tonight. Some MLS refs could learn a thing or two from her performance tonight. Never thought I’d be saying that!

Now that the NHL have finally announced their round 2 schedule, it’s great to see that there will be no Canucks game clashing with next Wednesday’s second leg at Empire.

There should be a full house out in force for the game. No excuses. You want real football, you’re not going to get much better than a midweek Cup tie under the lights.

Toronto awaits. Champions League, here we come? Let’s hope so. Fourth time lucky.

Mon the Caps.

The Importance Of The Voyageurs Cup

With just under an hour to go till kick off in Montreal, the excitement here at AFTN is building.

If you haven’t already seen it, check out our Metro column about ‘Why We Should All Hate Montreal’.

To me, the Voyageurs Cup is the most important part of the regular season. With so many teams making the MLS playoffs (and USL/NASL playoffs before it), the regular season is somewhat devalued.

The glory on offer through the Voyageurs Cup far outweighs what the League can give us. Canadian pride, rivalries, real hatred with Montreal and the lure of a Concacaf Champions League qualifying spot are all on offer for the tournament winners. A veritable bag of riches.

Teitur knows what it is all about. He knows what it means to the fans. We have players from the last two years that know what it’s all about and I’m sure those Caps newbies will have heard all about the Cup, the Montreal screwjob and the heated rivalry with the Impact.

It’s good to see Teitur fielding a strong line up, taking the Cup seriously and going for the win. I expected nothing less. TFC’s Aron Winter seems to be going for youth and fringe players against Edmonton. That’s the kind of decision that comes back to bite you in the ass in Cup games.

We have to get at least one goal tonight, with away goals counting. Coming back to Vancouver with a couple of goal lead for next week would be ideal and a chance to rest a few players. Of course a 10-0 aggregate thumping of the Impact would be even better.

Montreal have looked pretty unexciting in their three matches to date. I caught the second half of their game against Tampa on Saturday and there really was nothing we should be fearing.

They’re still to gel and get in full flow. This game couldn’t come at a better time for the Whitecaps.

It will also be interesting to see what the crowd is like with the Montreal male ice skating team playing tonight in Boston. We know the Ultras will be there, but who else?

We can’t take anything for granted though. Cup ties are simply the best games in football. Midweek ones are simply magical and I can’t wait for Empire under the lights next Wednesday.

Some of my best experiences over my many years of watching the sport have been at Cup ties. They produce shocks. The underdogs become giantkillers.

Not this time though.

Mon the Caps.

In The Cold Light Of Day: One Point From Two Game Home Stand Could Prove Costly To Caps

Well, that’s the unbeaten home record gone. And in disappointing fashion at that.

It’s not the fact that we lost the game, it’s the manner of how we lost it. You can read our match report of the game over at Prost Amerika.

We showed so much attacking prowess right up until we scored then we simply just went to shit. I don’t think we can hit the panic button quite yet, but there are areas of concern.

There’s only going to be so many times we can keep blaming injuries. All teams are going to be hit by them over the season. That’s why you put together a strong squad.

We can start at looking at the positives from Saturday, but that won’t take too long.

A sell out 21,000 crowd on a lovely spring Vancouver day, right in the middle of the NHL playoffs, was reassuring. The way the game played out though, we saw the quietest Empire crowd so far. Dallas managed to pretty much take away that home advantage we’ve been seeing. We can’t let that happen. We have to bring that support for all game, every game, especially when the guys need us most.

Of the players, the first half performance of Davide Chiumiento was outstanding. Everything the Caps were producing of attacking note went down that left hand side and through him primarily.

Once again though we saw him visibly tire and his second half performance was markedly of less impact. Will he ever be a 90 minute player? Frankly I don’t care if he is, but we do need him producing for every minute that he does play.

Chiumiento and Hassli linked up well again. My excitement at a Hassli/Camilo partnership up front is beginning to wane though. It just doesn’t seem to be clicking. I’m prepared to give it another couple of games before starting to worry too much, but they need to start producing goals together and soon.

Hassli’s booking was scandalous. Watching the replay, there was nothing in the incident that merited a booking. Both players pushed off each other, that’s how defenders and burly attackers play week in, week out the world over.

Hassli no doubt will feel like a marked man. Teitur keeps telling us that he doesn’t want him to change his style of play though. I’m pleased about that, as his style is going to make him one of the League’s most dangerous attackers. At least when he does play. That’s another suspension coming up for Eric against Columbus for hitting the five bookings mark.

Talking of dangerous attackers in MLS, David Ferreira’s injury is unfortunate but no blame can be put on Jonanthan Leathers at all for his broken ankle.

From what we saw, Leathers won the ball, conceded a corner and the referee saw neither a foul, a booking or a sending off in the tackle. If anything, Ferreira’s injury could have been caused by our damn turf and the way he landed.

The way the Dallas players were flopping around out there, it’s very hard to have any sympathy for him. I’ve never seen a team seemingly waste so much time when they were a goal down.

For Dallas coach, Schellas Hyndman, to class post-match Ferreira’s injury in the same bracket as Brian Mullan’s horror tackle on Steve Zakuani the night before is completely out of order, emotions of the incident or not.

At that after match press conference, what struck me most was how much Hyndman reminded me of a cartoon tortoise. He even has the sound of it too. Guess that’s where the name Schellas comes from.

Back to the Caps though.

Defensively, I thought that Leathers had another great game. There was one incident in the first half where he cleverly committed a foul, by tugging at a jersey, that could have prevented a goal.

Alain Rochat and Michael Boxall did well, but left back is still a big worry. With Mouloud Akloul on the bench, surely it would have been better to have him play in the middle and move Rochat to his rightful left back position. Hopefully this is what we’ll see on Wednesday against Montreal.

Jay Nolly didn’t have a good game. Dropped a few balls and looked like he could have done better on the winning goal.

The midfield is our biggest problem. If we do end up signing Peter Vagenas, that should plug a gap until we get all of our first choices finally fit and able to play together.

With Ghana thankfully being knocked out early in their U-20 tournament, we’ll have Gershon Koffie back soon. He’ll be available for Wednesday but could start on the bench. On the plus side, we won’t be losing him in the summer for the U-20 World Cup. Shame for his country, fantastic for us.

Shea Salinas will also hopefully be starting soon. He impressed so much in pre-season, that I can’t wait to see what he can do in a Caps jersey.

Taking only one point from a two game home stand is disappointing. These are the game in which we need to deliver if we are to be serious play-off contenders. We could have easily had six and all talks of crisis far removed. It’s only seven games into the season FFS, there should be no talks of crisis anyway at this early stage.

We do need to start recapturing some of that early season form. Wednesday’s Voyageurs Cup game at Montreal will hopefully be the start of a confidence boost for us, as I don’t fancy our chances of taking much from the Columbus game.

We’ll see. It’s been a surprising Whitecaps team so far, to say the least.

Mon the Caps.

Whitecaps Need To Raise Community Profile

Portland Timbers took part in a community clean up today.

It was the culmination of the Club’s events for Earth Week which also saw the Timbers officially launch their “score a goal, plant a tree” program and offsetting the Club’s carbon footprint.

The Timbers have been excellent in getting in and about their local community, something in which the Caps seem to be severely lacking in at the moment.

Portland’s official website has a specific “Community” section and there are also features on all of their many environmental and sustainable programs. A quick look on the Whitecaps official website and it’s a very different story.

Sure there’s the stuff on the Whitecaps Foundation, but their goal really seems to be getting kids fit. Not really something that holds any interest to me and doesn’t make a massive difference to Vancouver or the world as a whole right now.

The Caps official site does state that the Foundation “supports local charities and not-for-profit organizations with donations of tickets to Whitecaps women’s games. Nice to see, but not really much of a reward or community input.

Portland leaves Vancouver way behind in this regard.

We highlighted their excellent involvement with Friends of Trees before in the blog. They’re going to be planting a tree for every goal that the Timbers score at home this season.

It’s been funny to showcase their strong eco-friendly programs in a week where ignorant journalism like Bill Archer’s piece on Big Soccer criticises the whole Timber Joey tradition for not being environmentally friendly for using a gas guzzling chainsaw and destroying trees.

All he needed to do was a little research.

Hopefully the Caps will get more community oriented soon. All we’ve really seen so far is how many corporate sponsors they can bring on board, but don’t hear a lot about what they’re giving back to the community.

I had initial discussions with a member of the Caps FO last year around the possibility of arranging a similar community clean up around Empire and the Hastings Sunrise community. That was around six months ago now. It would be great if they were still keen on this or any similar idea. Just something to show that they care.

Coming from a culture of mostly selfish sportsmen, who give little back to their communities, I love how much professional sportsmen in North America give back to their communities.

In Vancouver, the Canucks are second to none in this. The Lions and Giants are also good but so far we’ve seen little of this from the Whitecaps this season. Last season they had their excellent recycling promotion.

Some Whitecaps players are trying to make a difference though and Jeb Brovsky is one them.

His Peace Pandemic organization “aims to alleviate social injustice and facilitate cross cultural understanding. Through each interaction, Peace Pandemic aspires to nurture youthful leaders who espouse and practice peace in everyday life. We seek to teach nonviolence and justice, and encourage dialogue through sports”.

You can find out more about Peace Pandemic on their blog and also on Twitter.

Support Jeb and help him make a difference.

Hopefully we’ll have more similar endeavours to report from players and the whole Whitecaps organization soon.

In The Cold Light Of Day: These Are The Games The Caps Need To Win

We thought we’d wait a couple of days till after the fact to reflect on Saturday’s game this time. As always, you can read our full match report over on Prost Amerika.

For a game with no goals, it was fairly entertaining stuff, especially in the first half. We can’t have goalfests and incident packed matches every time at Empire. Let’s just hope we’re not going back to last season’s glut of eight 0-0 scorelines over the course of the season.

So we didn’t score. Only the second game of the season that this has happened and we made so many chances. No need for any panic stations just yet. We need to nip that in the bud quickly and this coming Saturday, against a Dallas Burn team licking their wounds from a battering at times in Portland, is where it needs to start.

Dan Kennedy was in fine form in Chivas USA net but the visitors weren’t really that much of an attacking force though, despite dominating possession at times.

These games are the ones that the Whitecaps need to be winning if we are going to make a solid push for a play-off spot. And when these games are at Empire, we can’t let teams like Chivas away with even a point.

The game was our first match against Western Conference opposition and probably the weakest team in the Conference, so we’ve let a good chance for a vital win slip away. The opposition is only going to get harder.

The injuries plaguing our team, especially in the midfield positions, aren’t helping of course. Players that have come in have done well on the whole, but we have to remember that many of these players would have been fringe players at best this early in the season. To expect them to suddenly be consistantly setting the heather on fire is unrealistic.

But enough of the negatives. There were a lot of plus points that we can take from Saturday.

For weeks I’ve been dying to see the combination of Camilo and Hassli starting up front. I just think they have styles which contrast and compliment and which will make them very deadly together as an attacking force for the Caps.

I finally got my chance to see this on Saturday, but as it turned out it wasn’t Camilo who was magnificent playing with Hassli, but Chiumiento. Maybe it’s some kind of weird Swiss League connection but the interplay and linking up between those two was breathtaking at times.

Hassli seemed to be playing a lot deeper on occasions and being unleashed on his many charges at the Chivas defence by Davide’s little flicks and through balls. When we signed Hassli, the one thing that stood out for me was his height and build. A guy built like that is always going to cause damage in a league like MLS. We saw that side of his game on Saturday. The Chivas players had no answer to his surging runs. They tried to hold him off but he just breezed by them time and again, often hitting the byeline and sending in some dangerous crosses. We just need to clone him and have a second Hassli in the middle to then bury these chances.

Omar Salgado could have done that and I was really surprised that Teitur waited so long to bring him on, especially as he brought Long Tan into proceedings first. Omar showed, with his controlled finish in the reserve game on Sunday, that he is more than ready to move up to this level. I don’t want to see him pressurised too much too soon, so no full games just yet, but a good half hour every game could be just what we need right now.

The midfield weren’t bossed like many of us feared Chivas may do. Jeb Brovsky has done well coming in, but needs to watch his discipline in tackling. After his booking, for which I thought he clearly won the ball and didn’t take the man (as did Hassli to my mind for his), he went flying in a couple of times that made me a bit jittery.

We mentioned in our interview with Wes Knight on Saturday that we felt he had a stand out game. He didn’t score but I don’t think you can fault him too much for the post and a goal-line clearance preventing him doing that. A couple of the other chances, yes he could have done better, but at least he’s getting into those goalscoring positions.

Final word has to go to the defence and Jay Nolly. Nolly earned the ‘man of the match’ plaudits on Saturday and it can’t be easy for Jay not knowing who he has playing in front of him on a weekly basis. It was our first clean sheet of the season and that in itself is cause for celebration. Let’s hope there’s many more to come.

We now have a full week’s rest before Dallas come a visiting on Saturday. Hopefully some of the injuries will be healing. We don’t need to rush anyone back for the sake of it. We’ve still got a long season ahead.

Six games in and six points isn’t the worst start we could have hoped for. The win column is needing some ticks though before some doubts may start to creep in. We have a squad very capable of being in the playoffs.

Let’s continue to make Empire a fortress and burn some Texas butt at the weekend.

Mon the Caps.

Reserve League Important Tool For Whitecaps Growth

Vancouver Whitecaps played their first ever home MLS Reserve League game this morning at Empire Field.

The entertaining game ended in a 1-1 draw but unfortunately only a handful of people were able to watch it in person, with other fans having to make do with watching a live stream from the comfort of their living rooms and not the freezing cold of the stadium (photos).

We’d spent weeks trying to find out the location of the game and whether it would be open to the public, only to find out late last week that it would only be officials, family and media that would be able to attend.

The reason given has been logistics and costs.

With the game being played the day after a first team match at Empire, the cleaning of the stadium was not possible. Opening it up to the wider public also meant additional security costs and possibly concessions as well (although surely people can go two hours without having to stuff their face).

I fully understand these points. Yes, it would probably only be a few hardcore fans that would turn up to see the games and does that merit the additional expense?

For me, the reserve league games are a key tool for the growth and development of the Whitecaps in MLS and as such, fans should not only be encouraged to go along and watch them, they’d be crazy not to.

It took a while for MLS to implement a league wide reserve set up, but it finally came in 2005. Unfortunately it only lasted four seasons before being disbanded after 2008. Now it’s back.

The new MLS Reserve League is split into East, Central and West divisions of six teams, with Clubs facing each divisional opponent twice for a total of 10 games per team.

Eligibility rules are strict as to which players can participate in the matches. Only players who are on club rosters or are on trial with the club or are members of the club’s academy can play.

Vancouver’s West Division opponents are ChivasUSA, LA Galaxy, Portland Timbers, San Jose Earthquakes and Seattle Sounders and the Caps kicked off their campaign with a 1-0 loss in San Jose on March 22nd.

Chivas and Portland play their reserve games at the home of the first team, the Home Depot Center and Jeld-Wen Field respectively. Seattle Sounders play their matches at Starfire and LA Galaxy and San Jose at their training facilities.

From what we can gather, all of our opponents open the games up to the public. Paul Barber stated on Friday’s It’s Called Football podcast that the Whitecaps hope to do this with our remaining four games.

Whether this will mean the games being played away from Empire is unknown, but it would clearly make sense in many regards. Once the Whitecaps finally get their own training facility, any problems with regards to public access to the matches should hopefully be eliminated.

Now we accept that many fans wouldn’t cross the street to take in a reserve match. Well that’s their loss.

From a Whitecaps point of view, these games are vital for players coming back from injuries; to keep up the fitness levels of squad players; for the management to see the potential of fringe players and for these players to show the management why they should be in the first team squad; to trial potential new players; and for young residency players to get the chance to shine.

All very important for the Caps development.

From a fans perspective, it’s a great chance to show all of our players that they have our support and it gives us the chance to see the potential stars of the future.

This morning I got to see Nelson Castillo and La’Vere Corbin-Ong play in defence. They did well. One day we may see them in the first team. That’s part of the whole experience of going to these matches.

On a lot of occasions, like today, it’s also going to give us a pretty entertaining game.

I’m from a background where I just want to watch live football. I often stop in parks whilst walking my dog just to take in some action. It may be sad to some, but it makes me happy!

As for this morning’s game, it was pretty end to end stuff. Chivas had the better of the possession but Vancouver had the greater attempts and a draw was probably the fairest result.

Omar Salgado scored the Caps goal on 37 minutes when he ran onto Alex Morfaw’s brilliant through ball, closed in on goal and the superbly chipped the onrushing Chivas keeper.

Chris Cortez grabbed a point for the visitors with a fine strike three minutes from time.

The last 15 minutes in particular were pretty entertaining. Joe Cannon, who had a couple of dodgy passback moments in the first half, made a number of fine saves to keep Chivas at bay and produced a great double save in the closing stages.

It was great to see Mouloud Akloul out there, barking out orders in French. I’ve no idea what he was saying but he would have terrified me into doing whatever it was he wanted! He’s a clear leader and reads the game so well.

Cannon is another one who is very vocal and that’s also good to see and hear.

Alex Morfaw had a good game and hopefully we’ll see him in the first team reckoning soon. He’ll definitely add something to our midfield.

One day, one of Nizar Khalfan’s fierce long range efforts will be on target. One day. Today was not that day.

The young guys all did well. No real standout performances, but it’s still only their second game of the campaign.

It was great to see the match. All we can hope for, is that when the next one comes around on July 31st against LA Galaxy, everyone that wants to attend will be able to.

The Caps have three and a half months to sort this out. If they don’t, we’ll be very disappointed.

Wes Knight Talks To AFTN About Chivas Close Calls

One thing which we at AFTN want to see more than anything this season is for Wes Knight to get his first professional goal.

We’re not alone. Our fellow Southsiders would also like to see nothing better.

He’s not going to come much closer than today!

Wes turned in a stellar, stand out performance this afternoon in the Caps goal-less draw against Chivas USA, hitting the post, having a shot cleared off the line and a few other chances to break his duck.

The South Carolina native is in his third season with the Whitecaps, having joined the team in 2009 having previously played for the College of Charleston Cougars and turning out for a handful of appearances with PDL side Bradenton Academics.

If a player could have the fans suck the ball into the net for him, it would be Wes Knight. We know how much it means to him and how much it bothers him that he hasn’t found the net for the Caps yet, so we caught up with him post game to see what he made of how close he came today.

Did he think this was the day he was going to get that elusive first goal?

(laughs) “Yeah. I think on the one that was cleared off the line, I was already celebrating!

It’s unfortunate, but it’s good to know I’m getting in the right areas and getting chances”

Teitur gave him the most individual gametime so far this season, substituting him for Omar Salgado in the 83rd minute, and after the match praised his work ethic at the post match press conference:

“He is a very hard working guy. He is very conscious of his role in the team and he does that very well and that helps us a lot”.

Obviously, such belief from the gaffer is pleasing to Wes:

“The coach’s confidence is becoming more and more, and higher with me, which is good. He knows what I’m capable of doing but he makes sure that I’m ready to put in a good workload.

I’ve had a good week in training and his confidence has risen and I tried to show that out there on the field today”

And he certainly was getting into those goalscoring positions today. Eric Hassli seemed to be playing a little bit deeper at times, allowing him to run at the Chivas defence, hit the byeline and send over the dangerous crosses, many of which found Wes in the middle.

Was this a deliberate tactic or was this just how the game played out?

“It’s very important that you crash the box when guys are getting opportunities like that and Eric’s able to beat players time and time again. The only thing you have to do is to get in front of the net and that was very important to me today, so I used as much energy as I could to get in there during the attacking and try and score a goal today”

Whenever the duck is finally broken, we’re pretty sure that once that weight is lifted off his shoulders, we’re going to see a lot more follow. And whenever it does happen, we’ll be there to get his thoughts on that too.

Whitecaps Football Shorts # 10

This round up features the reserve league, referees, Portland’s home debut and the Manchester City friendly…

********************
The Caps officially announced today what we revealed earlier this morning, that Sunday’s reserve league clash with Chivas USA will be played behind closed doors.

We were able to let fans know on Wednesday that the game was going to be held at Empire, not from communication from the Caps, but from info we were told by the visitors Chivas.

Ever since the reserve league schedule was released last month, we’ve been in contact with the Club to try and find out arrangements for attending these matches. We’ll go into all the whys and whereforalls around this issue on Sunday when we finally run the piece we’ve had waiting to go for ages on the reserve league. Suffice to say we had to rely on information coming from the Chivas FO, who were excellent to deal with incidentally.

Now on the one hand, we fully understand the cost implications for the Club in opening these games up to the public. They have no idea how many people will come out and how much security they will need. It might cost them a lot of money to please a handful of people, along with the cost of cleaning up the stadium after Saturday’s first team match.

The Club have have known about this for weeks though and have had plenty of time to either sort out the logistics at Empire, find a different stadium to play the matches at (as Seattle have done by using Starfire) or to at least let the fans know more than two days before the actual game.

At least more positively, Barber told today’s It’s Called Football Podcast that “We’re not making this one open in the way we had intended to in the future….Certainly it’s our intention going forward to try and make these games as available as we can. Obviously cost and logistics are going to come into it from time to time, but going forward we’re going to make it as public as we can and we’ll certainly communicate with our fans when we can do that”.

At least that’s promising news for going forward. Let’s just hope the communication is more timeous than this week.

********************
MLS referees are in the news – again.

Vancouver fans are learning the hard way that some of the officiating in MLS leaves a lot to be desired.

We complained up here last week about the antics of Baldy Toledo. There was some sympathy, some disagreement, but very little interest.

After picking up his fifth booking in six games though on Wednesday night, the newly suspended David Beckham has now spoken out about MLS refereeing:

“To be honest, over the last few games, I’ve spoken too much about referees. They are becoming the stars of MLS and that’s obviously not what teams want and clubs want”.

Of course, when darling David squeaks, people take notice.

It was interesting to listen to Alexi Lalas’ comments on ESPN during half time of the Portland-Chicago game last night.

“Can’t live with them. Can’t throw them off a bridge.” was his view on the men in the middle, but it was interesting to hear that yellow cards have shown a 33% increase on this time last year, and red cards in MLS have increased by a staggering 89% – and that’s not all Eric Hassli’s fault!

One fact I hadn’t known prior to this season is that the refs aren’t MLS refs, but confederation referees. Explains it all to me as to where the problems lie.

What we all need is for many others to speak out and be critical of the refereeing quality in the League. The more outrage there is, the more chance of some kind of changes. Throw any “respect” campaign out the window.

The referee in last week’s Whitecaps match in Houston, Jair Marrufo, was excellent. For every Marrufo though, we seem to have two or more Toledos, and this is what needs to change and to change soon.

********************
Last night’s MLS home opener at Piggy Park was a fantastic occasion for Portland Timbers.

The atmosphere and general gameday experience has blown people away, not only in North America, but also in the hard to please UK, where many football fans still don’t really consider MLS to be a proper league.

The Timbers Army certainly rose to the occasion.

We’re not ashamed to say, as we have before, that the TA are easily the best supporters group in North America. Their size, their noise and their organisation put many others to shame. It’s certainly where I’d like to see the Southsiders reaching, especially around co-ordination and stadium participation.

Having taken in a few matches in Portland in recent years, we know what the TA are like, before, during and after the match. Last night though they seemed to have moved up that extra level and seemed to have the whole stadium rocking with them. They certainly had more than the usual TA section bouncing and chanting.

More power to them.

From what we’ve seen with the three home games at Empire, the games in Seattle this season and previous, and now at the piggery, the spirit of the new MLS is in the Pacific Northwest.

We’re all very lucky to have a chance to be a part of it.

********************
We covered the announcement of the Caps mid-season friendly against Manchester City yesterday.

Now that we’ve had a chance to sleep on the news and all of the logistics of it settle in, the burning question that remains is “why the hell are the Club giving the players three games in five days?”.

The more I think of the friendly, the less sense it makes. Adding in a game right in the middle of two vital regular season games, and against two Western Conference opponents in Salt Lake and San Jose at that, seems crazy.

The game is certainly going to generate a buzz but with season tickets already at pretty much their 16,500 cut off point, is it really worth going for that for a Monday night game?

The Caps have already acknowledged this by saying a number of the squad will get a run out. What a quality match this is going to end up being then.

At least we’ll have real grass! And for the Salt Lake game too, which is a much welcome added bonus.

Southsiders Vice President, Brett Graham, came up with a fantastic idea for the match – make it a testimonial game for Martin Nash. It would be a nice touch, for a great servant to the Club, but with the Caps giving season ticket holders a free ticket to the game, there’s not going to be a lot of money to be made for Martin. Definitely something to consider for a future game down the road though.

Final thing we’ll say on the friendly for now and that’s to applaud the Club once again for letting season ticket holders into the game for free.

We may not be 100% sure exactly why we’re having this game, when we’re having it, but it’s good to know it’s not just for a way to make more money off the fans. A big well done to the Club for that.

Vancouver Whitecaps To Face Big-Spending Manchester City

It’s been a pretty eventful first month in MLS for Vancouver Whitecaps. The five points and 1-2-2 record doesn’t do justice to what’s played out on the pitch over the past four weeks.

The latest step on that journey came this morning when the Caps announced their first ever international friendly as a MLS Club.

The date for your diaries is Monday July 18th and the opponents are Manchester City.

The game is part of the 2011 World Football Challenge and as a special ”thank you” to the fans, the game will be free to everyone who is a season ticket holder by the end of April.

It’s a great gesture from the Club, especially considering that the tickets are expected to cost $60.

Now I’m never really much of a fan of friendlies at the best of times and the ones where all you have is a constant stream of substitutes in particular. This game will fall into that category and in a footballing only sense it serves no real purpose to me as a valuable sporting contest.

Pre-season ones at least serve as a chance to try our players, formations, line ups and sharpen fitness. With mid-season games, you run the risk of injuring your top players with the important run in to come.

Of course, these players can be injured at any time, but why add that one extra risk? Hopefully we will also be preparing to take part in our first Concacaf Champions League campaign.

It’s difficult for MLS Clubs though. So many people want to see the top European Clubs over here, especially the English Premiership ones they see on their TV screens every week. To do that, you’re only going to be able to get that mid-season unless the MLS schedule changes, which it is highly unlikely to do.

That said, what this friendly will do is create a huge buzz in the city. It’s a game that people are going to be talking about and the Whitecaps have a chance to dominate the summer consciousness of the Vancouver sporting public.

Bob Lenarduzzi told reporters this morning that the Whitecaps have had a lot of offers from clubs to play a friendly this year, but they wanted the Caps first friendly as an international club to be a bit special for the fans and they wanted to make sure it was against “a club with significance, a club with a history”.

I hate the way big spending Man City have gone about a lot of their business the last couple of seasons. Their ways go against all my lower league footballing principles, so the chance to see my team beat them is a very appetising prospect.

Whatever people may think of them though in that regard, Man City are currently a bona fide “big club”, albeit one that perennially lives in the shadow of their city rivals United. This is quite a coup for the Whitecaps and with City expected to be in UEFA Champions League action the following week, we should expect a pretty strong squad to play at Empire.

It won’t be the first Manchester City side to play at Empire.

Back in the Caps NASL days, the then reigning Soccer Bowl champs took on a Man City side on May 24th 1980. It was a huge occasion for the city and 32,794 fans turned out to see Vancouver rout the Mancs 5-0. Same again in July would be lovely!

Current Caps legends Bob Lenarduzzi and Carl Valentine played in that game, with Bobby scoring a goal and Carl creating four of them.

That game was part of the Transatlantic Challenge Tournament that also involved the New York Cosmos and AS Roma. The American side won it with 5 points, with the Caps second on four, having drawn their other two games (only two points for a win back in the day!).

Amongst the current players, there are two connections with Man City. Terry Dunfield spent four years with City and was signed and managed by Caps 1979 Soccer Bowl hero Alan Ball, whilst Atiba Harris is Micah Richards cousin.

A friendly, whilst not inevitable, was pretty certain. The Caps have certainly done well in attracting a big club like city and there will be a lot of excitement around the game.

It’s these kind of marquee games that seem sadly need to put the Club and the MLS on the map to some and to gain acceptance amongst some of the Eurosnobs.

I care little about those people.

To me, this is a chance to show a moneybags club like City what football should be about and to hopefully serve up another five goal thrashing in the process.

Everyone Loves A Winner

Every year I make a little pilgrimage down to Seattle to watch one of my non-footballing loves, the San Francisco 49ers, play the Seahawks. Four years straight and counting.

Who gives a toss I hear you say? That’s throwball, not proper football.

True. Different sport, but that’s not to say that football and MLS can’t learn a few things about marketing opportunities from the guys with funny shaped balls.

As an outsider, there’s a lot in North American sporting culture that I don’t understand. The need to make things razzamatazz, the obsession people have with college sports and the blanket sterile corporateness of it all at times.

It’s not my culture and just because I’m not used to it, doesn’t make it wrong. Hey, when in Rome, wear a toga and have orgies.

I’ve been introduced to some great stuff too though such as the fanatstic work the players do in community, tailgating and gameday promotions.

Coming from a grassroots football background and as a fan of the lower leagues, I absolutely detest the commercialisation of the game worldwide. Yet, I love some gameday promotions! Go figure. Must be the Scottishness in me for getting free stuff!

I’ve blogged before about freebies handed out at games, especially post match at Swangard, but I was blown away by the kind of freebies Seattle Seahawks had on offer for actual in game performance.

Touchdowns, sacks and a whole host of stuff led to free coffee, jerky and even haircuts for the Hawks fans in attendance.

One of my favourites came from Top Pot Doughnuts. A 100 yard rusher got you a free coffee. A 100 yard receiver, a free doughnut. Nothing rewards sporting achievements better than doughnuts!

As a visiting supporter, who saw the Niners trounced, I could go home with the consoling knowledge that at least I qualified for a free stack of pancakes on my way back up to Van if I found the need to bury my face in batter filled sorrow.

I’m sure this type of promotion is also rife throughout football in North America, especially outside of MLS.

Of course, it doesn’t always have to be a tie up for the gain of the supporter. You can also take a literal leaf out of Portland Timbers book and do something for the planet.

This season, the Timbers have joined forces with Friends of Trees. Every time the Timbers score a goal at a home match, the club and JELD-WEN will plant a tree in the Portland community through the Score a Goal, Plant a Tree partnership with Friends of Trees.

That’s all very tree huggingly nice but not as good as free stuff just for me!

So should the Whitecaps adopt such gimmicks?

Most of those of a more pure football variety (of which I am also one usually), would baulk at such ideas. Commercialism gone mad. The ruination of the game. And yes, it is all those things, but look at the possibilities.

Tim Hortons could give every fan in attendance a free coffee for every Gershon Koffie goal and Cocoa Tanning some free sunbed time for ones by Long Tan.

Diving Locker could give money off scuba lessons for every booking Camilo gets for diving. Free burgers at Red Robin for Eric Hassli red cards?

If only we had Medieval Times here for Wes Knight.

I’m winning you over aren’t I?

With the gazillion corporate sponsors that the Whitecaps have on board I’m surprised the Caps FO haven’t already come up with such ideas. I’d much rather have this than the pair of Bell headphones that I got when I left the opener.

If nothing else, it would make the less glamourous games against the likes of Chivas and Dallas that little bit more interesting.

He shoots, he scores, we win, we all win post game too!