Vancouver Whitecaps Mid-Term Report

The Whitecaps’ capitulation in the Kansas humidity, brought us to the halfway stage of the MLS season.

With the second half of the season getting underway in Toronto tonight, what better way to kill the time than by looking at a midterm report of the Caps season so far.

It’s been exciting at times and not very pretty at others. I started the season full of hope and optimism that we would clinch one of the ten playoff spots. Seventeen games later and I still think we can, just not as confident we will.

Thinking we’d get into the playoffs in our inaugural MLS season wasn’t false expectations or an inflated self importance of our beloved team. It was partly based on our history, partly based on the squad we’d assembled, partly based on us having a full season to build and prepare for these pastures new, and partly based on the Club themselves telling us that we were not an ordinary expansion team.

I decided to PVR all of our games this year and to keep the exciting ones I’d want to watch again. I only have three recordings left (Toronto, Kansas City and New England), all home games and all from early in the season.

Somethings have clearly gone wrong somewhere along the line. Pinpointing them precisely is not so certain.

It would be easy to blame the injuries, but we were meant to have a squad of suitable depth. The constant tinkering of the side in these first three months hasn’t always been down to the injury situation.

Some blame can go down to the managers’ tactics, where we’ve been left scratching our heads at times. The players also have to shoulder the blame. They have simply not performed at the required level on a consistent basis. Some have flattered to deceive, some have flat out disappointed.

If you were to look at how many of our guys would interest other MLS sides for trades, you’re counting the number on your fingers and you’re barely needing your two hands.

Let’s look at some hard, cold MLS facts.

GAMES PLAYED/POINTS WON:

Overall: Played 17 – Won 2 – Drawn 8 – Lost 7 – Points 14
At Home: Played 8 – Won 2 – Drawn 5 – Lost 1 – Points 11
Away: Played 9 – Won 0 – Drawn 3 – Lost 6 – Points 3

You don’t have to be a mathematical whizz to see where we’re struggling. We can’t buy a win away from home, although that may change in Toronto.

Averaging less than a point per game is not playoff material.

We’ve lost 5 of those 7 defeats by a single goal.

GOALS SCORED/CONCEDED:

Overall: Played 17 – Goals For 18 – Goals Against 24
At Home: Played 8 – Goals For 12 – Goals Against 10
Away: Played 9 – Goals For 6 – Goals Against 14

Before the season started, we were all asking where are all the goals going to come from. After the first two home games, we wondered what we were worrying about. Now, the worries are back and our defence, which we felt to be so strong, has been run ragged at times, no matter which weird combinations have been played there.

We’re averaging scoring 1.06 goals per game and conceding 1.41 goals. We’ve failed to score in 5 of the 17 games (29.4%), and four of those blanks have come away from home.

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That’s not very happy reading.

I thought about trying to rate the players, the managers, even the positions on the field, but what’s the point?!

We know where our main problems lie.

We badly need to tighten up at the back. I think Joe Cannon is a better shot stopper than Jay Nolly. He’ll keep the scores down and make few mistakes, but he can’t do it on his own. Our full backs are getting pulled out of position way too often and are leaving gaps, which our central defenders have struggled with when it comes to pace and the ball on the deck.

With the apparent sad release of Mouloud Akloul, we need some experienced depth in the middle and/or at right back.

In midfield we have to get an experienced creative man for the middle of the park that can spray the ball around like nobody’s business. I know every team would like that. We NEED that.

Back in the 1990’s, my team in Scotland (East Fife) signed veteran international Stevie Archibald as player/manager. He played in the middle of the park and although he no longer had the same pace, his footballing brain ran the show. One match I always remember is when he stopped, put his foot on the ball, pulled up both his socks and not one player went anywhere near him. That’s the kind of guy we need right now to get things going.

Davide Chiumiento may like to play behind the strikers or in the middle but he’s been way more effective with us on the wings. Keep him there.

Up front, Eric Hassli needs help. He is having to play either too deep or too wide and is often the one crossing the ball into the box or playing the through ball, both to where he should be to bury it. He’s good, but some of his finishing has been less than we should expect.

Camilo is a strange one. He’s getting the goals but often seems to do little else in a game. Still, I’d take that if he gets a goal a game, but as the season gets into the latter stages, we can’t afford passengers.

If the Caps are to make a serious playoff push then I’m expecting to see four new players in the transfer window – a defender, two midfielders and a striker.

Some of our old faves are likely to be on their way out, along with some which, frankly, I’m indifferent about.

Tommy Soehn needs to show us why he has this manager’s job by his acquisitions and tactics going forward.

With all that said, I would still take a deep Concacaf Champions League run to making the playoffs.

Being a greedy bastard, I want both.

Two games and four days in Toronto could be very season shaping indeed.

Mon the Caps.

In The Cold Light Of Day: Kansas City (away)

Another road game, another defeat.

We will win a MLS away game at some point this season. I’m sure of that. Hmm, maybe ‘sure’ is a bit optimistic.

This season has felt like one step forward, two steps back at times and yesterday’s 2-1 loss to Kansas City only has a couple of positives to take from it.

When those positives are the excellent performance of goalkeeper Joe Cannon and the fact that we only lost by one goal in the end, well, then you know we have a problem and all the optimism from last Saturday’s victory against Philadelphia has evaporated in the Kansas humidity.

You can read AFTN’s full match report over at Prost Amerika, but Kansas City were deserved winners and they really should have won by more.

The Caps goal was against the run of play, and apart from Eric Hassli’s chance at the start of the second half, which he really should have buried, it was an easy day at the office for Jimmy Neilsen.

The game signalled the halfway point of the season for the Whitecaps. There’s been seven losses in those 17 games and last night’s defeat was the fifth one of those to be by a single goal.

The fine line between mid table success and bottom of the heap.

Apart from Cannon, no player can come away from Kansas with much glory. Some were middling, but some really need to have their places in the starting eleven questioned.

One of the major questions for me is why has Gershon Koffie been relegated to the bench?

Koffie has been the standout central midfielder all season. Mr Consistent. He should be the name on the teamsheet before Terry Dunfield and certainly before Jeb Brovsky.

I have no doubt that Brovsky will develop into a good MLS player. Maybe for us, maybe for someone else. He is not currently ready to be a starting MLS midfielder though and although he has skills and shows glimpses, he added little to the Caps team on that Livestrong Sporting Park yesterday.

I did like him walking through the Kansas City defenders, trying to rile them up at a free kick. At least that showed some passion and fight. There wasn’t a lot of that going on elsewhere on that pitch and for once I will give them the conditions factor. That humidity must have been horrendous to play in.

Shea Salinas has impressed in spurts but just doesn’t seem to have the impact as a starter that he did when he was coming on as sub a few weeks back.

And what’s happened to Alex Morfaw?

Soehn rescued him from the PDL, played him in a couple of games, he impressed and now he’s back with the Residency team. A player of Morfaw’s calibre should not be turning out against North Sound SeaWolves on a night when we need him playing in Kansas City. Absolutely incredible.

Wes Knight, for all his faults, should also certainly be on the bench in MLS and not in PDL action. Especially when Bilal Duckett is ahead of him in the pecking order.

Like Brovsky, I’m sure Duckett will develop. That’s why we have the reserve league and PDL. I’ve seen him in PDL action and he didn’t impress. He certainly is not what we need at the back in MLS at the moment. Duckett offers little to no threat as an attacking full back.

After last week’s impressive return, Michael Boxall struggled at the back this week in the first half. He had a much better second half, which was surprising considering he’d lost his partner Jay DeMerit.

Hopefully we’re not going to lose Jay to another groin injury. It would seem he was replaced more as a precaution as it felt tight. Let’s hope he’s fit for the two forthcoming Toronto matches.

Davide Chiumiento going off with a tight leg was also a blow, but in saying that, he simply wasn’t in the game in Kansas during that first half. He struggled. As did Eric Hassli, who equally wasn’t in the game for most of it.

Eric badly needs someone up front with him that can take some of the holding play off his shoulders and allow him to concentrate on putting the ball in the net.

Camilo’s goal was another of the few high points of the evening. The way he left Cesar standing was well worked, but also shockingly defended. A deft finish though. He knew where the goal was and found it. He needs to give lessons.

We said after Teitur’s sacking not to rush to judge Soehn. To give him until after the two Toronto games. Well they’re about to come up pretty quickly.

There’s things in Soehn and his sides that I’ve liked.

There’s more attacking flair at times and it’s good that he changes players positions over depending on how the game is going. He’s not afraid to make substitutions and earlier than Teitur did. Some of his selections though have been baffling.

Teitur was accused by some of favouring his D2 faves to the detriment of the team. You could certainly argue now that Soehn is doing that with the draft picks.

We need to re-group pronto. There’s two massive games coming up against TFC.

I watched their game against Real Salt Lake late last night and although it was 3-1, going on 4 or 5, TFC at least showed some battling spirit and more than we showed both at the Rio Tinto Stadium and last night in Kansas City.

If we can return from Toronto with three points and a Champions League spot, then a lot of the complaints will be put on the back burner and the boost to the squad for the rest of the season will be enormous.

Anything less can only be viewed as failure.

There can be no hiding places and certainly no passengers. We need to get most of our squad out there together, so that Soehn has the best players at his disposal for both the games and can pick accordingly.

We need the fight that we saw in Seattle and the all round team performance that we saw at Empire on opening day.

With some reorganisation and personnel changes, we still believe that the Caps will squeak in to the playoffs. To reach the Champions League we need to fully utilise what we currently have.

The pressure is most certainly on.

Whitecaps Under 17 World Cup Dreams Over

For the quintet of Vancouver Whitecaps representing Canada at the FIFA Under 17 World Cup in Mexico, their World Cup dreams are over.

It was the first time in 16 years that Canada had made it to the finals and after a 3-0 loss to Uruguay and a well-deserved 2-2 draw with England, the young Canadians went crashing out of the tournament in disappointing fashion following a scoreless draw with Rwanda this afternoon.

Five members of the Whitecaps Residency were in Mexico: Bryce Alderson, Yassin Essa, Matteo Pasquotti, Adam Polakiewicz, and Daniel Stanese.

All of them saw playing time and made valuable contributions for Canada.

Midfielder Bryce Alderson was Canada’s captain for the tournament, started all three games and played 258 minutes, being substituted late on in the final two games.

Midfielder Yassin Essa started all three games, playing the full ninety against England and Rwanda and clocking up 247 minutes.

Midfielder Matteo Pasquotti saw the least gametime of the Caps contingent, coming on as sub in the first two games and playing just 18 minutes.

Defender Adam Polakiewicz played every minute of every game, whilst his Caps defensive team-mate Daniel Stanese played well and the full ninety against both Uruguay and England before being surprisingly relegated to the bench against Rwanda.

All five did themselves proud and from a selfish Caps perspective, it will be great to have them back playing for the Residency team against Victoria and Abbotsford next weekend.

Not being Canadian, I don’t feel it is my place to go on too much about what went wrong for Canada and what needs improving.

Scotland didn’t even make it this far after all!

There are some real positives to be taken from the tournament. The Canadian U17’s leave with two points. That’s two more than they’ve ever achieved at that level in the past.

It will be good experience for a number of the guys and this can only bode well for the future of the Canadian national team. They’ve had a taste of what being at a big tournament is like. They’re all going to want more.

They also walk away with what could be the goal of the tournament from goalkeeper Quillan Roberts.

For the Whitecaps contingent, they will only grow, learn and develop playing alongside MLS players in the PDL. The success of Russell Teibert shows them what can be achieved.

What I would like to see for these guys is more games. Sixteen PDL games is not enough and it won’t help the Whitecaps or the Canadian game.

The CSA should set up some kind of highly competitive Canadian-wide youth league or tournament. The Whitecaps, TFC and Montreal are all doing great jobs in developing their guys but the whole future of the Canadian game shouldn’t be left on their shoulders.

Only with the right investment and a good number of competitive games will we see many of these players reach their full potential.

I’m glad the Whitecaps have it right. I’ve enjoyed the PDL games I’ve been to this season.

Get out there and support these guys for the remainder of the season. Support The Future.

Davies’ MLS Diving Fine Doesn’t Go Far Enough

It’s a blight on the modern game, but diving has been around for many more years than it has been fashionable to criticise it.

Many of us are two faced and I admit I’m one of them.

We condemn our opponents flops and scream from the rooftops that something has to be done to stop it, but if it’s our own guy taking the dive and winning a vital penalty or three points, then we trot out all the old excuses about it being part of the modern game and that if we don’t do it, then we’ll lose out because our opponents will.

If we all take a step back for a second though, I’m sure pretty much all of us would agree that diving is reprehensible.

We applaud Major League Soccer’s decision today to punish DC United’s Charlie Davies for his blatant dive in last weekend’s game against Real Salt Lake.

It was a brave move in the right direction from the League. It sends out a message, but one which doesn’t go far enough.

Most of you will have seen the dive by now, but if you haven’t, here it is in all it’s infamy:

Not a lot you can say about that. Blatant cheating.

It would be wrong for us to be too hypocritical since Camilo has been at similar antics this season for the Whitecaps.

MLS Executive Vice President Nelson Rodriguez was clear in his message when announcing today’s decision:

“The MLS Disciplinary Committee ruled that Charlie Davies intentionally deceived the officials and gained an unfair advantage which directly impacted the match.

This type of behavior tarnishes the image of the League, is detrimental to the game and will not be tolerated.

Moving forward, all instances of behavior that serves to deceive and that directly impact the game will be subject to severe discipline, including a fine, suspension or both.”

Excellent to hear.

Not so excellent when you see the end result. I wouldn’t exactly class this as “severe punishment” for Davies.

The American international was hit with just a $1000 fine and no suspension. Not exactly something that’s going to hit the pocket hard of a player making a base salary of $184,620 and having a “Guaranteed Compensation” for 2011 of $244,870.

To break that down, that $1000 fine is just 0.4% what he is likely to make as a minimum this year. That’s like you or me wiping our ass with a $10 note.

If Davies was on the League minimum of $42,000, it would be 2.4%, which at least sounds more severe.

For fines like this to work, they need to be set to be a minimum percentage of the wages of the player involved. This percentage should then increase for repeat offenders.

An automatic one game suspension should also be tagged on to the fine, again increasing for repeat offenders.

Losing players from vital games will soon help Clubs stamp down on the behaviour but not as much as points deductions.

Davies’ dive earned his side a vital, and what was looking like an unlikely, point last week.

Real Salt Lake lost out on two points. A small fine for the cheat doesn’t help them in a situation like this.

DC United fans, players and management may not admit it publically, but paying $1000 for a League point is a pretty good deal. Not exactly a punishment for them, especially if it makes an important difference to standings at the end of the season.

If they were to lose points because of the incident, they’d soon feel they’d been severely dealt with.

MLS we do commend your stance. More power to you. If you’re going to dish out punishments though, just make sure that they are just that. A proper, fair, balanced and severe punishment.

Cheats should never prosper.

Whitecaps Praised As Montreal’s Pizzolitto Faces Disciplinary Hearing On Spitting Allegation

What’s the worst thing a football player can do during a game?

When you ask many a football person, the answer isn’t diving or cheating. It’s spitting on an opponent.

And spitting is what Montreal Impact’s Nevio Pizzolitto is facing allegations about in a CSA disciplinary hearing on June 27th. In this situation though he is not being charged with spitting on a fellow player, but a Vancouver Whitecaps fan.

The incident is alleged to have taken place following the Voyageurs Cup semi final at Empire Field on May 4th and the allegations first broke on the Southsiders forum the same night.

That thread was later removed as the Whitecaps did their own investigation and spoke to witnesses before referring the matter to the Canadian Soccer Association. Since them, we’ve been waiting to report on the story but no-one wanted to write anything that could in any way prejudice the investigation and subsequent hearing.

Despite the witnesses to the incident, there is all that good old “innocent until proven guilty” malarkey and the fact that we all have to tippy-toe around using words like allegedly.

Canadian Soccer News ran a piece on the incident and the hearing yesterday, so we thought we may as well take this opportunity to weigh in now ourselves.

The fan at the centre of all this is Caps supporter, season ticket holder and Southsider, Ashley Perry.

According to Ashley’s version of events, he was one of a number of Caps fans chanting “au revoir” at the losers from Montreal, as they traipsed back to their dressing room after the Cup defeat.

The alleged gob could have hit any one of them and unfortunately for Ashley, it was him.

For those unfamiliar with Empire, the visiting players have to walk across this overhead bridge [left] to get to their dressing room.

It’s not ideal to have the fans of the home side underneath the players of the visitors, but it is one of the foibles of a temporary stadium such as Empire.

It’s an incident that Perry would like to just put behind him but there is a principle involved here.

If you’ve ever been spat at, it’s an awful feeling. To do such a thing makes you the lowest of the low.

Looking at the comments section on CSN, some Montreal fans are amazingly unapolgetic for the alleged actions from their team captain. Beggars belief really. Maybe they’re reserving any apologies for when they receive the official fate from the hearing. Not believing it to be true until he is found guilty or innocent.

Or maybe not.

Some will argue that fans don’t have carte blanche to shout abuse at opposing players. I’m from a country where pretty much anything goes verbally and it’s an accepted part of the game. I personally have a line in the sand, so far away that I can’t even see the sand.

But we’re not talking abuse here. This wasn’t the kind of provocation that caused Eric Cantona’s moment of madness at Crystal Palace all those years ago.

Stuff about race or player’s families can make them snap. Look at Zidane. Nothing that has been heard so far is saying that this was the case here.

It will be interesting to see if Pizzolitto argues otherwise and also what he pleads at the hearing.

I’m also very interested to see what Montreal Impact do with him if he is found guilty next week.

I can categorically state that if a Whitecaps player was found guilty of this, I would want him immediately released from the club and for the CSA to throw the book at him.

At least one team can come away from the evening’s events with their heads held high and that’s the Whitecaps. Speaking to AFTN, Ashley has nothing but praise for Paul Barber and the Club and how they dealt with the situation:

“Paul Barber and Rachel Lewis have been integral in providing timely and accurate witness reports to the CSA, I can’t thank them enough for the support they offered during the investigation.”

“As a Southsider, I think it’s vital that the club backs its fans and that’s exactly what the Whitecaps front office did. First class.”

Well done to all at the Caps for not just sweeping this under the carpet and standing up for their fans.

Ashley told CSN that he is “not out to ruin this guy’s career”. Very commendable. I don’t think I would be feeling like that.

If found guilty, Pizzolitto may have just done that to himself.

In The Cold Light Of Day: Philadelphia

The elusive second win.

That particular monkey is now off our back and perhaps we can now concentrate on the playoffs and Champions League qualification.

You can read AFTN’s full match report of the Philadelphia Union game over at Prost Amerika.

We’re not ones to get carried away here at AFTN but we know, and we’ve been banging on about it for weeks, that we have the players at the Whitecaps that could, and should, make the playoffs this season.

Our faith has been shaken at times but the players have restored it.

Sure we’re still firmly rooted to the foot of the Western Conference, but more importantly, we’re currently only four points off the final play-off spot, with more than half the season remaining.

Crisis? What crisis?

There’s still a lot of work to do though to be where we need to be.

With summer signings and releases surely imminent, the right acquisition here, the right deal there and we could be looking at a successful end to an inaugural season to remember.

I can’t in all honesty say there’s been a steady improvement since Tommy Soehn took over. Salt Lake was dreadful and went back the way from Chivas and what had gone before.

There has been some improvement though. Some due to Soehn, some due to the players played, some due to injuries clearing up, some due to a tightening up of the defence (at times) and some due to finally getting the breaks.

The last two games have shown a spirit, desire, passion in the team (call it what you like), that we haven’t seen since the early games.

The belief is there and the results are coming.

The players seemed to be as much relieved as overjoyed at the final whistle on Saturday and it was a similar feeling of emotions in the stands as well, as these scenes from the final whistle show:

It was a commanding performance. I don’t really want to say comfortable, as I don’t think many of us were 100% convinced that Philadelphia wouldn’t snatch something at the death the way our luck’s been going.

A well deserved win though.

The defence in particular looked strong. Not so many heart attack inducing moments. A lot of that is down to the partnership between Jay DeMerit and Michael Boxall on Saturday. They bonded and Boxall will only come on leaps and bounds under the stewardship of old man Jay!

It was great to see Boxall back in the centre of the defence and I would put him above Greg Janicki and Mouloud Akloul now in the pecking order. Janicki is great in the air, not so much on the deck. Mouloud I love to bits but is a little bit too rogue at times. The starting centre half position is now the Kiwi internationalists to lose, and vacate whilst away on international duty.

I do have concerns that our left and right backs play too much towards the middle. Been like that for a lot of the season, especially Jonathan Leathers of late. We’ve not been fully punished yet, but there were times on Saturday that a long ball to the wings would have had us struggling.

Alain Rochat’s goal was a beauty. What a strike and worthy contender to follow Eric Hassli’s wondergoal as the MLS “Goal of the Week”. Get voting!

It doesn’t just deserve to win it for the actual finish, the build up was what we’ve been missing. Five passes from the back to find Davide Chiumiento just inside the Caps half, then a mazy run with the ball glued to his feet (including that neat one-two with Hassli).

Like the cuckoo clock and Lindt chocolate, that goal was made in Switzerland to perfection.

The midfield is still the big problem. That surely has to be where we will strengthen during the transfer window.

I was stunned to find Gershon Koffie on the bench. Stand out player all season. Tiredness may have played a part, but he offers so much more than Terry Dunfield, whose star is waning in our eyes.

We could do with two experienced midfielders. A dominant central player that can hold up the ball and spray it about with ease and a wing maestro.

We seem to have too many players that are good impact players off the bench but not from the first whistle.

Camilo doesn’t cut it as a midfielder. Has he played his last game for us? Is he off to pastures new in Kuwait? I, and many others, were hoping to ask him this post game but he was out of that dressing room faster than snow off a dyke.

It would be sad to see him go. He is putting the ball in the net semi-regularly after all and sadly others can’t claim that. I just don’t see how he’s going to fit into the Soehn style of play and formation.

One win does not a season make, but at least we can take some good heart from Saturday and it is a huge springboard to build on.

Going in to the game, so many Philadelphia fans felt they were facing an easy spell of their season. After the weekend, it the Caps fans that can lay claim to that.

Eastern Conference basement dwellers Kansas City are next. They’re looking better at home than they did away. Another six goal thriller? Highly unlikely but it’s the kind of game we need to get three points from. One would be acceptable. Defeat and we almost go back to square one.

Saturday can’t come quick enough for me.

Mon the Caps.

*** You can see our photos from Saturday’s match on AFTN’s Flickr page ***

Will Canucks Riot Will Have Knock On Effect For Vancouver Sports Fans?

Watching last night’s riots unfold in downtown Vancouver, thankfully from the comfort of my armchair, was not like anything I think I’ve experienced before.

This was my city being torn apart, but outside my house it was another quiet, starlit night, albeit one with a distinct smell of burning in the air.

As disbelief turned to anger and a thirst for justice, you realised that the sporting landscape of the city had now changed forever and this will affect Whitecaps fans down the line in various little ways.

All thanks to a small group of assholes and many brainless hangers-on.

As much as this being referred to as the “Canucks Riot”, it’s pretty certain that a number of the key troublemakers were not hockey fans. More the usual suspects that turn up at these events looking to cause mayhem. The rebels without a cause.

This time though they got some willing accomplices.

Whereas a number of these hooligans acted as instigators, don’t be naive here. There were many hockey fans and general members of the public being caught up in the mob mentality and going crazy. There were also many trying to stop things happening but by that stage, you were taking your life in your hands if you tried to stop the baying mob.

You can say “these weren’t Canucks fans” all you want but some of them clearly were. Sure some of the troublemakers will have used Canucks gear as costumes to help them blend in but there were a lot of drunken bonafide Canucks branded fans caught up into causing trouble.

The mentality of the media and others to quickly say that this wasn’t hockey fans is incredibly small minded. If this had been Whitecaps related, the hand wringing and the hanging of football supporters out to dry would have been a constant flow. The phrase “football hooligans” would have been everywhere and the lack of branding some of these people “hockey hooligans” is very hypocritical.

Anyone can behave like a complete cretin under any sporting banner. Hockey fans are no different. Some need to accept that and not make excuses for regular drunken unacceptable behaviour. I’m sure most of us have seen fights at both Canucks and Lions games – all of which go widely unreported.

Accept there is a problem, mostly alcohol fuelled, and address it. That’s the only way things will change.

Some will point to the fact that there was no trouble at the Olympic Gold Medal game last year. Apart from the fact that Canada won, the crowd was of a much different make-up. More families and not just angry young men. Had Canada lost, I’m pretty sure that something would have kicked off.

We went down to Yaletown for that game but left the Live site after the American goal as the atmosphere certainly took a turn for the worse.

Another key point in all this is that it’s pretty certain that this would have happened no matter what the result of the game. If the Canucks had won, there would also have been a riot, too many people were clearly prepared for one. If you’re armed with masks, hammers and who knows what, you’re there for one reason.

You could even argue that it would have been worse as the numbers downtown would have been higher. On the other hand, you would have hoped that there would have been more people with sensible heads on in those numbers trying to stop things happening. Well, you’d like to think so anyway.

So how does this affect us as Whitecaps fans?

Well you can be certain a much closer eye will be kept on the Southsiders antics going forward. As with any large group, we’ll attract the odd fringe nutter, so we need to be on our guard and self police more than ever.

I wasn’t here in 1979. I never got to see the NASL Soccer Bowl parade. Over 100,000 people lined the streets, much like last night numberswise. Unlike last night, they behaved impeccably as the Whitecaps delivered a major North American Championship to the city. Not like last night.

Yesterday’s actions will no doubt lead to a clampdown of large public gatherings.

If the Whitecaps were to reach the MLS Championship, or let’s aim for the stars and say the Concacaf Champions League final, I’d like the game to be shown on screens downtown to the gathered masses.

Maybe I’m naively overestimating the interest there would be in this, but you can be sure that the appetite from the authorities to have a mass gathering of football supporters isn’t going to be overly high after last night.

The reputation of Vancouver sports fans across Canada and US has been tarnished. Oh how we’ll chuckle at the “please don’t riot” taunts we’ll get from opposing fans who will just tar everyone with the same stick.

Those CFL fans attending the Grey Cup will be closely monitored too and if the Lions, who had a great pre-season win over Calgary last night, were to be in that final, then there’s going to be a lot of twitchy people out there worried about what might happen.

Will Vancouver get high profile sporting events in the future after our image has been tarnished everywhere by these images?

Vancouver has long had the “no fun city” tag. I really thought that last year’s Olympics and the success of the Whitecaps atmospheres were helping to shake that. Two steps forward, five steps back.

Whitecaps fans shouldn’t take a holier than thou attitude over Canucks fans either. That could very easily have been a Caps game that this kicked off at, as it only takes a few instigators and a crowd of drunken buffoons and off it kicks.

Let’s show Vancouver and Canada how we can proudly support our sports teams here at Empire on Saturday.

Whitecaps fans. Let’s make this city proud again.

Where You Play We Follow : The Whitecaps Fan Experience In Seattle

As we all know, and as most of us expected, Saturday’s Cascadia Cup clash between Vancouver and Seattle at Qwest Field went off without too many problems.

Paul Barber praised the travelling Caps support for their behaviour and efforts and Seattle police told Prost Amerika that they were happy with how things played out off the pitch and would have no objections to greater numbers in future if that was what the clubs agreed.

We bemoaned the draconian pre and post match logistics that had been put in place for the travelling throngs. It was a never win situation for the fans. If no trouble happens, then it’s because these rules were laid down. If there is trouble, then it’s a case of “I told you so” and the rules would just be tightened, if we got any away tickets at all.

Whereas the Portland Timbers gave the Timbers Army their ticket alloction and they followed the rules set down by the book, the way the Vancouver allocation was distributed meant a large number of Whitecaps fans flouted these rules and without any problems whatsoever.

Those that travelled down on the Southsiders and Uniglobe buses were at the stadium for the two hours before the game as demanded.

Those making their own travel arrangements, myself included, arrived when they saw fit and many mingled pre-match in the pubs and restaurants around Qwest Field with no reported incidents. There was friendly banter all round, and this was to be the theme of the evening.

I was personally travelling up from the Oregon coast and didn’t get to Seattle till 6.30 and then into Qwest just after 7. No one cared as I wore my scarf proudly walking up to the gate. No one cared when scanning my ticket or as I walked around the non away support area to get some pics.

You know, how football should be.

If you treat people like animals, you get altercations. If you let people behave with civility, you get a friendly atmosphere, outside of those 90 minutes on the pitch of course, when it’s just pure hatred!

Inside the stadium, security were respectful and clearly understood what was taking place and how to handle issues. There were a few minor issues to tackle and from what I saw, they handled these in a manner which could teach the security at Empire a thing or two.

They didn’t poke us. We didn’t prod them.

Some Seattle fans tried to, as we did to them. Verbal banter really is part and parcel of football. I’d have liked us to be even a bit closer to some of them to get the verbals going properly. Ah how I miss the old days of the sergregation fence at the fitba in Scotland.

It was hilarious getting pelters from the inbred looking ginger kid and his clan when Seattle took the lead, only to give it back to them full pelt seconds later. I thought his little red head was going to explode!

There was also some good oral jousting on the way out of the stadium, with the Seattle stragglers being held back to let us out.

Security were trying to get us out as quickly as possible, but if you’re going to prevent people from taking a piss whilst they’re waiting, something that really has to change next time, then of course there’s going to be a mass exodus to the toilets when we get the opportunity!

Most of us knew we were getting held back and the Southsiders, pretty much to a man and woman, respected that. Others either didn’t know or didn’t care and just wanted out.

It didn’t help when those on the bleachers were allowed to leave and those in Sections 100-102 weren’t.

A number of women pleaded their case to go to the toilet unsuccessfully. Others pushed and a woman at the front was reduced to tears after some pushing and shoving and some apparent punches were thrown. This was the only real shambles at the end of it all though.

My only other real gripe is that it doesn’t help anyone’s cause to have some home fans above the travelling support.

After Hassli’s wonder equaliser, Whitecaps fans were showered with beer and flying bottles from those Seattle fans above them. It doesn’t bother me (I’m from Scotland, I’ve had worse), but it isn’t really acceptable. Plus you just know that if it had been the reverse there would have been an outrage and the threat to reduce or stop away fans ticket allocations.

We were pleased to see that our pre-match fears as to what kind of Caps crowd and atmosphere would be at Qwest were completely unfounded. We’re big enough to put up our hands and say that we mis-read what was going to happen.

Turning the section into one of general admission helped of course and forced everyone into standing. It was great to see. From what I’ve seen of the television coverage, the section looked and sounded great.

Let’s hope we can build on this both at Empire and on the road.

The Southsiders flags certainly made a difference and the player two sticks were simply magnificent and full credit to everyone involved for those.

There’s been some discussion about the amount of people at the game wearing Canucks jerseys. We simply have to face facts that the Canuckleheads are the number one sports team in the city and will be for the foreseeable future.

People can wear what they want to games. I’ve worn other club tops to Caps games in the past and will do again. I think it’s kinda stupid to wear another sport jersey to a football match but there you go. I wouldn’t dream of wearing a Caps shirt to a Lions or Canucks game, but that’s me.

Not a huge issue for me. What I did find very disappointing though was the amount of Canucks songs being sung. FFS, get a grip and support the team on the field that you’ve paid a lot of money to watch.

When the Sounders fans started chanting about Boston. I thought it was sad as it was a completely different sport altogether. That was when I naively thought we were chanting “we want the Cup” meaning the Cascadia Cup!

We clearly still have a lot of work to do to win over some of the support. Chanting for your local hockey team at a football match, especially an away one, is particularly sad as far as I’m concerned.

It is what it is and it is what we make of it and on Saturday, we made a great appearance at Qwest Field.

The passion and rivalry was great to see. It’s just a pity that we don’t have many games close by that would allow us to take this kind of travelling support every other week.

I can’t wait for next year’s trip already. let’s hope we can go down in even greater numbers. And of course, there’s still Portland to come!

Mon the Caps.

** See AFTN’s Flickr page for our photos from the match **

In The Cold Light of Day: Whitecaps Rise To The Occasion

Vancouver’s first Cascadia Cup match of the MLS era is in the bag and it was a tremendous occasion enjoyed by all of the travelling Caps hordes.

At the end of it all, a draw was probably a fair result, but as we trooped out of Qwest Field after the game, the over-riding feeling was that we should be heading up the road with all three points and not just the one we got.

Throwing away the win so late was what hurt, but if you’d have offered me a draw before the match, I’d have gladly taken it with the way we’ve been playing the last few games.

We asked for passion, fight and commitment from the players and for the first time in many a week, we got 90 full minutes of it.

Every player, to a man, was up for the cause.

The supporters were too, although more on that later.

On the pitch, we were really clicking and it was good to see. We all know what the players are capable off and we’ve been desperately needing them to show it to us.
On Saturday they did.

We could easily have been out of sight in the first half if we’d taken our chances. Shea Salinas should have buried it when he was baring down on the keeper, but coulda, shoulda, woulda. Seattle also had their chances that they didn’t take.

The defence were impressively solid for most of the match and that’s what makes it even more frustrating that it was two defensive lapses that cost us so dearly.

Joe Cannon should have done better on the first goal. He was caught in two minds between coming for the ball and staying on his line and was punished accordingly. Can’t hold that against him too much though when you consider the fantastic string of saves he produced throughout the match to keep our lead intact.

The second goal should never have been allowed to happen and the defence just need to blooter to ball out of play or up the pitch in those occasions.

Two lapses but overall a great display from the back line. Jay DeMerit was a beast out there and I thought Mouloud Akloul had his best game in a MLS Caps jersey so far. The difference between having Jonathan Leather back there and Bilal Duckett was also night and day.

Alain Rochat used his experience well to kill time and win some free kicks, but he was also extremely lucky I felt not to pick up a second yellow towards the end.

One of the most pleasing aspects for me was that we didn’t just sit back and defend the lead – because we can’t. It may be a new regime, but it’s the same players and they just don’t seem to know how to keep a lead.

Soehn seems to have recognised that and kept the attacking play in the second half, at least when Seattle let us play.

Another very pleasing aspect was that our heads didn’t go down when the Sounders took the lead. To fight back immediately was magical, in many ways.

As someone said on the Southsiders forum, time seemed to stand still for a split second.

At the game, I knew we’d scored but it took a good few seconds for it to fully comprehend what had just happened as I couldn’t quite get my head around how Eric Hassli scored from where he did. I saw him walk away with his hand up and then it sank in and the ecstatic scenes followed.

It was a sublime moment.

Hassli had an excellent game but really is needing some help up there from an out and out proven goalscorer. Hopefully that will be number one priority when the transfer window re-opens next month.

In saying that, a commanding figure in the middle of the park to help share the workload with Gershon Koffie is also badly needed.

We’re so close to having a truly competitive team and we certainly showed we can compete well for those first eighty minutes.

Those final ten minutes were just a bagatelle for emotions. Going in to the game, I didn’t expect much but the players responded magnificently and for that I salute every one of them.

Seattle have now taken only two points from their home Cascadia Cup games. This could cost them dearly, especially if we can go and grab something down in Portland in August.

The Cup could be coming home to Vancouver.

Let’s hope the Caps also build on this performance for the remainder of the season, starting this Saturday against Philadelphia.

** See AFTN’s Flickr page for our photos from the match **

Vancouver’s Qwest For The Cup Begins Tomorrow

In the Kingdom of the Blind, the one eyed man is king.

In the Kingdom of the Bland, the Sounders front office are getting their paranoid draconian measures in place for tomorrow’s Cascadia Cup clash and members of Seattle’s ECS are getting hard ons at the thought of how much bigger and better their tifo display will be compared to ours.

That’ll show them pesky Canadians.

It’s amazing what a week travelling up the California and Oregon coasts can do to revive and refresh.

As I sit here in Rockaway Beach, the noise of the waves crashing into the unspoilt sandy Oregonian beach is a good backdrop for writing this pre match preamble. The Salt Lake debacle is almost forgotten. Almost.

My anger and jadedness at the display at Rio Tinto has been replaced by excitement and enthusiasm for the Caps first MLS encounter at Qwest Field tomorrow. I’m so looking forward to the match. The Southsiders and other travelling Vancouver hordes are really up for the game.

Let’s just hope the players are.

For if they can’t rise to the occasion of a Cascadia derby clash, where it’s not just points but pride on the line, then frankly they shouldn’t be a Whitecap and I don’t want them at the Club a minute longer.

Going in to the game, I don’t expect too much after watching the last two away games up close and personal. I would probably be very happy with a point tomorrow. Three would just make the perfect ending to a great vacation following the Caps.

What I want to see most of all though is some pride, some passion and total commitment from every single player that takes the field in a Whitecaps jersey tomorrow evening.

There is no place to hide and those that do will not be tolerated. I can accept defeat, not gracefully, but I will accept it, but only if we’ve had a proper go.

For weeks I’ve felt that we just haven’t got the breaks. That we have a great squad but one that just hasn’t quite risen to the occasion yet and when they do, boy, watch us go.

The last two games have made me re-evaluate these thoughts. Do we indeed just have a very below average squad and we’re where we should be? Let’s have the players prove that wrong in the next few games and most of all starting tomorrow.

Those Cascadia MLS followers that are expecting another barnstormer both on and off the pitch, like the recent Timbers visit to Qwest, may be a little disappointed tomorrow.

The ECS will bitch post-game that we’re no match for their tifo displays, are a disgrace to the fan culture blah blah blah.

Here’s the news now guys so you can start your wankfest super early – we will not be anything like the Timbers Army were down at Qwest.

You try getting all your shit into Empire, let alone over the border, in September, then we’ll talk.

It doesn’t help that the ticket allocation for the game have been farcical here in Vancouver. There’s not really too much need to retread old watery ground with this, but when you have tickets allocated willy nilly and families interspersed with Southsiders, it’s not going to make for the best atmosphere we could have generated.

I still have this dread that my seat is going to be surrounded by families telling me not to swear and to sit down. I’ve found very little Southsiders with seats anywhere near me.

The sensible thing would have been to put certain rows and a section aside for those that want to stand and scream and those that don’t. Sensibility and the Vancouver FO don’t make happy bedfellows of course.

We’ll enjoy ourselves anyway and make some noise for the boys, but it has the potential to look like a shit show.

Then we have the paranoid androids in the Seattle FO.

So we all meet up at 5.30, enter via a specific gate, stand around inside the stadium for two hours and then be held back for 30-45 minutes post game. Oh and whilst you’re at it, don’t even think of talking to any Sounders fans whilst you’re there.

I think I’ve been transported to China or at the very best, 1980’s England.

Of course, the Sounders FO have that sword hanging over us of do what we say or you won’t get tickets next year.

To them, I say fuck you.

Most of us will do as you ask, but take away the ticket allocation and you’ll have a bigger problem on your hands next year as we all head down and buy tickets in amongst the Sounders support.

I say most of us because when you have so many of us travelling via trains, planes and automobiles independently, you can’t herd that. Cars will break down. Public transport will be late. Border line ups will be horrendous. You also have a re-sale market where people will have bought tickets and have no idea that they’re meant to be at a certain point at a certain time.

None of this was meant to happen but it is.

For the Club and support that you would almost think invented “supporters culture” in the US, they haven’t got a clue. Such draconian measures only leads to people being pissed off at you, not wanting to work with you.

A final message to those of us travelling to the game. FFS behave. Don’t give these assholes any little thing that they can use to beat us over the head with in the future.

I love the Cascadia Cup. We have a proud history and record in it. The Cup is now bigger scale in MLS. We have a great chance to stake an early lead in the standings but we all need to do our part to make that happen – whether that be on the pitch or in the stands.

C’mon Vancouver. Do us proud.