Le Toux with two as Caps advance to final

Vancouver Whitecaps and Toronto have unfinished Voyageurs Cup business.

After the debacle in Montreal and the monsoon in Toronto, the Caps will be hoping it will be third time lucky and they will finally get to lift the Canadian Championship trophy by the end of the month.

Vancouver set up the latest two game Cup showdown against Toronto with a 3-1 win over Edmonton at BC Place tonight. It looked comfortable in the end scoreline, but the Eddies made the Caps work every step of the way for their place in the final.

Martin Rennie surprised most people by ringing four changes from last week’s first leg and including Jay DeMerit in the centre of defence and going with a strikeforce of Eric Hassli and Camilo Sanvezzo.

Floyd Franks and Michael Nanchoff got their first starts of the season in midfield and Nanchoff thought he had his name on the scoresheet three minutes in, when he turned home a low John Thorrington cross.

The goal was somewhat mysteriously ruled out for offside, with Camilo looking to have been adjudged off when the cross came over and deemed interfering with play.

Edmonton settled down and took the game to their hosts, and they had a great chance to haul themselves back into the Cup tie in the 19th minute.

Yashir Pinto was sent through on the left, leaving Greg Klazura in his wake, and cut the ball back to Michael Cox on the penalty spot, whose first time strike was parried by Brad Knighton.

Two minutes later and Matt Lam tried a shot from distance that didn’t trouble the Caps goal, but showed the Eddies intention to attack.

Lam had a another long range attempt in the 27th minute, which Knighton got down well to save and Klazura hit the rebound out for a corner.

The Caps were looking a little lacklustre and only had a curling 35th minute Camilo free kick to show for their efforts.

Although having more attacking flair, Edmonton were being restricted to long range efforts and Shaun Saiko fired another one over the bar in the 37th minute.

That nearly changed in the closing minutes of the half.

A dangerous through ball from Shaun Saiko was deflected by the outstretched leg of Jay DeMerit into the path of Pinto and Cox, who has both got on the goal side of Jordan Harvey, but then got in each others way to spurn a great chance.

The momentum of big Cox carried him into Knighton. It was without any real malice but a slight stramash ensured to provide one of the few sparks of the first half.

The second half started off in a little lull but the game sprung into life in the 54th minute when Edmonton got the goal their play deserved, and their first ever Voyageurs Cup goal.

Cox played a short pass outside to Antonio Rago. The right back sent a dangerous ball into the six yard box that eventually came off the head of Pinto and past Knighton for 1-0 to the underdogs.

Nanchoff went down in the box in the 62nd minute, but was looking for the call as he fell over his man.

With everything now to play for, Vancouver brought on some heavyweight talent in to their attack with Sebastien Le Toux and Darren Mattocks, and what a difference they made.

Le Toux made an impact within five minutes of coming on to put the Caps level on the night and give them a two goal cushion of aggregate.

Davide Chiumiento sent a beautiful ball over the Edmonton defence straight into the path of Le Toux. Fabien Vorbe was wrong footed in dramatic fashion, allowing to the Frenchman to run into the box and fire past David Monsalve, who should have done better.

Camilo whipped another free kick just over the bar in the 81^st minute, as they sought to wrap things up.

The Brazilian then had the ball in the net a minute later but was flagged offside for the run through.

The Whitecaps brought on Etienne Barbara with five minutes remaining and the Malteser gave Caps fans an idea of what they can expect from him by immediately going on a mazy before being brought down for a penalty.

Barbara stepped up to take the kick in the best “makers-takers” tradition, only for Monsalve to brilliantly tip his well taken kick onto the right hand post.

Edmonton struggled to clear the danger and ended up conceding a kick on the left touchline. Chiumiento again flighted in a perfect ball to Le Toux, this time onto his head, and the Frenchman gave Monsalve no chance at his near post.

In the final seconds of the three minutes of stoppage time, Mattocks got his name on the scoresheet, whipping a Chiumiento cross into the bottom left hand corner, before picking up a booking by celebrating with a Jamaican flag in the Southside.

Overall, it was a patchy performance from the Caps, but they got the job done in the end and looked a much more dangerous side with the addition of Le Toux, Mattocks and Barbara.

Edmonton fought well and for most of the match they had turned in the best performance of all of the four Canadian teams on the night.

They should keep their heads up for they did their team and their city proud.

For Vancouver, it’s another Cup final against Toronto, following on from the pre-season Disney Pro Soccer Classic.

The Caps won silverware that time with the only goal of the game. Not many in Vancouver would argue with the same again.

ATT :  15,011

FINAL SCORE :  Vancouver Whitecaps   –    Edmonton

VANCOUVER WHITECAPS :  Brad Knighton; Greg Klazura, Carlyle Mitchell, Jay DeMerit, Jordan Harvey; Floyd Franks, John Thorrington, Davide Chiumiento, Michael Nanchoff (Sebastien Le Toux 70); Eric Hassli (Darren Mattocks 74), Camilo Sanvezzo (Etienne Barbara 85)  [Subs Not Used:  Joe Cannon, Michael Boxall, Russell Teibert, Bryce Alderson]

EDMONTON :  David Monsalve; Antonio Rago, Paul Hamilton, Kevin Hatchi, Fabien Vorbe; Shaun Saiko (Ilya Van Leerrdam 77), Kenny Caceros, Chris Kooy; Michael Cox (Kyle Porter 55), Matt Lam, Yashir Pinto (Paul Craig 81) [Subs Not Used: John Smits, Adam West, Jonathon Joseph-Augustin, Paul Craig, Dominic Oppong]

Match Preview: Vancouver Whitecaps v FC Edmonton

by Steve Pandher

After a dramatic win over San Josethis weekend, Vancouver Whitecaps return to Voyageurs Cup action as they host FC Edmonton in the second leg of the Canadian Championship semi-final.  The Caps hold a decisive lead over their Western Canada rivals, after Eric Hassli and Atiba Harris gave them a two goal away advantage.

KEY PLAYERS :

ATTACKING

The two time U17 Canadian player of the year, Russell Teibert, has yet to play for the Whitecaps in MLS this year but could make his season debut in this Voyaguers Cup semi-final.  The match could be an opportunity for Teibert to prove that he deserves more minutes with the first team.

Former Residency product, Kyle Porterwas a dangerous player in the first leg but was unable to find the target on his multiple attempts.  It will be his first time playing in Vancouversince he left prior to the 2011 season, and he will look to take down his former club.

DEFENCE

With Rochat resting after two starts, it will be Carlyle Mitchell who becomes the defacto leader on the backline.  If he is partnered with Michael Boxall, Mitchell may have to compensate for the Kiwi defender’s lack of pace and that could play a factor against a speedy FCE frontline.

The two goals allowed in the first leg, especially the opening goal, could be considered stoppable by keeper David Monsalve.  If the Eddies have any chance of advancing to the Final of the Canadian Championship, the Ontario native will have to have a perfect game against the Caps.

WHO’S ON FORM :

It took some time but Eric Hassli seems to have gotten back on track when it comes to scoring, with two goals in his last two matches.  Hassli will once again face the smaller FCE backline and look to wear them down and create space for the smaller attackers to run in to.

Helping Edmonton get their first win of the season against Carolinaat the weekend, Shaun Saiko picked up a hat trick and was named the NASL player of the week for his efforts.  Vancouver’s defenders will have to track the local Edmontonproduct as he is capable of scoring from distance with power and touch.

2012 RECORD :

Vancouver:

5W-2D-2L

3rd in Western Conference

Last Match: 2-1 Win vs  San Jose Earthquakes

Edmonton:

1W-1D-3L

6th in NASL

Last Match: 4-3 Loss vs Minnesota Stars

PROJECTED LINE-UPS :

GAME PREDICTION :

While the stats may indicate an easy win for the Vancouver club, FC Edmonton competed well in the first leg but were unable to finish their chances.  Omar Salgado played a huge part in this match, finding Hassli alone in the box for the first and hitting the post with a chip which then broke to Atiba Harris to sweep it in for the second.

The lineup will have some changes from last week’s match but expect Brad Knighton to get his second start against Edmonton.  In front of him will be Carlyle Mitchell, Jordan Harvey, Greg Klazura and Michael Boxall, who will make his first start of the season, having impressed in Friday’s PDL game against Kitsap Pumas. 

The midfield should have only one change from last week as Thorrington and Chiumiento will start with either Floyd Franks or Bryce Alderson starting in Koffie’s place. 

The front line will have some changes as well. Salgado has earned a rest and Harris suffered a knock and may not be ready.  A couple of first time starters could flank Hassli, with Michael Nanchoff and Russell Teibert looking poised to make their first starts of the season.  After being passed fit to play, Darren Mattocks, injured due to a freak cooking accident, could be a wild card off the bench for the Whitecaps and Etienne Barbara has been added to the Caps’ squad for the tournament, after coming through the second half of the PDL game unscathed..

Both teams are coming off highs. Vancouverwon dramatically and Edmonton picking up their first win of the season over Rennie’s former club Carolina.  Edmontonwere able to put all facets of their game together, holding firm defensively whilst Saiko was able to score three times.  However they will not be able to rotate through their roster and may be playing on tired legs, playing their third game in eight days.

The trio of Nanchoff, Chiumiento and Teibert are all interchangeable so look for those three to line up on the right, in the middle or to the left behind Hassli.  Rennie will want Nanchoff, Teibert and Thorrington to raise the tempo of the attack in order to wear down the FCE defenders over the ninety minutes.  The space in the final third will be even better if the defenders decide to collapse on Hassli and the Frenchman can find someone on a run.

With players like Lam, Porter, Pinto, Saiko and Van Leerdam always looking to shoot from distance, a key in stopping Edmontonfrom scoring will be the holding midfielders clogging up the area in front of the box.  The only serious danger when it comes to defending in the box on set pieces will be Paul Hamilton, who is only Eddie that comes close to scoring with his head.

The Whitecaps should be expecting the visitors to throw everything at them in the first fifteen minutes in order to get close on the aggregate score.  If Vancouvercan stay patient and hold their lines, they will be able to find chances on the counter and cement their place in the final. 

AFTN Predicted Score: VancouverWhitecaps 3  FC Edmonton 0

In The Cold Light Of Day: The Toronto Cup Debacle

Four attempts. Four failures. That’s Vancouver’s Voyageurs Cup record since Toronto FC came into existance. Zero for ten in the whole tournament’s history.

At least one of them was a glorious failure. Sadly that wasn’t today.

So where to start?

Well, I’m man enough to congratulate Toronto FC on winning their third straight Canadian Championship. They deserved it on the play today.

The better team at BMO Field won.

The difference for me was in how both teams responded after going a goal down.

Toronto fought for their lives, piling on the pressure and taking the game to Vancouver in wave after wave of attacks. Vancouver looked clueless and even in those closing minutes when we were almost encamped in the TFC half, their defenders coped with everything we threw at them with ease.

We had three shots on target the whole match. Three shots, in a game where we were fighting for our lives for the last 29 minutes. Toronto had twelve.

The way Toronto were playing after Camilo’s brilliant free kick, you knew they’d get back into the game. We never looked in the game at any point after our goal. Although to be frank, we didn’t look in the game before the goal either.

Eric Hassli was posted missing and if he’d had more composure and buried that chance late on, we wouldn’t be having any of these discussions right now.

The midfield failed to stamp any dominance on the game. We’ve been critical of Terry Dunfield of late, but he was our best midfielder out there today. A Canadian playing for Canadian pride.

Gershon Koffie played so deep, he was like a third centre half at times. His confidence has clearly gone after being dropped by Soehn and Nizar Khalfan’s skill, pace and confidence has been missing for a long time now.

The defence were all over the place. Jay DeMerit was angry as hell at being substituted and rightly so. Who wants to be replaced by Blake Wagner?

How are he and Bilal Duckett even still getting places on the bench when the likes of Alex Morfaw, Greg Janicki, Wes Knight and the apparently released Mouloud Akloul aren’t? None of them are starters but they have fight, spirit and play for the jersey.

Yet again, it was a spectacularly disappointing second half capitulation. Just what does Tommy Soehn say to the players during his half time team talks that makes them come out and play so badly? Whatever he is saying to try and motivate them and to get them to hold on to their leads, or keep the score tied, plainly isn’t working.

To paraphrase Soehn after the game, he basically had a tactical plan around possession and the players didn’t stick to it.

So whose fault is that?

The players for not listening and carrying out the plan, either through ignoring their manager of their inability to do it? Or the manager for not making sure he got the message out there to the players that they weren’t following orders?

Probably a bit of both and neither are acceptable.

There’s a lot not acceptable just now in the House of Caps. Even the players are coming out and admitting that now.

Soehn took a gamble and laid it all on the line when fielding a reserve team against Toronto on Wednesday night. Was it worth it?

It’s easy to say no in hindsight, but we backed him 100% in that decision and still do.

A lot of the anger and frustration at this defeat is going to be laid at Tommy Soehn’s door.

He doesn’t make the players play poorly, but he does pick the team, make the changes, set the tactics and had a role in bringing most of the flops to the Caps in the first place.

There are two conversations that there is absolutely no need for any of us to get bogged down in right now: the abandonment of the first game and the sacking of Teitur Thordarson.

What’s done is done. No amount of griping can change that. But we do need change at the Club and that’s exactly what we should be griping about.

Teitur’s sacking was a surprise to many. I said at the time that it was the right decision. I didn’t feel that Soehn was the right replacement.

Nothing I have seen in the subsequent seven games has changed that opinion. I said we needed to give him some time to stamp his mark on the team and suggested to wait until after today’s game. By then we would know what a Soehn-style Caps team would be like.

I think we now know – not very good and certainly not any improvement on Teiturball.

Would I like Soehn to go now? Most certainly yes, but if we can’t get the right man just now, there may not be much point.

To fire two managers in a season would make us look like a laughing stock and totally clueless. Oh, wait a minute…

If the Caps were going to fire Teitur, it was imperative that they had the right LONG TERM replacement lined up. Soehn was a quick fill and not the future of the Club.

We could get a new manager from Europe just now, but he will be out of his depth with the weird and wacky rules of MLS. We do need someone familiar with this League and that man, for me, is Frank Yallop.

I mentioned on the Southsiders forum a few weeks back that I would love to have Yallop here, with a young assistant he can groom to take over. Get #YallopForCaps trending now on Twitter!

We won’t be able to get him till the end of this season sadly. I say sadly, as what we need is someone who can come in now and fairly evaluate ALL the players for next year. Not his personal acquisitions and favourites.

Our season is as good as over. I read somewhere that we have a 2% mathematical chance of making the playoffs now. Good luck filling Empire for the next three months.

We have to look to the future. Get rid of the dead weight and play some of our Residency prospects. With the prospect of a MLS contract carrot, these guys will play out of their skins.

What have we got to lose? We can’t sink much lower.

It’s tough at the top. It’s even tougher at the bottom. That’s not a place that Vancouver Whitecaps FC are used to being. So who, or what, has taken us to the basement?

The Club need to know of the fans’ displeasure. Don’t keep your mouths shut and carry on as if it doesn’t matter or that there’s nothing wrong. Don’t be fobbed off with some summer signings when the season is already over.

The media need to stop kissing butt and ask the difficult questions. The players and management need to stand up and be counted.

Only then will we move forward and be the Club we could, and should, be.

We have a proud history. Since 1974. Don’t let it be tarnished.

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.

Now Is The Time For The Excuses To Stop

As regular readers of AFTN will have noticed, we’ve been awfully quiet of late.

Some computer problems kept us a little bit out of it for a few days and then I just felt a little break was good to help keep us fresh, eager and full of the vitriol you’ve come to know and love/hate (delete as applicable!).

The last few Whitecaps games have been a hard watch.

As we’ve said in our columns and articles elsewhere, it is far too early to start pressing any sort of panic buttons about the season, but the concerns and the potential warning signs are clearly already there.

The Club and Teitur have clearly nailed their colours to the Voyaguers Cup mast. With the players we had on the bench for Saturday’s loss in New England, the focus certainly looks to be our two legged final against Toronto FC.

I’m all for this being our key focus at this stage of the season. Winning the Canadian Championship and qualifying for the CONCACAF Champions League for the first time is what us long term fans have wanted for the past three seasons.

Would I take winning the Voyageurs Cup and a Champions League run over making the MLS playoffs? Undoubtedly yes. Would I like both? Yes, even more so. That may not be possible, so I definitely wanted the former.

Now though is the time to show the fans and the Canadian public what we’re made of. There will be no second chances and no excuses will be tolerated.

We’ve set our stall out to win this match up with TFC, so that’s what we better damn well do.

Failure will not be tolerated and some serious questions will need to be asked if that was to happen. I personally don’t think it will come to this. I have faith, hope and expectation in my Blue and White heroes.

If it wasn’t for Ali Gerba’s shit heading abilities, we may not even be at this stage. Crashing out to Montreal and we’d have a whole different situation on our hands.

It may be a bit over dramatic to say that our season depends on these two TFC games, but honestly, it’s not far off it.

We’ve made a big play in the run up to this season about how we are no ordinary expansion club. Quite frankly, that’s not what we’ve shown on the pitch and off it, we’ve looked amateurish in a number of areas. Yes, it’s a learning curve and a somewhat steep one at times for some aspects of the Club, but Whitecaps fans expect success because we are used to success.

Some of Teitur’s team selections, substitutions and tactics in recent games have baffled me. I’m not a MLS coach though. He is. Let’s just hope he hasn’t been as baffled because they clearly haven’t worked.

I’m already sick to the back teeth at hearing about players being “tired” and “rested”.

These are professional football players we’re talking about here. They’re paid to play football.

I’m sure we would all love our bosses to say “you know what, you seem a little tired today, take tomorrow off”. Doesn’t happen. Why should we accept this from paid professional footballers?

My football team in Scotland, East Fife, is part time. All the players have day jobs. Some of them have jobs starting at 7 and 8 in the morning, then they turn out and play a game at night and have to get up the next morning for work again.

In the last three months, East Fife have played pretty much every Tuesday and Saturday. With pretty much the same starting eleven too. These guys haven’t complained about tiredness. They played through it and you know what? They also won a ton of fucking games and climbed the table, just missing out on the promotion playoffs.

These guys also get paid a pittance. Not some of the six figure sums we’ve seen our guys are getting.

I fully understand so many games in so many days is draining. Travelling is draining. Playing is draining. This is what you’re paid to do though guys and pretty much every other team is in the same boat. They’ve also been picking up more than the odd point here and there.

If we’ve been resting our players to win the Voyaguers Cup then great. Fantastic strategy.

Let’s just hope we reap the benefits of what’s caused our stuttering league campaign with a comfortable win tonight and an overall victory next Wednesday.

Nothing else will be acceptable.

Mon the Caps.

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.

Time For CSA To Open Up Voyageurs Cup

The CSA finally confirmed the format and the initial fixtures for the 2011 Nutrilite Canadian Championship yesterday.

The details have been out there on the interweb for a while now. Nothing seemed official, but the speculation seemed certain. It would be seeded and Vancouver Whitecaps would play Canada’s shame in the semi final. And so it proved to be.

The round robin format is no more. There will be a pair of two-legged semi finals on April 27th and May 4th, both pitching a MLS team against a NASL team and with the winners of both ties advancing into a further two-legged final on May 18th and 25th. Then the Concacaf Champions League awaits.

Getting rid of the group part we can live with. We always prefer straight knockout Cup competitions anyway, preferably just over the one game. The whole seeding angle, not so much – at least not in it’s present form.

Fair enough, giving the two MLS sides a seeding. Many Cup competitions around the world do that and many give their top sides byes into certain rounds of the competition. We’re only talking about four sides competing here though and it’s an even 2/2 split between MLS and NASL.

Surely regional qualifying would have made sense? Why make all four clubs travel across the country FFS? How does that benefit the game in any way, shape or form? By having Whitecaps v Edmonton and Toronto v Montreal, you’d have guaranteed local excitement and more importanly, decent travelling supports. Make decisions to grow the game here you clueless fuckers.

The CSA has been in the news a lot recently and most of it hasn’t been all that positive. No wonder. Canada has fallen behind so many lesser countries as a footballing nation. Qualifying for a World Cup again seems like a crazy, far-fetched dream at times.

A major part of reversing those fortunes is a strong domestic game, producing a stream of home grown players that can compete at the highest level and, in an ideal but unrealistic world, stay playing in Canada.

I won’t go into all the pros and cons of establishing a strong domestic Canadian football league just now. It’s complicated, we’ve been there before and although I’m a huge footballing history buff and have looked into the various league incarnations over the years, I don’t feel properly knowledgable to fully comment on all the ins and outs, successes and failures of the past. I’ll leave that to some of my more learned Canadian chums.

Vancouver Whitecaps/86ers record of four consecutive CSL Championships from 1988-1991 is something that we should all be proud of and remember though.

With Major League Soccer now firmly established in the nation’s psyche, the chances of a top level Canadian league are growing slimmer all the time, especially as MLS will have three Canuck representatives from next season and who knows, maybe even more somewhere down the line.

What the CSA now have to do though is to make sure that at D2 level and below, the domestic game is as organised and competitive as possible and continues to grow and develop. The Voyageurs Cup has an important part to play in that.

Restricting the Cup to just four teams is just plain crazy and thwarts the chance for other sides to develop and for the game in Canada to truly grow.

I fully understand that the CSA want Canada to have a top representative in the Concacaf Champions League. They want to showcase Canadian football. To fully do that we need to have more than one representative and Concacaf aren’t going to give us that when the qualification involves just three or four teams.

What are the CSA worried about by opening it up? That a small PDL team like Abbotsford Mariners make it to the Champions League? It’s highly unlikely to happen, as we’ll discuss later, but would be fantastic if it did.

Inspiration for any Cup competition should come from England’s FA Cup. It’s been going strong since 1871, so I think they know a few things about what works, what doesn’t and what makes it the best Cup competition in the world.

The FA Cup now runs season long, from the early qualifying rounds in August which is full of lower non league sides, village teams and men watching the games with their dogs.

To me, that’s the real FA Cup and there’s a brilliant Real FA Cup website to back that up.

What makes the FA Cup special is the fact that as a supporter or a player of even the lowest side, you can still have that FA Cup dream. Look at today’s match up between Manchester United and Crawley Town in the 5th round. A non league side, going to Old Trafford, against the Premiership leaders and managing to hold their own for a lot of the game and only falling to one lapse in concentration at a set piece and the width of the crossbar.

It’s what dreams are made of. It’s what football should be all about and the CSA are cracking down and quelling those hopes like a middle eastern leader.

You don’t have to look across the pond to England for how it should be done though. You can look much closer to home and just south of the border to the US Open Cup.

Played every year since it began in 1914, the Lamar Hunt US Open Cup (to give it it’s full name) is a cracking competition and one which I feel most American football fans and the people running the clubs don’t value enough. They’ve got a great thing going there if they only realised that.

Their Cup is open to all affiliated teams in United States Soccer Federation which means MLS sides down to amateur pub teams. Although all the sanctioning wranglings this year will see the five NASL teams miss out, the Yanks have their domestic Cup running the way it should be in most reagrds – truly national and open to all.

The USSF obviously aren’t too concerned about the outside chance that a Hollywood United style side make it to the international stage to represent the US in the Champions League. They know it’s highly unlikely, but if it were to happen it would be a fantastic story that would have fans and the media from worldwide taking an interest. Publicity you couldn’t buy.

The old razzle-dazzle NASL sides in the 70’s and 80’s had no interest in the Cup and didn’t take part, which was a shame but a sign of their self interest and not a real desire to grow the game in the country. Full credit to the MLS though. Since their inception in 1996, their teams have taken part and have won it every year since, apart from 1999 when A League side Rochester Raging Rhinos shocked Colorado Rapids 2-0 to become the only minor league side to land the trophy in the last 15 years.

I’ve loved watching the streams of the US Open Cup in the last couple of season, even if a lot of the MLS supporters don’t seem that keen on it till the latter stages and a number of the MLS sides field weakened sides early on, which makes for some great “giantkilling”.

There’s been some cracking matches and some great shocks. Last season two USL-2 sides made it to the quarter finals and both of them put out MLS sides in the third round to get there.

The season before two USL-1 and two USL-2 sides made it to the quarter final stage, with Rochester Rhinos narrowly falling 2-1 to DC United in the semi final.

Great stuff!

So could a truly national and open Voyageurs Cup work in Canada? Of course it could if the CSA adopted the same kind of rules for entry that the USSF apply.

Here’s how the USSF sorted out their 40 team field for the 2010 US Open Cup (taken from Wikipedia):

The tournament proper featured teams from the top five levels of the American Soccer Pyramid. These five levels, namely Major League Soccer, the D-2 Pro League, the United Soccer Leagues (Second Division and Premier Development League), and the United States Adult Soccer Association, each have their own separate qualification process to trim their ranks down to their final eight team delegations in the months leading up to the start of the tournament proper. The eight MLS clubs received byes into the third round, while the remaining 32 teams play in the first two rounds with brackets influenced by geography.

Almost perfectly done. My only complaint would be that I’d open it up to even more of the smaller teams, but I say that as a fan of the smaller sides and lower league football the world over.

It’s not only something that the CSA could do here, they MUST do it and do it soon.

Before Edmonton FC gained their spot in this years Championship, the word on the street was that the third tier Canadian Soccer League were pushing the CSA for their champions to be admitted. They should be, not just their champions but a number of their sides, along with PDL sides.

Maybe the CSA will get their act together one day. We won’t hold our breath.

In the meantime, we’ll just look forward to yet another meeting with the scum from the east and still harbour those Champions League dreams of having bags of piss thrown at us in Honduras!

I have a feeling that this year, those dreams are going to come true. Get those Whitecaps ponchos ready.

Another Bore Draw Ends Caps Voyageurs Cup Campaign For Another Year

The 2010 Voyageurs Cup wrapped up tonight with a soggy scoreless game at BMO Field in front of a sparse crowd. Don’t know if I’d have come out in a torrential downpour to watch a pointless match either, although the lure of seeing my team lift a trophy would probably have been the clincher in getting me along.

As expected, Toronto fielded a young side and the Caps made a few changes themselves but the weather was always going to put any free-flowing football on hold. What we hoped for though was the Caps to show some desire to maintain their strong record against TFC and that’s pretty much what we got in the first half, as Vancouver were by far the better side, despite playing with a man down for the last 14 minutes of it.

Philippe Davies’ shocking lack of bottle in shooting, when clean through after only 3 minutes, summed up the Caps campaign and problems this year. Shot shy.

Marcus Haber saw red on 31 minutes when he went in with his studs up and caught Doneil Henry. Stupid tackle, the conditions played a part and sure I’ve seen them only be yellow at times, but at the same time I’ve also seen them red, so not too much complaining from me. As soon as you go in at pace with your feet off the floor, then you’re asking for trouble.

It was a meaningless game, pride apart, so I would have been quite happy if Teitur adopted the Fife way and just kicked fuck out of everyone in a red shirt. A few sending offs offset by a few TFC injuries and I’d have been happy. Sadly didn’t happen. The Scottish way is clearly not the Icelandic way!

Toronto dominated the start of the second half, but what they had in possession they lacked in attacking threat, whilst Vancouver seemed to have left their enthusiasm for a contest in the dressing room. When Johnny Steele crashed a header off the bar on 66 minutes then it let us know that we were still in the match and still looking for that win. Well it should have. Instead we sat back in defence whilst Toronto stroked the ball around and still offered fuck all in the way of breaking the deadlock.

Thankfully the final whistle came and put everyone out of their misery. Another 0-0 draw for the Caps. Their fourth draw in the tournament, remaining unbeaten, but having only scored two goals in the process. Hmm, maybe we do have the Scottish way about us after all. Going unbeaten in the group stages but failing to qualify.

Let’s be frank though. With the team we had out (it was close to being our starting line up), we should have won that game comfortably against such an inexperienced Toronto side. Losing Haber didn’t help, but we should have been ahead by that point in the proceedings anyway. I think it says a lot about our current team and tactics at the moment. Strong defensively, but very little elsewhere. Unlike last year, it’s hard to see things clicking into place this term.

But that’s the Canadian Championship all over for another year. A bit of an anti-climax, with Montreal denying Canadian football a grand finale, but all we can now do is to look forward to next year.

What shape the tournament will take, no-one currently knows. The addition of Edmonton will now make it at least four teams strong. There’s been a lot of debate all over as to what the future of the Voyageurs Cup should be and who should be included.

We’re unfortunately a long way away I think from a US Open style Cup, but I would love to see that at some point. That would always be my chosen path. Regional qualifying for now would make sense. Get teams like Victoria and Abbotsford in there. Get some local derbies and rivalries going. It’s the only thing that will help grow the game here.

What I would hate is for them to have us playing a two legged game against Edmonton and playing the winners of a two-legged game between Toronto and Montreal. It’s pointless and kills the competition for the fans.

I could see Sportsnet, or whatever TV company gets the rights, pushing the CSA for something like this though. It would pretty much guarantee them six meaningful games to show and not the situation we had tonight. So if that does happen, it’s something else to hate Montreal for. Their lack of pride and respect for the competition would have got us to that stage. The only pleasing aspect of it is that they would never represent Canada on the international stage for a while.

Back to this year though and well done to Toronto. They deserved their trophy this time. They did what they needed to do, whilst we couldn’t get any scoring threat going in the four games. We were piss poor frankly. Keep the Cup shiny, as we’ll be going all out to get it next time, hopefully with some strikers in tow.

Good luck to Motagua in the preliminary round of the Champions League. Do Honduras and the west coast of Canada proud.

A View From The Southside #1

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Unfortunately we have to finish on a more sombre note.

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

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

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

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