2011 Whitecaps Need To Avoid Becoming Worst Team In MLS History

We talked in our Metro column today about what the Caps have left to play for this season.

That basically boiled down to the Cascadia Cup, pride and not finishing rooted to the bottom of the 2011 MLS overall standings.

When it comes to talking about pride though, I’m not just looking at avoiding being the worst team in MLS this year, I’ve also looked at the League’s history and how we’re shaping up there.

It’s not looking good.

The 2011 Vancouver Whitecaps could be on course to become the worst ever team in MLS history!

Looking back on MLS’ previous 15 year history, the lowest number of wins recorded in any season is FOUR – that’s twice the total we’re sitting on right now with just a dozen games left.

This has been “achieved” twice.

Tampa Bay Mutiny notched up just four wins in 2001, but this was a season cut short by the 9/11 attacks. The other Club with the ignominy of this record is 2005 expansion side Chivas USA.

When it comes to points, the lowest recorded was again by Tampa Bay in that 2001 season, with just 14, but who knows how that season would have ended up if it hadn’t have been for the terror attacks.

The Metrostars recorded 15 in 1999, when MLS still had no draws and a ridiculous shootout, so we can’t compare that too much. They had seven official wins that season, but only four of those came in regulation.

Chivas USA finished their inaugural season with 18 points from their 32 games, for technically the third worst record, but realistically, this is the one we should be doing a proper comparison with.

Doing some pro-rata calculations to take into account the current 34 game season, we need to record 5 wins and 20 points to avoid being the worst MLS side EVER.

That should be more than enough motivation for the players!

Is this doable?

The points total, I think yes, the wins…. I just don’t know where three of those will be coming from.

If we look at Canadian pride, we should also look to see how the 2011 Whitecaps are faring compared to the 2007 Toronto FC.

TFC finished their inaugural season with a record of Played 30, Won 6, Drew 7, Lost 17, Goals For 25, Goals Against 49, Points 25.

Again, looking at the pro-rata figures, we need to finish with 7 wins and 29 points to not be the worst Canadian team in MLS history.

Now that’s a tough ask.

We can only hope that Montreal mess things up even worse than we did when they enter the League next year, to avoid having that tag around our necks.

Vancouver Whitecaps have a proud history and Tommy Soehn should be putting these stats up on the dressing room wall to fire the players up.

They don’t/shouldn’t need it and we’ve already seen plenty of passion on the training ground this week.

Every little helps though and no player wants to go down in the history books as being part of the worst team in the history of a League.

The fans don’t think this group is that, so let’s see them go out there for the remaining 12 games this season and show all of MLS that they’re not the worst the league has seen.

Chicago on Sunday are not going to know what’s hit them.

In The Cold Light Of Day: New Era, Same Old Caps

I’d hoped to make a post about Wednesday’s game before now, but the Santa Barbara sun and good times put paid to that.

At least part of AFTN’s three game road trip is going to be fun. The on field part of it, I’m not so sure about.

Waiting in Phoenix airport, en route to Salt Lake City, this seems like as good a time as any to catch up.

We’re one game into the Tommy Soehn era and already it seems like same old, same old. A game we should have won. A game we ended up drawing. A result that does little to help the Caps season.

Soehn was true to his word though and rang the changes. Some surprising, some we expected.

It certainly looks like some of Teitur’s D2 old guard could be on borrowed time in a Caps jersey, left to warm up endlessly for ninety chilly minutes in California.

Seeing Alex Morfaw and Bilal Duckett in the starting eleven was a huge surprise. I’m not doubting their talent, in fact I rate Morfaw very highly, but since Bilal had only featured on the bench once, and Alex not at all, this season, starting them could be construed as a major “Teitur had no clue in my opinion” moment.

Watching them both in PDL action for the residency in Abbotsford on Sunday just before I left for my trip, I had no idea I’d be seeing them playing in Carson. I’m sure they didn’t either.

Morfaw had a good game. I expect him to do well as a first team regular and it was good to see him finally get his chance. I’d started singing “One Alex Morfaw” for him pre-season in Tukwila and have continued it at the PDL games. He enjoys it and now we can keep it going!

I haven’t seen enough of Bilal Duckett to fairly judge. He looks gangly and unorthadox on the ball, but hey, if that gets the job done, who cares what it looks like. I would expect Jonathan Leathers to be back in there when he’s recovered from his niggling injury, but it was a surprise to see Bilal start over Wes in the right back position.

Bringing in Akloul for Janicki in the centre of defence I have no problem with. I think he’s the better centre half and one that offers us a bit more at the other end of the field too.

Both Mouloud and Jay had some heroic last ditch tackles out there, especially Jay’s goal-line clearance near the end of the game.

Joe Cannon starting over Jay Nolly is the most contentious of Soehn’s decisions. I’d have gone with Cannon before the season started, but at this time I don’t think Jay has done enough to lose the starting goalie position. He’s kept clean sheets recently and been voted man of the match. Harsh.

Cannon was partly at fault for the Chivas goal. He should certainly have done better getting down to it. That said, the defence were equally to blame for backing off and backing off and allowing the shot in the first place.

Soehn has indicated that we would be playing more attacking and more exciting football. Early days, but we didn’t see that on Wednesday and if there’s a team we could have done that against, it was Chivas.

They’re a poor side and that game was there for the taking both before and after Eric Hassli’s sending off.

The big tactical switch Soehn made was moving Davide Chiumiento to the middle, playing back off Hassli, and moving Camilo to the wing.

Camilo scored a cracking goal but didn’t seem overly suited to the role of left or right midfield. Davide looked good at times and linked up well with Hassli.

Those two have shown a connection in so many games this season and watching their interplay has been a joy. It was a cheeky little back heel from Hassli to Chiumiento that led to the goal. No way should Davide have tried a shot when he did but at least the ball broke favourably.

It was a frustrating game to watch as a Caps fan.

We were outpossessed fairly easily. Disappointing considering the player we have and the ball control they show when they have the ball at their feet.

It’s way too early to judge Soehn, as some have been doing elsewhere. We need to give the guy a chance to stamp his mark on the team. That’s not gong to happen overnight.

We should have a good idea of what a Soehn Caps side will look like by the end of June. Then we can start the judgements, for by then our MLS season could be as good as over, with just exhibition games basically left.

The players need to stand up and be counted though.

Whenever my team has lost a manager, and so many other teams too, the players are so up for it in the next game. Keen to prove a point and keen to pay homage to their old gaffer.

That wasn’t evident at the Home Depot Center on Wednesday.

What kind of team and performance will we see on Rio Tinto Stadium tonight? That’s going to be telling and show what kind of players we have in the blue and white this season.

It’s a hard enough place to go, never mind without your top striker (shocking sending off when I saw the replay, although at the game it looked a rash challenge).

I’m not expecting much. Maybe this is when the Caps will surprise me.

Mon the Caps.

Tommy Can You Hear Me?

The AFTN road trip has finally rolled into California.

I’m typing this from Coalinga. No, we hadn’t heard of it either! LA tomorrow though. Carson to be exact, as Vancouver Whitecaps take on Chivas USA at the Home Depot Center.

Tommy Soehn’s first match in charge of the MLS Caps is a basement battle. As an indication as to how bad Vancouver’s early season form has been, you only have to consider the fact that even a comprehensive win on Wednesday won’t drag the Whitecaps off the bottom spot in the West.

It might keep us from losing all hope though. For without hope, you’re a TFC fan.

Soehn is no stranger to MLS of course. A player of five years with Dallas and Chicago, Tommy made over 100 appearances before turning to management. A three year spell as head coach with DC United saw him win the Supporters Shield in 2007.

He is no stranger to this League. He knows what it takes to win. He’s given the impression that he thinks it won’t take too much to turn things round. Let’s hope that optimism turns to victories on the pitch.

On my trip down to California, one of the cd’s I’d happened to pack was “Tommy” by The Who. Was due to the fact that I’m going to see Roger Daltrey performing it live in October. No, it seems quite an apt album to have on a three game road trip that’s going to cover Soehn’s first three games in charge.

As are some of the lyrics.

“Tommy can you hear me….Can I help you to cheer?”

Teitur was a fan friendly manager. I do feel, and I stated this a few weeks back on the Southsiders forum, that this closeness to the fans clouded some people’s judgements about the decisions he was making and what was taking place on the pitch.

Teitur fully understood fan culture though and the important of it to the team. He encouraged players to come to fan functions and to show their appreciation after the games.

What does the future fan/club relationships hold in store under Tommy? What kind of reaction will he get from the travelling support in LA, Salt Lake and Seattle? And what kind of reaction will he give the fans back?

Does that even matter, if we get the results on the pitch?

I’m greedy. I want both, but if I’m only getting one, I want an aloof coach that brings success.

“We’re not gonna take it. Never did and never will. We’re not gonna take it. Gonna break it. Gonna shake it. Let’s forget it better still.”

Our start to the season has been awful at times. Our play has merited a better haul than our current points total, but them’s the breaks. It’s been too little, too late far too often this season. If it wasn’t for our late heroics in a couple of games, our points tally would be even worse.

Vancouver Whitecaps are a winning team. We are a successful team with a proud history. WE DO NOT UNDERACHIEVE. And we won’t start to accept that now.

We’ve only failed to make the playoffs twice in our history as a top flight side and both of those were our first two years as a NASL side in 1974.

Only on two other occasions, both as a D2 side in the 90’s, have we not made the playoffs.

We’re not an ordinary expansion side, so doing the same in MLS can’t be tolerated when you have assembled as talented a squad as we have.

This is a new start, so let’s forget about the 12 games that have gone before and start anew.

What will that new look like? What is a Soehn Caps starting eleven? Are some of Teitur’s D2 favourites on their way out of the equation now?

Tommy has been instrumental in bringing certain players to the Club. One such player is Joe Cannon. Does he get the nod ahead of Jay Nolly now? Does Davide Chiumiento get moved to the middle of the park like he has craved?

It will be interesting to see.

The players are the key to our future success. They’re the ones that break a Club AND a manager.

We’ll finish for now with one final lyrical quote from ”Tommy”, just for them:

“Listening to you,
I get the music.
Gazing at you,
I get the heat.
Following you,
I climb the mountains.
I get excitement at your feet.

Right behind you,
I see the millions.
On you,
I see the glory.
From you,
I get opinions.
From you,
I get the story.”

That’s what it’s like for us watching you from the stands. So do us proud lads.

Mon the Caps.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Mon the Caps.

Reserve League Important Tool For Whitecaps Growth

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

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

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

The reason given has been logistics and costs.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All very important for the Caps development.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Whitecaps Football Shorts # 10

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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MLS referees are in the news – again.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Timbers Army certainly rose to the occasion.

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

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

More power to them.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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