MLS Shorts # 1

The big announcement this week in MLS will come on Thursday when the schedule is finally announced. Fans all over the League have been waiting for this moment and for AFTN and Caps fans, we can finally start planning our trips to Seattle, Portland, LA, San Jose and beyond. Let’s just hope they didn’t go with the ridiculous rivalry week idea.

The schedule this season is coming out a week later than last year, with the season starting a week earlier. The League have said “We recognize that the timing of [the schedule’s] release has caused some inconvenience and we appreciate our fans’ continued patience”.

That’s all well and good but it’s another sign that the League bigwigs just don’t get supporters culture and the fact that we want to travel away to watch our guys. With holiday time needing booked in many workplaces at the start of the year, it’s just not acceptable and very minor league. They can use their stock excuses all they want, but like a Montreal Imapact fan, it just doesn’t wash.

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At least this week’s news will interest the fans. Last week’s turned out to be a huge anti-climax. Hyped up that there was going to be “a major soccer announcement” last Tuesday, fans were speculating as to what it could be. The schedule? A major new sponsor? A fantastic television deal? Don Garbage had seen the light and decided to move on, passing the baton on to a real football man?

When it turned out to be the announcement of the 2011 All-Star game, it was like wtf?

The 2011 game, we are told, is going to be held in New York. Cue big fanfare and big fanny Thierry Henry. Except of course, it’s not being held in New York. Neither city or state, but Harrison, New Jersey. Not as exciting I guess.

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What is the point of the all-star game? From reading various fan forums, none of the fans want it. It detracts from the schedule and kills the buzz when the season is in full flow. There hasn’t even been any oppositon announced. Is MLS really that desperate for acceptance into the mainstream American sporting fraternity that it has to shun what the rest of the world does and go with ridiculous conferences and all-star bullshit? Do they really want to be American that much or is that the only way Garbage feels he can hold his head up high and be considered “major league”. Waste of time, money and resources. It would be better spent improving all that’s wrong with the league.

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With so much wrong in MLS, the League will always struggle to attract top notch names and talent from overseas. We’ll be left with “names” that are coming to the end of their career and more wanting one last payday or a new way of life, than anything else.

Seems like this may apply to managers too as the ‘Special One’ has told Sky Italia that he would like to end his managerial days in MLS.

“My idea is to stay at the top of European soccer for the next 10 to 15 years. After that I would like to have a completely different experience in the United States – the New York Red Bulls or Los Angeles Galaxy, a home in Manhattan or a home in Malibu. That’s the idea I have”. Nice work if you can get it and I’m pretty sure he could!

Also pretty sure he couldn’t hack all the MLS rules and regulations at the same time.

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On a lighter, less ranty note, good news coming out of Portland as it’s been announced that Bright Dike will be missing a lengthy part of the season following a torn achilles tendon. After our run ins with Dike last season, we’re pretty pleased about that. One less player to abuse mind, but we still have Pore and Nagbe. Still crossing our fingers for that accidental leg break on the latter of course.

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Talking of missing players. What the hell is happening with Beckham? He was last seen yesterday taking in the Chelski-Liverpool game at Stamford Bridge. Surely he’d be better suited taking part in the Galaxy’s pre-season training?

The Galaxy are playing down the absence but if I was a Galaxy fan, which thankfully I’m not, I’d be getting worried about comments like “Just when Beckham is supposed to return is unknown, even to Galaxy officials”.

Beckham has only made 48 appearances for the Galaxy in four years. That’s just three more than all the matches the team played last season. If we don’t get to abuse him at Empire then that’s going to take a bit of the shine of the season!

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Of course we should say above, Empire or BC Place, as it was announced today that a provisional completion date for the renovated BC Place has been given as September 30th.

A coin toss is expected as to who will be the first team to play there. Expectations had been that the Caps would be the first team to play at the new look venue, in a nod to it’s first grand opening in 1983.

Just let the Lions do it. In fact, let’s just play out the whole season at Empire. It’s a much better suited stadium for football. Very old school UK style and will create some great atmoshperes and games in the short time we’re going to be there. I’d love us to stay there for as long as we can.

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Finally an update on the Cascadia Summit pre-season ticketing shambles. The Whitecaps finally put our allocation on sale this morning at 10am, nearly a full week after what turned out to be the Seattle only allocation went on sale from Ticketmaster.

Very little promotion for it. No mention on the offical Caps website, facebook or twitter. There may have been an email blast but most people I’ve spoken to have not received it. You know, it’s as if they can’t be bothered with the whole thing and it’s just too much hassle for them. That’s certainly the impression that they’re giving.

Tickets are available from calling the Caps main office on 604 669 9283. Press 2 to go through to a ticket rep. Tickets cost $10 each and there will be a $2 cost per order for mailing them to you. Get in quick though, as it’s first come, first served and only available to season ticket holders.

MLS Draft Not Really All That Super For Caps Fans

So that was Vancouver Whitecaps first ever Superdraft. Mine too. I don’t really know what I was expecting but it wasn’t that!

I’ve not watched a lot of drafts over the years. Some NFL ones, maybe the odd NHL one and that’s pretty much it. The MLS one seemed to be lacking pizazz and flair. There wasn’t even a photo opp of the number one draft pick going up on stage with a Whitecaps jersey with the number 1 and his name on it.

That’s not a bad thing you understand. I’m certainly not knocking that. Football isn’t all about the razzamatazz and glitz. It’s a down to earth, working man’s game, no matter how much the MLS will try and brainwash us otherwise in other aspects of the game in North America. It should be businesslike and on the whole it was. That was refreshing for any sport here.

That aspect I liked.

There was a distinct lack of excitement for me, as I really only gave a toss about who the Whitecaps selected in their draft picks. Even after they were done, I wasn’t exactly moved to fever pitch.

In fact, all the Superdraft really did was pose more questions about the 2011 Whitecaps than it answered.

When all the dust was settled and the picks made though, Omar Salgado finally became a Vancouver Whitecap player after last summer’s signing debacle. He became the first player to go in the 2011 draft and the first ever Whitecaps selection, a fact that I will never understand the importance placed on it as I explained yesterday.

So what have we ended up with in Salgado? Well, he’s a good young prospect who could become a regular in the US national team over time, which in itself is bad news for the Caps as we’ll lose him to international duty all too often.

He’s a gangly striker, with an unattractive playing style from the footage I’ve seen but at least a goalscoring record, so that’s one of the “desperately needed” boxes ticked. Only problem of course is that he’s 17 and under FIFA’s current rules can’t officially move to Canada and play for us until he turns 18 in September. Knowing FIFA this could change but assuming it doesn’t we have just wasted our prime draft pick on someone who we probably won’t see fully until 2012 and at that, he’ll only be 18 so how mature and effective is he going to be?

I’m all for future prospects but this is ridiculous and surely what our residency program is all about.

It just feels like it’s a waste and leaves me with a lot of questions about the whole thing.

Salgado was a huge surprise to go so early. Even to the player himself. Would he have still been available at the number 8 pick? Is he really that good a prospect that we had to make sure we secured him? We’ll have to trust the Caps team in this that the answer is a positive yes.

Darlington Nagbe went to Portland. In one way, thank fuck. He made it clear apparently that he didn’t want to come to Vancouver, so he’s gone to one of our biggest rivals in the Timbers and came across as a bit of a wanker in his ESPN interview following his pick, so even more special abuse will be lined up for him. I’m already thinking about the infamous Hibernian chant about Hearts’ Rudi Skacel. Seems fitting to me.

Now, if Portland desperately wanted him did we try to trade picks with the Timbers? If so, what were we looking for and why did the deal not go ahead?

If he’s that exciting a prospect, could we have fucked up our rivals by trading our pick with DC United or another team, or even just pick him ourselves and punt him for an experienced striker (but not Chad Barrett!). Did the Caps even consider this? I really want to know.

We may never know the answers to a lot of these questions.

ESPN weren’t much help on the day. They didn’t even seem to know about all the transfer turmoil last year when we tried to get Salgado early. That’s how it appeared.

I was also a little puzzled by our second pick at number 8 of Michael Nanchoff, because Jalil Anibaba and Will Bruin were being touted as the ones to go for. Now I’ll be honest, I had no fucking idea who anyone was by this stage of the draft, so I trust our coaching staff 100% on this one over television pundits. He’s a tough midfielder, another Akron lad and his scoring and assist records weren’t that shabby last year. I’m actually more excited by Michael than Omar at this point in time.

The Whitecaps third pick of Jeb Brovsky from Notre Dame seems to be the most exciting of all. A striker or attacking midfielder, he may be the hidden gem in the lower stages of the draft and comes highly recommended by some pundits.

Our last pick was fellow Fighting Irish defender Bilal Duckett. Not exactly a footballing name there! Sure we can get some fun rhyming couplets though.

So where does this leave us? Woefully short of experienced attacking options still and the need to add to the roster soon, possibly through international allocations or these now fabled designated player positions.

With all the build up the Superdraft, I was expecting more. You know what though? It’s just all conjecture, let’s just see who does what on the pitch. If we can actually score this year then I’ll be more than happy.

Mon the Caps.

Who Will Savage Whitecaps Reputation First – Darlington or Robbie?

In the last few days, all the talk around the Whitecaps has been around tomorrow’s MLS Superdraft and the Caps top pick and subsequent picks. Today that changed, at least a little bit.

Don’t even get me started as to the why everything has to have a dynamic name and every player seems to have to have some kind of designation to him. I am trying to try and stay slightly positive about MLS, even if it is a fucking joke League at times!

Why so many people seem to put so much onus on which player we select first puzzles me. Who we get out of this is not a momentous decision in the history of the Vancouver Whitecaps. These are mostly untried players. They’re more a pig in a poke at this level. More often than not one for the future than one which can help us right away, which is what we need. It’s no more important to me than which residency player we next bring through the ranks. Signing some decent strikers and experienced players with youth on their side and/or designated players are way more important to me.

The player on everyone’s lips of course has been Darlington Nagbe.

The Akron University star was named America’s top men’s college player last week, picking up the Hermann Munster trophy on Friday. This must have excited Gramps Lenarduzzi, as Nagbe was expected to be the Whitecaps first selection tomorrow.

Nagbe missed the showcase combine, adding to speculation that he had already made a deal with the Whitecaps, a rumour everyone was quick to deny.

Hopefully no-one got their new MLS Caps jerseys printed with Nagbe’s name though as it seems that the whole deal may have fallen through with the word on the street being that Nagbe does not want to come to Vancouver.

Well fuck him. If he doesn’t want to come, then I don’t want him here and would much rather see us take someone who actually does want to play for the jersey. We could still take him and he makes it a PR embarrassment for the Caps. We could trade picks with Portland, although what they would have to offer in return? Or, a particular favourite of mine, draft the wanker then sell him to some shithole franchise where he’ll simply rot.

Immigration complications are one of the reasons being cited but you know what, who cares what they are. Any player in this draft should be honoured to pull on a jersey for a Club with a rich history and tradition like the Whitecaps.

If this does play out like this, it would be another major embarrassment for the Whitecaps front office. Following the fuck ups involving Omar Salgado (who is available in the draft and could be picked up at 8th) and Cody Arnoux, you do have to wonder what the hell is going on behind the scenes.

Add in the fact we don’t seem to feel we need strikers and the lack of designated players and this isn’t filling people with a ton of optimism at this point. Then we can now add in to the mix that veteran Welsh terrier Robbie Savage could be about to join the Club.

This rumour seems to have been confirmed by the man himself. At 36, is this really the kind of player and direction we are wanting the Whitecaps to go? I’m all for experience and leadership but come on.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m a big fan of Robbie’s. I recommend his autobiography to all. He’s one of the best shit disturbers in the business. Colourful, charismatic, a wind up merchant extraordinaire, a skillful player still, a leader and someone who’s not afraid to put the boot in when needed. He’s great and if he comes I’ll welcome him with open arms and be chanting his name from the rooftops if a designated player spot isn’t wasted on him and he doesn’t keep a starting place for someone more deserving.

He’s not the future of the Club though and as much as he’s a cult hero/villain in the UK, I don’t know how much of a “name” he is to be a draw here. What kind of message is it giving out as well in bringing someone who is near the end of his career to the Club. Others will question his dubious reputation and what message that gives out. That I don’t care about. If we had a squad full of Robbie Savages I’d be happy at the commitment that would be shown, although how many players we’d be finishing the games with would be questionable!

We need youth. We need a future. We need strikers. We need players who want to come and play for a proud club, not just because of the money. We need a team that’s going to be be competitive from the off, as we’re no ordinary expansion team.

We’re paying enough to watch the team, now give us what we want in return and pick wisely.