In The Cold Light Of Day: Vancouver is full of ations

To paraphrase Kenneth Wolstenholme, we thought it was all over. It is now. 

Four days after Vancouver Whitecaps’ playoff hopes crashed and burned in the altitude of Colorado, there’s still a lot of anger floating around here at AFTN as it’s been a season of wasted opportunities, where those teams previously below us have strengthened themselves far better than the Caps did. 

It’s also been a season full of ations for Vancouverand they’ve driven our playoff hopes off a cliff.  

We’d hoped for celebration, domination and creation but unfortunately it’s been frustration, desperation and stagnation that have been the order of the day. All we can hope for now is that it is going to end with a termination. 

The hard questions that have to be asked now by the Caps powers that be is what were the goals going into the season, who is responsible for the failure to achieve those and what are the acceptable measuring sticks of success and progression for this team? 

As expected of a man fighting to save his job, Martin Rennie has been keen to play up the positives at every given opportunity over the last few weeks. And there have been some. 

The Caps have recorded their highest ever points total after three years of MLS play and their highest number of overall wins and away wins (although some of those games saw the team filled with trepidation). Then there’s the big increase in goals scored and Camilo challenging for the Golden Boot. 

They’re all positives. There’s a temptation to call it spin, but it is at least factual. It’s just not what I deem as acceptable progress when those around you have actually progressed more than you. 

I know I’ve been beating these stats to death a little this week on Whitecaps Daily and on our own podcast, but they are worth mentioning again for those that haven’t listened. 

We’ve improved in areas and yes, that is some kind of progress, but when you dig a little deeper into the numbers they become a little bit more telling. 

Vancouver have 12 wins at present, but that’s only an increase of one from 2012. Portlandhave five more and Coloradothree. 

Again, yes, the points total has increased to 45. A massive increase of two there, whilst Portland have increased by 20 and Colorado by 14. 

Those were the two teams that finished below us last season that have improved enough to make the playoffs this year at our expense. Is that acceptable progress? And why were those teams able to strengthen better than we were? 

Even looking at Dallas, who didn’t make the playoffs last year or this, have five more points and two more wins. 

The Whitecaps have scored 50 goals so far this season. That is up a whopping 15 on last year and sees them sitting with the third best ‘goals for’ record in the West and fourth best in MLS overall. 

Great stuff, but hold on a minute. How can a team that’s scoring like that not even be in the playoffs, never mind languishing 14th in the overall table? Portland are also up 15 goals and they sit atop of the Western Conference. 

Well a quick look one column over tells you why. The Caps have conceded 45 goals this year, which is actually an increase of four on last season. Only six teams have conceded more and four of them are also missing out on the playoffs. Portland on the other hand have conceded a massive 23 goals less than last season. 

Rennie stated again at training yesterday that the team needs “a settled back four”. They do and yes, there has been a huge amount of chopping and changing with the central defenders due to the insane amount of injuries that has befallen that particular position, but how many goals and losses can be pinned on that defensive pairing? Everyone who’s played there this year has done reasonably well and at times excellently so. 

The problem has been on the wings. With Lee retiring and Harvey struggling defensively, there’s two voids to be filled there in the offseason and, without going into the rights or wrong of the Rochat trade once again, many would say it should have been filled this year. 

Not to mention for the umpteenth time that we’ve needed at least one more midfielder all season long. 

I said back in April that this squad was not good enough or deep enough to make the playoffs. It was glaringly so. A storming June papered over some of those cracks but they soon became visible again leading to our traditional late summer horrorshow.

It was all very frustrating to watch and that frustration soon turned to desperation, which in turn led to the Caps finding some form when they were fighting for their playoff lives. 

All too little too late and you’re left wondering what might have been had they found that swagger and playing style sooner. 

Which ties in with another ation that’s caused problems. Rennie’s formation. Rigid, predictable and seemingly without the right personnel in place to carry it out at times. At this late stage in the season, how many would agree on what our best starting eleven actually is? Does Rennie even know? At times it’s felt like improvisation.

In his postgame interview on Saturday he claimed that: 

“I wanted to introduce a number of young players in the team and we’ve really done that. We’ve had a number of young players establish themselves in the group.” 

Who? And what team? The Reserves? Manneh couldn’t even find a spot on the bench in a number of matches. Teibert, Koffie and Leveron all lost their starting spots. 

There’s been some statistical advancement but not to an extent of achieving the Caps’ set goals. 

At training yesterday Jordan Harvey commented that “Obviously we’re disappointed at not making the playoffs, that’s our number one goal. We had high expectations.”

Not everyone can achieve their number one goal, but when it really matters the Whitecaps consistently failed to achieve most of their aims under Rennie. And the fact that often it has been in their own hands is what is particularly anger inducing. 

We knew we needed two wins against Coloradoto most likely make the playoffs. We didn’t get the job done. We knew we needed to beat Montrealat home to win our first every Voyageurs Cup. We didn’t get the job done again. 

We did win our first Cascadia Cup in the MLS era but all that gets us is a shiny fan trophy,  bragging rights and libations. Fun, enjoyable but ultimately it should have been way down the pecking order when it came to what people feel was acceptable as a mark of a successful season. 

Rennie’s interviews often have an element of spin to them, manipulation if you like, but at times they also have a feel of a flight of fancy and you wonder if you’ve been watching the same game and team. 

There can only be so much spin and the results speak for themselves. Rennie sees progress, yet Caps President Bobby Lenarduzzi told Team Radio yesterday that “I would say that we were stagnant”. 

He continued: 

 

“The competition in the division, it’s clear for everyone to see, other clubs upgraded, as did we, but just not enough. Too many points dropped at key times. 

 

“I would say that we probably maintained where we were, but most people would view it as having regressed because we haven’t made the playoffs.”

 

It’s hard to read or hear those comments, and others where he clearly lays all of the player decisions and signing with the manager,  without thinking that Rennie’s days are numbered in Vancouver and the season will end with one last ation – termination. 

 

Whoever then comes in will be one of the key appointments in Whitecaps history. It has to be right man, with the right ideas and the right knowledge to lead this team to success, hopefully adding a new ation for next season – rejuvenation.

In The Cold Light Of Day: Bottoms Up

Back to back wins. Not being in last place.

So this is how it feels. I like it!

Wednesday’s win against DC United was a milestone in the Whitecaps season.

Two wins in a row. An unchanged starting line up. The first MLS goal for a young prospect.

These may be small crumbs of comfort for the long-suffering Caps support, but better some small crumbs than to go starving altogether.

Perhaps most importantly, this was a team performance. This was a whole team that showed hunger, fight and the desire to play for the jersey.

I found it hard to pick a ‘Man of the Match’. The guys all played as a unit. It wasn’t the most spectacular performance we’ll ever see, but it was effective and the great thing was that they held the lead to the end and didn’t let their heads go down after DC hauled themselves back into the game.

The win, and moving off the bottom spot in MLS at long last, meant as much to the players as it did the supporters.

Joe Cannon told the press pack after the game:

“I think mentally for the Club, and for everyone, it’s something you don’t really talk about. It’s great now that we’re done, that we’re there. Obviously we have two more games and anything can happen. So let’s try to just keep moving up and hopefully start something special for next year for this Club”

So what is behind this new found gusto from the Caps?

Are the players finally starting to click, 90% into the season? We always knew they were better than a last place team. Finally the results are saying the same.

Are the players starting to realise that they need to play for their places if they want to play in a wonderful city and stadium next season? Maybe they finally listened and took Joe Cannon’s words to heart.

Has the introduction of the younger fringe players, with points to prove and places to earn, given the whole team a lift? And if so, why wasn’t this done so much earlier?

Whatever it is, let’s just hope they keep it going for these last two games of the season and finish the year on a high.

I’m really liking the Alain Rochat/Jordan Harvey link on the left wing. Whoever came up with that idea deserves a medal. Colin Miller? The start of some great Scottish ideas hopefully!

We can’t talk about Wednesday game without mentioning Long Tan.

It was great to see The Dragon open his MLS goal account and you could see what it meant to him, and the genuine happiness of the other Caps players that he had broken his duck.

Eric Hassli was a class act with him.

Hopefully the goals of Tan and Khalfan will give them some confidence to go on and add to these before the season end. Nizar Khalfan was certainly playing with freedom and verve against DC, and that would definitely have been goal of the week if his second half strike had found the back of the net, instead of the side netting.

Onwards and upwards Whitecaps fans.

“We’re not bottom. We’re not bottom. We’re not bottom any more. We’re not bottom any more.”

We might want to make the most of it, as that may not be the case come 7.30 Saturday evening!

The way the team are playing right now though, you wouldn’t put it past them to go out and get their first away win of the season now as well.

We can still catch Toronto!

In The Cold Light Of Day: NaCl Do Nicely Vancouver

Vancouver Whitecaps did themselves proud last night.

Just shows you what playing with a bit of heart and hunger can do.

Well done to all of the players.

And well done to Colin Miller on picking a winning team.

Team 1410 revealed last night that Miller had been asked by Tommy Soehn to select the squad for the game.

I find this incredible. It worked, so maybe we shouldn’t knock it. Baffling though, in many ways.

We’ve been referring to Soehn as a lame duck manager of late. How can he command any respect in the dressing room after such a move?

It wasn’t a perfect performance, we’ve played a lot better and lost, but it was a well deserved and hard fought effort that provided a much needed morale boosting victory.

The LA Galaxy games aside, the Caps have performed well against the top teams in the League this season and it was a comfortable win against Real Salt Lake in the end. Obviously that was helped by the visitors going down to ten men just before half time, but although they controlled possession at times in the first half, they never really troubled Joe Cannon or the Caps notoriously shaky defence.

I expected a lot more from Salt Lake in the second half, even being a man down, but apart from perhaps a five or ten minute spell towards the end, they were never a threat and on this performance and current form, they are a side that are going to struggle in the playoffs.

They weren’t the most gracious in defeat and some of the language used by their players post game showed us little respect. RSL seem to be one of the whiniest clubs in MLS.

When the original fixture was postponed in July, they whined a lot then, and with justification. Last night all the moans were about the referee, the penalties and the sending off.

Both penalties were soft. We won’t say otherwise. As with every single contentious decision, you’ve seen them given, you’ve seen them not.

The first one was more the shoulder than arm and the second was ball to arm.

Something that they seem to have missed, or are conveniently ignoring, is the fact that Warner hauled down Brovsky before the handball at the first penalty. His arms were wrapped all around him and he hadn’t even bought him dinner. That in itself was a penalty. Not a red card incident admittedly, but we would still have been a goal up.

Every team has decisions that go against them. We’ve had more than our fair few this season.

We could have had more penalties.

The Camilo incident just before the goal, where he was shoulder charged off the ball, is also a debatable one. To me, it wasn’t a penalty and was a fair, if robust, challenge. You wouldn’t want that given against one of our guys. Camilo’s reputation for going down so easily does him no favours in this League. Another day, another ref, we might have got it.

Long Tan may have been brought down from behind after we’d gone two up, but if there was any contact, initial glances made it seem minimal.

Them’s the breaks RSL. You win some, you lose some. It’s called football.

But enough of the sore losers. Let’s concentrate on our own guys.

All our pre-game hopes of fringe and younger players getting given a chance to show what they can do came to nothing.

Of the six players we wanted to see start the Salt Lake game, only Long Tan got the nod. Omar Salgado made the bench, but, criminally, Alex Morfaw, Philippe Davies, Michael Nanchoff and Bilal Duckett didn’t even make the gameday eighteen.

It must be heartbreaking for these guys when they see a defender, in Jordan Harvey, starting in midfield ahead of them. As we asked in our Vancouver Metro column today, what do these guys have to do to get their chance?

Now, full credit to Harvey, he had a blinder. He really surprised me and linked up productively with Alain Rochat on the left, with both players covering each other well. This may be the place for him in our team. He certainly impresses me more as a midfielder than a left back.

What was the point though of fielding older guys like 31 year old John Thorrington and 33 year old Peter Vagenas at the expense of younger talent like Morfaw and Davies? Are either of these auld yins even going to be at the Caps next year?

Sticking in the middle, the inclusion of Nizar Khalfan was a surprise. As was his performance.

He took his goal well and it was the Khalfan we saw at the start of the season, where he was quite the impact player off the bench.

He really went off the boil, having clearly taken a knock in confidence after being dropped, and has shown little since.

To be honest, I still don’t think he is MLS quality, especially as a starter. He earned a run in the team though for the remainder of the season after that goal.

You could see what it meant to him and maybe it will now give him some confidence to go on and improve his game.

No doubt we’ll see him dropped now for Wednesday.

Long Tan impressed. He’s eager and would run all day. He’s still very rough around the edges and sometimes his ball control lets him down, but this will only come good if he gets fully tested against quality opposition on a regular basis. Again, he needs to get a run in the team now for the remaining three games.

It was also good to see the performance of Carlyle Mitchell. The Trinidad and Tobago centre-half had a solid first team debut in a Caps jersey. It wasn’t spectacular, but you don’t really want to be noticing your defenders too much! He was stready, showed pace and composure and really added a bit of security to the backline. I’m looking forward to seeing more.

It will also give me the chance to dig out my old AFTN Trinidad and Tobago flag from the 90’s – bought when East Fife had three T&T internationals on their books and were getting games called off for players being away on international duty!

At the final whistle, you could see what the win meant to the players and the supporters:

Joe Cannon’s actions of bowing down to the Southsiders was a nice touch. The guy is a legend and impresses me more each week.

The win may be way too little, way too late, and with Real Salt Lake missing around half a dozen of their regular players, we can’t read too much into things, but it does show that if we play with passion and self belief, we should fear no-one in the League.

We have three games left. We need to play the guys that want to be at this Club and will play from the first whistle to the last.

Last night’s win now takes us to within two points of New England Revolution, in the battle for dubious title of the worst team in MLS.

It may not be much, but you know what, if we finish 17th, after the horrendous season we’ve endured, I’d take that.

I Believe.

In The Cold Light Of Day: Whitecaps Need More Heart

“In the future we’ve got to find out who’s got the heart. Who wants to play for the Vancouver Whitecaps. I’m not going to point any fingers, and I’m not different from any guy on this team. We just need more heart and that’s the bottom line.”

Those are the words of Vancouver Whitecaps goalkeeper Joe Cannon to the press scrum after Sunday’s 1-0 loss to Portland. He said a lot more.

Another weekend, another defeat and another half hearted underperformance from many in a white shirt. This season really can’t end fast enough for everyone.

For all that’s gone wrong this year, and all the spin and bullshit that has covered up so many of our inadequacies and weaknesses, we should all be thankful that we have a player like Joe Cannon who is not afraid to stand up and say it like it is. We need more like him.

As we’ve said for weeks now, overanalysing the game itself and what went wrong is pretty pointless at these stage in proceedings. We can only look forward and what has been the biggest disappointment for me in the last few months is that we are not seeing any improvements at all.

Have the players given up? Do they feel it is not worth playing for the manager as he is leaving and basically just a lame duck waiting to be out of his misery? Do they know they’re not likely to be here next season and can’t get the motivation that is demanded?

Whatever it is, it isn’t good enough and we deserve better. The proud history of Vancouver Whitecaps FC deserves better.

When you have Tommy Soehn saying “I didn’t think we had the best of energy in the first half and it’s hard to explain when you look at this venue and the excitement.”, then you don’t have to look at any other starting point.

If the manager cannot bring this energy to the dressing room, then what is he doing there? Soehn’s body language on the bench for these last two games is that of a man who has simply given up. He would dispute that fact obviously, but that’s what we see when we look at him and that’s bound to rub off on the players.

His seeming inability to get his players fired up is not the only aspect baffling us. I would say that even more so, is his stubbornness in not fielding reserve and fringe players and keeping with the same starting players who are clearly not good enough and getting the job done at this point in time.

I’ve been going on about this for weeks now and it’s starting to feel like I’m a broken record. The good this now though is that others are also now starting to ask why this is not happening. There was a good debate about it on Team 1410’s post game show.

Everyone appears to see that this is the way forward for the remaining four games of the season (and the many that have just gone before it). Everyone that is apart from the Whitecaps management.

Players like Alex Morfaw, Philippe Davies, Michael Nanchoff, Long Tan and Omar Salgado need to get a run in the team at this season end and get some proper evaluation minutes under their belts. They may be making it on to the bench, but they’re hardly getting any playing time, if they are lucky enough to even be subbed on. It’s ridiculous.

How can anyone make proper judgements on the future of these players if they don’t get tested in proper MLS competition and not intersquad matches and sporadic reserve games?

Martin Rennie is watching tapes of all the games. I dread to think what he’s making of everything. At least he hasn’t made any ridiculous comments that it won’t take much to turn this team around. He’s bound to know by now that we need a mechanical digger to get ourselves out of the giant hole we’ve put ourselves in.

If you want a picture to sum up the entire 2011 Whitecaps season, then I think this one does just nicely.

Despair and frustration. That just about does it.

Hassli showed both of these on Sunday. I loved that he banged the ground in frustration at his failings. I’d much rather have that than a player screaming at his team-mates because a pass or shot went astray.

With Rennie making evaluations, you’d think that some Whitecaps players would be trying to play out of their skins to prove their worth and not phone in a performance.

We started with quoting Joe Cannon, and we’ll finish with him.

His view is that all of these matches should be treated like auditions and he knows just what’s at stake at the end of it all:

“If anything you would think with these guys you’d see a bit more bite because I’ll tell you what, as some of us will find out who won’t be with the team next year. They’re going to find out that this city and the support and the facilities and the franchise, it’s the cream of the crop off the field.

It’s the best it is and they’re going to find out and wish that maybe they’d sucked it up a bit more, whether in practice or games, and to me that’s the frustrating part.”

The BC Lions have made a marketing play on “pride” and heart. Perhaps if the Whitecaps had a few more players with that pride and heart and desire like Joe Cannon and Eric Hassli, we wouldn’t be where we are today.

In The Cold Light Of Day: Still Looking At What We Have Left To Play For

We’ve been quiet here at AFTN for the last few weeks.

No particular reason, apart from the fact that we were just scunnered!

We’re refreshed a bit now though and with two Cascadia Cup games, a stadium closure and a stadium opening all coming up in the next couple of weeks, it’s hard not to feel a bit reinvigorated.

There’s an air of excitement for the first time in a long time, even after the Caps latest two game road trip wrapped up on Saturday evening with a 3-0 loss to Los Angeles Galaxy.

It was a trip we’d planned to make, but with the way the Caps have been playing and the meaninglessness of the game, it was hard to justify paying all that extra money, so we sold our tickets.

As it turned out, that was a good move, although it did mean we missed out on a football clinic.

It was more than a loss. We were given a bit of a schooling.

You have to give LA credit. They played some delightful football. Knocked the ball about well, always looked dangerous, never looked in trouble. All the things we all hoped we would become, but it still isn’t clicking.

Martin Rennie has a lot of work to do when he gets here, starting with building his trademark watertight defence.

I don’t think he can do much about the standard of refereeing in MLS, but although we can point some fingers in that direction during Saturday’s defeat, that’s not why we lost the game.

Not much point in analysing the game too much, especially at this late stage of proceedings.

My dad was over here and saw his first ever Whitecaps performance. He isn’t going home overly impressed! Bad opponents for him to see his first Caps action.

We’ve gone on all season about how close we feel the team is to turning that corner. To fire on all cylinders and look the part. How we’ve been in most of the games this year. Maybe we’ve been deluding ourselves all this time.

Saturday really did show the gulf in quality between those at the top of MLS this season and those at the bottom.

A few weeks ago, AFTN’s Metro column looked at what our realistic goals could be going into the final weeks of the season.

The four big hopes we had was to not finish bottom of the heap, not end up with the worst record in MLS history, finish above Toronto, and land the Cascadia Cup.

We’re sitting five points adrift now at the bottom. New England are still in our sites, but we’re close to having to dig out the binoculars.

Toronto have finally started to gel and are close to becoming a blur on the horizon.

Catching either is not yet impossible, but neither is still making the playoffs mathematically!

If we’re to land the Cascadia Cup then we need to win both remaining games, or at the very least beat Seattle by two goals and then get a draw against Portland. Nothing but a win on Saturday will do the job.

Four or six points from these two matches would certainly close the gap on those above us and help land a triple whammy of our hopes outlined above.

Failure to beat Seattle on Saturday and we’re just dead in the water.

When it comes to not being the worst team in MLS history, well, we’ve made some progress but we’re not quite there yet.

We still need one more win to avoid having the joint worst win record but we have avoided having the worst points tally thankfully.

Doesn’t look like we’re going to match or beat Toronto’s inaugural season record though. Three more wins and seven more points and we’re there! Hmmm.

The four games after Portland need to see the younger and fringe players given a chance.

It was great to see Alex Morfaw finally back in the gameday squad on Saturday. I’d have definitely put him on there instead of Brovsky. He needs gametime, he needs minutes and he needs the chance to prove what he can do.

I want to see him, Davies, Nanchoff and Tan given decent minutes before the season end, otherwise what’s the point of having a squad?

Meaningless end of season games are the ideal time to gives these guys a chance. It’s what teams do across the world. What’s the point of building up team selection consistency and momentum at this late stage?

Still, they might be lucky and win the “right back lottery” for one of the games.

If it wasn’t for the ridiculous MLS rules, I’d have Caleb Clarke and Ben Fisk out there too.

For now though, all eyes are on Seattle and we’ll have some build up to that game here and on Prost Amerika.

With the way Vancouver are defending and Seattle are attacking, it may look like only one result, but this is football. Anything can happen.

What we need most of all, is pride and passion. We’ll be getting it off the field, now let’s get some on it.

In The Cold Light Of Day: Cannon Gives Houston A Problem

What a difference a week makes.

Or should that be, what a difference playing at home makes.

The Caps wrapped up their fourth win of the season yesterday and although they were maybe fortunate to get the three points in the end, you can’t grudge them the win for the way they kept fighting till the end.

You can read our full match report of the game over on Prost Amerika.

It seemed like another game where they just wouldn’t catch a break. Fruitless goalmouth scrambles and the woodwork looked like being their story of the Whitecaps afternoon.

Houston must have felt that their first away win of the season was coming. Instead, they are left with the ignominy of still searching for their first road victory, along with ourselves and Toronto.

The Dynamo’s failure and the Whitecaps success can largely be placed at the feet of Joe Cannon.

The veteran goalie was in outstanding form on Saturday. World class save, after world class save, probably laid to rest for the last time this season the debate as to who Vancouver number one goalkeeper is. The job is now Joe’s till the end of this year, at least. After that, who knows what Martin Rennie’s regime will bring.

Joe had to be at his best to keep out some of the Houston efforts.

There were only a few defensive lapses, which was pleasing to see. Whether the centre half partnership of Jay DeMerit and Alain Rochat is going to be our way forward, I don’t know. I think we can be pretty certain that that’s what it’s going to be under the rest of Soehn’s tenure. It still leaves us looking a little weak in the back positions, especially on the right.

We managed to keep the Dynamo to long range efforts for the majority of the game and Carlo Costly was not even a feature of the afternoon. All positives.

Our own firepower missed the suspended Camilo.

It was a bit of a frustrating afternoon for Eric Hassli, as he was forced into more of the creative role that saw his form dip earlier in the season.

We still haven’t seen the best of Mustapha Jarju. I don’t think playing as a striker is going to be his future with us. Playing in the middle, or even just in behind the front two, is surely the way that Rennie will play him to see him at his most effective.

It’s already starting to look like a crowded midfield for next season.

We’re going to struggle to fit in everyone we might want, and if Rennie has his eyes on any midfield dynamos of his own, then we could see someone like Chiumiento or Koffie sacrificed in a trade.

The game turned on Saturday with the introduction of subbies Shea Salinas and Long Tan.

There’s not been many times this season where we can say that we’ve improved our game by bringing on subs. Every other team seems to have the advantage over us in this respect, but finally it was our turn.

Both were magnificent.

It was very pleasing to see Shea Salinas finally pop his Vancouver cherry. A goal from the winger has been on the cards for weeks. It’s just been a matter of when was it coming. Saturday was that day, and you could see the joy and relief written all over his face afterwards. He took it well and he showed the composure and guile that has been missing in many of his other efforts on goal, to bury it coolly and clinically into the bottom right hand corner.

It was also a very well worked move.

Having a hand in it was Long Tan.

I’ll be the first to admit I’ve been skeptical that Tan has what it takes to make it in MLS. He has proved me wrong.

Watching him develop in the reserves and PDL matches has been one of the few joys of this season when it comes to our players.

The PDL is all about development and he’s taken his chance to the max. Banging in the goals like he has been, is not going to keep you in the wilderness for long. He has developed his game, and added scoring to his build up touch that he has always shown.

I don’t think Tan is anywhere near ready to be a starter, but he’s definitely an impact sub and, to my eyes, should be well ahead of Salgado in the pecking order.

It’s the same with Salinas.

I think his best role for us is to come off the bench, much like what Nizar Khalfan was offering us earlier in the season before he just seemed to lose it completely.

Shea’s best games for us have been when given a run in the final quarter of the match.

So as we keep saying after every win. Can we go on a build on that?

In all honesty, New York and LA Galaxy away makes you think no, but I do fancy us to give Seattle and Portland a run for their money in the last two Cascadia Cup matches here.

We also have New England and Toronto in our sights for avoiding last place.

It’s scant consolation for a horrible season, but if we can avoid having the worst team record in MLS history, avoid being last in the 2011 season, finish above Toronto and land the Cascadia Cup, then I’ll take that as a success.

Mon the Caps.

In The Cold Light Of Day: Portland Turn Up Heat

The only thing that wasn’t hot in Portland on Saturday evening was the Whitecaps performance.

It’s got to the stage now where there’s not really any point in analysing what went wrong with the Caps any more.

Well, it probably got to that stage many weeks ago if we’re being honest. We all know where it’s going wrong, both on and off the pitch. I’m sure even Tom Soehn does. He must have a mirror in his house after all.

It’s all just depressing and with only nine games remaining, further critiquing of our weaknesses and what we need to fill those gaps are as fruitless as an orange tree in the Arctic.

I just can’t wait for this MLS season to (officially) end and then for the new U18 and U16 ones to start. At least when they lose, you know they’ve learned a lot from the game and will move on from that and develop.

All we’ll say on the game is that how we came away with just a one goal defeat is baffling. Another four goal drubbing looked on the cards, with the defence looking like their footballing brains had melted in the heat, but yet, if we’d pulled a goal back a little earlier, we could have salvaged the most unlikely point we would have earned since Kansas City in game three.

Dominating possession at times counts for nothing if you don’t actually do anything with the ball in front of the net. As John Spencer said post game, they were comfortable knowing we had the ball in front of them, as we posed no danger with it.

So with that said, let’s look at everything else from the Portland weekend.

What an amazing turnout from Caps fans. We brought 50 or so for previous Portland playoff games in D2 in recent years, and that was always a blast, but with those numbers on Saturday and the roof to help the noise, what a loud and fantastic atmosphere we generated. A far cry from the midweek game last season when there were three of us!

Most of us were on the same songbook but there were some logistical problems that need to be looked at.

The Timbers FO didn’t want General Admission and that’s fair enough. Their home, their rules.

That is why it is imperative that tickets for Whitecaps get allocated in a proper way, especially if they are to be trusted to a company like Uselessglobe (who, as one fan counted, had an embarrassingly small number travelling down on their bus).

People need to be sat together with their friends. Older couples and people that want to just sit and quietly watch the game, should not have to endure being sat next to a drummer.

Sort out stuff like that and it’s a win-win for everyone. It was pretty much all good on the day, bar a few minor grumps, but it would be so much easier if this was all taken care of beforehand.

Also what was the deal with sitting a bunch of Timbers fans at the front of the upper 222 section? Mostly family types and a number of kids from what seemed like a school or a camp. Who sold them those seats? Were these unsold tickets sent back by Uniglobe? And whether they were unsold tickets or separately allocated tickets, why were they taking up premier real estate in the Vancouver section?

I sincerely hope these weren’t unsold tickets from Uniglobe and that tickets were allocated from the back down.

The travelling blue and white hordes all seemed to have a great time down there, with many tales of how accommodating the Timbers Army were, something that those of us that have made previous trips already know, love and admire. Everyone seemed well behaved, with praise coming from security on the Southsiders forum. It was nice to have security with a full understanding of what a football crowd is all about and how to deal with them. BC Place should send their security down there and Seattle to take in a game. Too late for the PNE numpties.

Rival fans mingled before, during and after both Saturday first team game and Sunday’s reserve game, without incidents. Many Southsiders went to a Punk concert post-game and pogoed the night away with TWO rival supporters groups – Portland’s Timbers Army and Victoria Highlander’s Lake Side Buoys, the latter of whom had made their way down as friends of the TA.

The concert was a benefit for long time TA member Abe, to help fund some medical costs he incurred. The true spirit of Cascadian fans right there.

It was a long journey down to Portland for many. The Southsiders bus got caught up in border traffic for over three hours on Saturday morning. Going back was even more horrendous for some, with two hour border waits to get back into Canada at Peace Arch and Pacific Highway. I thankfully chose to go via Abbotsford, but even with that half hour wait, a couple of horrible heavy traffic delays between Olympia and Seattle and a blown headlight to be fixed meant a nine hour return journey, an 11.15pm arrival home and getting up this morning at 4.30am for work!

So why do we do it? Why do we spend so much time, money and effort to go and watch two games and two defeats?

Because we love our team and we will support them through thick and thin. Or thin and thinner, as it is this year.

That’s not to say that we’re going to follow them like blind mice or like sheep. We’ll criticise, and rightly so. Some criticism will come in veiled ways, like the singing of “Teitur Tots” or “Martin Rennie’s Blue and White Army”. The increasing amount of Scottish saltires that will be coming out to the next few games will remind us that Tommy’s days, as manager at least, are numbered.

Rennie may or may not turn out to be the great white hope that we’re wanting, but at least it’s a change and right now, the more changes behind the scenes and on the pitch the better.

Having the double header with the reserve game on Sunday was particularly fantastic and helped make the trip even better.

Even though we saw two defeats, there were two very different team performances. The reserves had fight and gusto and were clearly devastated at their late collapse. Sitting in my hotel room on Sunday morning, watching highlights from the feisty Sunderland-Newcastle game the day before, it struck me that some of the players should watch these games to know how they should contest a derby.

Despite being down about the actual game, what needs to be instilled into our players right now is that they can still win the Cascadia Cup. Two victories at home and it’s ours.

If that can’t lift them, then they may as well start packing their bags now.

[*** You can see AFTN’s pictures from both Saturday’s MLS game and Sunday’s Reserve League game on our FLICKR account ***]

In The Cold Light Of Day: Disaster With A Capital DC

I wasn’t going to write anything about Saturday’s capital DISASTER.

There’s that old adage that if you can’t say anything good then don’t say anything at all. And let’s be honest here, what good can you say about the DC debacle?

Even the obvious fun we could have with Stephen King’s brace and horror doesn’t do it justice, although the aptness was incredible. Even the most glass half full fan would struggle for positives from that.

Let’s have a go….

Well, for me, the biggest positive is that we only lost by four. It could easily have been a lot more.

If we’d opened the scoring with that scramble from Camilo’s free kick, would things have been any different? No-one can say for certain, but seeing as how we’ve struggled to keep a lead all season, I think we can make a pretty good educated guess.

The only other positive road I can even begin to go down is that Camilo’s free kicks have surely got to be the best and most consistent in MLS. It’s quite inexplicable really as to why he’s not our penalty taker as well, especially considering how badly we’ve fared in that area of late.

Most teams have at least one nightmare games in a season. Saturday in Washington was ours.

Although we’ve only won three games all year, we’ve at least been competitive (maybe Real Salt Lake in June aside). Even the 4-0 defeat by LA saw us competitive until about the last fifteen minutes. We were never really at the races in Washington, or if we were, the players and management certainly had the blinkers on.

It was strange to see us edging the possession at the end of the first half, for it certainly didn’t feel that way watching it.

The midfield was posted missing on too many occasions.

It was so bad that until I rewound the action on my TV, I couldn’t for the life of me work out if Mustapha Jarju had come on for Shea Salinas or Peter Vagenas. Both were posted missing.

It was certainly Salinas’ worst game for us.

I’ve been becoming a fan of Vagenas in recent weeks. I know a lot of you aren’t, but I do feel he’s calmed down our midfield a little and been a huge boost for Gershon Koffie. He was completely ineffectual against DC.

The inability of the midfield to boss the game, led to wave after wave of attack on the defence and they were simply not up to it.

Both the midfield and defence are at fault for the goals. The midfield for letting them through and the defence for frankly being atrocious.

Jay Nolly had a mare. I felt so sorry for his wife, having to be surrounded by fans in Doolins, as a guest of the Southsiders. She was really going through the wringer.

With the way Soehn has acted this season, this will most probably spell the end of Nolly as the starting keeper and he may have played his last first team game for us. Every keeper has those games. We were even joking on Twitter the day before about goalkeeping howlers in general. That second goal doesn’t need analysing, Nolly himself knows it was a shocker, but he certainly could have done better for the first and fourth goals as well.

The defence left him wide open though.

We’ve seen some pretty bad defensive displays this season but that one tops the lot. We can’t handle anyone running at us. Toronto’s Plata has shown us that and on Saturday DeRo, and others, just waltzed past us with ease. Our marking was equally horrible. Leathers and Harvey just can’t track back quickly enough for long balls over the top, and the latter is far removed from being anywhere near being a capable replacement centre half.

Having only one defender on the bench in Bilal Duckett (and I use that term very loosely) was ridiculous. Putting on the least defence minded midfielder we have, in Davide Chiumiento, for Jay DeMerit and going three at the back was terrifying. It was clear we were going to get ripped a new asshole. And we were.

Where’s Mouloud Akloul when you need him? There’s still not been any satisfactory reason given for his release. Why wasn’t Janicki on the bench? Or Knight?

How can our current line up be expected to field four flair players (Hassli, Camilo, Chiumiento and Jarju) when we can’t defend to save ourselves?

Some of the tactical decisions, player positioning, team selection and substitutions have been baffling in recent weeks. Clueless and devoid of rational thinking.

That brings us nicely to Tommy Soehn.

For the love of everything holy, please just fuck off from our team right now.

Go back to DC or anywhere else that will have you. Your welcome has long gone in Vancouver.

We gave him the benefit of the doubt after Teitur’s sacking. We gave him until after we bowed out, or should that be meekly surrendered, from the Voyageurs Cup, when others were calling for his head long before.

But please, just go now.

Don’t wait for Martin Rennie to arrive and move back upstairs to your other job.

You’ve messed that up to. The quality of the players you’ve found for us has been terrible. You had over a year to prepare us, and Teitur, for the League you should know so well. You have failed us and you’ve managed to drag some players, like Omar Salgado, backwards.

You’ve lost the faith of many fans to be able to do the role of Director of Soccer Operations.

Harmony in the camp is not good. If you speak to players, their friends and families, and general front office staff, you’ll struggle to find many happy bunnies right now. This is not all down to Soehn either. He’s the fall guy, but it goes much deeper and higher.

We need a clean break so that Rennie can have fresh eyes and judge ALL the players accordingly.

I am certainly not deluding myself by thinking that Rennie can turn around the Caps with the current squad. It wouldn’t be the first time that he has gone into a Club and had a complete clear out. That’s what we need. A mass exodus.

Yes, it’s going to mean that some fan favourites will unfortunately be on their way out of Vancouver, but that’s what’s needed, for the good of the team.

When the season ends and we get to protect our few guys for the expansion draft, it will be surprising if any of the others are picked up. What needs to happen then is that before ANY player is released, Rennie needs a month working with ALL of the guys in a hard camp, so that he can make his own mind up as to who would be a fit for his team, without any prejudicial input from Soehn.

Rennie has his own style of play and tactics and is big on team players. He needs to assess them all to see if any will fit in with his plans.

There will be no Teitur’s guys. No Tommy’s guys. Just players, playing for their footballing future and the advancement of Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club.

A lot of these players can start playing for their futures now, but not all will get a chance.

Aside from the Cascadia Cup games, I would just field experimental line-ups for the rest of the season (admittedly some of the existing line ups have had a touch of Dr Frankenstein about them). Let all the players have a go and see what happens. We’ve nothing to play for and nothing to lose.

It’s interesting that the MLS game in which we have mostly dominated possession was against Toronto in June, when it was our fringe players out there. Sure we couldn’t score, but we at least knocked it about well and lost to a penalty. Plus the reserves recently beat Seattle 2-1, and quite comfortably at that.

Throw guys like Salgado, Tan, Morfaw, Knight, Janicki, Nanchoff, Davies and even Sylvestre into the mix. They’ll sink or swim, but at least the fans will think that we’re at least getting something out of the games by developing players. Why have them in the squad if we can’t get a look at them?

Playing our regulars and not getting results for the remainder of the season is pointless. Then again, that’s been our season so why expect different.

I want to see a team of fired up players against Portland. And you know what? I have a sneaking suspicion, based on nothing but my ample gut, that we will actually get something out of that game.

We better. Another capitulation will not be tolerated – especially in a Cascadia Cup match.

In The Cold Light Of Day: Caps To The Four In Basement Battle

What a difference a week makes. Well, eight days if you want to be picky!

Concede four goals, for our heaviest defeat of the season last weekend, yesterday, bang in four and it could have been more.

And the fans certainly lapped it up.

All hail King Eric.

When you’re looking at what maybe made the difference, you really don’t have to look much further than the opposition.

Chicago were a very poor side.

You can tell they come from the Windy City, for they certainly blow.

If ever the chant of “can we play you every week” fits a team, it was this Chicago Fire side.

We may be bottom of the heap, but we’ve competed well in pretty much every game this season. The only game that instantly springs to my mind where we haven’t, was Real Salt Lake away in June.

We haven’t gotten the breaks. We haven’t taken care of business ourselves and held on to our leads. That’s football.

Next season, we might just find ourselves one of the luckiest sides going. Who knows? We can’t really get much worse luck than we have in 2011, and we’re going to have an exciting new manager trying to get the best out of us.

This was another basement battle. Not sure how many such games the Caps can have in one season, but they certainly seem to be coming along at a fair rate of knots.

We mentioned on Friday that the Caps had their work cut out to stop them being the worst team in MLS history.

As it turns out, we may not have that much work to do.

As long as we finish with one more win than Chicago, then we don’t have to worry about that. It’s looking pretty likely, although Chicago certainly did show some glimpses of what they can be capable of, and Vancouver had a few worries of their own at the back.

Let’s get the few negatives out of the way first.

Our defence is woeful at times. No matter what combination we have back there, things just seem to happen that allow the oppostion to get back into games. Silly schoolboy errors.

Obviously the constant changing of personnel doesn’t help, but even our experienced guys are getting caught out.

Alain Rochat was turned inside out for that first Chicago goal. It was actually embarrassing to see Dominic Oduro leave him so flat footed. He’s such a good defender, but was made to look so average. Hey, it happens to the best of them I guess.

I have to say that the jury is still out for me with Jordan Harvey.

The Philly fans were disappointed to see him go. I found it strange that the Union did. Now I’m kinda wondering if there was a reason that they were so keen to accept the offer they just couldn’t refuse.

He hasn’t impressed me so far and has been responsible for a couple of goals conceded now.

The penalty he gave away last week against LA was ridiculous and he clearly isn’t able to cover as a central defender, as his clumsy footedness for the second Chicago goal showed.

He may be a great defender. We just haven’t seen that in a Caps shirt yet.

It was great to see Jay Nolly back between the sticks. Not just because he’s a friend of AFTN, but we feel he is the better keeper and the long term goalie of the team.

He could have done better with the second Fire goal, and he knew it. That was written all over his face. He had some fantastic stops though and hopefully this will see him back as the starter for the remainder of the season.

In a way though, it’s a strange one.

Joe Cannon has been very outspoken about the team and the performances. He is now no longer on Twitter and no longer the starter. That conspiracy theory side of me wonders if the writing was on the wall for him as soon as he gave the Southsiders $1000 for drinks after the Galaxy defeat.

At the other end of the pitch, things were simply sublime.

Eric Hassli had a fantastic game. It’s frustrating in a way because he doesn’t show it all the time and does blow a little hot and cold.

He was hot as hell on Sunday.

He’ll be kicking himself at the penalty miss that deprived him off his hat-trick, but that strike for the opening goal was simply perfect.

When he went to shoot instead of taking it in further, I was saying to myself “don’t shoot from there”. What do I know?!

To have that composure and that confidence in the opening seconds, to find the perfect postage stamp corner, is the mark of a class player.

His footwork and contribution to the third goal was his highlight of the game for me.

I love how he spins around and used his build to prevent getting knocked off the ball. Doesn’t work all the time, but it makes it so difficult to defend and to dispossess him.

That third goal is possibly my favourite Whitecaps goal of the season.

It was almost perfect football. 13 passes, 41 seconds, spraying the ball all around the pitch. That’s how football should be played.

Camilo’s little spin to outfox the two Fire defenders was also class.

Hassli may have been getting all of the post-game plaudits, but I think a case could be argued that Camilo earned the actual ‘man of the match’ award.

It was nice to leave Empire on a high for the first time, in a long time.

We may not have much to play for but I want to see us build some momentum to take into the off season.

We don’t do well after a win. We need to change that.

Let’s go on a run and keep it going well after Portland.

Everything in the garden isn’t quite rosy yet, but it’s starting to look like we’ve done the watering.

Mon the Caps.

In The Cold Light Of Day: Caps Can’t Find The Winning Way To San Jose

Another away game over and still the Whitecaps are looking for their first win on the road in MLS.

If they were to play with as much fight, desire and spirit in every away game as they did in San Jose, then that surely won’t be long in coming.

Wednesday night’s game was an entertaining affair from start to finish. It was a great advert for MLS and you couldn’t say that about too many Caps games this year.

It looked like we might be on the end of a bad one after the opening minutes, but then we found our feet and both teams will probably feel agrieved not to be coming away from Buck Shaw Stadium with the three points.

San Jose could certainly have had 5 or 6 if they’d gotten the breaks, but then we could have been up to 4 or 5 ourselves.

A lot of positives to be taken from the game and that is very encouraging.

Mustapha Jarju made his debut and showed enough signs that he’ll work well with Eric Hassli. He had that great first half chance which went just over. Could have been as spectacular a debut as Eric’s own one.

He clearly still needs to work on his fitness and sharpness, but this is still really pre-season Jarju that we’re seeing.

I don’t know whether it was Tubabo’s signing or what, but Hassli was in inspired form.

Maybe finally having a strike partner of note has lifted some of the weight off his shoulders. Two good finishes from Eric and two great assists from Shea Salinas.

Shea’s performances have dipped a little of late, but he was back with a bang in the Bay.

The footwork and composure he showed for that second goal was terrific.

Camilo also had some fancy footwork going on at times. He’s looked a different player recently, as we said after the Man City game.

Peter Vagenas continues to impress me with every game. He’s bringing so much out of Gershon Koffie and now that the Ghanaian seems to not be afraid to shoot, and is getting his efforts on target, we could see the central midfield we’ve been crying out for.

If that Koffie shot had gone in, instead of crashing off the bar, you’re looking at another Caps ‘Goal of the Week’.

We can’t not look at the negatives from the game though – the defence.

Simply awful at times.

Jeb Brovsky is clearly not a right back. What the fuck has Wes Knight done to Tommy Soehn to find himself below both Brovsky and Duckett for that position?

The fact he kept falling over on the surface didn’t help him look to good out there either. The pitch? Wrong footwear? Both?

The central midfield pairing of Greg Janicki and Michael Boxall is also one that clearly isn’t working.

Boxall had impressed me so much this year, but the last few games he’s looked pretty shaky at times. He’s been helped by having someone like Alain Rochat out there helping to mop up any errors, but he didn’t have that on Wednesday.

His saving grace though was that he wasn’t as bad as Janicki, who had one of the worst games I’ve seen from him in a Caps jersey. How we weren’t punished by that back header, I do not know.

Unless we’re going to go for the Kevin Keegan approach of scoring more goals than we let in, through constantly attacking, then we’re never going to get the wins.

Still, it was promising.

I’m predicting we’ll get our first away win in Portland.

A few games to get the guys fully gelled and hopefully, we’ll be firing on all cylinders for the rest of the season and take some momentum into next.

At least we’ve stopped looking like we’re going backwards.