Whitecaps Football Shorts # 11 : Expansion Draft, Jarju And The Caps Are Going To Disney World!

It’s been an interesting, and busy, close season so far, with a constant stream of news to report on since the Caps kicked their last ball in anger a month ago.

Today’s “Whitecaps Football Shorts” brings you some snippets discussing the MLS Expansion Draft, showing you that Mustapha Jarju can score in a Whitecaps jersey and looks ahead to how the Whitecaps are hoping to bloom in Orlando…

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Vancouver Whitecaps announced their list of eleven protected players today, ahead of Montreal’s 2012 Expansion Draft on Wednesday.

The list won’t raise too many eyebrows and sees the following players saved from a potential life of poutine and scummyness:

Davide Chiumiento; Jay DeMerit; Atiba Harris; Jordan Harvey; Eric Hassli; Gershon Koffie; Carlyle Mitchell; Alain Rochat; Shea Salinas; Camilo Sanvezzo; Long Tan

Bolstering these eleven players are seven draft-exempt Homegrown and Generation Adidas players: Bryce Alderson, Philippe Davies, Nizar Khalfan, Michael Nanchoff, Omar Salgado, Brian Sylvestre and Russell Teibert.

Most people, ourselves included, would have pinpointed at least ten of these players as being the core that the Caps will hope to build on or trade with as we prepare for the 2012 MLS season.

AFTN had ten definites, with Jay Nolly and Shea Salinas battling it out for the last spot.

Shea won, as the Caps decided not to protect either of their two main goalkeepers.

Montreal have ten draft picks and can only select one player for a team, so there’s no way we could lose both of the goalies anyway.

I still don’t think that Montreal will actually want to pick any of our guys, and will surely want to focus on players from winning teams.

Jay Nolly though could be an outside shot at one of their picks, as they know his history and his capabilities from our D2 days, and may look at him as a steady back up.

Kiwi central defender Michael Boxall could be another possible target, if the Impact aren’t too fussy about filling one of their international spots with him.

The headline making news, I guess, is the fact that DP Mustapha Jarju has been left unprotected.

Let’s be honest here though. With his record in MLS and the salary he commands, this is like the Whitecaps having a free 12th protection pick, as there’s no way that Montreal, or any other MLS side for that matter, would currently touch him with a barge pole.

We can still dream though that the Caps have traded away an international spot and some draft picks if Montreal do us a favour and take him off our hands.

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There’s no denying that Vancouver Whitecaps’ Gambian gamble, striker Mustapha Jarju, is underfire.

The designated player hasn’t exactly set the heather alight since signing for the Caps. No goals in 10 games and 450 MLS minutes, whilst finishing the season getting splinters up his ass from the bench, isn’t exactly the find of the century.

But before we all pile on to Mustapha some more, we should reflect that he did bang the goals in over in Belgium and believe it or not, he has actually scored a competitive goal for the Whitecaps this year.

Ok it was down in Portland in the Reserve game on August 21st, but hey, it was still a goal and showed that he does have the skills to succeed in this league, even though he is clearly struggling to show that just now for the first team.

Is he a busted flush? Does he still have potential and Rennie will get it out of him?

Let’s see if this free kick (which is slightly missing the start) changes your mind any. If nothing else, if he doesn’t play another game for the Whitecaps, at least we have video evidence of him scoring in a Whitecaps jersey. The Loch Ness Monster of the MLS…

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Sometimes the gags just write themselves.

Many fans around MLS branded the Caps as something of a “Mickey Mouse” outfit last season.

In an effort to shake that tag, the Whitecaps pre-season preparation will now include a tournament in Disney World in Orlando in February.

The eight team tournament is being put on by Disney Sports (yeah, we’d never heard of them either) will feature the Caps alongside our Canadian rivals of Toronto FC and Montreal Impact, fellow MLSers FC Dallas, Houston Dynamo and Kansas City, BK Hacken from Sweden and local Franchise FC side Orlando City.

The Disney Pro Soccer Classic will take place at ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex at Walt Disney World Resort from February 24th to March 3rd.

The Caps are drawn in Pool 1 and will play Montreal on February 24th, Houston two days later, and finish up their group games against Kansas City on February 29th.

This will be the third year of the tournament, with Dallas winning it in 2011 and New York winning the inaugural competition in 2010.

It should be a good pre season build up for the Caps and hopefully we’ll also see another Cascadia Summit to follow this tournament.

I’m pretty excited by the whole thing and AFTN plans to be there for the nine days.

Any excuse to go and see Harry Potter’s Wizarding World!

Whitecaps Internationalists Talk 2014 World Cup

Football fans around the world were glued to their televisions today to watch the draw for the 2014 World Cup qualifiers.

It was a mixed draw for me.

Scotland have a really tough road ahead of them if they are going to make it to Brazil. We do perform best when our backs are against the wall, but at this stage it looks like our best hope of qualification could be a new Balkans war breaking out.

Canada seem to have a great chance of making it to the final ‘hex’ stage and then everything is up for grabs.

I’m still living in the hope that I can head down to Rio to watch at least one of my teams taking part in the tournament, twenty years after I went to my first World Cup finals in the US.

It’s not just football fans around the globe that are getting excited at what lies ahead. The players are too and that includes Vancouver Whitecaps’ internationalists.

AFTN caught up with a few of our international stars after the LA Galaxy game and talked to them about something a bit cheerier than that game – the road to Brazil.

Kiwi defender Michael Boxall, and the Oceania qualification path, was the first stop on our world tour.

Boxall had represented New Zealand at youth, U-20, U-23 and A levels before this year, including at the 2007 U-20 World Cup in Canada and the 2008 Olympics in China.

March 25th saw him earn his first full international cap, playing the second half of a friendly against China, and he has earned two more international Caps in recent months.

Drawn against Papua New Guinea, the Soloman Islands and Fiji, we asked him how he saw New Zealand’s qualifying campaign progressing:

“It’s quite a way away. It’s not going to be until June before we actually start the qualifying. We’ve just got to take it one step at a time.

We know there’s not exactly powerhouses in our confederation, but there are still teams that you have to show up and beat. Take it one step at a time and see how everything unfolds after that.”

Last qualifying campaign, AFTN’s adopted Oceanic faves, New Caledonia, ran the Kiwis closest (although not really that close if truth be told). Does Michael see that being the same situation again?

“I don’t know too much about any of the island teams right now. We have to be confident in ourselves to be able to overcome anything that the island nations can throw at us and then move on past that”

Moving on past that is never easy for New Zealand. If/when they wrap up the Oceania champions spot, they will face a two legged playoff with the fourth place CONCACAF nation, a route which pleased Michael:

“I’m pretty glad that we managed to avoid the South Americans”

And how would he feel if that playoff game was against Canada?

“That would be pretty exciting and obviously not a very long flight if I had to play in Canada.”

We expressed our concerns that he has to face Papua New Guinea and joked with him about him being on the wrong end of cannibalism and not returning to MLS, before wishing him well in the forthcoming campaign.

With four African nations being represented by the current Caps squad, continental rivalries will soon start to come to the fore.

None more so than the potential group clash between Mustapha Jarju’s Gambian side and Nizar Khalfan’s Tanzania (assuming the latter take care of Chad in the preliminaries).

We asked Mustapha about this possible match-up and what he felt about the Gambia’s chances:

“(laughs) Yeah, my team-mate is going to be excited because he’s in a very good team.

For us, we are a very young team and I hope we get the chance to go and play against the very good teams. There is a chance.”

Before even thinking that far ahead, Mustapha is concentrating on his country’s African Nations Cup qualifying campaign, which is delicately balanced:

“We have two games coming up, one home and one away, and if we get good results, we qualify for the African Cup of Nations and then we can prepare for the qualification games for the World Cup.”

One African country which is familiar to fans around the world is Ghana and the Black Stars have qualified for the last two World Cup Finals. For U-20 internationalist Gershon Koffie, what does he hope for the Ghanaian qualifying campaign?

“I just want to keep working hard and hopefully get a call up.

It doesn’t matter what group we end up in, we just have to keep working hard and things will fall into place.”

I’m sure there will be a few Vancouverite’s taking more interest in African qualifiers over the next few years.

We wish all of our internationalists well. Maybe not so much Atiba Harris, whose St Kitts & Nevis side face Canada in the first round CONCACAF qualifying group, but to the rest, most certainly!

Yes it will mean that we’ll lose some of our top players for international duty but you can’t not want our Caps to go and try and get their countries World Cup glory.

And if we can see some of them grace the Brazilian pitches in front of a global audience in 2014, then all the better.

Wes Knight, Jay Nolly And Mustapha Jarju Share Their Man City Experience With AFTN

For many of the current Vancouver Whitecaps players, last night’s Manchester City friendly was a dream come true.

Every footballer wants to play against the best players in the world. Some never get to, so that’s why the players want to make the most of any opportunities that they do get.

As a supporter, those that read this blog will know I’m not a big fan of friendlies in general, but especially mid-season ones. What fans like me tend to forget though, is how much these games mean to the players, especially the younger ones and those who may not get many of these opportunities in their careers.

AFTN caught up with Wes Knight, Jay Nolly and Mustapha Jarju after the City game and asked them what they thought of the experience.

Wes Knight played the second half of the game. As right back he had to contend with some big name players tearing down the wing at him, or in Mario Balotelli’s case, lumbering along crashing into anyone that got in his way.

We started by asking Wes how the experience was for him:

“It was a bit of a dream come true. Man, I’ve played with multiple players on that team on Fifa and to finally be on the same field with them, it’s an unbelievable feeling.

And I’m not going to lie, I was nervous till I touched that ball for the first time.

What a great experience and I’ll remember this day for the rest of my life.”

Wes was on the end of a pretty hefty challenge from Balotelli. How did he feel to become the latest member of the exclusive, but growing, club of players that Balotelli’s kicked?

“(laughs) Yeah. I don’t think he expected me to get to the ball as quickly as I did and he kinda just stuck his leg out. It looked a little bit worse than it really was. He’s just an intense player and sometimes he just comes in a little late intentionally but I got a lot of respect for him. He’s a world class player and I was fortunate enough to trade jerseys with him at the end of the game.”

Was that the jersey he wanted from the game?

“Well yeah, you know, despite some of his shenanigans he’s a world class player. When he turns it on, it’s sometimes a level above. He’s still young, so it can be something that could grow in value over the years and I’d like to continue to watch him.”

So will the jersey be framed and put up in his house?

“Absolutely. I’ve traded jerseys with a lot of players this year and in my career and I think that every one of those is just as important as the other. Everyone in their own mind is a great player and for sure this will be one of the ones at the top of the list.”

Jay Nolly was the only Whitecap to play the full ninety minutes and turned in a fantastic performance and some strong saves, that will surely see him challenging to regain his place in the starting line up.

When AFTN caught up with Jay at Sunday night’s pre-match press conference, we asked him how he felt lining up against some of the biggest names in the English Premiership:

“It’s exciting. You can’t really worry about results in these types of games, it’s more the experience. You’re matched against the FA Cup winners, who are going to be in the Champions League next year. It’s time to test yourself, see how you do. Hopefully we’ll get up for it pretty high and give them a tough test. You never know what can happen in these types of games”

Indeed you don’t, and the Caps certainly did give City a tough test, with Jay keeping out Man City’s multi-million pound players for 67 minutes before they were finally able to break down Vancouver’s defences.

When we caught up with Jay after last night’s game, we asked him if the whole match had lived up to his excitement and expectations:

“Yeah, definitely. Especially with the fans. The fans were excellent. They were excited the whole match. Even late in the game when we were losing, they were standing on their feet and cheering and that’s what you want. You want an atmosphere like that.”

“It’s one of those, you’re kind of sad when the game is over cos I was having a lot of fun.”

For one Cap, last night’s game was special on many levels.

New designated player Mustapha Jarju made his Whitecaps debut and looked pretty sharp in the half he had on the pitch.

Not only was this his debut and the chance to play against some of the best players in the world, last night was also Mustapha’s 25th birthday.

AFTN asked him if it was a nice birthday treat:

“Yeah, it was nice because it was difficult. They are a good team. We were steady. It was a very good test for us and now we can prepare for the Wednesday game, and that’s the most important thing for us.”

Great to hear and I’m sure the fans will agree.

Hopefully the performance against Man City will give the squad some of the self-belief back that must have been slipping after the current poor run of form.

They certainly showed they are a good squad, who can mix it with the best. What they need to do now is to get the season back on track and finish it as strongly as they can.

With displays like we saw last night, I’m pretty sure they’ll be able to do that.

[*** You can see AFTN’s photos from last night’s game on our Flickr account and our general thoughts about the game and the experience HERE ***]
[*** You can read AFTN’s Match Report on the game on Prost Amerika ***]

Everything You Wanted To Know About Mustapha Jarju – And Lots Of Stuff You Didn’t!

Vancouver Whitecaps added their second designated player this morning and in the process, Mustapha Alasan Jarju made history.

Gambian Jarju’s signing has made him the first African designated player in the history of MLS. A momentous occasion for both the Caps and the League.

Known by his nickname Toubabo (which means “white guy”), Jarju joins Vancouver from Belgian First Division side Royal Albert Elizabeth Club de Mons, where his contract expired at the end of June.

The Gambian’s 21 League goals (or 22 depending on what site you check) were instrumental in securing RAEC Mons’ return to the Jupiler League last season and he scored the opening goal in the club’s 2-1 promotion final play-off game win against Waasland-Beveren in May.

Newly promoted Mons were keen to maintain Jarju’s services but despite offers from Europe and the Middle East, the lure of Canada and MLS, proved too great and Vancouver will certainly welcome Toubabo with open arms.

Jarju can play both as a striker and an attacking midfielder and although unknown to most over here, it would appear that he will provide a perfect partner for Eric Hassli and Camilo.

He is a proven goalscorer, with 62 goals in all competitions in his four and a half years in Belgium. With Vancouver struggling in the latter stages of many games this season, it is promising for Caps fans that 58% of those goals have come in the second half of games.

After joining from Gambian side Steve Biko Bakau, Jarju made his Jupiler League debut for SK Lierse on August 19th 2006 in the 2-1 away loss against SV Zulte-Waregem.

He went on to make 30 League appearances for Lierse that season, including one as sub, which was his debut.

He scored his first professional goal in his eleventh game for Lierse, netting the opener in the 23rd minute of the 3-2 home defeat by Beerschot AC on November 18th 2006.

Mustapha went on to finish the season with 2385 minutes of playing time and 9 goals, so pretty much a goal every three games.

Those goals weren’t enough to stop Lierse getting relegated and the 2007/08 season saw Mustapha play with the Club in Belgium’s Division 2, making 33 League appearances and clocking up 2829 minutes and 15 goals.

That performance saw Jarju earn a transfer back to the First Division with RAEC Mons for the 2008/09 season, where he made 32 League (3 as sub) and one Belgian Cup appearance, playing 2681 minutes and scoring 8 goals. Unfortuantely for Mustapha, he was with another relegated side.

That season also saw Jarju earn his first full international Caps for The Gambia, in the African qualifiers.

Having previously captained the Gambian under 17 squad, Mustapha made six appearances in 2008 for the full team, scoring in the 17th minute of his debut, in the 1-1 away draw to Liberia on June 1st, and getting another goal at home to Algeria two weeks later.

The 2009/10 saw RAEC Mons reach the Jupiler League playoffs but not earn promotion. Toubabo made 41 League (9 as sub) and 2 Belgian Cup appearances for the Club, playing 3045 minutes and scoring 9 goals.

He also made another international appearance for The Gambia, in the 5-1 friendly loss to Mexico in Germany.

Last season saw Jarju return to his previous form, and he had his best season yet in Belgium.

Exact figures have varied from site to site, but according to Transfermarkt (where we also got all the other figures from!), he netted 21 goals in 37 League games and 3153 minutes, and earned promotion.

None of those games saw Mustapha as a sub and he also scored his first professional hat-trick, in the 5-1 home victory against AFC Tubize on October 23rd.

The season also saw Jarju return to international reckoning, with two African Nations Cup qualifying appearances, against Namibia and Burkino Faso.

After a little dip in his career, Toubabo had a break out season and it looks like the Caps may have picked him up at just the right time.

The Whitecaps are still working with the League to see if Mustapha can make his debut for Vancouver against Real Salt Lake this coming Saturday.

Two days later, he will take the field at Empire against Manchester City on what will be his 25th birthday. Not a bad way to spend it!

Good news for Whitecaps fans is that Jarju is coming to Vancouver without major disciplinary problems! He was booked 18 times and sent off twice, in his four and a half years in Belgium. It will be interesting to see how he fares with the wild and wacky world of MLS refereeing.

From the moment the Whitecaps announced a “major player announcement” would be taking place today, fans and bloggers were scouring the internet for who it could be.

Having been tipped off that it was a West African forward who had been playing in Belgium, Southsider LWO was the first to join the dots and come up with Jarju’s name. So thanks to him for that and letting us get a head start on a thorough article on Toubabo.

On paper, it looks to be an exciting signing, but there is the question as to how big a gulf is it between Belgian Division 2 football and Major League Soccer? We’ll soon see.

The Whitecaps think very highly of him and watched him for two months before deciding to bring him to Vancouver as a Designated Player. He is also the current alternate captain of the Gambian national team.

His sharpness is there, but not having played since the end of May, his match fitness is somewhat lacking and the Whitecaps have indicated that his time will be managed accordingly to start with.

Jarju seems to be a young and exciting prospect, and one who will hopefully be at the Whitecaps for many years to come and be the trendsetter for future African DP’s to come to the League.

Welcome to Vancouver Mustapha. Now show us what you’ve got!

Whitecaps Gambian Gambit Sees Mustapha Jarju Become First African Designated Player In MLS

Vancouver Whitecaps added their second designated player this morning and in the process, Mustapha Alasan Jarju made history.

Gambian Jarju’s signing has made him the first African designated player in the history of MLS. A momentous occasion for both the Caps and the League.

Known by his nickname Toubabo, Jarju joins Vancouver from Belgian First Division side RAEC Mons, where the Gambian’s 21 League goals were instrumental in securing the Club’s return to the Jupiler League.

Newly promoted Mons were keen to maintain Jarju’s services but some issues and the lure of Canada, proved too great and with his contract in Belgium expiring at the end of June, Vancouver will certainly welcome Toubabo with open arms.

Toubabo will wear the number 36 shirt and will become the Whitecaps fourth African player in the current squad, joining Ghanaian Gershon Koffie, Tanzanian Nizar Khalfan and Cameroon’s Alex Morfaw.

He will not be alone in representing Gambia in the League either, joining five other of his countrymen in MLS: Sanna Nyassi (Colorado Rapids); Sainey Nyassi and Kenny Mansally (New England Revolution); Mamadou “Futty” Danso (Portland Timbers); Omar Jasseh (San Jose Earthquakes).

In fact, Jarju could have become Vancouver’s second Gambian had they not inexplicably traded Sanna Nyassi to Colorado after acquiring him as their first pick in the 2010 MLS expansion draft.

Jarju is a proven goalscorer and can play both as a striker and an attacking midfielder and although unknown to most over here, he will provide a perfect partner for Eric Hassli and Camilo.

Speaking at this morning’s press conference, Mustapha, who arrived in Vancouver on Saturday, was:

“Pleased to be here” and “Excited to see what’s going to happen”.

Whether he will find the gap between the Belgian Second Division and Major League Soccer easy to breach, we will all wait and watch with eager anticipation.

One thing that is certain though, is that Jarju will not be the only addition to the Whitecaps squad in this transfer window.