Whitecaps Football Shorts # 6

The first Whitecaps FC Daily aired on Team 1410 radio yesterday afternoon and it was a great listen for us “nerdy” types.

A decent radio magazine show, solely dedicated to the Caps, has been long overdue.

What was evident from the debut show is that not only does that hour go in hell of a quickly, it’s just not enough time to cover everything. I’m sure they could easily do two hours a day.

It’s also disappointing that it’s on from 3pm to 4pm. I would have loved a proper 5pm or 6pm drivetime show, when more people can listen live and aren’t stuck at their work trying to sneak a quick surreptitious listen.

When you listened to the crap that was on after it, it’s just infuriating!

There’s always the podcast though, so make sure you can check that out if you can.

It’s definitely a must listen for all Whitecaps fans.

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Unfortunately work commitments meant that I missed the start of the Colorado friendly on Saturday.

The plus side of that is that all of the entrance stuff is going to be new and fresh to me on Saturday, just adding to the excitement.

One person I’m looking forward to hearing is the new national anthem singer Marie Hui.

After watching the Caps Whitecaps Idol video, Marie was head and shoulders above the competition, some of whom seemed like surprising finalists to me.

She’s a fantastic talent and we look forward to belting out “Oh Canada” with her in the Southside.

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Talking of the Countdown ‘Til Kick-off videos, the Caps have certainly stepped up the quality of them the last few days.

Saving the best till last?

Yesterday’s video of Teitur going over the supporters pledge was probably our favourite one so far. the smashing of the dreaded vuvuzela over his knee was priceless. hopefully that gets the message across!

We were particularly intrigued though by the article reviewing the videos on the Whitecaps website.

“With only a few videos left before the season starts, fans are still left wondering…

Will goalkeeper Joe Cannon be shot out of a cannon?”

They obviously have something fun in store around this! We can’t wait to see what our idea turns into. Talk about creating a monster!

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Finally, if you’re free this evening, then get yourself along to the Lamplighter Pub in Gastown.

The Southsiders are having a pre MLS kick off event where they’ll be taking in the Seattle-LA opening match, presenting some awards and there could be some special guests come along too.

Just another way to kill the wait until the TFC game!

Fans Leading Charge In North American Respect Stakes

There is a common misconception amongst many in the UK, especially in the media, that there isn’t a passion for the game of football in North America. Proper football that is of course and not the throwball variety.

From what I’ve seen first hand in Canada and the US, this is far from being the case and in a lot of places, some of the passion, enthusiasm, commitment and noise shown by the fans would put many supports in the UK to shame.

Vancouver’s Southsiders, Portland’s Timbers Army and Chicago’s Section 8 are some of the most impressive ones around. If anyone questions the passion for the game on the continent, then they need to speak to some of these guys and that’s just what’s happening.

Sure, football is still very much a minority sport there, that struggles to get the media attention and respect that it deserves. There are some big names in sporting media in the States in particular that will put the boot in on every given opportunity.

Jim Rome springs to mind instantly. For those unfamiliar with him, he hosts America’s “premiere sports radio talk show”. He is a man that bizarrely, to me at least, commands respect but I find him almost impossible to listen to. I’ve never listened to a man that takes such long pauses in the air between sentences. He also hates football with a passion and clearly doesn’t get it. He’s a knob basically. Your atypical loudmouth American broadcaster.

Elsewhere in the media though, amongst those that do “get it”, interest in football and fans is certainly growing and the World Cup this year has peaked interest.

Bars that were usually gridiron, hockey or baseball havens, became fully fledged football pubs. Lots of businesses had their stores bedecked in team flags and were catering towards the football loving public. Restaurants offered special football menus for fans wanting to watch the games.

Add to this thousands of people gathering in special viewing areas to watch games across the continent and it was great to see.

The media were keen to speak to football fans. I found myself doing interviews with two major radio stations to talk about the World Cup, the Whitecaps and just chew the fat about football in general. Other fans were on other radio stations, television and newspapers from east to west.

The interest has been maintained after the World Cup as well.

In Vancouver last week, one of the main newspapers, The Province, had their monthly footballing Goal section devoted entirely to a fans issue. 12 pages devoted to covering Vancouver Whitecaps Southsiders supporters group, of which I’m proud to be a part of.

It showcased the diversity of the group in terms of ages, backgrounds, ethnicity and more. It also let the Vancouver public know that football fans are just like them, just not afraid to show their passion, sing, chant and swear and not the hooligans and trouble makers they expect.

Maybe it’s just that football fans are considered something unique, strange or different in North America. Can’t see any of the big Scottish papers running something similar.

With Vancouver Whitecaps and Portland Timbers joining Major League Soccer next year and taking their fans with them, these football mad cities are going to have a huge snowball in interest in both the Clubs and the fans. The Southside and the TA sections will clearly be the place to be in their respective cities.

This will then have a knock on effect elsewhere in the League, just as when Toronto FC and Seattle Sounders and their fans had when they joined. Seattle in particular has seen the Sounders become a major player in the town, pushing aside the struggling Seahawks NFL and Mariners baseball teams in the process. Football has brought a sporting buzz back to the city.

When you add in players like Thierry Henry now plying his trade in the MLS with New York and interest seemingly at an all time high, this might just be the breakthrough the game needs to finally lift it up that level, respect and popularity that football fans throughout North America have been long waiting for.

I Miss The Same Old Show On My Radio

Driving home from the game tonight was pleasurable for a change. It had nothing to do with traffic, or even the result on the pitch from this evening’s match. No, what made the difference tonight was being able to listen to some football talk radio on the way home. Football talk about the Whitecaps.

Southsiders Director of Events, Massimo Cusano, made another appearance on Team 1040’s Full Time Football Show this evening and it was great to hear the Caps being discussed in such depth and for so long on Vancouver radio once again and with such enthusiasm and passion from Mass and the regular host Mike Martignago.

It is of course a sad rarity and it’s definitely one of the things I miss here on matchdays – decent football coverage on the airwaves. In the UK on a Saturday (or whatever gameday) you can search the dial and find several shows, pre, during and post match.

Having had a couple of jobs that took me driving all over Scotland, sometimes, especially late at night, I just wasn’t in the mood for music and wanted to just zone out to some talk radio. Sport, current affairs, general nonsense. I listened to it all for my sins or mental illness.

Fuck knows why most of the time as it just ended up with me screaming obscenities at my car radio and probably drawing a few worried glances from fellow motorists at lights.

On matchdays though, BBC Five Live and Radio Scotland would get me my football fix on the airwaves, with everything from Danny Baker to fun panel shows, reviews of the weeks news, transfers and talking points, pre match build up, commentaries, post match interviews, reports and analysis and even later post match phone ins, featuring a wide range of overjoyed fans, depressed fans and those somewhere in between who feel they have the cure to all the game’s and their team’s ills. Oh and usually some argumentative bastard that liked the sound of his own voice. I didn’t always phone in though!

After this glut of information and misinformation at my fingertips and eardrums, being a football fan in Vancouver has been a horrible wake up call as to how the sport is treated here by the media.

Several times this season, I’ve been driving home from Swangard and like an idiot who never learns, or someone who finds it too hard to get out of his ways, I start searching the stations on the radio to find some kind of sports show that will hopefully mention the Caps and the game I’ve just been at. I end up sighing and sticking on a CD.

For some away games, I’ve found myself caught up at work or driving home and wanting to find out how the Caps are getting on. I try and find some commentary on the radio. Anywhere on it. Even if it’s in French, that would do. I end up sighing and sticking on a CD.

On most occasions, what I find is Jim “How Long Can I Make This Sentence Last For By Pausing For An Insane Amount Of Times Between Words” Rome or fucking Seattle Mariners baseball. Both can put you to sleep behind the wheel and should contain some kind of health warning.

Now, I get that football is a minority sport in North America. In Canada. And in Vancouver. But baseball? Don’t get me wrong, I don’t mind baseball. I’ve been to a lot of games over the years and try and check out the Vancouver Canadians at least once each season.

That’s just it though. If it was a Canadians game that was being broadcast I could understand it a little better. Not much, but a little. They’re from the city. They’re from Canada. But when a radio station chooses to air commentary of a match up from a city a couple of hours away, in another country and featuring two American teams, you can’t help but wonder why and what football has to do to get it’s break in the media here.

Now obviously MLS will help, as once something has that shiny “Major League” tag on it the media start salivating like hungry dogs, but it shouldn’t be this way.

The Caps are still deciding on their radio partner for when they move to MLS I believe. What I would have liked to have seen was a radio station stepping up to the plate this season and giving the Caps the blanket coverage they deserve. That station would then get the reward of getting the MLS coverage and the respect of the fans in the process for not just jumping on the bandwagon with the big boys.

Team 1040 is the home of the Canucks. Team 1410, the Lions. Surely someone else could have made a big play here with a view to the wider picture?

I’m not naive enough to expect the phone ins to be jammed with calls talking about the Caps or 7 days a week coverage. I’d have been happy with just gameday coverage, pre, during and post match. The Timbers have this down in Portland and it’s been great listening to it.

We’ll see what next season brings. There’s not going to be any sudden changes this season, we’re way too late for that, and I don’t even think we’ll see seismic shifts next, but there will be more – well there couldn’t really be too much less. It’s disappointing. We still have shows like Full Time though and thank goodness for that. More power to them.

The Cowden Family Hits Seattle Airwaves

There’s nothing like a local derby to get the heart thumping, even if it is a “diddy” one with Cowdenbeath. Still beggars can’t be choosers and there’s a lot of the former to be found in the streets of Cowdenbeath.

Of course any time we do play the smellies our thoughts turn to what is possibly the most famous tune in the East Fife songbook – The Cowden Family.

There’s another derby game going on on Saturday, albeit in a pre-season friendly, as Vancouver Whitecaps take on Seattle Sounders.

As I’m currently involved with the Southsiders supporters group and, as anyone who knows me already knows, a media whore (!), I’ve been doing some promotional work for the group in the build up to Saturday’s game.

I’ve just done an interview for Radio Sounders and bizarrely the producer of the show is a Partick Thistle fan from Maryhill and it all goes a bit Scottish with chat about the Fife, Cowdenbeath, Craig Levein and a rendition of the Cowden Family hitting the Seattle airwaves.

For those interested, you can listen to a podcast of the show HERE. It’s 28 minutes long and if you just want to hear the Fife stuff then head towards the end of it.

Mon the Fife. Mon the Caps.