Whitecaps Football Shorts # 10

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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MLS referees are in the news – again.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Timbers Army certainly rose to the occasion.

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

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

More power to them.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In The Cold Light Of Day: Whitecaps Taste First MLS Defeat As Hassli Sees Red

It had to happen sometime. The Caps had to suffer MLS defeat and burst the exuberant bubble that was generated with last week’s demolition of Toronto FC.

We’re not going to do a full match report on AFTN, but you can read the report we’ve done for Prost Amerika HERE.

“In The Cold Light Of Day” will be more of a reflection of games.

The Whitecaps can leave PPL Park in Chester, Pennsylvania with their heads held high.

Have to take time to say how much I love that stadium. The setting, the way it’s been built and the atmosphere it generates. Just makes you want that Waterfront Stadium for the Caps all the more.

Vancouver turned in a solid performance today for their first MLS away match and completely dominated the first half. They could easily have gone in a couple of goals up with better finishing and some better breaks.

The turning point of the game obviously came in the 57th minute.

When Eric Hassli caught Philadelphia’s Carlos Valdes late, his momentum clearly took him through. He did leave his foot in a little but the Union player made the most of the kind of challenge you pretty much see in every game. With the referee in the mood he was in, the inevitable second yellow for Hassli followed and so did the early bath.

You could see it coming. I had said just a couple of minutes before the incident that he needed to watch as I thought that he’d had his final chance from a referee who was clearly blowing for every little thing. Should he have been substituted? Perhaps, but you don’t want to take off your most potent attacking threat if you can help it.

I love Hassli’s style. I would much rather have a striker who is not afraid to put himself about than one who shits out of everything. His harrying, bustling style is going to cause a lot of problems for defences throughout the League.

The yellows he picked up are arguably for things he would probably have gotten away with in various European leagues. Looking at replays, I do feel that he knew exactly what he was doing with his clip on Danny Califf that brought about his first yellow. We’ve all seen those passed over though.

He will definitely have to watch himself here in MLS with super fussy referees like Yader Reyes today. His card had been clearly marked early on by the official.

The referee completely spoiled the fluidity of the game. He blew for 39 fouls in total, 24 of them in the first half. Only 7 yellow cards from those (including Hassli’s two) is a bit strange, especially when he seemed to have lost his card after the 57th minute sending off.

Atiba Harris was being kicked all over the pitch at times, with very little punishment for Union players.

The referee was poor for both sides and the match would have been a much better spectacle if he’d just gone with the flow.

Talking of Harris. I can just tell that he is going to frustrate the hell out of me this season.

His finishing is lacking at times and he seems to want to take one touch too many far too often. He can hold the ball up and lay off well. He has played more as a midfielder and I think that this is where he may be best suited for us and not as an out and out striker.

With Hassli now missing next week, we need to have Harris step up big time. I could see him as the lone forward with Davide Chiumiento playing just in behind him in a 4-4-1-1 formation, assuming our Swiss maestro is fully fit.

We certainly missed Chiumiento’s flair. Nizar Khalfan is a worker but you’re not going to get the same input into a game from him and it’s not fair to expect it. He had an above average game but isn’t the most comfortable looking when defending.

The defence stood strong and was solid. Our two centre backs didn’t really seem in any real trouble and it’s a shame for Greg Janicki that the ball deflected off him for the goal. It could have gone anywhere but had to fall into the path of Le Toux!

The agreement made with the Canadian under 20 side to only play Russell Teibert for a maximum of 65 minutes puzzled me when I first heard about it. I don’t like deals like that. Teitur should be allowed to play him for as long as he sees fit, if he is getting to play him. It was have been great to have kept him on the pitch beyond that time as he was having a tremendous match. As soon as he went off, I felt that we were then just looking to see things through to the end for a point.

Our AFTN 3-2-1 award for this week is:

3 points – Joe Cannon (solid, some big saves – boom!)
2 points – Russell Teibert (may have gone under the radar for some today but had a bigger role to play than last week)
1 point – Alain Rochat (solid, led well and I loved his go away dismissal towards Ruiz when he picked up his booking).

Considering the players missing today, I think our guys stepping up to the plate did us proud and nearly brought back at least a point. A few breaks and decisions the other way and we’d still be unbeaten. No point looking at ifs, buts and maybes. Take the defeat on the chin and move on.

The loss is probably a good thing, as it will bring some of the fans back down to earth with a bump after last week’s heroics. We played outstandingly last week and we shouldn’t forget that. It showed that we have a squad capable of doing some serious damage to any team in this League. If we turn up though and don’t take our chances and don’t defend tight, today is a good example of what will happen.

We said in our Metro Column on Friday that the hard work is only just beginning now and so it’s been proven.

The players now need to pick themselves up as we head back to Empire. The home field advantage could prove to be a big asset to the Club this season. Let’s make the most of it again next Saturday.

Mon the Caps.