Le Toux with two as Caps advance to final

Vancouver Whitecaps and Toronto have unfinished Voyageurs Cup business.

After the debacle in Montreal and the monsoon in Toronto, the Caps will be hoping it will be third time lucky and they will finally get to lift the Canadian Championship trophy by the end of the month.

Vancouver set up the latest two game Cup showdown against Toronto with a 3-1 win over Edmonton at BC Place tonight. It looked comfortable in the end scoreline, but the Eddies made the Caps work every step of the way for their place in the final.

Martin Rennie surprised most people by ringing four changes from last week’s first leg and including Jay DeMerit in the centre of defence and going with a strikeforce of Eric Hassli and Camilo Sanvezzo.

Floyd Franks and Michael Nanchoff got their first starts of the season in midfield and Nanchoff thought he had his name on the scoresheet three minutes in, when he turned home a low John Thorrington cross.

The goal was somewhat mysteriously ruled out for offside, with Camilo looking to have been adjudged off when the cross came over and deemed interfering with play.

Edmonton settled down and took the game to their hosts, and they had a great chance to haul themselves back into the Cup tie in the 19th minute.

Yashir Pinto was sent through on the left, leaving Greg Klazura in his wake, and cut the ball back to Michael Cox on the penalty spot, whose first time strike was parried by Brad Knighton.

Two minutes later and Matt Lam tried a shot from distance that didn’t trouble the Caps goal, but showed the Eddies intention to attack.

Lam had a another long range attempt in the 27th minute, which Knighton got down well to save and Klazura hit the rebound out for a corner.

The Caps were looking a little lacklustre and only had a curling 35th minute Camilo free kick to show for their efforts.

Although having more attacking flair, Edmonton were being restricted to long range efforts and Shaun Saiko fired another one over the bar in the 37th minute.

That nearly changed in the closing minutes of the half.

A dangerous through ball from Shaun Saiko was deflected by the outstretched leg of Jay DeMerit into the path of Pinto and Cox, who has both got on the goal side of Jordan Harvey, but then got in each others way to spurn a great chance.

The momentum of big Cox carried him into Knighton. It was without any real malice but a slight stramash ensured to provide one of the few sparks of the first half.

The second half started off in a little lull but the game sprung into life in the 54th minute when Edmonton got the goal their play deserved, and their first ever Voyageurs Cup goal.

Cox played a short pass outside to Antonio Rago. The right back sent a dangerous ball into the six yard box that eventually came off the head of Pinto and past Knighton for 1-0 to the underdogs.

Nanchoff went down in the box in the 62nd minute, but was looking for the call as he fell over his man.

With everything now to play for, Vancouver brought on some heavyweight talent in to their attack with Sebastien Le Toux and Darren Mattocks, and what a difference they made.

Le Toux made an impact within five minutes of coming on to put the Caps level on the night and give them a two goal cushion of aggregate.

Davide Chiumiento sent a beautiful ball over the Edmonton defence straight into the path of Le Toux. Fabien Vorbe was wrong footed in dramatic fashion, allowing to the Frenchman to run into the box and fire past David Monsalve, who should have done better.

Camilo whipped another free kick just over the bar in the 81^st minute, as they sought to wrap things up.

The Brazilian then had the ball in the net a minute later but was flagged offside for the run through.

The Whitecaps brought on Etienne Barbara with five minutes remaining and the Malteser gave Caps fans an idea of what they can expect from him by immediately going on a mazy before being brought down for a penalty.

Barbara stepped up to take the kick in the best “makers-takers” tradition, only for Monsalve to brilliantly tip his well taken kick onto the right hand post.

Edmonton struggled to clear the danger and ended up conceding a kick on the left touchline. Chiumiento again flighted in a perfect ball to Le Toux, this time onto his head, and the Frenchman gave Monsalve no chance at his near post.

In the final seconds of the three minutes of stoppage time, Mattocks got his name on the scoresheet, whipping a Chiumiento cross into the bottom left hand corner, before picking up a booking by celebrating with a Jamaican flag in the Southside.

Overall, it was a patchy performance from the Caps, but they got the job done in the end and looked a much more dangerous side with the addition of Le Toux, Mattocks and Barbara.

Edmonton fought well and for most of the match they had turned in the best performance of all of the four Canadian teams on the night.

They should keep their heads up for they did their team and their city proud.

For Vancouver, it’s another Cup final against Toronto, following on from the pre-season Disney Pro Soccer Classic.

The Caps won silverware that time with the only goal of the game. Not many in Vancouver would argue with the same again.

ATT :  15,011

FINAL SCORE :  Vancouver Whitecaps   –    Edmonton

VANCOUVER WHITECAPS :  Brad Knighton; Greg Klazura, Carlyle Mitchell, Jay DeMerit, Jordan Harvey; Floyd Franks, John Thorrington, Davide Chiumiento, Michael Nanchoff (Sebastien Le Toux 70); Eric Hassli (Darren Mattocks 74), Camilo Sanvezzo (Etienne Barbara 85)  [Subs Not Used:  Joe Cannon, Michael Boxall, Russell Teibert, Bryce Alderson]

EDMONTON :  David Monsalve; Antonio Rago, Paul Hamilton, Kevin Hatchi, Fabien Vorbe; Shaun Saiko (Ilya Van Leerrdam 77), Kenny Caceros, Chris Kooy; Michael Cox (Kyle Porter 55), Matt Lam, Yashir Pinto (Paul Craig 81) [Subs Not Used: John Smits, Adam West, Jonathon Joseph-Augustin, Paul Craig, Dominic Oppong]

Canadian Under 17’s Reach CONCACAF Final

Canada reached the final of the CONCACAF Under 17 Championship in Jamaica this afternoon following a nervy 1-0 win over the tournament’s surprise side Panama.

The only goal of the game came after just 9 minutes, when Luca Gasparotto headed home. After that it was backs to the wall stuff at times. Panama had the Canadians under the cosh as they looked for an equaliser and were unlucky to see two fine second half efforts crash off the woodwork.

Canada held on for the win though and made it four clean sheets in their four games played. They’ve become a hard side to break down.

Sunday’s final appearance will be the first time the under 17’s have found themselves in such a position. Their best finish to date has been finishing third on four previous occasions. Now they have the title in their sights, with only the USA standing between them and the trophy.

It’s been a great performance for the kids. 19 members of the 20 man squad are training with one of the big three Canadian clubs and five of whom are with the Whitecaps FC Residency program – Bryce Alderson, Wesley Cain, Matteo Pasquotti, Adam Polakiewicz and Daniel Stanese.

Reaching the semis of the tournament means that the lads will also be taking their place at the Under 17 World Cup in Mexico this summer, the first time they will have qualified for the tournament since 1995. Then they crashed out in the group stages without winning a game or earning a point. I don’t think we’ll be seeing that happen again this time around.

Canada hosted the World Cup in 1987, when it was competed for at under 16 level. Again they finished bottom of their group with no wins and no points.

Scotland hosted the tournament the next time out (1989) and I was fortunate enough to be at a few of the games. It was a cracking tournament that gave me some great memories. Thousands of fans being locked out of Hearts’ Tynecastle Park for the Scotland-Portugal semi final was just immense and the 29,000 of us that made it inside went mental when Scotland scored the only goal of the game.

There was some fantastic football on display and it was probably the only time in my lifetime where I’ll be able to say that I was in attendance when Scotland played in a World Cup final. For the record, we lost 5-4 on penalties after drawing 2-2 after extra time against a Saudi Arabian team that had fully grown moustaches and much bigger builds. It really was men against boys.

Great tournament though and watching Canada in this qualifying campaign has brought all those happy memories flooding back. I really wish that Canada were bidding for this again in 2015, instead of the stupid monkey tennis one.

Hopefully the Canadian guys can do the business in Mexico. I’m also hoping that they’ll be joined by Scotland if they can get through the European qualification path which starts next month.

Two teams to cheer on in a World Cup – heaven!

Caps Loss Signals End Of An Era

I was going to write this blog last night, but thought a day of reflection was better than just emotional rambling.

24 hours on and defeat still hurts, as the realisation that it’s now the domestic football offseason for Vancouver Whitecaps and their fans starts to sink in.

Yesterday didn’t just mark the end of the 2010 season of course, it also marked the end of an era. “Division 2” level football is no more for the Caps and Swangard Stadium is no longer the place we will all call home. Our spiritual home since our formation in 1999 has had its last curtain call.

It was a freezing cold early evening by the time things wrapped up. What more could make me feel like I was back at Bayview than losing the feeling in my toes?!

It was a weird feeling leaving Swangard in my Caps garb for what will probably have been my last time, barring any pre season friendlies that the Caps may decide to play there.

I’ll look at the goodbye Swangard aspect later this week in the blog. For now though I want to look at the season that has just finished and the League(s) we’re leaving behind.

The 2010 season can’t really be described as one of excitement. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that there is very little of positive note that we can really take out of it. Even this year’s Voyageurs Cup games were lacklustre due to our defensive strength and our attacking flaws.

The two Portland playoff games were the highlights for me. The first leg for the performance, the second leg for the trip down the I5.

Too many draws. Too many games where we didn’t have any attacking flair. Too many blanks. That’s pretty much the season in my eyes.

Don’t get me wrong. I couldn’t care less if we won every game 1-0 with only one shot on target. Just as long as we won. Which at the end of it all, we didn’t. I’ve watched enough bad football in my lifetime to know that the end result is really what matters. Well that and the fun you have cheering the team on in the process.

I’ll admit it. I went into yesterday’s match not even considering the fact that we wouldn’t beat the Islanders. The thought never entered my head as I made various plans for the final permutations. I thought a comfortable afternoon lay ahead but left Swangard feeling that we got what we deserved from the match – nothing.

Having watched today’s highlights, I’ve changed my mind on that one. That game was certainly there for the taking and we created more chances than it seemed we did to me watching it all unfold live. Oh for a decent striker on the field to finish just one of them.

Bill Gaudette had a tremendous game in goal against us once again. Top quality keeper that’s too good for D2 I feel. We didn’t pressure him enough but he was a rock with what we did throw at him.

I thought Caps reject Addlery’s first goal was a bit of a fluke, but having seen it again he placed that perfectly. He looked up quickly and saw Nolly off his line.

Poor play by Philippe Davies in giving the ball away for the second as we pressed for an equaliser saw the end of it as we went down to a 2-0 extra time loss in the semis and my dream of a third Championship final in my three years here were shattered.

End of the season. End of NASL/USL/USSF-D2, or whatever name you want to call the shambles of a League we’ve found ourselves in of late.

Those that know me or have read my blogs will know that I’m not a big MLS fan. Obviously that will have to change and I’ll have to ignore as best as I can all of the things about the League that annoys the hell out of me and pretend it’s really a proper football league after all. At least I’m going to be watching my Club in a League that has professionalism in some aspects.

No more shitty internet feeds of games, when Mr Buffering is all that we can talk about. No more games played on pitches where you can’t work out where the sidelines are becuase of the throwball markings. No visits to markets where they couldn’t get a football crowd of four figures out regularly.

Best of all though, the chance to take in around five away games with relative ease (all things considered, although still no half hour trips like I was used to!).

I love lower league and non league football. I will miss the smalltime of it all and the intimacy of the surroundings and feeling a real part of it all. No matter how hard we try, we will lose part of that in the move to the “major league”.

Onwards and upwards though. We can’t look back, only forward. MLS beckons. One era is over but another is just about to begin and I’m sure I speak for all of us when I say we wouldn’t miss it for the world.

Mon the Caps.