We at Pucked in the Head would like to introduce our new BC Lions correspondent, Sam Anderson. Located on the mighty Twitter at @SamelaAnderson, this football gal represents everything that is right about football fandom. Beer, check. Permasmile, check. Large collection of BC Lions paraphernalia, check. So much enthusiasm you can’t even imagine watching a game without her, check.
Football’s Back!
by Sam Anderson
Ahhh I’m getting so excited! The return of preseason football is the equivalent of Christmas for CFL fans. While I’m bummed that TSN opted not to televise the preseason games this season (BOOOOOOOOOO!), and happy that our boys eked it out vs the Stamps last Friday night, it’s being back in my seat at BC Place that I’m really looking forward to. This Friday night can’t come soon enough.
More, including Grey Cup and Fan Fest reminiscin’, after the jump.
Sam Anderson (@SamelaAnderson on the mighty Twitter) cavorts with Leo the Lion at the 2013 BC Lions Fan Fest in Kamloops. Photo courtesy of Sam’s Facebook page.
With the ridiculous annual corporate wankfest that is the MLS All-Star Game once again looming on the horizon, Pucked in the Head has a very important message for all you Whitecaps fans: vote green and white! Portland is having a stellar season, currently sitting in 3rd place in the Western Conference with two games in hand on 2nd-place Real Salt Lake. Their players absolutely deserve the honour of competing in this ridiculous annual corporate wankfest. I assure you that this has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with the fact the game takes place on July 31st, just three days before Vancouver has to play a Cascadia Cup match against the Portland Timbers. No siree, Bob. We are absolutely not suggesting that you should attempt to rig the fan voting to ensure that the Whitecaps have the best possible chance of winning their derby the following weekend. Nope. 
The Voyageurs Cup tournament has been a thorn in the side of Vancouver Whitecaps supporters for eleven years now. Eleven times the Cup has been contested, and eleven times the club has found a way to lose. In 2011, Vancouver was less than 20 minutes from victory when torrential rain and lightning in Toronto forced an abandonment, wiping out the Whitecaps’ away goal and necessitating a replay, which they would lose. In 2012, the Whitecaps managed to lose to “the worst team in the world,” as Toronto forward Danny Koevermans called his TFC squad after they’d set an MLS futility record to start a season. But the one that will be on the minds of long-time fans of the Whitecaps will be the 2009 tournament, when the Whitecaps all but won their first championship, only to have it snatched away on the final day of the tournament in a game they weren’t even involved in. The Montreal Impact, who were already eliminated from that 2009 tournament, played a reserve side in the final game and were routed 6-1, handing the championship to Toronto on goal differential. Though not one player remains from that 2009 tournament, thousands of fans remember. Beating then-division 2 Montreal in the first round wasn’t enough. The fans want revenge, and they want it tonight. 
