It was a must-win for the Vancouver Whitecaps FC Wednesday night, as they sat just two points ahead of FC Dallas for the fifth and final playoff spot in the MLS Western Conference. Luckily, they were hosting a woeful Chivas USA squad that was burdened with a franchise-worst losing skid into BC Place. The Caps didn’t disappoint, dominating play from kick-off to the final whistle, and putting four goals — FOUR!! —into the back of the net.
Video embed courtesy of www.whitecapsfc.com — if it ain’t workin’ don’t blame lil’ ol’ us!
Okay, Captain Jay Demerit isn’t Methusela, exactly, but he is feeling the effects of age, judging by a recent tweet. The team, in turn, is feeling the effects of his age, judging by stats compiled by our very own Chris Withers.
The Whitecaps are bone-creakingly old. At the start of the year, they were the oldest team in the MLS at 29.71 years. Then they traded Eric Hassli, Davide Chiumiento left and Barry Robson and Kenny Miller, both years older than their predecessors, were brought in. Age can be a good thing. One need only watch the masterclass that YP Lee usually puts on at right back to see the benefit of experience. But Captain Jay Demerit showed the downside of age in a tweet yesterday: “With every game I play, my body reminds me of how old I actually am. Good thing mind keeps telling me im 23. #sore #keepgoingJay #gocaps.” Continue reading The Vancouver Whitecaps Are Old→
The soccer gods, as they often like to do during the Voyageurs Cup tournament, were having a laugh yesterday. One of them devised the following scenario:
First, make the busiest part of the Whitecaps schedule coincide with two different Cup competitions, ensuring they either have to rotate the squad (which isn’t all that deep) or play tired. Second, have Toronto FC lose over a quarter of their league games consecutively to start the year, ensuring they are out of playoff contention and have nothing else to play for. Third, have Toronto somehow squeak past Montreal to get into the finals to face Vancouver. Fourth, have the Whitecaps play uninspired soccer. OK, number four definitely wasn’t the soccer gods’ fault, but the result, a 2-1 aggregate loss to Toronto, will still seem unfair to Vancouver soccer fans. This was to be our year, and it all went wrong.
After putting in a largely uninspired second leg in the Canadian championship, Eric Hassli & the Whitecaps probably should have been forced to endure the long walk of shame back to Vancouver instead of a comfy cross-country flight.
On Saturday, I took advantage of a pretty rare opportunity: I got to see Vancouver play Montreal in two different sports on the same day. After an off-season that stretched seemingly forever, the Vancouver Whitecaps finally got to show off their revamped squad against the Montreal Impact at 3pm. Then, at 7pm, the Habs made their only visit of the year to Rogers Arena. I’ve been to my share of Canucks games in the past, and I was at all but one Whitecaps home game last season, but I’ve never been able to so directly compare the atmosphere in the two stadiums.
It couldn’t have worked out better, frankly. The Habs always inspire one of the liveliest affairs (off the ice) you’re likely to see at Rogers Arena, while the home opener in any sport is usually a noisy one. I even got to take in the games from a similar vantage point in each stadium. So how do the two events stack up? Read on to find out. Continue reading Rogers Arena, BC Place and the Canucks’ Culture Conundrum→
In an age of hyper marketing, intense competition and tightly controlled PR, it’s amazing that truly horrible ideas can still make it past the brainstorming stage. Whether it’s the nightmare of design by committee or just a conflagration of mediocre talents pulling the wool over the eyes of out of touch rich CEOs, we occasionally see awful designs rolled out in an underwhelming explosion of anticlimax. Today, we analyze the most recent Major League Soccer obscenity in our continuing series: Somebody Approved This.Continue reading 18 Nov 2011 – Somebody Approved This: Seattle Sounders 2012 Edition→
