We love the Whitecaps sha la la la la la la la!

By Santiago Endara

The first season of the Whitecaps in the MLS is going like, pardon my French but: like Scheiße. The team is last in the standings, the victories at home are sparse, we beg the referee to please blow the whistle before they tie us, and as visitors our record is so bad that we already lost track of it.

Fortunately, the Whitecaps have a group of fans that rain or shine go to the stadium carrying more equipment than a Pink Floyd roadie in the late 80's.  Yes sir, in a Football afternoon, close to the stadium you will see a line of devoted guys carrying big drums, flags, banners, small drums, güiros, trumpets and many other fine articles to the section 222 of the Empire Stadium. That is the section of “La 12 Vancouver”

Of course, life is not easy for the guys of La 12; after a long journey and one or two casualties in the road, they finally arrive with all their Football paraphernalia to the gates of the stadium where the guards start looking with suspicion and scorn because, they have heard, they will be doing something almost unthinkable in a North American Stadium: Cheer.

Inside the stadium, the guys from La 12 start their chanting “like in the great stadiums of South America” with the only difference that the “Barra” is formed just by 10 to 15 strong that, as they have no visitor fans opposing them, then they have to deal with the insults and heckling of oue own legendary State of the Art Vancouver “fans” and their constant “Hey man, can you please keep it quiet!  I’m trying to eat a Hot Dog here!”  “Maaan! Don’t these guys know that we have to wait for "Spike" to give us the signal!” Geeez! 

Sad?  Depressing?  Maybe you, dear reader, will think that the life and vicissitudes of the suffered members of La 12 is just a string of bad things happening to good people, like in “The Godfather”, but believe it or not there is a light at the end of the tunnel for this good guys! 

Yes indeed, because out of 100 “fans” that go to order some food at the stadium and slip in their own puddle of beer, there is that 1% that is getting the songs and learning to cheer like fans should in a Football stadium. Yes, because at the end of the game, Eric Hassli comes and say thank you for the support and sorry for missing 5 goals in front of the empty net, but next time I will score a great goal in Seattle!   

And yes, because after repeating and repeating the song “Come on Vancouver” for the 100^th time, some other fans start to join in.  Their faces still look like “Am I being too ridiculous or what?” but they are joining in, anyway, and that is when the people from La 12 Vancouver can wipe their foreheads, drink a mouthful of water and say “Well… we are doing something positive for the Beautiful Game in this Beautiful Country, and that's enough to keep us going!" 

Women also have their World Football Party!

By Christian Basantes

I grew up in Ecuador, a country where Soccer or Football is the most popular sport. I always heard and knew that Soccer was meant to be for Men, and that's it! I'm sure some women that may be reading this, may think bad about me. However, please don't get me wrong. Throught the years I watched Soccer, I started to see that Women, specially from USA and Canada, play this sport, they love it and they are great players over there. That was a pleasant surprise!

FIFA, as usual, loves to expand the business, loves to bring soccer to all nations and to all people. That's why, they decided that Women should have their World Cup tournament. In 1991, the 1st FIFA Women's World Cup got celebrated in China. A new era for the Beautiful Game had started! 

Since then, every four years, Soccer Women have their party. In short, here we have the Winners for this tournament.

• China 1991: USA
• Sweden 1995: Norway
• USA 1999: USA
• USA 2007: Germany
• China 2007: Germany
• Germany 2011: ?

As you can see, only 3 countries have claimed World victory. Who is going to be crowned in Germany 2011?. Well, I really hope Canada. I know that Canada has a decent team for Women's Soccer, and they always participate in this championship. Also, as a matter of fact, my country Ecuador is not good enough to qualify to this tournament, so we are not good. For that reason, I better cheer for Canada, my adopted country!

The party in Germany has started, let's hope for good games and great victories!

FIFA World Cup U-17, where the Stars of the Future begin their road!

By Christian Basantes

 

Hello my fellow soccer fans, one more time here to greet you and talk more about our passion, the beautiful game, Football! This time, I'm here to talk about one of my favorite soccer tournaments, the FIFA World Cup, but the U-17! where the stars of the future show their talent and world class!.

It was in 1982, when FIFA president, Joao Havelange, had the idea to create a tournament for teen football players. The success of the U-20 World Cup was the beginning of this U-17 World tournament, and in 1985, China hosted the first World Cup with 16 National Teams. Later in 2007, at the tournament played in Korea Republic, the competition expanded to 24 National Teams. Since 1985, every two years, the competition takes place, and we’ve seen great young players that later became great stars.

Who are the best teams in this competition? Well, Brazil and Nigeria have the record of 3 world titles. Those are the most successful teams. In the major competitions, we normally see teams like Argentina, Germany, Italy as the ones that get the final victory. However, in this one, the unusual thing happens. Teams like Ghana, France, México, and Switzerland have tasted World victory. In short, this is the list of U-17 World Champions in the history:

As you may notice, 13 editions of this World Cup have been played so far. It is not a surprise to see African teams like Nigeria and Ghana winning these competitions. The same I’d say for Saudi Arabia and Switzerland. The only question that comes to my mind is What happen later to these teams? Why they don’t have the same success in a major tournament? Well, that’s another discussion; however, their country names are in the world soccer history.

Tomorrow, a new history will start. The 14^th edition of the U-17 World Cup is this summer. From June 18^th to July 10^th, 24 National Teams will be playing in 7 cities of Mexico in order to find the new U-17 World Champion. On May 17^th, in the draw celebrated in Mexico City, the groups were conformed and here they are:

So, what is the most difficult group? Or better say, what is the famous “group of death”? Well, these times, there is not easy opponent; I think all the groups are complicated. Whoever wants to be the Champion, will have to fight in every minute of every single game. No matter, who wins at the end, I really hope it is the team that really deserve it.

I'm sure that now, you are wondering who is going to be the new U-17 World Champion. Well, in order to figure out this mystery, let's follow the games, and of course, let's cheer and support our teams. In my case, Go Ecuador!!!

Tomorrow, at 1 pm, in the city of Morelia, the hosts Mexico will play North Korea, and the party will start!!

Thanks for the opportunity and enjoy the beautiful game!!

Christian Basantes

PS. Wondering about the Game schedule? Please go to http://www.fifa.com/u17worldcup/index.html

The UEFA Champions League, a brief history of a great Football tournament!!

By Christian Basantes

With the final whistle of the Hungarian referee Victor Kassai, the 56^th edition of the UEFA Champions League came to an end and FC Barcelona was proclaimed as the new King of Europe.

On Saturday May 28th, Manchester United of England and FC Barcelona of Spain faced each other to define the new European Champion. After a great performance, the “catalanes” beat United by 3-1. The Spaniard Pedro at 27^th, the sensational Argentinean and FIFA World Player, Lionel Messi at 54^th, and Team Spain top scorer, David Villa at 69^th got the goals for the “Blau Granas”. The English Wayne Rooney scored for the “Red Devils” to save some honour in the final. It was simply an amazing and perfect performance by FC Barcelona, and now they have four European Championships in their history.

I’m very sure that many of you, my dear readers, are saying “well I’ve already know that” “I did watch the game last Saturday”, or “that’s the same thing I read on the media and the papers about that game”. All right, you’re all right. Well, I’m not here to just tell you about the last UEFA Champion’s League Final. I’m here to tell you a brief history of this great Football tournament.

As everything, the UEFA Champions League has its beginning. In 1955, a French sports journalist, Gabriel Hanot, had the idea of creating a club tournament in Europe. He received reports from its colleagues in South America. The "Campeonato Sudamericano de Clubes" known today as "Copa Libertadores de América" was having a great success since 1948. Hanot went with the idea to UEFA, and they loved it. The tournament was born as a competition for winners of the European National Leagues, it was named European Champion Club's cup, also known as, European Cup.

                             

Thorough the history, the tournament have suffered many changes. For instance, before 1992 only National League Champions plus the European Cup holder used to participate. Later, as Europe suffered different political and geographical changes, more teams were allowed to be in the competition. Countries like Spain, England, Germany, Italy, and France are allowed to send its top 4 teams. On the other side, the rest of countries get to send just their top 2. The group stage was introduced in the 1992-93 season, and the name changed to its current one, UEFA Champions League. In total, 32 teams, divided in 8 groups of 4 teams, play in the competition at the group stage. Then, the top 2 of each group go to the round of 16^th, then the quarterfinals with 8 teams, then semifinals with the European top 4, and finally the best 2 teams of Europe play for the Championship in a previously designated city and stadium. This last edition the final was played in the legendary Stadium of Wembley in London, England. The League runs from August through May of the next year.

As every exciting football tournament, the Champions League has seen great teams and players reaching the glory. Real Madrid CF was the winner in the first five editions of the tournament. This is the wonderful generation of Ferenc Puskas (Hungary), Alfredo D'Estefano (Argentina), Jose Santamaria (Uruguay), Paco Gento, and Roque Olsen both from Spain. They were the kings of Europe from 1955 to 1960, a record that today is still unbeatable and hard to reach. In total, this team accumulates nine titles in the tournament. Yes, it is the most awarded team in Europe. In addition to the players I mentioned, Real Madrid has won the title with players like Raul Gonzalez (Spain), who is the top historic scorer with 71 goals. Luis Figo (Portugal), Zinedine Zidane (France), Roberto Carlos (Brazil), Fernando Redondo (Argentina), Steve McMannaman (England) and many more.

However, this is not only about Madrid, we can't forget other great teams like Ajax from The Netherlands with Johan Cruff, the powerful AC Milan with a glorious generation of the Italians Paolo Maldini and Franco Baressi, and the Dutch Rudd Gullit, Marco Van Basten, and Frank Rijkard. The FC Barcelona, now current European Champions, with its "Dream Team" from 1992 with players like Ronald Koeman (The Netherlands), Hristo Stoichkov (Bulgaria), Jose Mari Baquero and Julio Salinas (Spain). Manchester United with talents like George Best and Bobby Charlton from England. And Benfica from Portugal with the talented Portuguese Eusebio, and more, more, more, and more that I would need a lot of time and a lot of pages to tell you.

However, let's make it simple, here I have the list of European Champions. These are the best teams of Europe. As an extra research I did, you will see per every year, the name of the MVP, who helped his team in reaching the European Glory. Here we go!

Please click on the table to have  abetter view.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_Champions_League; and http://www.uefa.com/

As you can see, plenty of clubs and also plenty of Football stars, sorry, football stars that amazed Europe and the World. What is your favorite? Tricky question because some players may not be familiar for you, but in my personal case, I choose Zidane. I still can’t forget the amazing goal he scored on May 15, 2002 at Hampden Park in Glasgow, during the final against Bayern Leverkussen (Germany). Zidane’s goal gave the lead to Real Madrid 2-1 in the final, and consequently, it gave the ninth UEFA Champions League to the Spaniard Team. Yes, that was the last one for the “Blancos”.

What about the finals? In this topic, English club fans can be really proud, and if I were fan of Manchester United or Liverpool FC, I would be too.

In 1999, in the final played at the Camp Nou Stadium in Barcelona, Spain, the “Red Devils” of Manchester United (England) beat Bayern Munich (Germany) in the last 2 minutes of injury time! The Germans took the lead at the 6^th minute with a goal from Mario Basler. The score was 1-0 during the whole game. However at the 91^st minute, the English Teddy Sheringham tied the game, 1-1. Finally, at the 93^rd, the Norwegian Ole Solskjaer changed the history, 2-1, and United got the championship. What a shocking ending!!

In 2005, another impressive thing happened. Liverpool faced AC Milan at the Atartuk Stadium of Istanbul in Turkey. The Italian Paolo Maldini, and the Argentinean Hernan Crespo scored for Milan at 1^st, 39^th and 44^th minutes respectively to give them a comfortable lead of 3-0. I’m sure in that moment, they thought “well, it is 3-0, let’s relax”. However, Liverpool players didn’t give up, and the English Steven Gerrard at 54^th, the Czech Vladimir Smicer at 56^th, and the Spaniard Xabi Alonso at 60^th scored to tie the game 3-3! The comfortable lead became an uncomfortable draw in 6 minutes!! The game went to extra time, where no goals came, and in the penalty shoots, the nightmare for AC Milan happened! Liverpool won 3-2 and the Champions League went to The Beatles home city. Simply Amazing!!

In conclusion, England can be proud that their teams never give up. However, let’s not be unfair. I’m sure that Spain is proud with Real Madrid, the most awarded European team, and with FC Barcelona, the current Champion, and the one that is playing the best football in the world right now. Germany also enjoyed wonderful journeys with the famous Bayern Munich. Italy, can’t complain with the success of AC Milan, Juventus, and Inter.

Anyway, there are more stories to tell. I would need more time and pages to write about it. However, I’m sure that with these few episodes I told you briefly, you will agree with me that the UEFA Champions League is one of the greatest football tournaments in the world.

Until next time!!

Christian Basantes

Winning Tournaments! But losing Identity…

By Christian Basantes

June of 1998, Spain is disqualified from the 1998 World Cup France in the 1rst round. June 2002, France, the current World Champion at that time, says good bye too early in the 2002 FIFA World Cup in Korea and Japan. June 2010, the same story happens again, when Italy, 2006 World Champion, is disqualified in the first round South Africa. Also in June 2010, England, with its best generation in years is sent home in the round of 16, after showing a mediocre performance. That is just one more World Cup disappointment for the English team, after the 1966 World Title.

Some soccer fans asked me why these unsuccessful and sad stories happened in the FIFA World Cup? Answers? Well there are many. Too much confidence, underestimating other national teams, exhausted players, and so on. However, my answer and what I think is the big reason: foreigners!

In the history of Football, the famous clubs and teams have allowed foreign players in their rosters. Of course, it is nice to see a Brazilian player, or an Argentinean player showing his talent in Spain, in Italy, in England. We can’t forget that the best player that Real Madrid ever had is the famous Alfredo D’ Stefano (Argentina). We can’t either forget that Johan Cruff (Netherlands) is one the idols for FC Barcelona. I can go on and on, but that’s not the point of my article. Today, I’ll focus on the excessive number of foreign players in Italy and England. Why these countries? Because the excess happens there.

The top 3 clubs in England are Arsenal, Chelsea, and Manchester United. In the last years, these have been considered the strongest and most powerful English teams. Oh wow, “English” teams they are telling me, but wait a minute English teams? Ohh yes, they are from cities in England, but the moment I start to see their rosters what do I find?

-          Chelsea: Five players from England, and the rest? 19 players from Brazil, Spain, Portugal, France, Israel, Ivory Coast, and Ghana.

-          Arsenal: Three English players, and 23 more players from France, Spain, Wales, Netherlands, Poland, Morocco, Belgium, and Czech Republic.

-          Manchester United: 12 English players. Well, that’s much better, but out of a roster of 39 players. So the reminder 27 comes from Netherlands, France, Brazil, Serbia, Ecuador, and Mexico.

Adding the total number of players, I get a total of 89 in these teams. Only 20 are English, that’s 22%, less than half! And I’m very sure that not all of the 20 have International experience playing for the National Team. Then England complains they can’t do well in the World Cup. Unbelievable!!

In May 2010, I saw the famous “Italian” power of Inter Milan beating Bayern Munich in the 2010 UEFA Champions League final. That year, Inter also won the Italian Cup and the Italian Serie A. If I were Italian I would’ve claimed to consider this team as the base to form the Italian National Team for the World Cup, but wait a minute, I can’t. The lineup for Inter has 4 guys from Argentina, 3 from Brazil, 1 from Rumania, 1 from Netherlands, and 1 from Macedonia. Italian team without any Italian players! Well, great to win three important trophies in a year, but bad to lose the Italian identity. There you have another reason why Italy couldn’t defend its World Title in a decent way.

I am not against foreign players showing their class in Europe. I think it is ok and great idea, of course, to hire a foreign player for your team, but why we have to go to the extreme? For instance, in Ecuador, professional football teams are allowed 4 spots for foreign players. We can proudly say, that an Ecuadorian power, Liga de Quito, won the 2008 Libertadores with most players born in Ecuador. It is also not a surprised to see rosters from Argentinean, Brazilian, Uruguayan teams that almost 80% of their players are born in their countries. Adding the fact that in South America teams win trophies, they keep their identity and that’s why fans love them so much. For that reason, football in South America it's a matter of pride and identity.

I just wonder, it wouldn’t be nice for Chelsea fans and Arsenal fans to see their team winning the UEFA Champions League with English players? Do Inter fans really feel proud of their trophies with a 100% foreign line up? Good question eh?

In Spain, it looks like they realized their problem in 1998. In that time FC Barcelona had 8 Dutch players, yes 8!! Also they had a strong Brazilian guy named Rivaldo, and for sure more foreigners that I don’t remember now. The Catalanes started to focus on its minor divisions. That’s how the world has been able to welcome players like Iniesta, Xavi, Piqué, Puyol, Busquets, and Pedro. All of them, 2008 European Champions and 2010 World Champions defending  the Spain National Team. Other teams like Sevilla, Villarreal, Atlético de Madrid, are more focused in their minor divisions, and that’s why Spain now is an strong power able to win great trophies they wanted for a long time. I really hope, they don’t lose their focus.

Michelle Platini, UEFA President, and Joseph Blatter, FIFA President, are promoting an idea that I support 100%. The 6:5 rule! Teams or Clubs need to have 6 players from their home country and 5 foreigners on the field. Guess who already opposed? Yes, teams from England, Italy, and surprisingly in Spain too. After the good results, Spain is going to make the same mistakes as English and Italians? I really hope not.

If things continue like that, Italy won’t be World Champion in a long time, and England, won’t celebrate a victory ever again. Clubs like Inter Milan can continue winning trophies, thanks to the foreign talent, but they don’t realize that they are losing their identity, and that’s, in my opinion, priceless.

The only ones happy with all these European extremes, will be the South American National Teams. Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, and Paraguay, may repeat the same story that happened in the last FIFA World Cup. They took their spots among the top 8 teams of the world. In the future, Mexico can join them, and I really hope Ecuador joins them too.

It looks like Europeans love to train our players for us, for now, that seems to be their favourite choice.

PS. At the moment of this writing, Inter Milan is being eliminated from UEFA Champions League by the Germans of Shalke 04! Good bye “Italian” team.

Football, There Is Nobody Like YOU!!!

By Christian Basantes

Spain is the current World Champion and the country that has one of the most powerful Leagues in the World. This country's Football League, also known as "La Liga", gets this status thanks to  two powerful teams, FC Barcelona (The "Blau-Granas", The "Catalanes") and Real Madrid CF (The "Blancos", The "Merengues"). Both teams have a big rivalry, and every game they play is called “El Clásico” (The Classic)

Both archrivals have the most amount of victories in Spain. Real Madrid owns 31 Spanish Leagues, 17 King Cups, and 9 UEFA Champions League. FC Barcelona is the owner of 20 Spanish Leagues, 25 King Cups, and 3 UEFA Champions League. As you can see, a great history of victories that have made their fans very proud.

But, I'm not here to make a comparison between these two powerful teams. I'm here to talk about the emotions that these two teams gave to the world of soccer on June 7th, 1992. When the last journey of 1991/1992 Spanish League was played, and the Champion was known in the last moments of the 38th round, the last one. The episode I'm about to tell you, is one of the many that increased the rivalry between these two powerful sides.

After 37 rounds of the league, Real Madrid CF was the leader with 54 pts. +47 GA.  FC Barcelona was the second with 53 pts. +48 GA. In that time, the punctuation system was different, for a victory a team used to get 2 points and for tying 1 point. Real Madrid was schedule to visit CD Tenerife at the city of Tenerife in the Canarias Islands. The local team didn't have any chance to be champions; they were just playing to complete their schedule. A victory for the "Blancos" would give them the League Championship. On the other side, FC Barcelona was meeting Athletic Bilbao in Barcelona. They really needed to win and wait that Real Madrid CF losses its game, which was considered almost a miracle to happen.

Real Madrid was the leader of the league for the last 30 journeys. CD Tenerife was a small opponent that didn't have any chance to beat the "Merengues". That's what everybody thought. The Real Madrid CF directors and CEOs, lead by the President Ramon Mendoza, organized a "Victory Tour" with many boxes of champagne and wine. They were pretty sure that the "Blancos" would get the Spanish League back after one year of missing it. But they didn't count that CD Tenerife would be willing to sell its defeat for a very high price. The Dutch Leo Benhacker, the coach, sent to the field players like Paco Buyo, great Spaniard goalie, Fernando Hierro, one of the best defenders ever from Spain, George Haghi, the Rumanian midfielder also known as "The Maradona of the Carpathians", Miguel Gonzalez "Michel", Spaniard midfielder, Ricardo Rocha, great Brazilian defender, and the famous Emilio Butragueño, historic Spaniard forward. CD Tenerife didn't have great names, but they were managed by the Argentinean Jorge Valdano, former Real Madrid CF player, who later, in 1995, would become Real Madrid CF coach. 

In Barcelona, the "Blau-Granas" were receiving the visit of Athletic Bilbao. Players like Andoni Zubizarreta (Goalie), Ronald Koeman, the Dutch great defender, Jose Mari Bakero, good Spaniard midfielder, the Bulgarian Hristo Stoichkov - an idol for "The Catalanes", Guillermo Amor, and Michael Laudrup (Denmark) were ready to play and fight for the miracle of retaining the Spanish League. About Athetic Bilbao, there is not much to say, let's move to how the games went.

Both games started at the same time. At the 8th minute, Goal in Tenerife! Fernando Hierro scored for Real Madrid CF, 1-0! Then, at 28th minute, George Haghi scored for Real Madrid CF and now they were leading 2-0 over CD Tenerife. However, 8 minutes later, at 36th, Hristov Stoichkov scored at the Camp Nou Stadium, a goal for FC Barcelona, 1-0!! Also, at the same time, CD Tenerife scored its first goal!! Estebaranz put the score in 2-1. It looked like neither CD Tenerife nor FC Barcelona were letting things easy for Real Madrid CF. The first 45 minutes in both games ended with partial victories of Real Madrid CF (2-1) and FC Barcelona (1-0). The title of Champion was more than secure for Real Madrid. The "Blancos" were now leading the league with 56 pts. +48 GA, and FC Barcelona was second with 55 pts. +49 GA.

In the second half, we would have moments not suitable for those with a weak heart. 49th minute Goal in Barcelona!! Hristo Stoichkov, one more time, was scoring for "The Catalanes" and now they were leading its game 2-0. FC Barcelona had now 55 pts. +50 GA. In Tenerife, things were still normal for Real Madrid CF, but suddenly they got too relaxed. That's why at the 77th minute, Goal in Tenerife! An own goal by the experienced Brazilian defender Ricardo Rocha gave the tied to CD Tenerife, 2-2! Now we had, Real Madrid: 55 +47; FC Barcelona 55 +49!! This was a psychological goal that Ream Madrid CF never recovered. In Tenerife, the Madrid fans were getting nervous, while in Barcelona, the fans were getting very excited. But the worst for Real Madrid came at the 78th minute. In a very fast play, Pier scored for CD Tenerife and they came back for a lead of 3-2!. Now we had FC Barcelona: 55 pts. +49, and Real Madrid: 54 pts. +47. FC Barcelona was leading the Spanish League since the 77th minute of the last game in the last round! While Real Madrid CF was relegated to second place, after being leaders for the last 30 rounds! On my Goodness! This is what was really happening!!! Amazing how things were changing for a bunch of mistakes that the "Merengues" did in the Football field.

At the end of both games, Real Madrid CF lost 3-2 in Tenerife, while FC Barcelona beat 2-0 Athletic Bilbao in Barcelona “La Ciudad Condal”. The Real Madrid CF directors and CEOs didn't accept the defeat easily. They were talking about supposed incentives to CD Tenerife players from FC Barcelona directors, and suspicious actions from the referees. For example, a legitimate goal from Luis Milla, Real Madrid CF player, wasn't called as valid; three penalties for the "Blancos" were denied, some strange businesses under the table, and so on. However, nothing was ever proved.

The great "Blau-granas" "The Catalanes" had won the Spanish League in an unforgettable and memorable end. It was the beginning of a memorable era of victories for FC Barcelona and its "Dream Team". In Tenerife, the CD Tenerife fans were really happy because their team played with lots of dignity. They never felt too proud of themselves, and I'm very sure that the boxes of champagne and wine that Real Madrid CF directors brought, were drank it till the last drop by them. Real Madrid CF players and directors came back to Madrid with nothing, for sure, with a sepulchral silence and disappointment, while in Barcelona, everything was party, lots of happiness and lots of pride. I just wonder who were happier for the disgraceful faith of Real Madrid CF? The CD Tenerife fans? or the FC Barcelona fans? Who do you think? 

Anyway, for great memorable moments like this, I can tell you and and I'll always tell you, my fellow Soccer fans, excuse me!! Football fans: FOOTBALL THERE IS NOBODY LIKE YOU!!!

Christian Basantes

The Whitecaps First Away Game

By Santiago Endara

Last Saturday at 1:00 pm Vancouver time, the Whitecaps played their first away game of the MLS era against the Philadelphia Union.

The game ended with a 1:0 victory of Philadelphia over Vancouver.  Here is the analysis of the game

Our coach Teitur Thordarson, had a hard time finding the right squad as his most talented players where either injured (Midfielder Davide Chiumiento and Goalie Jay Nolly) or playing for their national teams (Jay DeMeritt for the USA and Michael Boxall for New Zealand) 

The game was even and Vancouver did a good job, but had a couple of mistakes that eventually coasted us the game:

1) Hassli: He was unfairly booked in the first half for a fault that didn’t deserve a yellow, but after this happened, he fell into the trap of the Union players, as they were constantly provoking him hoping to get a bad reaction and cause his expulsion.   That is exactly what happened.  He went too hard for a divided ball, and that added to some previous rough plays against other defenders convinced the referee that he was too rough to continue on the field.  His expulsion, in addition to demoralize his team also caused that the Union could add one more men to attack, causing more problems to the defence of Vancouver, which eventually allowed a goal.

2) Harris: He was not a problem for the defenders of the Union.  Harris lacked speed and skills to create problems in a solid defence. 

3) Defenders: The Vancouver Whitecaps defenders kept the ball away for most part of the game and did a good job in general but made several mistakes that will be great if they can correct:

a) When heading the ball away of your area on a defensive header, never aim for the center of the field but to the sides.  If you clear to the sides, the ball will not bounce back to the other team in a dangerous zone.  This is exactly what happened in the Union game: A bad defensive header was left in the boots of a Union player who crossed the ball to the box and it ended up in a goal.  Although the goal has been considered an offside by many fans, in my opinion, I can’t tell, the TV does not show the best angle to decide if it was an offside or not.

b) The defence needs to control more the pace of the game.  The Whitecaps could not put the game in the “fridge” when that is what they should have done.  Of course this skills are more present in players with more experience, so that is when you feel the absence of DeMeritt.

So, this are the updates of the first away game of the Whitecaps. 

Vivit our blog and we will keep you informed of the rest of the games.  

   

This were the line ups:

Vancouver Whitecaps FC
1.Joe Cannon; 25.Jonathan Leathers, 14.Greg Janicki, 4.Alain Rochat, 19.Blake Wagner; 16.Nizar Khalfan (23.Long Tan 88’), 7.Terry Dunfield, 28.Gershon Koffie, 31.Russell Teibert (8.Wes Knight 65’); 9.Atiba Harris (37.Camilo Sanvezzo 83’), 29.Eric Hassli

Philadelphia Union
1.Faryd Mondragon; 25.Sheanon Williams, 5.Carlos Valdes, 4.Danny Califf, 2.Jordan Harvey (19.Jack McInerney 67’); 7.Brian Carroll, 9.Sebastien Le Toux, 6.Stefani Migliorani, 13.Kyle Nakazawa (8.Roger Torres 67’); 20.Carlos Ruiz, 10.Danny Mwanga (15.Gabriel Farfan 83’)