Monday, February 28, 2011

Residency Players Help Lead Canada To World Cup

The Canadian U17 men’s team qualified for the 2011 U17 World Cup this weekend in Jamaica as they made it to the final losing to the States 3-0.  The team consisted of five academy players from the Whitecaps organization and three of them played significant roles on the team.  The Canadian boys had not allowed a single goal through five full matches (450 mins) as they conceded all three goals in extra time of the finals after losing their legs.  The team will now play in the U17 World Cup hosted by Mexico between June 18 and July 10.  The five Whitecaps on team Canada were midfielders Bryce Alderson (captain), Wesley Cain, Matteo Pasquotti, and defenders Daniel Stanese and Adam Polakiewicz.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

Whitecaps Roster Update: Who's Left To Sign

With less than three weeks to go till first kick the Vancouver Whitecaps have tough decisions to make as they have almost half of a roster to fill with the players they have in camp.  If they decide to completely fill the 30 man roster they will sign up to eight more international players and six domestic players.  There is no requirement for the Whitecaps to sign the full roster as they may want to leave some spots open for players(strikers) that become available at a later date.  There have some intriguing rumored strikers mentioned on internet sites but there has been no signing and the forward position is lacking finish.  This was witnessed by the most recent trip to Arizona where the team were outscored five to nil and lost to the three MLS opponents.  The following is a breakdown of who has earned a contract, who is on the bubble for a contract and who is unlikely to get signed.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Whitecaps Goalless Against MLS Rivals

The Whitecaps finished their second training trip set of matches in Arizona without a victory in four games including losing their last game today against LA Galaxy 2-0.  They failed to notch a single tally in their three matches against MLS opponents and were outscored five goals to nil.  The first squad played Friday against Chivas USA (1-0 L) and Monday against the Galaxy (2-0 L) while it was mostly a reserve squad on Saturday against the US U18 (2-2 D) and the game today against the reserve Galaxy side.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Whitecaps Local Broadcast Options Plus Other News

With TSN gaining MLS national rights in Canada to broadcast 13 Whitecaps matches on TSN/TSN2, there are 21 games available to be aired locally.  The Whitecaps have stated they will try to broadcast every match this season and as tweeted by Matt Kieltyka of Metro News the Caps hope to get it finalized in the next few days.  In addition to the games the Caps would most likely require their new partner to put together a weekly recap show with features on players.

If the Caps are looking to reach the widest audience then Rogers Sportsnet or CBC would be the obvious options.  Both networks have the announcers in place as well as the large potential audience and Sportsnet has multiple channels in their hand.  Since Sportsnet is owned by Rogers there may be some conflict with Bell being major sponsors of the Whitecaps.  Will CBC feel it's worth the cost to produce games for just a western Canadian audience instead of the national audience it normally did in the past.

Thursday, February 10, 2011

2011 Vancouver Whitecaps MLS Schedule

A few notes on the Whitecaps 2011 Schedule:
--If everything goes according to plan the Whitecaps will close Empire vs Seattle on Sept. 24 and open BC Place on Oct. 2 vs Portland
--Vancouver will play a total of 3 games in BC Place ending the season vs Colorado on Oct. 22
--Surprising that MLS did not schedule the Caps and TFC match on July 1st, playing two days earlier on the 29th
--The Whitecaps(along with NY and DCU) will play the most mid-week games with all seven games being scheduled on Wednesday
--The Caps will have three weeks in which they play three games with the toughest week being May 7 to 14 when they play in Chicago, come home midweek and then travel back to New England.
--In addition to those weeks there will be an additional three times where the Caps will play two games within three or four days
--The Caps will play six matches in both April and June and play three games in September
--Month of June will be the busiest on the road as they play five of six games away from Vancouver (The max road games in any other month will be two) and only play one road game in October
--The Caps will enjoy the most time at home playing four at Empire but June and September the Caps will play only once at home.

Full schedule can be found here

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Whitecaps Add Two Internationals. Who's Next?

The Whitecaps signed two international players today, as it was announced the team has inked Gerson Koffie and Nizar Khalfan to MLS contracts.   The signings are the first non-domestic footballers on the squad as both players originate from the continent of Africa.  Both Khalfan and Koffie are holdovers from the 2010 NASL squad, as the Whitecaps are allowed to sign an unlimited number of players from that roster.  The Caps still have eight international spots to fill in having acquired two through trade during the expansion draft.

Whitecaps End First Trip With Win

The Vancouver Whitecaps completed their first preseason trip to Arizona as a MLS club with another victory over a club still alive in the CCL.  They defeated the Columbus Crew 2-1 with tallies from Atiba Harris and 1st pick Omar Salgado and missed making it a two goal victory when Davide Chiumiento’s missed penalty.  They opened the trip with a 2-1 decision against Real Salt Lake who will be the Crew’s opponent in the CCL quarterfinal.  Sandwiched between those victories was a competitive 1-0 loss to Cascadia rivals Seattle Sounders.

Wednesday, February 2, 2011

Vancouver Whitecaps FC versus Real Salt Lake Highlights- 02/01/11

The Whitecaps played their first exhibition as a MLS team yesterday against RSL.  After 135 minutes of play the Caps came up with a 2-1 result with Dunfield and Teibert scoring for Vancouver and Alvarez replying for RSL.  According to the majority of reports Teibert was the best player for the Caps adding an assist to the goal he scored.  Salgado also made a late appearance and impressed the staff with his skills in his first match with the Whitecaps.  German midfielder Hartmann, the newest addition to the camp,  was the last player substituted on at the 115th minute.  Highlights courtesy of Rogers Sportnet.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Whitecaps Add Hertha Midfielder to Camp

As first reported by Marc Weber in Phoenix, the organization has brought in German midfielder Lennart Hartmann for trial, a day after a Canadian midfielder left the Whitecaps for Europe .  The U19 national player was released from Hertha BSC to look for another team as his contract was set to expire this summer.  His former manager at Hertha, Micheal Preetz, stated in this article that it was a tough decision but there was too much competition on the club’s roster for his position.