Whitecaps Close Cascadia Summit With A Win

The Vancouver Whitecaps ended the Cascadia Summit with a flurry of goals as they defeated the Seattle Sounders 3-2 before a majority pro-Sounder crowd in Tukwila, Washington.  Both teams rolled their “B” teams with Jay Nolly, Greg Janicki and Wesley Knight the only Whitecaps to start both games.  The starting eleven for the Whitecaps were from left to right Nolly, Duckett, Boxall, Janicki, Knight, Teibert, Morfaw, Koffie, Khalfan, Salgado and Sanvezzo.

The Caps opened the scoring in the sixth minute as 1^st overall pick Omar Salgado got past a Seattle defender to deposit the ball in the back of the net.  Salgado, in fact, started the game on fire as he consistently got past the defenders to get more scoring opportunities and forced the Sounders to commit fouls.  In the 13^th minute goalkeeper Terry Boss of the Sounders mishandled a cross by Russell Teibert which resulted in a second goal.  The Whitecaps were caught looking in the box as Roger Levesque scored an easy one on Jay Nolly from close in right before halftime.

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 1^st 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.

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.

Post Draft Whitecaps Roster Analysis: Part III

The players that the Whitecaps have brought in to compete for the attacking positions will not strike fear into the opposition’s defenders and goalies.  There are only two pure strikers in camp, one who is on trial and the other, who is signed, can’t play for the team until he turns 18 in September.  I purposely made this the last part of the series because I was hoping management would have brought someone new through the transfer window.  Some of the players I have included in this piece will play the majority of their time as midfielders but they also have the ability to move up top to play the forward position.

Vancouver Whitecaps: Friday Links

--Marc Weber of The Province reports of the Whitecaps front office belief that Omar Salgado a world-class striker in the making

--A different view from the Globe & Mail's Matt Sekeras as the Whitecaps roll dice with 17-year-old striker

--The Vancouver Sun's Bruce Costantineau writes of how the Vancouver Whitecaps stun MLS, take Omar Salgado as top SuperDraft pick

--Local article from El Paso Times tells of El Pasoan Omar Salgado a surprise No. 1 pick in MLS draft

Vancouver Whitecaps SuperDraft Review

One thing was clear from how the Whitecaps went through the selection process at MLS SuperDraft.  They weren't just going to select players just to make the draft experts happy as the management team selected a player who while young, flashes a high upside and spent over a week training with the team last summer.  There were some definite themes in the way the Whitecaps made their draft picks with all four players being able to use the left foot.  Both first rounders are left footed players while the two Notre Dame selections are considered to be two footed players.  Except for Nanchoff, size also seemed to be a factor with the other three players being 6'1" and taller.

At the combine earlier in the week, the Whitecaps stated that they felt they were not looking at any of these players to come in on day one to start for their team.  With the selection of Salgado it gives a definite message that the Whitecaps are going to operate their club on their own terms.


F OMAR SALGADO-1^st overall selection