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 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.

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.

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 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.

New Quota Is Not A Problem For Whitecaps

After much negotiation with the CSA, the MLS announced that there would be a Canadian player quota for the Whitecaps and TFC in 2011.  Overall it was reduced from eight players that TFC required last year to each team needing to have three Canadians under contract.  Both teams already have the quota filled on their roster as the Whitecaps have three signed for 2011 and Toronto have five on their roster.  There may be even more Canadians signed by each team as they a number of players on trial during the preseason.

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.