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.

Cascadia Summit Preview

This weekend will see the renewal of a 30+ year trivalry between the Seattle Sounders, Portland Timbers and Vancouver Whitecaps with the first Cascadia Summit taking place in Tukwila Washington.  After a two year hiatus, the Sounders being in the MLS, all three teams are in the same league and can compete for the Cascadia Cup in 2011.  The Summit will consist of a one match between each team over the three days and also includes a double header on March 6th where the Sounders Academy will play the Whitecaps Residency squad before the senior teams play later.

Whitecaps Acquire FC Zurich Striker

There has been one thing constantly talked about since preseason camp began in Arizona for the Whitecaps.  Who is going to score the goals?  The panic felt by the fans and discussed by the media doesn’t seem to worry the Whitecaps organization or at least they don’t show it.  As reported on the weekend, Director of Operations Tom Sohen was in Switzerland looking for help at the forward position.  It took only a few days but the Whitecaps have found their man in Eric Hassili, a striker from the Swiss Super League

A teammate with Alain Rochat at FC Zurich, Eric Hassli is a 29 year old French forward who comes to the Caps as the proven goalscorer fans were looking for.  The team is second in the Axpo Super League but Hassli is probably fourth on depth chart as the team is going with younger strikers and Hassli is coming off a serious leg injury.  He is a known for his strength as he is a 6’4” forward with good technical skills and has scored the spectacular goal on occasion as you can see in the video below.  He is by no means slow on the field as his blend of speed and size is what the Whitecaps are looking for in a striker.

Rogers Sportsnet Gain Local Broadcast Rights

The Whitecaps have completed the final piece of their broadcast sponsorship by agreeing with Rogers Sportsnet to broadcast the remaining of their 21 MLS games as a local provider.  By agreeing to this deal with Rogers the Whitecaps were not afraid to go against their shirt sponsorship deal with Bell and completing an agreement with their competitor.  Sportsnet will air 11 matches on their Pacific channel, 9 matches on their One Channel and 1 match on CityTV.  At this point it is assumed that the broadcast team will be Gerry Dobson and former Canadian goalkeeper Craig Forrest.

DeMerit Named Captain of Whitecaps

The Whitecaps did what was expected and named their first MLS signing, Jay DeMerit, as the first ever captain.  One of the main reasons DeMerit was signed by the MLS expansion team last November is the leadership he brings on and off the pitch.  The former captain of English side Watford took the long road to success in football by starting at the lowest levels of club football in the UK and making his way to the English Premier League.  The United States World Cup veteran will anchor the back line for the Whitecaps on the field and is the face of the franchise for the mainstream public following the team locally and across the league

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.

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 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.

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

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.

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.

Gage Completes Move From Whitecaps to Reading

A week after the local media discovered that Ethan Gage would not be training with the Caps and was on trial with Reading FC in England, it is official and the reigning U20 player of the year has transferred overseas.  When he did arrive a couple days after news broke Gage told reporters that he felt the trial went well and he were waiting to hear from his agent if a contract would be offered.  The signing of Gage is another example of how successful the Whitecaps residency program has become in developing young football players.  Gage will be the fourth player in four years to move to Europe on transfer or loan with Straith (2008), Latendresse-Levesque (2009), Haber (2010) being the other previous higher profile prospects to make the move overseas.

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.

Is Ornoch An Option For The Whitecaps?

Late yesterday it was reported that Canadian international Andrew Ornoch was not offered a contract by TFC as it was assumed it would be at the beginning of the transfer window.  The initial offer was proposed by the interim management team which was enticing the 6-3 striker by the fact that he bought out his own contract.  However, when new management led by Aaron Winter took over the Toronto club, the offer was rescinded and Ornoch was left out in the cold.  Also in the same report Ornoch is said to be understandably upset with this news and feels he was misled by TFC but may have some other options in North America and Europe.  

Ethan Gage Trials With Reading FC

On the first day of training it was revealed by Whitecaps management, through Marc Weber's tweet, that U20 Canadian Men's Player of the Year Ethan Gage is on trial with Reading FC of The Champions League in England.  There has been no word prior to today on the trial but the Whitecaps have said Gage will be welcomed back to camp anytime.  If one is to believe management, there wasn't a player on contract for the 2011 season and so we are left wondering whether the Caps will get anything or this falls under as a free transfer.  If the trial is not successful for the young Canadian it will be good experience and it will give him a benchmark as he learns what he needs to work on.  This won't be the first time that Gage is trialing with Reading as prior to signing to the Residency program in 2007 he had training sessions with academies in England with Reading, Middlesbrough, Newcastle, and Charlton.  He also spent time in Germany with Hamburger SV and in Scotland with St. Johnstone.

Post Draft Whitecaps Roster Analysis: Part II

While they have only signed only five midfielders to a MLS contract, the Whitecaps have many more in camp that have the potential to see significant playing time next year.  Versatility is the word for their center midfielders as the ones in camp have shown the ability to play as an attacker while being responsible defensively.  While the following players can definitely score goals, they are more in the playmaker mold and will create opportunity for the attacking players we will look at in Part III.