Whitecapsfanblog

Despite doubts, Lee signing warms my heart

While I was off on vacation the Whitecaps announced the signing of Young-Pyo Lee, one of the giants of Korean and Asian football.  Lee’s signing warms my heart, because there is no doubt this guy has superb character.  His playing skill cannot be questioned, as his impressive run of 127 international appearances for Korea Republic demonstrates.  A number of those caps came as a player in the 2002 World Cup in which Korea Republic stunned and delighted the world by going all the way to the semi-final at home before losing a close match to finalists Germany.   On the way to the semi-final they beat European powerhouses Spain and Italy.

I loved that Korea team because of their heart, determination, character and pride.   To play in that side under Gus Hiddink each player had to have these qualities.

My only doubts with Lee are his age: he is 34. The last club he played with was Al-Hilal of Saudi Arabia.  His club career is very impressive indeed up to that point, with time spent at top European clubs PSV Eindhoven, Tottenham Hotspur and Borussia Dortmund.  But why was his last team Al Hilal in Saudi Arabia?

Soccer leagues in the wealthy Arab Middle East pay former stars whose careers are over at the top levels of the game in Europe  handsome fees to play in their leagues.  These leagues are where great soccer players go to die.  They collect million dollar paychecks they can no longer command in Europe on their way to their death as players.  Argentina’s great striker Gabriel Batistuta, and other great players, have cashed in on this kind of deal.

Having gone to this elephant’s graveyard of football, why does Lee want to get back into serious football in Major League Soccer? The MLS is a fast league with a reputation for hard physical play. Will Lee’s body be able to stand up to the challenge? He can’t be coming here for the money, because his pay check here in Vancouver will be nowhere near what it was in Saudi Arabia.

I can only guess that Lee, at the age of 34, has decided he is not through with serious football yet, and that he still feels the need for serious competition.   Word is that Lee will be played at right fullback.  Does he have the pace and fitness that a full back needs to get forward and put crosses in?  Or will he be more of a stay at home player who will work to organize the defence?  I suspect it will be the latter; new coach Rennie has made it clear that making the team hard to score on is job number one.

One thing that Lee will bring to the team is a wealth of experience playing in big leagues and in big matches, something our team lacks.  As a player in our squad he will have the most experience in big matches. This kind of experience is invaluable in a team.

It has been great to see the reaction of the local Korean community to Lee’s signing.  He is clearly revered amongst Koreans, and I suspect the Whitecaps will have another thousand or so season ticket holders, as well as many more individual ticket buyers strolling up.

While I do have my doubts about Lee’s age, I have none about his character.  Hopefully, when he pulls on his Whitecaps jersey, the latter will trump the former.

I think we have signed a winner.  Welcome to Vancouver, Lee!

The defining moments of the Vancouver Whitecaps 2011 season: part 1

The Whitecaps reborn: Kick-off 2011 v TFC

God I miss the Whitecaps.

It has only been a matter of weeks since the season is over and I am already in withdrawal.  I suppose going to support my local football team is a part of the very fibre of my being, and when the season is over, something is missing from my life.  I will have to entertain myself with overseas football until March of 2012,  when I can start using my Whitecaps season ticket again.

The defining fact of this year  has been the powerful reemergence of the Vancouver Whitecaps brand, which  climbed out of its cave where it had been hibernating for nearly 27 years.  The Vancouver Whitecaps were only a memory from 1984 until 2001, when then owner David Stadnyk decided to bring back the name.  The Whitecaps laboured away in relative obscurity in second division football for ten years after this.  Those of us who had the Whitecaps stamped on our consciousness from the 1974-1984 era longed for the Whitcaps to come back to where they were during that time.  This year they did just that.  For me this year was tremendously satisfying on a personal level; it was the fulfillment of many years of hopes and dreams.

The biggest story of the year and a defining moment of the 2011 season was simply the reemergence of the team to take its place alongside the Vancouver Canucks and the BC Lions as a team that the serious Vancouver sports fan was interested in.

I realised this in the last game against Colorado in BC Place when legions of Canucks fans left the Rogers Centre once the Canucks game was over and made their way over to BC Place to watch the Whitecaps.  This was unprecedented, and demonstrated to me that we have something big going on that will only get bigger once the Whitecaps field a team that is competitive in Major League Soccer.

The success of the Vancouver Whitecaps in the Vancouver sports market will only grow in my view, and watch for MLS to award an all-star game or an MLS final to Vancouver in the next five years, which will further cement our reputation as one of the strongest and most serious football franchises in Major League Soccer.

Even if this year was a bit of a bust and often a farce on the pitch, off of it the year was a tremendous success; the future is bursting with promise for Vancouver’s reborn team.

Whitecaps win over Montreal nothing to gloat about

Last night the Vancouver Whitecaps played the second leg of the Nutrilite Canadian Championship semi-final at home against the Montreal Impact.  They won the total goal series 2-1 having scored one goal at home and one in Montreal.  To say the Whitecaps were lucky to win the series would be an understatement.

In fact, the Montreal Impact snatched defeat from the jaws of victory.  In the last play of extra time Montreal Striker Ali Gerba launched his body full length into a free header with the entire Whitecaps goal at his mercy.   He was completely unmarked, and Whitecaps keeper Jay Nolly did not even know he was coming.  Gerba’s header glanced the far post and went wide.  All of the Whitecaps players and coaches looked stunned and embarrassed, and so they should be.  To have so many men forward in the final stages of the match when we had a one goal lead was a  scandal.  It was a scandal that both central defenders Maloud Akloul and Greg Janicki lost track of the Impact’s most deadly striker at the crucial last moment of the game.

Ali Gerba: You Fat Bastard!

While Akloul scored the goal which won us the series in the 113th minute to make it 2-1 in the series, he was exposed at the back several times and looked more keen to score than to defend.  His partner, Janicki, looked very shaky, and could have cost us the match with his mistakes.  Several Montreal crosses dropped in our box without a touch from our central defenders, and would have been goals had Montreal strikers not been just as incompetent as our defenders. If this was an MLS game we would have been soundly defeated with this kind of lackadaisical defending.  Akloul seemed incapable of winning a one-on- one battle to head high balls, which is a critical failing for a central defender.

The Montreal Impact play in the division 2 NASL, the division below us, but to give them credit, they played some very sophisticated football and would have won but for sloppy finishing.  The Impact has never been a team to try to create many chances on goal, but have always focussed on finishing the few chances they do get.   This formula nearly worked to defeat us last night.

Our goal in the 113 minute again came from our best and wisest footballer, Alain Rochat.  On a free kick deep in Montreal territory, Rochat sought to win a rebound from the keeper for one of our players to finish off.  It was perfectly executed.  Rochat hit the ball hard and low forcing a save from  Montreal’s keeper Gaudette, who coughed up a rebound for Akloul to swat home. It was a textbook free kick which redeemed the pathetic free kicks the Whitecaps had taken earlier in the match.

I felt this game might be the opportunity to play the ball along the ground and dominate Montreal with a possession game, but we were not able to string too many passes together before losing the ball.  The Whitecaps too many times played long balls to Hassli and Salgado up front, who struggled to keep possession without proper midfield support.  While I appreciate Teitur Thordarson played an attacking game, I think he should have emphasized possession and creating quality chances.  Instead, we attacked with a lot of enthusiasm but not a lot of skill or planning, and the result was Montreal were able to defend in front of a sharp keeper without a lot of trouble.

Frankly, I was a bit embarrassed to have Montreal so close to defeating us. We are supposed to be a division above them, yet they played as well as we did, and the margin between victory and defeat was literally a razor’s edge.  Last night’s game illustrated our team still needs a lot of work. Though we scored on a well executed free kick, our other free kicks were an embarrassment, and I hope they get to practicing set plays in training, because it is obvious they need work.

Though I am happy we won, I don’t take a lot of joy from this game because we were very close indeed to a humiliating defeat at the hands of one of our great rivals. I feel more a sense of relief than of joy. The Vancouver Whitecaps need a lot of work,and the squad needs strengthening if we are to win more games this season on something other than dumb luck.

Time to spend some of that money that we have heard about!

He won us the match: but can he defend?