Jarju tries to score from center; he missed...

The Vancouver Whitecaps can be forgiven for making some rookie errors in their first season in Major League Soccer.  The Whitecaps paid for one of those errors today when they bought out Mustapha Jarju’s contract.  One has to ask the question: why did the Whitecaps decide to make  a player who was playing in the second division of a third rate European soccer league (Belgium) into a designated player on a contract which paid hundreds of thousands of dollars per year?

More Jarjus on the way?

When we look around the league at some of the designated players in MLS, how many were purchased from such a humble place?  Thierry Henry, Rafa Marques, and David Beckham came from arguably the second best league in the world when they came over to MLS from Spain’s La Liga as designated players.   Robbie Keane made his way to LA via England’s Premier league, and LA’s other designated player Landon Donavan has demonstrated he can hold his own in that league too.

When you consider the designated players in MLS and where they came from,  the Vancouver Whitecaps look pretty silly in awarding a rich designated player contract to a guy playing in what could only be described as lower league football in Europe.

If all of this is alarming enough consider that virtually all of the Whitecaps off season acquisitions for the 2012 season also come from leagues which are, frankly, sub-standard.  Yesterday the Whitecaps acquired Jun Marques Davidson; my heart leapt when I read his middle name and thought he was a Mexican or perhaps an Argentinian midfielder.  It turns out he is of mixed Japanese and American nationality, and that he was most recently playing in the Japanese second division.  Imagine my disappointment.   Davidson is one four Rennie loyalists the Whitecaps have signed who previously played for him with the Carolina Railhawks.  The Carolina Railhawks play in the league below MLS.  Young Pyo Lee did play in England and Germany, but last played in Saudi Arabia, which does not rank among the top leagues in the world.  Lee Nguyen last played in Vietnam, which is probably below Saudi Arabia in quality.

All of this calls into question why the Whitecaps are having such a devil of a time attracting the high level of talent which other clubs in MLS are able to attract from top leagues.  Is it the fact that players don’t want to play in Canada?  Is it the fact that players do not want to play most of their games in a season on Fieldturf (my pet theory).  Or is it the case (please God) that the Whitecaps have some high quality targets to fill the other two designated player spots?

I suppose on the brighter side we never heard of Camilo prior to his arrival in Vancouver. Our little striker played in Korea, Malta, and in the lower echelons of Brazilian football prior to coming to the Whitecaps.  It turns out he was our top scorer and best player last year, even better than our designated player Eric Hassli (who also did not come from the best league on earth).

While we all hope for a better 2012 season, I must say I am alarmed to see that virtually all signings for next year are so far coming to us from substandard football leagues.

We can only hope that our new acquisitions are Camilos rather than Jarjus!

I love Argentinian football.  The players from the back to the front all know how to play with the ball.  The centre backs are just as comfortable on the ball as the midfielders. While Bonjour is not  big name in Argentinian football, he is young for a central defender and can grow in ability and stature.  Footage on the Whitecaps site demonstrates he can score goals and likes to get forward, and that he plays with aggression and passion.  While some might say it is hard to get excited about signing a defender, make no mistake about it this is a significant signing and expect Bonjour to start at centre back.

Bonjour gives the Whitecaps a dimension that we were missing entirely in 2011.  That is a defender who can play the ball out of the back with intelligent passes.  While Carlyle Mitchell showed some ability to do this at the end of last season, other central defenders DeMerit and Boxall don’t have the footballing ability to make skillful passes to start counter attacks.  I believe Bonjour has this ability, which will be a great asset to the club.

Bonjour’s own playing history is with smaller clubs predominantly in Argentina, Uruguay, and Peru.  While these leagues are not the best in the world, and certainly not the most glamorous, there is good solid football quality there.  It is nothing for Bonjour to be embarassed about.

With the signings of Lee and Bonjour I believe our back line is set with Bonjour and DeMerit in the centre, Rochat at left back and Lee at right back.  Lee, Rochat and Bonjour can all defend well and can create and score goals.  All in all, it looks considerably better than the 2011 back line, which did not produce much offence at all and gave up far too many goals.  If I am correct that this is the starting back line, we will score more goals and give up less.

I am beginning to feel quite optimistic about 2012.  Now where is our midfielder from Argentina?

This means we Whitecaps fans will not see some teams in the Eastern Conference play at BC Place this year at all. While we may see TFC in the Canadian Championship (depending on the format of that competition) , we will not see them in a MLS league match at BC Place. We will not see Columbus, New England, Chicago or Philadelphia either.

The reason the league chose to implement an unbalanced schedule is because of the massive cost of travel for the teams all over North America, and the fact the Montreal Impact will be joining the league which would add two games and the resulting extra travel to an already crowded fixture and travel schedule.  League statistics also show that the travel of visiting teams over the vast distances of North America is exhausting them so much that they are rarely successful on the road, giving home teams an unfair advantage.

While the practicality of the reasons given for the new unbalanced schedule all make perfectly good sense (one only has to look at the 60,000k  or so the Whitecaps logged last year), as a fan the new schedule feels like a take away.  It is rather like booking an airline ticket and then getting dinged with fees for your bags and seats at the check-in desk. Frankly, the prospect of seeing San Jose twice this year at BC Place does not thrill me, in fact it already seems like a bit of a bore.

I would rather the league shortened the playoff format and played a balanced schedule.  The league has gone in the opposite direction, unfortunately, lengthening the playoff format and reducing the fans exposure to the teams in the league.  The league brags that the season will be the longest in MLS history, but what about value and quality for the fans?  This has been reduced. 

The constant fiddling about with the format for both the playoffs and the regular season does harm to the MLS.  It feels like a story which is being desperately concocted as it is being told, with the result that the plot is hard to follow and the reasoning beggars all belief. One wonders when the league will settle down into a successful format.

On a rational level, the unbalanced schedule makes some sense, but the league has made the mistake of preferring rationality over what its fans want.  Rather than adding value, the MLS has taken value away from its fans.  I believe the MLS has made a poor decision.

The nutter we love: Eric Hassli

The mad Frenchman brought us the most delight of any player on the pitch.  While the club made American Jay DeMerit captain of the team and its chosen star, the fans chose Eric Hassli instead.  While DeMerit struggled with injury and poor form, Hassli brought buckets of controversy and passion to the team: he was the hit of 2011.

Hassli started by scoring two goals in the Whitecaps first match in Major League Soccer, and immediately became a club legend.   He then got sent off in his next match.  While coaches hate to see players get sent off, we fans like someone who is willing to get nasty for the team: Hassli has mean and nasty in abundance.  He broke a player’s nose in the home match against New England, and generally threw himself about with abandon.

After getting sent off in the second match of the season against Philadelphia, Hassli got sent off again in the fourth match against New England when he threw his jersey into the crowd after scoring on a penalty when he was already on a yellow.  At the time, we all questioned his sanity, and the Whitecaps appeared to have  nightmare on their hands: their designated player could not keep himself on the pitch.  Hassli was a powder keg.

Hassli paid the club off for their patience with goals in early and mid season, including an incredible cracker of a goal to save the match on the road against the Seattle Sounders.

He scored two goals against the Chicago Fire on August 7th at home, but that was it for 2011.  For the last third of the season, Hassli went off the boil, and could not score goals.  Stories of personal problms and domestic issues surfaced.  His explosive emotional side surfaced again in the away match against the Portland Timbers on August 27 when he stormed off to the dressing room after being substituted.  After this incident, he rarely looked dangerous in front of goal again and could not score. It has to be said that Hassli looked disinterested at this point, and towards the end of the season was benched more often than not.

It remains to be seen whether the Whitecaps can get the best out of Hassli in 2012.  I, for one, am pulling for the big man to return the early season form he had in 2011.  For new coach Martin Rennie, Hassli will be the biggest man-management challenge  he will face.  How can he get Hassli to play with emotion and aggressiveness without going overboard and getting sent off on a regular basis?  Can he keep Hassli interested?  If Rennie can keep Hassli on the pitch and scoring, we will be well on our way to a successful 2012.

It is no coincidence that the most talented players often have a dark side which makes them  frustratingly unpredictable.  With Hassli, the very quality  of emotion which makes him play well is the same quality which gets him into disciplinary trouble.  Hassli plays emotionally on the razor’s edge, which is what makes him so exciting to watch and a fan favourite.

When I look at our current roster, the player who is most likely to give the fans the football thrills and chills we all want in 2012 remains Eric Hassli.