The owners of Manchester City FC and the New York Yankees have combined as the ownership group for NYCFC, with the Man City owners putting up the big money and the Yankees providing local sports industry expertise.   While I am happy to see more big investors coming into MLS, I am not happy to see them running a little cousin which is a side show to their larger concerns.  Just take a look at MLSE and Toronto Football Club; the priority is clearly the Toronto Maple Leafs.

The other sad fact is that Don Garber and the New York Cosmos have failed to put the Cosmos brand back where it belongs at the top level of the game in the US and Canada. It is torture to see the New York Cosmos brand languishing in the newly anointed NASL, at tier two of the game. 

Back in the days of the North American Soccer League, (part one), the New York Cosmos were a serious club which would frequently trounce top global football opposition in friendly matches. Pele, Cryuff, Beckanbauer, Neeskins, Chinaglia, Alberto and other great players donned the famous green jersey with one of the best logos ever put on a sports jersey. Crowds at Giant’s stadium where they played were typically in the 50-70,000 range.  

My feeling is that the Cosmos brand would boost the moribund attendance figures  in the Eastern conference of the MLS, which lag behind the Pacific Northwest by a large margin. 

Today the New York Cosmos brand is possibly the most under utilized and under fulfilled brands in all of world sport.  By not coming to agreement, MLS and the Cosmos have done a disservice to us all.  The owners of the Cosmos brand are not the brightest bulbs under the light shade, and will never realize the potential of their brand while playing at the second tier of football.  Their only conceivable plan is to build their brand on their own so that they can increase its value and influence to such a degree that MLS can’t say no to them.  But how will they do this playing at the lower level of soccer?

As for NYCFC, how will they build loyalty to a new brand in a market in which the NY Red Bulls embarrass the league with their attendance figures in spite of having a fabulous new stadium and Thierry Henri?

I hope there is a back story to all of this and that NYCFC hopes to purchase the Cosmos brand with their enormous financial might.  In my view that is the only scenario that makes sense.   Certainly that is the case for fans like me, who desperately want to see the Cosmos brand thriving again, in the Eastern Conference of the MLS.   

Lets hope there is a plan in Don Garber’s head to get back to the altar for the marriage we all want to see. 

Kenny Miller showed up last year mid season, and like many overseas players, he probably thought playing in MLS would be easy. He soon found out life here is not easy. He was out of shape, his timing was off, and, for a striker, his finishing was positively dreadful.

Whose side is he on?

It looked like Miller was making efforts to redeem himself in the first two matches of this year. He was fit, sprinting the length of the pitch to defend, and he had a goal to his name. The story read like a man who wanted to show Vancouver Whitecaps fans he was ready to put things right and play a great season for us. It looks as though we were fooled.

It now looks like the efforts were not for us but for scouts overseas, if we are to believe the Scottish papers.

Whitecaps fans are not to be trifled with. Miller and the Whitecaps should clarify the situation and tell us whether he is playing for us or for people back in Scotland. If Miller would rather play Scottish football in the second division against East Fife and Forfar instead of a higher calibre of football in the MLS, lets get rid of him now and get our money back so we can get a serious footballer who is committed to playing for our team and its fans.

If Miller wants to stay and play for the Whitecaps then lets get a public statement to this effect from him. We should then get him back on the pitch doing something for all of that money we pay him, and for Vancouver Whitecaps fans who have held high hopes for him this season.

The match was odd from the start as Portland walked out in their white kits and the Whitecaps walked out in their… white kits. Why Portland chose to play in a predominantly white uniform I’ll never know, because from the back the players looked virtually the same as the Whitecaps players. I thought the MLS must have a policy on this, but I guess not.

Martin Rennie started Camilo up front with Hurtado on the left side (odd because he is right footed), and Jordan at left back for Rochat. Russel Teibert got the start on the right side (why Rennie does this I don’t know since Teibert seems unable to cross the ball with his right foot).

Camilo was his usual combination of infuriating and brilliant, but he demonstrated he has the lion’s share of pure footballing talent in the squad: he scored on a free kick; set up a goal for Gershon Koffie; got a Portland player sent off; and he drew many other fouls which resulted in free kicks in dangerous places. If Camilo was playing for any other team, this would be enough to win a match, but because he plays for the Whitecaps it only earns a draw.

The ghost of Jay DeMerit haunted the Whitecaps yet again, and it was Brad Rusin, his replacement, who got spooked as usual. The Whitecaps squandered a lead for the second time five minutes from time when a speculative high ball was played to the top of the their area. Rusin misjudged the ball, was off balance, and Portland’s crafty Valencia nipped behind him and brought the ball down with his arms like an NFL receiver. He then made a nifty move to trick O’Brien out of his shorts and calmly slotted home past a helpless Knighton.

While we were all outraged both the ref and the linesman could miss such a blatant handball, the real scandal was how poorly Rusin did on the play. Valencia should not have gotten anywhere near that ball in the first place. We can curse the MLS disciplinary committee for that one because Johnny Leveron would likely have started if he was not banned midweek after the fact from his tackle in the LA match last Saturday. Rusin played well otherwise, but keeps getting punished for his lapses in concentration at critical points in matches. His head is just not there for the full 90 minutes.

Giving up a lead like that when playing against 10 men is unforgivable. If the Whitecaps don’t learn to defend and fast we can kiss goodbye to the playoffs. Even though the Whitecaps did well, Portland played the smarter game. Their fans went away happy while we all went away disappointed asking what could have been yet again.

We now sit second from the bottom in the Western Conference. It is true that a run of a few wins would see us more in mid-table, our Cascadia rivals are looking far superior to us in quality. We are the poorest team in our region while Seattle are shooting up the table with one win after another. If only we could sign more Nigel Reo-Cokers we would be doing just fine. I dare say if we signed a player like Will Johnson I would be delighted too.

The fact is we had two fabulous goals by Camilo and Koffie but the memory of those goals was obscured by some terrible defending. My feeling is that Rusin should not start anymore and Leveron should be the presumptive starter. It makes me yearn for Martin Bonjour; he would have dealt with that situation without a problem.

The pressure is on for Martin Rennie. If he does not win the deciding Canadian Championship match against Montreal a week from Wednesday, I predict he will be fired, and that is as it should be. Lets face it, all Rennie has ever done is take us South in results and in the MLS standings. It is apparent the one thing the Whitecaps have struggled with as an organization most of all is with getting its leadership right.

Even if he wins the Canadian Championship, how long can we be expected to put up with such poor form in MLS?

Then, while I was flipping around Sportsnet on the web I noticed they had played the Europa League final that day and I had missed it. I missed both matches.

What a disasterous day. The only consolation was reading Alan Errington’s hilarious twitter messages about the Whitecaps match.