Whitecaps take 2013 Cascadia Cup

October 14, 2013 at 1:29 pm | Posted in Vancouver Whitecaps, Whitecaps Season 2013 | 1 Comment

Some years ago some political dreamers dreamed of the land of Cascadia.  Cascadia, were it to exist, might encompass part of Alaska, part of Northern California, and all of British Columbia, Washington State and the State of Oregon. Cascadia would be one of the most naturally beautiful countries in the world with 15 million plus citizens,(depending on the size of its borders), ample natural resources, a booming economy, thriving tourism, and a populace which would want to preserve its spectacular natural environment. While it remains a fantasy land, it remains a compelling political idea nonetheless.

Kenny Miller scores the winner in our first Cascadia win over Seattle

 

Back in 2004 or so the then small fan groups of the Seattle Sounders, Portland Timbers and the Vancouver Whitecaps, whose teams all toiled away in what was then known as the “A League”, conceived of the “Cascadia Cup”. The Cascadia Cup would be awarded to the team with the best head-to-head record against the two other Cascadia teams. The Cascadia cup pool went down to two teams for a while as the Seattle Sounders moved up a league into Major League Soccer. The Cascadia rivalry took on a higher profile when both the Whitecaps and the Timbers entered MLS in 2011. Unfortunately there was an unseemly scuffle over proprietary rights to the Cup when the MLS made a bid to make the Cup its own. That situation seems to have now settled down somewhat.

Even though there are quite huge geographical distances between the Cascadia clubs in comparison to other “local derbies” in world football, the Pacific Northwest rivals have always seen the other teams as intense rivals.

This year’s Cascadia Cup was won by the Vancouver Whitecaps after the Portland Timbers helped matters by beating Seattle 1-0 in Portland last night. In spite of the fact that our MLS record is significantly poorer than both of our Cascadia rivals, we finished first in this year’s Cascadia Cup standings with 9 points, while Portland and Seattle had 7 points. What won us the Cup were two spectacular and unprecedented victories over the Seattle Sounders. One was a 2-0 home win in July (the first victory for the Whitecaps over a Cascadia rival in the MLS era), and the second was last tuesday’s stunning 4-1 win over the Sounders on their own pitch.

How sweet it was! The final score of our first MLS Cascadia victory

Winning the Cascadia Cup is an achievement to celebrate for the Whitecaps and for the fans because our record against our Cascadia rivals is one of the benchmarks to measure our success. While our playoff chances still hang in the balance, and our Cascadia rivals both have better records that we do in MLS, it is still something to celebrate.

I am looking forward to greeting the Cascadia Cup at BC Place on October 27. Let’s make a big fuss of it!

http://www.thecascadiacup.com