With props to the CBC [cbc]:

Following the successful completion of the MLS All-Star Game in Toronto this past week, talk of expansion for North America’s highest level of professional soccer league has started a fresh.  As usual the talk tends to centre on the chance of Vancouver getting a team as part of a two franchise expansion along with Montreal.

One interested potential owner is George Gillett Jr., an American businessman who owns the Montreal Canadiens and half of Liverpool Football Club in the English Premier League.  Another name to enter the picture is basketball star Steve Nash whose from Victoria and launched his branded line of fitness centres in Vancouver and whose brother Martin currently plays for the Whitecaps.

Much of the future of a potential franchise will be determined by the fate of Seattle’s new club, which will start play next season, and the future of the proposed waterfront stadium.

Pictured: Toronto FC goalkeeper Greg Sutton shouts at his defenders during a scramble in the box.

Despite being a long time season ticket holder for the Whitecaps I tend not to blog about the team on a point of principal, since the organization has failed to answer several requests for media passes.  This post is an exception to the rule.

Every year the Whitecaps try to organize a friendly match for fans that brings a top level team into Vancouver.  Last year saw the Major League Soccer (MLS) team LA Galaxy and David Beckham play the Caps at GM Place and yesterday they brought in the Toronto FC Canada’s only MLS team.  Without the star power of Beckham the match stayed at the Whitecaps’ usual home field Swangard Stadium in Burnaby.

The Toronto FC is one of the success stories of the MLS.  Where many teams fail to fill stadiums, even with Beckham now playing in the league, Toronto FC’s stadium have been jammed packed with fanatical fans since the first game.  Without major stars, the only starter that I recognized yesterday was former Newcastle United player Laurent Robert, they’ve built a devoted fan base and despite a lack of on-field success have been a model for MLS teams in America and a beacon of hope for a potential Vancouver franchise.  For more on the stellar success of the Toronto FC check out both my post on the club [mbv] and the excellent article in the London Guardian by Globe and Mail journalist John Doyle [lg].

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Following on the heels of other major sports leagues expanding their fanbase and their brand around the world, the top league in English football (soccer) the Premier League has announced that as of 2011 that all of its teams will play one competitive match a season overseas. The idea has met with opposition across England who see the proposal upsetting the delicate balance that is football tradition [av]. With football’s world governing body FIFA against the idea, it is still not clear whether or not the oversea’s game will happen.

If it does go through though Vancouver could be poised to be one of the cities to hold a match, especially if the new waterfront stadium that the Whitecaps have been wanting is finally built [vwc]. Assuming we don’t totally make a mess of the Olympics we will also have a very good deal of experiance running world class sporting events. Asia might be where the Premier League is looking, but we’re still going to be an attractive city.

What would Vancouver gain? Well the Whitecaps would have a way to show off what a wonderful experiance watching a soccer game in their new stadium can be, and in turn ideally pick up a few new season ticket holders. Also though clearly not as much of an impact as the Olympics, there would be a tourist upswing for the match with both teams bringing in support not only from England but from across North America.

Currently it’s a pipe dream. Opposition to the plan is strong enough both in England and in football’s governing bodies that it probably won’t happen. Yet exhibition matches between top European teams have been played in Seattle, with Celtic and Manchester United playing there a few years ago, and with the success of the Whitecaps / LA Galaxy friendly at GM Place more top level football could be being played in Vancouver very soon.

I’ve bought ice packs for the Canucks. I used to get free tickets to the Vancouver Canadians while in elementary school. I’ve seen what this city has to offer for sports and I have to say that for value for your money the best thing going is the Vancouver Whitecaps, and thankfully they’ve still got seasons tickets for sale [vwc]. Though the early bird sale is over, the tickets are still an incredible bargain, starting at just $175 for 15 home games.

The team is good, having won the Division Championship in 2006 and the level of soccer (football) is fairly high. Plus the ticket pack comes with a ticket for the annual international game which in past years have included high level English football clubs and last year David Beckham and the LA Galaxy. The games have a great atmosphere, and are incredibly fun. It’s well worth the going.

Now if I could only convince them to give me photo accreditation so I didn’t have to hide my camera down my pants when I went to games.

Marketing legend David Beckham is in town to kick the soccerballs tomorrow. If you want more information avoid the CBC’s site which apparently is being run by the children in a sort of Bring Your Child To Work Day thing. Their video descirbed as “David Beckham talks about LA Galaxy vs. Whitecaps game in Vancouver” is in fact a video of David Beckham signing a kid’s autograph (now on eBay) and then entering a team bus while some yahoo shouts “How do you like Vancouver David?”

You know because he’s been in YVR for half an hour I’m sure his opinion of Vancouver is really well formed. Good journalism there dinkwallet. It reminds me of my failed attempt as a journalist where I’d yell questions at Ujjal Singh Dosanjh along the lines of “How do you like my mother’s cooking?” and “What time did I wake up this morning?” Needless to say I was forced into new media.

In an actual interview with the press he talked up the importance of winning the game against the White Caps and noted [cbc]:

I’ve been lucky enough in my career to play in World Cups and some of the biggest games in world football, and exhibition games are part of that. Even at Real Madrid and Manchester United you play in exhibitions games.

Meanwhile the Galaxy are now managerless although if England miss out on World Cup Qualification they might have someone familiar to Beckham on the touchline in England manager Steve McClaren [lg].

Though I’m a fan of the Whitecaps, and a seasons’ ticket holder, let’s put this game into perspective. The Whitecaps are good for their level, but the Galaxy are not looking for a tough match here, they’re looking to expand their brand and market Beckham. Their last game was against not an MLS rival team, or one of Europe’s top clubs but Hollywood FC [wp] a team with actor Anthony LaPaglia (Without A Trace) in goal and other Hollywood as well as retired footballers like Vinnie Jones, Danny Cannon (director of I Still Know What You Did Last Summer) and British rockers like Ian Astbury. Oh and Jimmy Jean-Louis who we all know as The Hatian from Heroes.

So yes, David Beckham wants to win tomorrow because to not win would be incredibly embarrasing for a team that on paper anyway should be light years beyond the Whitecaps. Still upsets happen, and the Whitecaps’ players could eat out on the story of how they upset Beckham and the Galaxy for years if they win.

With David Beckham and the LA Galaxy coming into town to play a friendly game against the Vancouver Whitecaps it’s time to learn a little bit about football. So in the run up to Tuesday’s game, tickets still on sale [wc], I’m going to take this oppertunity to write about the sport I love. Today then, five things you should know about soccer.

Real Madrid at the Bernabéu

1) It’s called football

Our football, the one with the forward hand passing and the dog fights, is known as American football in the rest of the world. Soccer is football in the rest of the world. Which makes sense since a) football was football before American football was football and b) American football has more in common with rugby than football. Typically as Canadians we side with the rest of the world on things like invading Iraq, spelling colour and having a Parliment but for this we do what the Americans do. For the rest of this post, and in the future, we’ll be calling it football.

2) Forget the World Series, football is the true global game

Barcelona’s Camp Nou

In Canada we get excited when our collection of NHL professionals beat the collection of NHL professionals assembled by the eight or so other nations that give a shit about hockey. I love hockey, but it’s really a northern European sport. Russia, the Finnswegians, America and Canada are about the only people who care about it. Football is still largely dominated by the top European clubs, but it’s played on all corners of the earth. The Europeans might sign the paychecks but increasingly players are coming from Africa [yt], Asia [yt] [yt] and other areas that hockey, baseball, basketball and American football have not touched.

It’s not a new thing either. The most famous pre-Beckham footballer is Brazil’s Pele [yt], though Maradona comes pretty close [yt].

Is there more after the jump? You bet there is, and you really want to see number 4.
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With the European leagues starting their seasons, the Vancouver Whitecaps are heading into the tail end of their season with their last four games all of which are at home. Tonight they’re up against the Charleston Battery at Swangard and looking to break a 13 game winless streak. Of course the official Whitecaps site is pretty positive about the situation [wc], but it’s hard to tell why since none of the news articles are loading.

Hopefully the team can tighten up at the back and add a few more goals today, thus beating Vancouver’s long time rival Charleston. Okay, so it’s hard to get a civic rivarly stoked against Charleston compared with say Seattle but a win is a win and its especially important when the team is mid-table [usl] and looking to improve its standing before the season’s close.

Also note that the game today was moved from tomorrow, so even though your tickets say August 26th, it’s actually today. Don’t let this change screw you up like it did me who left his ticket at home because lied to him and told him the game was tomorrow.

At the risk of turning this into the Vancouver Football (Soccer) Blog I should note that David Beckham is back to playing football after a long period injuried following his transfer from Real Madrid to the LA Galaxy. What’s that got to do with Vancouver you ask? Well the LA Galaxy will be playing a demonstration game, a friendly game, at BC Place on October 3rd against the Vancouver Whitecaps.

We’ve mentioned it before, as recently as yesterday, but it’s worth pointing out again. That and the fact that it seems Beckham’s returning to full health means that he’s more likely to feature in the game as opposed to being saved for regular season Galaxy games and his English national team matches. Plus if you’re like me and paying to see him play it would be nice to be seeing him at his prime.
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Oh Canada!

Originally uploaded by kompot.photo.

With the attendance success of the newly formed Major League Soccer franchise Toronto FC, which received a very nice write up in the Guardian today [lg], the question is what does this mean for Canada’s other major soccer loving cities. With Vancouver proving during the recent Under-20 World Cup that it can transform Swangard into a major soccer centre, with temporary rafters vastly increasing the capacity beyond the standard Whitecaps seating, we should at least be on the radar for the league.

The Toronto FC has proven that the multi-cultural makeup of major Canadian cities, including Montreal and Vancouver, is such that a “minority” sport can still get the sort of support that the more established national past-times do. Sure the FC aren’t about to start outselling the Leafs, but their 20,000 seat stadium has been sold out for every game and that looks like it’s going to be the case next year too despite a fairly crap year on the field.

With the Whitecaps moving to a new modern, and larger, stadium downtown [vwc] the question is will that help the MLS decide that Vancouver is ripe for expansion? We’re already on the list [wp]. The other question is what will that mean for the Whitecaps, since it’s not likely that Vancouver can support two professional soccer teams.

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IMG_1249.jpg

Originally uploaded by Jeffery Simpson.

I’ve missed the last few Whitecaps game since I’ve been away in Europe for a month and last night’s match was a good game to return to. A beautiful evening weather-wise, despite the grey morning, and a hard fought win by the Whitecaps. What more could you want?

Granted after spoiling myself with a Real Madrid match at the Santiago Bernabéu [jks] it was a bit of an adjustment to the slower pace and smaller crowds of the action at Swangard, but a night watching the Whitecaps is still one of the best sporting choices in Vancouver.

The Whitecaps controlled most of the game, but were unable to slip one past Minnesota’s goalkeeper until Tony Donatelli scored late in the second half. A second goal would have put the game beyond Minnesota but the visiting team never really looked like scoring. Full details on the game can be found on the Whitecaps website [wfc].