My center is giving way, my right is in retreat. Situation excellent. I attack.

Ferdinand Foch, commander of the French Ninth Army in 1914

The team is run by a Scotsman who answers to a Canadian and has players from five continents, but the Vancouver Whitecaps are adopting a French approach. Attack, attack, always attack.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Whitecaps have added South Korean veteran Lee Young-pyo, who ought to be a major boost at right back. South American journeyman Martin Bonjour, as well as a likely underwhelming chorus of youngsters and draft picks, provide the rest of the new blood on the back line. Brad Knighton is a backup goalkeeper, for what that's worth, and of the new midfielders Jun Marques Davidson has a reputation as a defensive specialist, and Bryce Alderson is a quality defensive midfielder who's too young to contribute immediately. Most of these players are just replacing the departed; Bonjour for Greg Janicki, Knighton for Jay Nolly, Lee for Jonathan Leathers, Davidson for Peter Vagenas, and so on. They should be upgrades but we're not throwing a lot more meat onto the defensive side of the ball.

And the attacking players? (deep breath)

First overall pick Darren Mattocks, elite MLS scorer Sebastien Le Toux, and attacking midfielder Lee Nguyen are all new to the team and can do only one thing. Atiba Harris, another guy who mostly throws himself forward, is almost a new addition as he recovers from knee problems, and attacking winger Michael Nanchoff arguably qualifies as well. Ben Fisk and Caleb Clarke, both attacking players, are still in training camp from the Residency team. This is without counting any players rumoured to be joining the Whitecaps who are also attack-minded midfield types. The list of attacking players lost amounts to Mustapha Jarju (I'm virtually the only Whitecaps fan alive who doesn't think that was addition by subtraction) and Shea Salinas (who I do not miss).

Obviously the attack needed a make over. Last year's Whitecaps scored 35 goals, worst in the league, while 55 goals against was merely third-worst. 22 of those 35 goals, or 62.9%, were scored by either Eric Hassli or Camilo Sanvezzo. Adding a few guns to the arsenal was a very good idea on Rennie's part; you don't really think Long Tan is able to carry the mail, do you?

However, he may have overcompensated. All the talk is of Vancouver using a 4-3-3 with Davide Chiumiento in the midfield: four out of ten outfield players whose sole duty will be attack. In our first friendly against Seattle, Rennie started Camilo, Hassli, and Le Toux up top with Harris in midfield. They did well (winning their 45-minute period 1-0 against a strong Seattle lineup) but wow, that's an aggressive bunch.

Add in bench players like Nanchoff, Tan, Mattocks, Nguyen, Russell Teibert, Omar Salgado, and possibly Chiumiento, and this team certainly has goals in it. But is the lineup too unbalanced, and how far can this get them?

Continue reading this post »

Much is made of how Canadian professional teams must develop Canadian players. With FC Edmonton's announcement of a nascent Residency program last month, all four professional clubs now have some sort of youth set-up in place. The Vancouver Whitecaps and Toronto FC academies counted among the best and most ambitious on the continent.

What's always struck me, however, is that Canadian teams don't try developing Canadian coaches.

In the second division, Vancouver and the Montreal Impact were willing to give Canadians a chance: Carl Valentine, Dale Mitchell, Bob Lenarduzzi, Nick di Santis, Marc dos Santos, and I could go on. However, both teams have gone with foreigners in Major League Soccer. Montreal brought in American coach Jesse Marsch, while the Whitecaps have gone through Iceland's Teitur Thordarson, the United States's Tom Soehn, and finally Scotland's Martin Rennie.

I've written about the lack of Canadian coaches in MLS before. Since I wrote that article, things have gotten worse: Marsch has come into Montreal. Colin Miller has been fired as an assistant in Vancouver. Jason Bent moved up to Toronto FC's first team as an assistant coach but is no longer listed by the team. FC Edmonton at least broke even, replacing Canadian assistant coach Dave Randall with Canadian assistant coach Jeff Paulus.

Affirmative action for Canadian coaches is too much to ask. It's a good thing that our professional teams no longer need to scour the local community for anybody willing to coach on $10,000 a year, after all. However, it seems like our teams in MLS are preferring foreign accents for their own sake: Dasovic did a lovely job with Toronto but never got a fair shake there or anywhere else, although he has luckily re-emerged as coach of Canada's U-20 national team.

Our senior national team is currently coached by the former boss of Halifax King of Donair. Only one Canadian, Paul Peschisolido, has coached anything of note outside North America since I've been following soccer. The register of Canadian coaches is appalling, and if a Canadian professional team wants to make a difference to soccer in this country then that's where to start. We talk about exposing young players to a professional environment as quickly as possible: let's do the same with our coaches.

Continue reading this post »

I'm afraid I've been sick lately. That's the main reason I've been absent from the blog for the past weeks: nothing serious but the sort of nagging, pain-in-the-ass flu which left me too run-down to be creative or insightful every day. I'm still fighting it to an extent: my voice is weak and husky enough that I temporarily have an excellent Leonard Cohen impression.

That's not all that's made me feel unwell, though. It's not the only thing that's drained my enthusiasm for Canadian soccer. It's old news now, but two weeks ago the Canadian Soccer Association announced that all four of the Canadian men's team's home games, including three World Cup qualifiers, will be played in Toronto.

I won't re-hash the entire argument this afternoon. It's been discussed: magical thinking which presumes that Canada but not its opponent gains an advantage from playing on grass in a city with slightly shorter flights from Europe or the Caribbean, the inmates-running-the-asylum mentality which says "what the players want, the players must get" (I assume these when these people travel by air they insist the passengers fly the plane), and of course the rejection of science and fact in favour of wanting international soccer in their backyard. I've hammered these points time and time again, but logic will never overcome greed.

Nor do I plan to make a passionate appeal that Vancouver should have gotten some of those games. For one thing, I already wrote that article, and for another, if you only have four men's games to spread around in 2012 Vancouver arguably shouldn't get one. We've already had the women's Olympic qualifying, and what a joy it was: it should arguably fill Vancouver's quota for the 2012 season. Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Montreal, and Moncton are all clamouring for their chance.

What I will say is that the vast majority of this country is being robbed of a Canadian national team that is becoming as foreign and distant as any European team. It's easier for the average Canadian to grow attached to England than it is to Canada. This doesn't strike anybody else as insane?

This country has long had a problem with elite soccer players who love Canada as a country but don't care about it as a soccer nation: cutting off so much of the country is not going to help.

Continue reading this post »

This website has always promoted Vancouver Whitecaps youth talent. I've sung the praises of U-18 Whitecaps Residency players like Declan Rodriguez, Callum Irving, Ben Fisk, Tim Hickson, and Daniel Stanese. I've tried to stay on top of the U-16 talents such as the Adekugbe brothers, or goal-poaching sensation Brody Huitema, or agile goalkeeper Marco Carducci. And that's to say nothing of the players on the first team, like Residency graduates Russell Teibert and Bryce Alderson, or my 2011 unsung hero Gershon Koffie.

It's true, to an extent, that you don't win games with kids. I'm a massive Alderson fan, I think he'll be a great Canadian defensive midfielder someday, but I'm not penciling him into the starting eleven because I don't want to overwhelm his developing skill set. Likewise, I preferred the Whitecaps chasing a veteran backup goalkeeper to signing Callum Irving because I didn't want to risk Irving getting MLS action before his time; he's better off playing regularly at a lower level. Even prospect hounds like me acknowledge that when you bring somebody up from the Residency you shouldn't count on them to carry a heavy load, but you need to give them MLS minutes to grow. That was the tragedy of Philippe Davies last season: he met expectations at every lower level but Tom Soehn and Teitur Thordarson never gave him a look.

I'm afraid we might be heading for similar tragedies this coming season.

The Whitecaps have a number of quality prospects at various points on the development curve. Alderson, Brian Sylvestre, and Omar Salgado are good young players but haven't yet proven they can carry an MLS load: they should be used conservatively but must be used. Teibert and Koffie were both quality MLS starters when they got the chance; Koffie played more minutes than any other midfielder and Teibert's qualities as a left winger were obvious to everyone except Tom Soehn. Even if you don't necessarily think they should be 90-minutes-a-night players, both Teibert and Koffie must be played heavily and in tough situations to hone their skills.

This is without counting players like Darren Mattocks, Michael Nanchoff, Chris Estridge, or Long Tan: players who are in their early twenties and counted as "prospects" despite being relatively far along in soccer terms. Mattocks and Nanchoff haven't been exposed to much high-level soccer and deserve their chance, but it's questionable how much development lies ahead of them.

The Whitecaps have plenty of good young talent, and that's great. But they also have too many second-rate journeymen threatening to nudge past that young talent on the depth chart. The Whitecaps, even with their remaking, are not likely to challenge for the Supporters Shield or the MLS Cup. They'd be wise to give their quality youth a chance to grow and succeed rather than run out immediately superior, but weaker long-term, journeymen.

I'm not sure Martin Rennie agrees.

Continue reading this post »

To conclude what's been a pretty busy day, the Vancouver Whitecaps have announced that they have released midfielders Mustapha Jarju and Philippe Davies.

Jarju will get the headlines. The Gambian came in as a mid-season designated player last year and made himself famous for getting into prime scoring positions then wasting them. I was under the impression that he was being mis-used by Tom Soehn as a pure striker rather than the attacking midfielder he's been his entire career, but it appears that Martin Rennie has chosen not to give him a chance.

Still, you can defend releasing Jarju if the Whitecaps have found a better way to spend the money. Letting Davies go, from an outsider's perspective, looks maddening. The 21-year-old had an excellent 2010 USSF D2 season and showed very promising signs in USL PDL during 2011 despite being frozen out of the first team by Teitur Thordarson and Tom Soehn. The Whitecaps press release indicates that the team declined Davies's option and the two sides were unable to come to an agreement. Given that Davies made the MLS minimum of $32,600 last year and counted as a homegrown player, that must have been some option.

Jarju had the big money, the big name, and the lack of big results. Everybody's going to be talking about him but fuck that, I'm here for Big Phil. Cutting Davies ends what's been a terrible year between him and the Whitecaps organization and gives Davies a fresh start that I doubt he'll really mind having. It also jettisons one of Vancouver's few authentic Canadians and a quality prospect no never got even the most cursory glance in MLS. Somebody who was cheap, young, had a good attitude, and who could play a variety of positions. I cannot to save my life concoct a reasonable explanation.

Continue reading this post »

Matt Watson, Brad Knighton, and probably Etienne Barbara. The Vancouver Whitecaps have already signed two players from the North American Soccer League and are on their way to a third. We shouldn't be surprised, as Martin Rennie has pulled this before: when Rennie joined the Carolina Railhawks from USL-2's Cleveland City Stars he brought three players with him then, too. Nor should we be worried, as all three players contributed to an improved 2009 Railhawks season but were let go when Rennie found superior replacements.

Bringing players from the second division to the first is good strategy, so long as you pick the right players. Just ask the Philadelphia Union, who stand to make a mint selling USL-1 alumnus Sebastien Le Toux to Bolton. An average NASL team is worse than an average MLS team, but there's a lot of talent down there which for one reason or another hasn't made it up yet.

The Whitecaps are getting closer to a full roster, but they're also carrying a bit of deadwood that could be released if better names came along. Young is better, obviously, and given our oversupply of international players candidates should be at least American and preferably Canadian.

Do I have any suggestions? Of course I do.

Continue reading this post »

The very day that the Vancouver Whitecaps signed former Carolina Railhawks goalkeeper Brad Knighton, it appears that the pipeline between Cary and Vancouver is still open.

Earlier this afternoon, the Whitecaps selected former Cruz Azul left back Gienir Garcia second overall in the 2012 MLS Supplemental Draft. Garcia is a lanky 22-year-old left back who played in the Mexican Premiera Division with Cruz Azul: good pedigree, but in spite of two league games he washed right out of Mexico and made himself available to Major League Soccer, where he wasn't even an attractive-enough option for the main MLS SuperDraft. Based on the briefest of Googles I was moderately interested in Garcia, but not so interested as to be excited.

Barbara, on the other hand, needs no introduction. He is 29 years old, turning 30 in June, and one of the better North American second-division strikers of the past decade. In 2011 he was very good, of course, winning the NASL scoring crown and Most Valuable Player awards, but in 2010 he had a fine all-round season with the Railhawks as he made his North American debut. He's played at the highest levels with the Maltese national team but has no first division experience.

Barbara's done a lot more in his professional career than Garcia has done in his. But Garcia was all-but signed, sealed, and delivered, while Barbara still has no MLS contract and won't be coming for the minimum; indeed, he was in the news just last week bemoaning the low-ball contract offer he'd received from Montreal and the discovery claim system which lets teams grab Barbara's rights without his involvement. Barbara and Rennie had a good working relationship, of course, but money talks and bullshit walks so don't expect the Maltese veteran to take a big discount on those grounds.

I daresay that the Whitecaps wouldn't have traded for Barbara if they didn't think they could sign him. There are plenty of connections with Barbara in the Whitecaps locker room; Rennie, Knighton, Matt Watson, assistant manager Paul Ritchie, all probably have him on their speed dial. So what does this trade mean for the Whitecaps, presuming that the deal gets done?

Continue reading this post »

Today, the Vancouver Whitecaps announced the signing of goalkeeper Brad Knighton.

Knighton, who turns 27 in February, spent last year with the Carolina Railhawks of the North American Soccer League under head coach Martin Rennie. With Knighton in goal the Railhawks did well defensively most of the season but struggled down the stretch and eventually gave up a playoff four-spot to the NSC Minnesota Stars. Knighton also played division two soccer with the Portland Timbers and has some MLS experience, with a few seasons as a depth keeper in New England and one ill-fated year starting for the expansion Philadelphia Union.

Of course new Whitecaps boss Rennie is familiar with Knighton, who he leaned upon heavily after losing Evan Bush to the Montreal Impact. Certainly, Knighton's statistics were good, as with him in goal the Railhawks just edged the Impact for best goals-against numbers in the NASL. But his uninspiring playoff performance and the way he and his defense deteriorated towards the end of the regular season raised a lot of questions; even early in the year, Knighton was being helped by an excellent back four as much as he was making excellent saves.

Knighton is presumably coming in as a player who Rennie knows he can work with, who has proven he can play goal at a good professional level, and as somebody who stays healthy and can be counted on to back up Joe Cannon. This is all fine and he's by no means a bad choice. That doesn't mean I can't question whether he's the best choice available.

Continue reading this post »