Earlier this afternoon, I mentioned that the attendance for yesterday's Canada - Cuba Olympic qualifying match in Vancouver exceeded the attendance in Toronto for all three Canadian men's World Cup qualifiers this cycle. There were 12,417 fans at BC Place for last night's name, while the men's games ranged from 10,235 (the finale against St. Kitts and Nevis) to 12,178 (the middle game against Puerto Rico). The last game in Toronto to outdraw last night's tilt was June 1 in a pre-Gold Cup friendly against Ecuador, where 14,356 filled the stands (a large part of whom were Ecuador fans).

So am I going to talk trash to Toronto over Vancouver's superior passion for the nation? Nah. Toronto's had lovely crowds for the women's team: 10,255 fans showed up for a friendly against the United States in May 2009 and an impressive 13,554 made it to a friendly against Brazil on October 7, 2008. They have also supported the men's team well, although better in 2008 than today.

All I want is an end to the most preposterous argument in Canadian soccer today: that Canada is somehow better served by having their national teams based in the Windsor - Quebec City corridor. That the support is obviously better, that playing almost every home national team game there of any gender will cause that support to go, and that Canada will therefore improve on the pitch.

Prior to Thursday, Vancouver hadn't hosted a Canadian national team game, men's or women's, senior or junior since September of 2005. All of Western Canada hadn't seen a game since 2008. The West has been neglected by the Canadian Soccer Association, but when given a chance Vancouver proved itself Toronto's equal for an uncompetitive game against the lowest-ranked team in the tournament in the middle of January.

It's proof, once again, that the trick to ensuring nation-wide support for Canada's national teams is to actually give the nation a chance to see them. This has already been demonstrated time after time but here it is again, on national television for all to see, with attentive reporters and social media showing how much the players appreciate it. I know nothing will stop certain eastern pundits from trumpeting their eternal superiority but that just makes it incumbent upon us, who have eyes, ears, and brains, to always be ready to point out when they're wrong.

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News came from the Canadian Soccer Association earlier this week that they had officially commissioned a report on the viability of an all-Canadian professional second division. The report, to be created by the Rethink Management Group and headed by a former Canadian international, is expected to run through the spring of 2012.

This comes after an earlier announcement from Metcalfe Street that it was studying the possibility of such a league. Much later. A little less than eleven months, to be exact. The CSA grinds slow but it grinds exceedingly... well, slow.

I have long supported an all-Canadian professional league. The idea that a country of 35 million people and almost 10 million square kilometres can thrive in world soccer with four professional teams clinging onto American leagues is laughable. In the past decade too many top players to name have been born or raised in Canada, trained in soccer elsewhere, and eventually decided that they owed nothing to the country that did little more than provide them a start. Would Teal Bunbury have represented the United States if he had spent his career training, learning, and playing north of the border rather than south? If the Hargreaves family hadn't viewed going to Europe as his only chance at a professional soccer career, might Owen have shown more loyalty to the country of his birth? This is without considering the uncounted would-be internationals who, playing far from major cities or without quality coaching, face a bigger up-hill battle to a soccer career than young players in any other industrialized country.

But Canada is not like other countries. Only the United States can relate to our methods of youth development, largely focused on pay-to-play academies rather than free ones attached to professional clubs. It's questionable whether a Canadian second division, however large or successful, could change that.

The example of FC Edmonton proves that Canadian teams can win by giving young domestic players a second chance in professional soccer. That's important, but it's not as important as ensuring even younger players get the best first chance possible. Canada's elite players of the future can only come through elite youth development. A second division is unlikely to save us.

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We (by "we", I mean bloggers) are told that content is king. I can't even count the number of e-mails or pages I've seen insisting that frequent updates are the key to readership. If a would-be fan can swing by your page once or twice a day confident he'll see new content, he'll be much more likely to do so, which means more hits, which means more ad revenue, which means more money.

And I like money. I like money a lot. Which is why I try to write a great deal on this web page: so you'll keep checking in. At the same time, I know that if all I write is crap, you'll just never visit (well, some of my crap has been visited quite a bit, but I don't think I can rely on that). In the last seven days I've written eleven articles for this website as well as two for Canadian Soccer News and one for the Score's Footy Blog. That's a nice, round two articles per day, and I'd say that's plenty of quantity.

And the annoying thing about those fourteen articles is that I was happy with maybe three of them.

That's why it's phrased "quantity v. quality", not "quantity and quality". The two are almost mutually exclusive. The less time you spend on every article, the less likely it is to be even readable, let alone interesting.

On the other hand, I know (from experience) that if I go four or five days without posting anything, the site traffic dips hard. Even after I stop posting again it can take weeks for things to return to normal. The marketplace of ideas seems to prefer quantity, or perhaps it finds that my posts once every few days aren't any better than my posts twice a day.

I spend more time than is really healthy thinking about this. What's the right way to go?

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You probably remember the hullabaloo in Toronto regarding Aron Winter's reluctance to allow the media into Toronto FC's dressing room a few weeks ago. Winter decided that he'd pursue the European tradition of restricting dressing room access to players and staff rather than the Major League Soccer law saying that the room must be opened fifteen minutes after the final whistle.

Naturally, this received major coverage in the MLS media, because there's nothing reporters love more than talking about how much reporters have it tough. A few, mostly former players who've earned great respect like Jason de Vos (in a couple of his tweets) and idiot bloggers who like to shoot their mouths off like me (almost constantly) stuck up for Winter but for the most part opinion was against him. So, as it turns out, was Major League Soccer. Don Garber smacked Winter with a rolled-up magazine and soon reporters were in the Toronto FC dressing room once more.

Well, back on Wednesday, the Voyageurs Cup kicked off. As you're doubtless aware; I only wrote, like, seven articles on it. I was in the press box in Edmonton and things were a little sketchy; the club staff were trying their best but they didn't always have the resources they needed. The starting lineups, for example, came down something like twenty minutes before kickoff instead of the usual hour. But for the most part things were done professionally and the coverage which came out was certainly of the usual standard.

Which is interesting, because reporters weren't allowed in the dressing room. Not at all. Each team sent out a coach and one or two players to talk to the press in the media room (FC Edmonton brought head coach Harry Sinkgraven and players Alex Surprenant and Kyle Porter; Toronto FC brought Aron Winter and midfielder Oscar Cordon). The situation was the same in Montreal where the Whitecaps played the Impact. This, you'll probably notice, did not end the world. In fact, I bet most of you couldn't tell until I told you or until you heard about it from somebody else.

What irritates me about sports reporting, perhaps more than anything, is that too many sports reporters make assumptions about their readers that just aren't true. Oh, you guys are all idiots. You need inane quotes and bite-sized bullshit or you'll tune out and watch Dancing with the Stars. And you don't, or at least most people likely to be reading this don't. Hell, this paragraph alone has five sentences in it. That would get me fired from the Edmonton Sun, had they the poor taste to hire me.

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Part of the problem any new soccer team has is the fans.

I'm not even kidding. You see, the patrons of any team that's just risen to prominence can be divided into a few groups. There are the hardcore supporters, the sorts of people who read websites like this (hi guys!). They stand and sing and cheer and do their best to keep it going, win, lose, or draw. In the case of a promoted team like the Vancouver Whitecaps, many of those fans have been doing the same act for long, less-than-glorious years. Others only joined the ranks of the hardcore when the team became "major league". Nothing wrong with that; they all sound the same when they're singing.

Then there's the casuals: the prawn sandwich brigade, the soccer moms, the guys we love to make fun of. They don't visit sites like this so much because they have better things to do than read factually dubious, unproofread ramblings about why Philippe Davies is a better option on the right wing than Wes Knight. So I can get away with doing things like calling them "the prawn sandwich brigade" because they'll never see it anyway. But don't be fooled: they're true blue fans too. Many of them buy season tickets for higher prices than the supporters pay, they cheer, they'll even stand sometimes. Without them, the club could not exist. I love you guys too, even if you'll never know it.

Then there are... um, the others. Those whose idea of support isn't standing and chanting, or sitting and clapping, but rising up and doing damage. To the stadium, to the fans, to each other. We call them "hooligans" but they hardly deserve the name: they're wannabes. There are too few of them to really matter but too many to be ignored, and whenever a new team comes these posers come with it. Convinced that they're the highest form of soccer-supporting life until they are mercifully euthanased by the twin pressures of stadium security and social scorn.

We ask ourselves, why does soccer have such a public relations problem in Canada and the United States? These yahoos are why. And Vancouver is not immune.

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It's become trendy among some Canadian fans to see international duty as an inconvenience rather than an opportunity. And I have no idea what the hell is up with that.

As you read this article, Canada's under-20 national team is playing its most important games of the year. They're in Guatemala taking on the CONCACAF U-20 Championship, and in so doing hoping to qualify for this summer's U-20 World Cup. The U-20 World Cup isn't the biggest tournament in the world but it matters (or, at least, it matters as much as anything in sports matters). If nothing else, it's a chance for Canada's young men to test their mettle against the best in the world at their age group. Qualifying for, and succeeding in, this tournament should be a major objective of Canadian soccer. Unfortunately for us, this year's crop of U-20s has had some mediocre results and seems to need all the help they can get.

The Vancouver Whitecaps organization has four players representing Canada: from the Residency it's defender Derrick Bassi, midfielder/forward Ben Fisk (the youngest player on the team), and forward Coulton Jackson. From the first team it's midfielder/Canadian soccer Jesus Russell Teibert. Toronto FC also contributes three players: defenders Doneil Henry and Ashtone Morgan and midfielder Matt Stinson.

At least, they did contribute three. Last week Toronto head coach Aron Winter called back Henry and Morgan because of "injury concerns". These concerns were so serious that Henry didn't even make the bench against Portland and Morgan saw four minutes of play in garbage time when Toronto was whiling away a dominant 2-0 win. As it transpires, a suspension to Mikael Yourassowsky means that Morgan might come in handy, but I'm going to be controversial and say that Winter didn't have the psychic powers to see that coming. Henry has since returned to the final 20-man roster but it's questionable whether Winter will keep his word and let Henry go.

Now, I'm not here to give my opinion on whether recalling Henry and Morgan was right or wrong because, um, I already did that. Frankly, the point isn't even whether you think Toronto FC was right or wrong taking Morgan and Henry back. It's a subject on which reasonable people can disagree. I freely admit that I wouldn't be so annoyed if it weren't for Toronto's behaviour at the 2009 Gold Cup, the 2010 Honduras friendly, and their general (but not universal) reluctance to give their players up for the national team when not absolutely forced to. You may feel differently, you may think the U-20 World Cup isn't worth worrying about, okay. I've had that argument and I'm not trying to rehash it.

What I found interesting is the way it brought up the old club-vs.-country debate. Fans of Toronto FC will remember a World Cup qualifier in 2008 when Toronto was playing on the same day as Canada: so stripped by players called up to CONCACAF teams, Toronto was forced to play the likes of scout Tim Regan and USL PDL player/general asshole Rick Titus. Given that Canada lost that game (lost it to a team, Honduras, which had taken another Toronto FC star in Amado Guevara), it didn't work out well for anybody. International soccer in Canada seldom does. And that gives way to an odd twist on the old "club vs. country" debate: when the country is Canada, a weird number of supporters from coast to coast care a lot less.

I'm not even referring to the old fact that born-and-raised Canadians cheer for Italy because Italy is good, er, I mean, they had an Italian grandfather who fought with Mussolini. Although that pisses me off. I'm referring to the way some fans of soccer in Canada treat the Canadian team as less worthy than others. We expect our clubs to release players to other national teams without complaint, but Canada? They're just Canada. Come on, they're not going to win anyway.

Since I'm writing about it, you can probably guess what I think of that attitude already: I think it's crazy.

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Not so long ago, I was having a conversation about quite an old article I wrote. There were a few mistakes in that article, to put it diplomatically. To put it less diplomatically, it was really crappy. I'm-glad-nobody-noticed-it-when-I-wrote-it crappy. I was, of course, joking self-deprecatingly about it because I do that a lot. Besides, I said. Sure it sucks, but I'm just a crappy blogger. I sit in my dingy little apartment and churn out garbage, sometimes without even proof-reading it, because I enjoy it and because somehow, through sheer good fortune, I accidentally write something insightful or funny. Nobody takes me seriously, least of all myself!

Anyway, yesterday I went to the Vancouver Whitecaps game, flashed my press pass like a professional, and squeezed into the press box. And as I did so, I found myself thinking: am I being dishonest or what?

I mean, when I'm dealing with the Whitecaps (or FC Edmonton, or the Victoria Highlanders, or WSA Winnipeg, or any other of the merest handful of professionals I've dealt with in my time writing here) I pretend to be serious. My e-mails have a lovely little signature at the bottom; "Benjamin Massey: Manager, Eighty Six Forever", with a logo and my cell phone number. I go through official channels, I try to sound like I know what I'm doing. I do this because I want a WSA Winnipeg executive to give me an interview, or because I want an update on FC Edmonton's season ticket sales, or because I want the world from the Whitecaps. While those conversations are going on, I cross my fingers that they don't actually read my website or they might see what an idiot I am.

It really is talking from both sides of my mouth. Trading on my alleged respectability to try and get information and perks, while saying "I'm just some goofball and have never pretended to be anything else" to justify erratic article quality. I suppose it's better than some full-time reporters I could name, who don't even try to justify erratic article quality. I mean, if nothing else a blogger with another full-time job is always going to be limited by the number of hours in the day. I deliberately pursue an "outsider's perspective" when I write, partially because that's what I enjoy reading and partially because that's what I'm good at (I'm going to go into full Whitecaps Investigative Reporter mode in a city with Marc Weber and Bruce Constantineau working the Whitecaps beat full-time? Really?). I think that's a perfectly valid attitude to take, but that doesn't mean I can use it as a crutch when I screw up.

It just feels like an inherently dishonest situation. I am by no means the only blogger in the world who does this; in fact, I bet the majority of bloggers who make any contact with the organizations they cover do the same thing. I'm not sure what my point is here. I'm not sure I have a point (that's why it says "Self-Indulgence Sunday"). It's just something that's been on my mind. What's the line between "professional" and "amateur", between "silly" and "serious"? Is it possible to draw such a line? If it is possible, should one try to straddle either side of it?

I have no conclusions.

Welcome to Self-Indulgence Sunday, an occasional feature where I rant about whatever's bugging me in the world of soccer rather than talking about something at least a little bit relevant or interesting. For the first installment in the series, take a look here.

Last week, I received my Vancouver Whitecaps season ticket package. I wasn't supposed to receive it, but that's a story for another time. The point is that one of the things featured quite prominently in the package is a so-called "Supporter Pledge". It appears on the inside of the box the package came in as well as on a page of the booklet of season tickets. It runs eleven items, and they are as follows:

1. Building the atmosphere on the Whitecaps march to the match.
2. Being the first person on my feet to cheer our team at the start of the game.
3. Ensuring, win, lose or tie, I'm the last person standing to applaud them at the end.
4. Blinding our opponents with a sea of white jerseys, caps, scarves and flags.
5. Deafening our visitors by joining in our Club's chants, songs, and shouts.
6. Celebrating every Whitecaps goal as if it's our last.
7. Lifting every Whitecaps player if times get tough.
8. Making our home field a fortress; a place no visitor wants to play.
9. Enjoying our successes gracefully and accepting our defeats with dignity.
10. Growing our Club by encouraging new fans to support our teams.
11. Bring proud of our Club, our Whitecaps teams, our City.

It's all good, generic, we-will-protect-our-house stuff. More marketing than anything but, still, probably a nice touch. "Look at how hardcore we are!" except written in family-friendly soccertainment terms. Naturally, to some of the actual hardcore supporters, to whom standing at the beginning and end of a match is pretty much necessary for standing through the whole match, it's a bit of a bewildering document. Not just because they say to wave flags while flagpoles are banned inside the stadium, either.

It's awfully, well, inclusive. Coming on the heels of Bob Lenarduzzi saying in a radio interview months back that all Whitecaps fans are supporters to him, it seems to reek of an almost FC Dallas mentality except the bouncy castle has scarves hanging off of it. Meanwhile, the organization is having trouble getting a supporters' section together for its season ticket holders, having even more trouble getting an away supporters' section together for fans visiting from other, inferior cities, and generally behaving like they'd be happier if we all just gave a "WHITE! CAPS!" when Winger told us to and got on with it.

I'm not saying the real Whitecaps supporters don't come by their fears honestly. I'm just saying, just because we're the loudest fans doesn't mean we're the only fans.

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