Saturday, April 24, 2010

Vancouver Whitecaps - AC St. Louis live blog

Today features another interesting soccer clash, with the Vancouver Whitecaps hosting AC St. Louis [Simon Fudge, WhitecapsFC.com] in USSF Division II action. The Whitecaps got off to a strong start to their league campaign on April 11 with a win over the NSC Minnesota Stars at home, but they were held to a scoreless draw on the road against Miami FC last weekend. They still lead the NASL conference with four points from two games, though.

St. Louis, in their first year of operation, have gotten off to a tougher start, losing all of their first three games. They'll be eager to turn that around, but Swangard Stadium is always a difficult place for road teams to get a result. They're also playing on short rest after getting thumped 3-0 by Portland Thursday, so this fixture doesn't auger well for them.

There are some concerns on the Whitecaps' end, though. Their depth up front, already questionable, took another hit midweek with Dever Orgill suffering a calf injury in training [Marc Weber, The Province]. Marcus Haber and Randy Edwini-Bonsu are expected to start, but beyond them, the chief option is Marlon James, nursing an injury of his own. New signing Mouloud Akloul is also expected to get his first Whitecaps' start [Weber] in central defence; we'll see how he does. It should be an interesting clash; I'll be live-blogging from the press box at Swangard and doing a post-game report afterwards. Free live video and audio is available through the Whitecaps' website, so it's easy to follow along. Come join the live blog at 4 p.m. Pacific/7 p.m. Eastern!

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