Sporting Madness

CBC's John Molinaro has a very interesting story today confirming that both the USL-1 champion Montreal Impact and USL-1 finalist Vancouver Whitecaps are set to break away from the league . Whitecaps' president Bob Lenarduzzi told Molinaro that both teams are looking to join the other teams (the Atlanta Silverbacks, Carolina RailHawks, Miami FC, Minnesota Thunder, St. Louis Soccer United and Tampa Bay Rowdies) in the Team Owners' Association in a breakaway league for next season. This needs to be approved by the United States Soccer Federation, as it oversees club soccer in the U.S., where most of the teams are based (I'm pretty sure the Canadian Soccer Association will go along with whatever comes out of this). "We're still pursuing the new league alternative, and by the end of the week, we should have our application into the USSF for them to grant us that status," Lenarduzzi said. "Our belief is that in order for soccer to grow in Canada and th...

It's a crucial battle for playoff positioning in the CFL West Division, as the 8-6-1 Saskatchewan Roughriders take on the 8-7 B.C. Lions. Game time is 5:30 p.m. Eastern/2:30 p.m. Pacific. Join me in the live blog below! B.C. Lions - Saskatchewan Roughriders

I'll be live-blogging the McMaster-Guelph game today, which is on The Score 's University Rush program at 1 p.m. Eastern/10 a.m. Pacific. I'll also have some thoughts on other CIS football games around the league, including the Queen's - Laurier clash, which I'll be listening to on CFRC . Come join in then for any and all CIS football talk! If the CFL is more your thing, I'll also be live-blogging the B.C. - Saskatchewan clash at 5 p.m. Eastern/2 p.m. Pacific. McMaster - Guelph

Apologies for the lack of posts this week. I've been filling in as the sports reporter over at the Langley Times this past week, and that, combined with some computer issues, hasn't left me any time to write. That should be remedied soon, though; there are a lot of posts I'm planning to get to later today and over the weekend. I'll also be live-blogging the Guelph-McMaster University Rush game (1 p.m. Eastern/10 a.m. Pacific) and the B.C. Lions - Saskatchewan Roughriders game (5 p.m. Eastern/2 p.m. Pacific) tomorrow afternoon, so tune in for those. For now, I leave you with an excellent Warren Zevon song that could have been the theme of my Vegas trip last weekend:

Back in B.C. after my Vegas excursion, so we interrupt your regularly scheduled Blogs With Balls coverage for a spur-of-the-moment CFL live blog! The 7-7 B.C. Lions are on the road against the 6-8 Winnipeg Blue Bombers in a game that could have huge playoff implications. Come join in the action starting at 5 p.m. Eastern/2 p.m. Pacific. B.C. Lions - Winnipeg Blue Bombers

As part of my ongoing effort to report on the Blogs With Balls convention I've been at for the past few days, I present coverage of the third panel, which dealt with access. This was one of the most interesting panels of the conference for me, as it dealt with a hot topic in the blogging world and one I'm particularly interested in as a journalist/blogger. It was moderated by Dan Levy of the excellent On The DL Podcast , and featured Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo!'s Puck Daddy , one of my favourite blogs, plus Mitch Germann , the vice-president of communications with the San Francisco Sacramento Kings*, John Karalis of the Celtics' blog Red's Army and Patrick Wixted of New Media Strategies (and a former Washington Redskins PR staffer). Here's a shaky cellphone picture of the panel. *Yes, I know the Kings are in Sacramento. Odd things happen when you try to write posts while sleep-deprived, such as mixing up California cities! [Left to right: Germann, Wix...

In the first panel of the Blogs With Balls: Las Vegas conference, the focus was on athletes and their attempts to connect directly with fans. The second panel took up the rather broad topic of "The Future of Sports Media", but produced some really interesting discussions. It was moderated by Dan Shanoff of The Sporting Blog , Tim Teblog and DanShanoff.com . The panelists were Nathaniel Friedman (better known as Bethlehem Shoals ) of The Sporting Blog , The Baseline and Free Darko , Matt Ufford of Kissing Suzy Kolber , With Leather and Warming Glow , Kevin Blackistone of FanHouse , Around the Horn and the University of Maryland, and Amy K. Nelson of ESPN.com . It was a solid, diverse group. Friedman and Ufford both started off as small, independent bloggers (as did Shanoff to a degree, but he wound up with ESPN pretty quickly) who then made it big, while Blackistone's a former newspaper guy who's made the jump to the web, but is possibly most famous for his...

It's been a tumultous season for the Vancouver Whitecaps. They entered as defending USL-1 champions, but had substantial offseason turnover and decided to go with a youth movement to build towards their 2011 MLS entrance. Off the field, they've been dealing with issues surrounding both the construction of a retractable roof on B.C. Place and the transfer of USL-1 ownership to a new group. On the field, they struggled initially in the league, but made a great run in the Nutrilite Canadian Championship and were set to claim its associated berth in the CONCACAF Champions League. Of course, that was before Montreal rolled over and played dead in the final game, allowing Toronto FC to come away with a 6-1 victory on the road and the necessary goal differential to claim the trophy. That loss thanks to factors out of their control seemed to inspire the team, though. The made a tremendous stretch run and snuck into the final USL-1 playoff spot. They then upset the first and second-r...

The Blogs With Balls conference wrapped up yesterday, and it was amazing. I'll finish my Fear, Loathing and Blogs series breaking down each panel later this weekend. However, before then, we interrupt this program to bring you a live blog of the second leg of the USL-1 final. For those who don't know much about the USL, it's the second level of pro soccer in North America, just below the MLS. What makes this year's edition of the final even more interesting is that it's played over two legs for the first time, it features two Canadian teams with good reasons to dislike each other and it features two teams aiming for MLS in the near future and currently embroiled in a dispute with the league's new owners. This leg will be in Montreal at 2:30 p.m. Eastern/11:30 a.m. Pacific. The Montreal Impact come into the second leg fresh off a 3-2 victory over the Vancouver Whitecaps on the road last week; I was there in person for that one, but I'll be bringing you cov...

(Full credit to the illustrious Hunter S. Thompson , whose Gonzo Papers I am currently reading, for title inspiration...) I'm down in Las Vegas for the Blogs With Balls 2.0 sports blogging convention, and am thoroughly enjoying it thus far. Things kicked off this morning with a superb introductory video featuring Will Leitch , Matt Ufford and A.J. Daulerio . The video is presented below (from the Blogs With Balls site via HH Reynolds ): Blogs With Balls 2.0 Intro from HHR on Vimeo . After the introduction, it was time for the first panel, which discussed athletes' abilities to directly connect to their fans through blogs, Twitter and other mediums. The panel featured former Bengals defensive tackle John Thornton (now running JockBiz and All Pro Blogger ], Yardbarker CEO Pete Vlastelica , ESPN VP of series production and development Ron Wechsler and Carrot Creative president Mike Germano , and was moderated by Matt Sebek of Joe Sports Fan . (Shaky cellpho...

My 24th Minute colleague Andrew Bates already laid out what's at stake in tonight's first leg of the USL-1 final between the Vancouver Whitecaps and the Montreal Impact, so I'll only touch on it briefly. Suffice it to say that you couldn't write a better script, though. The Whitecaps had low expectations going into this year, and they didn't perform all that well at the start, but they did look set for glory in the Nutrilite Canadian Championship. However, in the final game of the three-team tournament, Montreal rolled over and played dead against Toronto FC, losing 6-1 to give TFC the championship and its associated berth in the CONCACAF Champions League. That seemed to motivate Vancouver, who finished the season on a hot streak, snuck into the last playoff spot and promptly defeated No.2 Carolina and No.1 Portland to make it into the USL-1 final. Now, as Sportsnet.ca 's Ryan Johnston wrote, they have a chance at revenge . On the field, they should have a...

Couple of things to let readers know about. I'll be appearing on Norman James ' great show The Hook on London, Ontario's AM 980 later today around 6 p.m. Eastern/3 p.m. Pacific to discuss CIS football. Tune in via their listen live service if you're interested in catching the show! There are plenty of interesting matters to cover, especially the upcoming Western - Queen's game next weekend. Check out my Top 10 ballot from this past week for a general idea of my thoughts on where the various teams stand, and as always, look at The CIS Blog for all the recent CIS news and opinion pieces from Neate, the rest of the cast and myself.I'm also going to be live-blogging the first leg of the Vancouver Whitecaps - Montreal Impact USL-1 final live from Swangard Stadium later in the day. That will take place here and at The 24th Minute and Epic Footy . The game is at 9:30 p.m. Eastern/6:30 p.m. Pacific; it can be heard on The TEAM 1040 and seen on USL Live . I'm ho...

I'll be live-blogging tonight's CFL clash between the B.C. Lions and the Edmonton Eskimos here and at Out of Left Field . It should be a good one with plenty of playoff implications, given the logjam in the West Division. Come join me below at 9 p.m. Eastern/6 p.m. Pacific! B.C. Lions - Edmonton Eskimos

One of the interesting aspects of the personnel shakeup new Blue Jays' general manager Alex Anthopolous conducted today is the role it gave to a CIS alumnus. Andrew Tinnish was named as the director of amateur scouting. He'd previously been in the pro scouting department. As reported over at fellow TheScore.com Sports Federation site Mop Up Duty , Tinnish was a rather legendary CIS baseball player and coach with the Brock Badgers. Tinnish played with the team from 1995 to 1999. During that span, he was named team MVP three times , and also holds team records for single season batting average (.500), at bats (146), hits (73), doubles (22) and RBIs (65). He's also the team leader in career at-bats (633), hits (239), doubles (47), home runs (25) and RBIs (210). The more sabermetric stats are not presented on the Brock baseball website, but I'd imagine he'd be up there in those as well. That's a very impressive career. The Badgers probably wish he was still...

After months of controversy surrounding the future of the B.C. Place retractable roof project, it sounds like progress is actually being made towards a solution that could turn out very well for the Vancouver Whitecaps and B.C. Lions. Matthew Sekeres of The Globe and Mail reported this morning that the project will be going ahead. That's according to "sources familiar with the situation", which aren't always the most reliable, but in a case like this, it's awfully tough to get anyone on the record. Here's the key quote from one of Sekeres' sources: "But a source familiar with recent discussions about the provincially operated stadium said the teams have little to worry about, and that an announcement is expected later this month. “They're hoping to get it resolved in the next 10 days,” the source said. “I think it's a positive resolution [for the sports franchises].” That isn't overly emphatic, but it's far better than any new...

This weekend saw plenty of turmoil in CIS football, with No. 1 Laval, No. 2 Western, No.8 Laurier and co-No.10 Alberta all suffering losses, making the Top 10 perhaps more difficult to analyze than ever. With my natural sense of good timing, I figured it would be the perfect week to start revealing my ballot choices; they'll be easier to mock than ever! I'm a firm believer that there isn't necessarily a right way to rank the Top 10. It's an opinion poll of people who know a lot about the game, which means that the overall rankings are very valuable in my mind. Each individual voter likely approaches their ballot differently, though, and that's a good thing; it would be an extremely boring universe if we all thought alike. Thus, there are probably plenty of good reasons for anyone to disagree with any individual ballot, but that doesn't diminish the validity of the ballot, the thought and effort that went into it or the importance of the overall rankings. I try...

Join me below for the Vancouver - Portland USL semifinal live blog! Preview is here . Whitecaps - Timbers Deux!

[Second leg live blog is above] The first leg of the USL-1 semifinal was a bit of a tricky win for the Vancouver Whitecaps. Yes, they won 2-1 , but they conceded a penalty along the way after a ball bounced off Lyle Martin 's hand. That tied the score after an early goal from Charles Gbeke , and Vancouver only won thanks to a late goal from Marcus Haber off a Gbeke cross. Whitecaps head coach Teitur Thordarson said he was impressed with the team's resilence. "I think they responded very well to the goal," he said. Thordarson wasn't happy with the penalty call, though. "From my perspective, it's very harsh to give that penalty there," he said. "He just covered his face and the ball hit him. I've never seen that before." Gbeke said he was confident the team would come back despite a 1-1 tie at halftime, and he figured Haber would notch one of his opportunities. "In the locker room, I told Marcus he was going to score ...

Just a quick note that I'll be live-blogging today's second leg of the Vancouver Whitecaps - Portland Timbers USL-1 semifinal here and at The 24th Minute and Epic Footy . Vancouver enters with a 2-1 lead on aggregate after their win at home Thursday , but they have struggled in Portland recently . Come by at 7 p.m. Eastern/4 p.m. Pacific today to see if they can change that! I'll have a full preview up before then as well. Hope to see you then!

It's a great CFL Friday night showdown. In one corner, we have the 7-5 Saskatchewan Roughriders, tied for first place in the West Division; in the other one, the 5-7 B.C. Lions, in the division cellar. The playoff race is so close at the moment that this could be a huge game. I'll be live-blogging it here and at Out of Left Field starting at 10:30 p.m. Eastern/7:30 p.m. Pacific. Come join me then! B.C. Lions - Saskatchewan Roughriders

I'll be live-blogging tonight's Vancouver Whitecaps - Portland Timbers match ( preview here ) here and at The 24th Minute and Epic Footy starting at 10:30 p.m. Eastern/7:30 p.m. Pacific. Come join me here then! Vancouver - Portland live blog

The USL-1 semifinals kick off today, and both matchups are intriguing. Here's a brief breakdown of what we're likely to see. Both series involve home-and-home, total-goals clashes with no away-goals rule. If still tied after both legs, the teams will go to extra time and then a shootout. The winner of each series will advance to the USL-1 final. (1) Portland versus (7) Vancouver: On paper, the seeding system makes this one (which I'll be live-blogging) look like a bit of a mismatch. However, as I wrote before the Whitecaps' first-round matchup against the second-seeded Carolina RailHawks, their low ranking is a bit deceiving . The team has plenty of talent and a surprising amount of depth. They've struggled with consistency this year, partly due to personnel issues (especially in central defence), partly thanks to their emphasis on giving young players plenty of experience and perhaps even partly as a championship hangover, but they've been in fine form late...