Sporting Madness

The Vancouver Whitecaps are playing their first home game in almost a month tonight against AC St. Louis, and I'll be there at Swangard Stadium to live blog it. The Whitecaps are in good shape coming into this one; they're 6-2-7 on the season, and went 2-0-3 on their recent five-game road trip from hell where they criss-crossed North America from Puerto Rico to Montreal. They're in first place in the NASL Conference and are the only USSF Division II team to have conceded less than 10 goals on the season [ Simon Fudge , WhitecapsFC.com ]. They've only allowed eight goals against in league play. Still, as Marc Weber points out in his preview, they're still looking for consistent goal-scoring , and this week's club-imposed suspension of Dever Orgill over a training incident might result in some further new looks up front. The match will start at 7:30 p.m. Pacific (10:30 p.m. Eastern); come join me for the live blog then! Vancouver Whitecaps - AC St. Louis

A 1-0 score frequently suggests a close match. That wasn't the case at Burnaby's Swangard Stadium tonight, as the Vancouver Whitecaps walked all over expansion AC St. Louis. They outshot St. Louis 11-1, had five shots on net to the visitors' nil and also dominated the possession battle, particularly in the first half. With the win, Vancouver improved to 2-0-1 on the season, while St. Louis fell to 0-3-0. Head coach Teitur Thordarson was not overly impressed with his team's showing, though, despite coming away with three points and statistical dominance. His criticism was for good reasons. Particularly in the second half, the Whitecaps sank to St. Louis' level and spent more time just passing the ball around than creating anything offensively. "I wasn't happy with the game today," Thordarson said after the match. Thordarson liked the way the team came out of the tunnel, but he was less impressed with their play as the game went on. "I thou...

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 injur...