Sporting Madness

[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 ...

The Vancouver Whitecaps begin their title defence tonight against the Carolina RailHawks, but the Whitecaps squad that will take the pitch will be very different from the team that hoisted the USL-1 trophy last season. Gone are Alfredo Valente , Steve Kindel , Wesley Charles , Nicholas Addlery , Jason Jordan , Eduardo Sebrango , Jeff Clarke and others who were key parts of that team, and as Marc Weber of The Province wrote today , some of the team's tenaciousness may have departed with them. Unlike last year's championship squad, which was primarily a group of talented veterans hitting their stride at the right time, this season's been dominated by a focus on youth, as I talked about in my post on their first match of the regular season. Young players like Marcus Haber , Randy Edwini-Bonsu , Ethan Gage , Wes Knight and Luca Bellisomo have all made their impact felt on the team this year. Haber in particular has impressed; many thought the team might struggle to score ...

For a while, it looked like the Wesley Charles - Charles Gbeke incident had been completely settled. The Whitecaps' long break helped, and the two even took a pre-game lap of the stadium together before the team's next home match. Today, though, another incident happened and the Whitecaps immediately released Charles. Here's the press release sent out this morning by Nathan Vanstone , the Whitecaps' manager, broadcast and communications: "WHITECAPS RELEASE WESLEY CHARLES VANCOUVER, BC - Vancouver Whitecaps FC announced today that defender Wesley Charles has been released by the club. During Tuesday’s training session, Charles took exception to a tackle by fellow defender Jeff Parke and attempted to strike Parke. Charles was immediately dismissed from the grounds and training resumed. 'This is the second incident between Wesley Charles and a teammate in just over a month, and as a result, we have decided to release Charles outright,' explained Whitecaps p...

I'll be live-blogging tonight's USL-1 contest between the Vancouver Whitecaps and the Cleveland City Stars. It should be an interesting one, as the Whitecaps seek to rebound from both watching the Voyageurs Cup slip away in front of their eyes and then throwing away their chance at revenge on a revitalized Montreal Impact side. The Whitecaps enter tonight's with a 4-5-2 record through 11 games, putting them eighth out of the 11 teams in the USL-1 table . They do have a couple games in hand on many of the clubs above them, but they'll need to start making a run soon if they hope to defend their USL-1 title this season. Of course, it's not going to be easy. Key striker Charles Gbeke and central defender Wesley Charles will sit out this one thanks to the suspensions [ Simon Fudge , whitecapsfc.com ] they received following their punch-up a while back. Defenders Jeff Parke and Geordie Lyall and wingers Ansu Toure and Justin Moose will also miss this one thanks...

So, that was fun . The Whitecaps snapped their USL losing streak last night with a 3-2 victory [ Gary Kingston , The Vancouver Sun ] over Miami FC, but it may well prove to be a Pyrrhic one. The real story of the game was not the victory, but the fight between Whitecaps' teammates Charles Gbeke and Wesley Charles , perhaps the most ridiculous in-game feud between teammates since the Lee Bowyer / Keiron Dyer incident at Newcastle United (story from BBC News ). Compare the videos below. (Incident starts at 7:51 of the Whitecaps' clip). This is not good for the Whitecaps. In fact, it's hard to think of two players whose loss might hurt the team more (except perhaps goalkeeping legend Jay Nolly ). The Whitecaps are very short at central defence at the moment thanks to Jeff Parke 's injury (turf toe) and Justin Thompson 's sudden departure [ Marc Weber , Back of the Net ], so any suspension to Charles (which seems inevitable) will certainly hurt. Gbeke's almost ...