Sporting Madness

The Vancouver Whitecaps - Seattle Sounders exhibition match earlier today was a pretty good display of soccer. The final score was 0-0 [ Bruce Constantineau , Vancouver Sun ], but both teams had their chances. Seattle held most of the possession, which is what you'd expect from an MLS side against a Division II one, but they weren't able to convert on their scoring opportunities. Steve Zakuani was perhaps the Sounders' best player, constantly making things happen on the wing with his speed. He did score once, but it was nullified thanks to an offside. Kasey Keller also turned in a solid performance in net for the Sounders. On the Whitecaps' side, there was some progress as well. New acquisition Blake Wheeler looked solid in midfield and had one of the team's better chances when he narrowly missed in the second half. Young striker Dever Orgill looked good as well, which is reassuring; he has been dominant with the residency team in the past , but didn't ma...

Today's announcement [ Jose Romero , The Seattle Times ] of Portland as the 18th MLS franchise could mean great things for the league, especially considering how Vancouver was named as the 17th franchise [ Marc Weber , The Province ] on Wednesday. Of course, there are many great reasons behind this pairing, but one of the most interesting is the history between the cities. Way back when Duane first called the race for Vancouver and Portland on March 3 , his MLS source stated that the decision was made due to "stadium plan, political support and geographical factors". The stadium plans and political support are obviously crucial, but much ink has been spilled about them already, so it's those geographical factors that deserve further examination. Vancouver, Portland and Seattle have had a natural soccer rivalry since the days of the old NASL, and that rivalry has carried on through the USL; all three cities had USL teams from 2001-2008, rekindling the old flame. Mor...

Yesterday may well be remembered as a momentous day in Vancouver soccer history. The news that Miami was dropping out of the MLS expansion race [ Duane Rollins , The 24th Minute ] was huge, as many had seen their bid as almost a sure thing given the involvement of FC Barcelona. This also reduced the pool of remaining cities to four (Vancouver, Portland, Ottawa and St. Louis), giving Vancouver a 50 per cent chance mathematically. Shortly thereafter, the news got even better: Duane related that a highly-placed MLS source had confirmed Vancouver and Portland as the two teams to be added, while Ives Galarcep anointed Vancouver as the front-runner . That seems to be the consensus around the intertubes at the moment, with Vancouver Province soccer reporter Marc Weber telling me on Twitter that he’d bet his house on Vancouver earning an expansion slot (he also put up a post about it today), Ben Knight declaring the Whitecaps all-but-in today, Ben Van Weelden proclaiming the Whiteca...