Sporting Madness

Saturday’s Vancouver Whitecaps clash against the Rochester Rhinos saw the fall of one streak and the continuation of a more auspicious one. Before 4,996 fans at Swangard Stadium, the Whitecaps found a way to break their goalless streak while maintaining their defensive dominance, coming away with a 2-0 victory. Vancouver threatened early, but that was something we’ve seen before. This last stretch of games has been characterized by the team creating scoring chances but not capitalizing on them. Tonight was different, though, as Cornelius Stewart ended their scoring drought in the 17th minute. He collected the ball in the box after Marcus Haber ’s shot hit him, turned and drilled it past Rochester goalkeeper Neal Kitson into the corner of the net. The goal came in the 276th minute of USSF-II play since the Whitecaps’ last league tally ( April 29 against Portland) and the 296th minute of USSF-II and Voyageurs’ Cup play since their last goal of any type (a Marcus Haber penalty May 5...

( (L to R: Martin Nash , Teitur Thordarson , and Marcus Haber address the media after Wednesday's match). Wednesday's Voyageurs Cup game between the Vancouver Whitecaps and the Montreal Impact felt rather like an episode of 24, starting slowly and building to a chaotic and hard-to-believe 1-1 final. In between, there were a couple of goals, plenty of cards and much more entertainment than that other Vancouver team offered. The match offered little at first, with both teams electing to start defensive lineups; Montreal fielded a 4-5-1 with Peter Byers as the lone striker, while Vancouver opted for a 4-4-1-1 with Marcus Haber supported by attacking midfielder Jonny Steele . The Whitecaps controlled most of the early possession, but only created a few chances, and the score remained level until Byers slipped one by Jay Nolly in the 31st minute. Montreal then took over the game for the next fifty minutes until a bizarre sequence of events unfolded. With time dwindling, th...

[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 ...