Sporting Madness

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...

The Vancouver Whitecaps begin their new season today at Swangard Stadium, and I'll be live-blogging the game from the press box for this site, The 24th Minute and Epic Footy . They'll be taking on the NSC Minnesota Stars [ Simon Fudge , WhitecapsFC.com ]. Game time is at 7 p.m. Eastern/4 p.m. Pacific, and live video can be found via the Whitecaps' home page. It should be an interesting clash; Vancouver finished with a mediocre 11-10-9 record last season, but got hot in the playoffs and went all the way to the USL championship before losing to Montreal. The Minnesota Stars are a new team, but they have nine players from the former Minnesota Thunder, who were 7-13-10 last year and missed the playoffs. They'll be eager to get off to a hot start. I've already written a season preview focused on the Whitecaps' league and personnel changes for Dave Clark over at Sounder At Heart , and I wrote one focused on their potential Voyageurs' Cup ambitions over at...

The start of the Vancouver Whitecaps' soccer season is almost upon us, as they kick things off on April 11 against the NSC Minnesota Stars. They're also preparing for the Voyageurs Cup, where they'll be facing domestic rivals Toronto and Montreal; their first match in that competition will be May 5 against Montreal. I'll have plenty of Whitecaps coverage here and at The 24th Minute all season, but I'm also covering the team for Fighting For Canadian Supremacy , a site started by Sam Gregory of The Canadian Stretford End that will look at the Voyageurs Cup through local perspectives from writers in each city. My team preview for that site, focusing on what that competition might mean to the Whitecaps this year, is up; check it out here!

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...