Week at a Glance: Let's not do this week over again

Last week is over. The new week has begun! But what happened last week? If we forget that, we'll have to repeat it... and last week is one that a lot of Canadian supporters do not want to relive. That means we should do a recap, or else it will be FOREVER until the Gold Cup!

Major League Soccer
For Toronto supporters, it wasn't an awesome week. Ali Gerba finally put his name to paper, but can't play until July 15th, when the MLS transfer window opens. He wasn't going to anyways due to being called up to the Canada Men's National Team for the Gold Cup, but he may miss more matches depending on how far Canada go in the tournament. The group stages end on the 14th.

Frequent traveler Kevin Harmse requested a trade to the US and got one. If player finagling wasn't enough, a resurgent TFC managed a win against struggling New York Red Bull but failed to move first in the East due to being shellacked 3-0 by Real Salt Lake. It wasn't a terrible week, but if you were going to experience a week over and over again, Freaky Friday style, TFC supporters would not choose it.

In the rest of the league, it was a week to forget out of a whole season for New York, who lost against Columbus to fall two behind San Jose in the race not to recieve the Wooden Spoon. Amazing to think that this match was last year's MLS Cup final. Colorado drew 1-1 with down-in-the-dumps Dallas before losing 3-0 against the impressive Seattle Sounders, and the LA Galaxy eked out a 1-0 win at home against Houston, who still leads the league.

Toronto are three points and three places safe in terms of playoff spots, their 22 points tying them with Columbus for the last SuperLiga spot, although the Crew has a game in hand. They do not play at all next week, and won't see the field again until traveling to San Jose to play the Earthquakes on the 11th.

United Soccer Leagues First Division
The real week to forget for the Vancouver Whitecaps was, of course, two weeks ago, but it would be nice to see this one go away because, really, nothing happened, except that Ansu Toure has had surgery and will be out for at least four to six weeks. Vancouver scraped a draw against the second-bottom City Stars last Tuesday, and haven't played since. They won't play next week either, waiting all the way until July 7th to welcome the basement-dwelling Minnesota Thunder to Swangard.

Montreal's week was highs and lows, but a pretty bad low. They managed to turn a stale nil-nil draw into a 1-0 win late on against Miami, but were thumped 4-0 against Portland, to everyone's dismay. Quick MLS expansion seems more likely than before, but it's all speculation at this point, and whether three expansion teams in 2011 would even be a good idea is up for debate.

Elsewhere, Cleveland fans, at least, liked their week as they scored on 90 minutes to grab another 2-2 draw against the Austin Aztex, Puerto Rico had a so-so trip to the Carolinas, losing 1-0 to the Battery but beating the Rail Hawks 2-1, and the Rochester Rhinos visited Minnesota and a 2-1 trip saw them leave with three points. Portland fans are salivating ahead of this Wednesday's Cascadia Cu US Open Cup tie against MLS' Seattle Sounders, which will be an interesting renewal of a rivalry that has been quiet since last year.

Vancouver sit 8th with 15 points, one point out of the playoff spot currently held by Miami. Montreal are two points up on the Caps with 17, and Puerto Rico still lead the table with 28. Vancouver do not play this week, while Montreal will welcome Charleston on Sunday. Why are no Canadian teams playing Canada Day games? Way to be patriotic.

CONCACAF Gold Cup
And speaking of being patriotic, the Gold Cup is just about upon us! It's one of those rare times that the Men's national team play, as we haven't seen too many friendlies since the end of the first stage of CONCACAF qualifying. Generallly, though, the week needs to end because we all want to see what happens, except Dwayne de Rosario, who would rather focus on the especially tough game against San Jose coming up. The final squad came out this week, setting us all up for the tournament opener against Jamaica on Friday. We are in Group A with Jamaica, Costa Rica, and El Salvador (EDIT: Thanks, Lord Bob), who will provide a stern test. Canadian supporters' week was also worsened by the suggestion from Bosnia's manager that Asmir Begovic will turn his back on us and play for Bosnia.

A quick note for those who want to look ahead right now: J at Out of Touch is doing a Gold Cup pool. Pick two players from each Gold Cup squad, and whoevers' picks get the most goals wins. Think you can best the best? Best give it a try. It'll be fun! Much better than last week.

FIFA Confederations Cup
Some people wanted the US to do well at the Confederations Cup. The US beat Spain 2-0 in a massive upset, which really got people talking and doing some sports betting . Some people did not want them to do well. Some people hate vuvuzelas. Some people wanted to watch the semifinals without needing digital or satellite. It was a bad week for all of those people, but a good week for fans of Canadian Antique Roadshow.

The US beat Spain 2-0 in a massive upset, which really got people talking. South Africa failed to overcome Brazil and lost in extra time to Spain in the bronze-medal game, but the fans of Bafana Bafana must be pleased with their team's progress in the last competitive games before the tournament due to missing out on the 2010 African Cup of Nations. Although the US fans felt the same, they too felt heartbreak: despite being 2-0 up at halftime in the final against Brazil, they were beaten down by a confident Brazil. The tournament is done now, and South Africa seems like it is progressing as we head closer to next year's World Cup. The teams who have already qualified for next year are South Africa, of course, as well as the Netherlands, Japan, Australia, South Korea, and North Korea.

Women's Professional Soccer
It was a good week for Erin McLeod! The Canadian international, who plays for the Washington Freedom, was the player of the week this week after she shut out St. Louis.

So what did you think of this week? Did I leave anything out? Wish it would have stayed? Glad to see it end?

Montreal Impact concede big in loss to Timbers

This one almost slipped by me, but it's worth noting that the Montreal Impact lost 4-0 to the Portland Timbers at PGE Park tonight. Portland's Brian Farber put a goal in, Mandjou Keita scored a brace, and Montreal's Simon Gatti conceded an own goal to round out the lopsided scoreline.

For the second time this month, Marc dos Santos found himself apologizing for his team's performance on the wrong end of a huge gap. However, this time he fielded what people would say is closer to the Impact's A side than that night against Toronto FC. "Today's performance is unacceptable," he said after the game. "We allowed them to come at us as they wanted, We gave away four goals due to defensive mistakes and a lack of concentration." This lineup featured six changes from the team that lost 6-1 against Toronto, adding more first-teamers like Matt Jordan, Nevio Pizzolito, Sandro Grande, and Eddy Sebrango (Two players that did feature in both games were defenders Kevin Sakuda and Gatti, who conceded the own goal).

According to dos Santos, there's a simple reason why his team lost so bad: they stopped believing. "We were the best team on the field in the first half," he said, "but after the second goal, the team broke down and we simply stopped believing." Remember, the way not to ship four goals: don't stop believing. Although they did manage to top Vancouver 2-1 directly after the 6-1 loss, their victory against Miami was at best lacklustre, and that only had two different starters than tonight. One might wonder if they've stumbled a little bit. This is their fourth road loss, taking them to 2-4-1 on the season.

(My version of Don Cherry's constant warnings against showboating will from here on be Journey references. REMEMBER KIDS, DON'T STOP BELIEVING)

What CBC should learn from the Confederations Cup

The Confederations Cup is over. Brazil are cup winners, USA, despite the fact that even optimistic fans set a target of two points from the group stages, made it all the way to being 45 minutes away from claiming the trophy and sports broadcasters were lining up to call it a choke.

Over all, it was a good tournament! People got really engaged, we learned about South Africa's stadiums, their fans, vuvuzelas, and got a nice preview of next year's World Cup. However, there was something else that was being tested for the first time. This was the CBC's first men's international FIFA tournament since winning the rights in 2006. Since then, CBC have been televising Toronto FC games, covering the Under-21 World Cup and the Women's World Cup. How did they do?

First off, I want to say that I like the CBC and I support having a public brodcaster; its job is to make sure Canadians get what they need without caring about market pressure. That being said, someone was giving us the World Cup in 2006, so what the CBC comes up with needs to be at least as good as that coverage. TSN and Sportsnet, owned by rival companies, shared the broadcast and made a fantastic experience for fans. They set the bar, which was decent punditry and (this is important!) broadcasting every game live on free TV, even games that happen at the same time. How will CBC fare? Well, from this Confederations Cup, here's some comments on how CBC handled the tournament this time around:

- Air every match live on free TV. I understand that the Confederations Cup was not a priority for the CBC. However, of fifteen matches, four were broadcasted live on the main network, seven were broadcasted live on two different premium satellite channels, including the semifinals, and four were not broadcasted at all. In a non-peak hour, the CBC were showing the Doodle-Bops instead of USA-Italy. This will not fly during the World Cup. As stated earlier, anything less than every World Cup match live on free TV will be a step back for Canadian soccer coverage, and any games going unbroadcasted would be a shame.

- Improve studio commentary. This will not be too difficult. I am alright with Nigel Reed and Jason DeVos. DeVos knows what he's talking about, and Reed is a competent broadcaster. However, Reed is a play-by-play commentator, not a colour man. He needs to be the anchor, especially considering that Scott Russell seems a little out of his depth when talking about soccer. Surely a Canadian international playing in Europe or just any camera-savvy Premiership veteran could be secured for this gig next summer.

- Try and find some way to mute the vuvuzelas. This isn't CBC's fault by any means. Whether or not to ban the plastic "swarm of bees" horn has been debated over and over; although they seem reluctant here, FIFA has banned bagpipes and steel drums in the past. I think the best option is not to give them out for free outside of the stadiums. Regardless, some of the European stations found some way to broadcast it with the bee swarm slightly muted. If the CBC can emulate that, they will have so many friends among Canadian fans.

- Keep doing what you're doing right. CBC's coverage hasn't been shockingly bad by any means, they've been doing a lot of things right. Web coverage has been top notch, with every match available by live stream and a well-stocked news site. Promotion of the tournament during the rest of CBC's programming has been pretty good. Presentation of the matches have been good in terms of graphics, the studio, and the reporter features.

Overall, it's not too bad. CBC has got to practice a little bit more before they're ready for prime time, but they're getting there, I think. What did you think of CBC's coverage? What does it need to improve before the World Cup?

EDIT: It was correctly pointed out in the comments that TSN and Sportsnet are not free channels. What I meant was regular, non-premium, non-digital cable, which is much easier to find in things like pubs and universities.

Why I'm cheering for the US in the Confederations Cup

It's weird not to wish that a US national team loses. Our country has always had a natural rivalry with the states, both historically and based on the last ten years' political events. When a Canadian NHL team plays an American one in the later rounds of the playoffs, it polarizes people, and it is the same due for Olympic tournaments. Moreover, it seems that soccer more than other sports is built on rivalry, with supporting a team and hating their rivals seeming to go hand in hand (Any Spurs fan who has watched an Arsenal match hoping they'd lose knows what I'm talking about). The 2007 Gold Cup game between the US and Canada was amazing, and I still think the goal stands. As much as I especially want us to beat them every time, there are good reasons, both pragmatically and sentimentally, to hope the US wins the Confederations Cup tomorrow.

Pragmatically, business is a sport. In the past, we have proved to be unable to sustain a Canadian league anywhere near the level of MLS. To develop a culture of soccer in our country in both the professional club game and national game, we must ride with American teams in MLS. Because of single-entity, what benefits their clubs benefits us, and anything that helps soccer culture in the states helps the clubs. Which filters down to us. The stars of our league, largely, are also the stars of the US Men's National Team. So, pragmatically, we should hope the US wins things so that our club teams get stronger and can better develop our stars.

But there's a sentimental argument, too. We all love the beautiful game, but the fact is, from someone who only watches the English Premiership all the way to someone following several local and overseas clubs at once, it is hard to be a soccer fan in this country. It is just as hard, however, in the US. It's the same for all of us; shitty TV deals, bad announcers, poor national team results, sports TV that doesn't give a shit about us and can barely present our highlights correctly, european football media who won't give us a fair shake because we say "game" instead of "match", watching streams a couple of inches wide in order to see your team, locals who pay more attention single season AA baseball than your second-division football team, tailgates in parking lots, friends whose eyes glaze over the moment you say anything remotely related, away bus trips, newspapers that only mention us when talking about the bad parts of our sport, getting weird looks for wearing scarves in June, waving flags and banging shitty pieces of railing plastic every weekend, culture that reinforces disdain for soccer for the sake of it before having ever watched the game, yelling and screaming and living and dying for players and a club that someone who sits beside you on the bus cannot name or recognize; all of these are the shared experience of the North American soccer fan. We all have to fight through some of these things and enjoy others, and we're all fighting together.

When we play each other, no doubt I want us to win every time. But when the US are playing against Mexico or in a FIFA tournament defending the reputation of soccer on this continent, I think of my New England supporter buddy who carves MLS-themed pumpkins at Halloween, my Houston Dynamo friend who wears orange construction hats and lederhosen while grilling bratwurst in a parking lot, and think that the Americans won't try to win it for me, but they will certainly try to win it for them, and we're all in this together. Tonight, and tomorrow morning, thousands of people who are just like us are scared and excited and worried and jubilant and just can't sleep before they watch their team compete for a victory bigger than anything they have accomplished in their history. Win it for them against Brazil, US men. CONCACAF pride.

Pre-game notes: Crippling muscle sprains

Here is some of the team news for tonight's game against Real Salt Lake. Toronto has almost everyone available, although O'Brian White still injured and Marvell Wynne is in South Africa ahead of tomorrow's Confederations Cup final against Brazil. Amado Guevara and Adrian Serioux are still listed as questionable, but that didn't stop them from playing for 90 minutes against New York.

Real Salt Lake, however, are missing defender Jamison Olave due to a second yellow for timewasting against Houston." They've also got a frightening number of players listed as questionable for tonight's game, with defenders Nat Borchers, Ian Joy, and Robbie Russell listed as probable, and forwards Luis Miguel Escalada, Fabian Espindola, and Robby Findley listed as questionable. They all have muscle sprains, is there something wrong with the RSL physios?

Real Salt Lake are sitting three points behind TFC, who are in a three-way-tie for the last two playoff spots. Chad Barrett is pragmatic, but believes TFC will need to rely on depth to win. "Real Salt Lake are going to be at a disadvantage. They're missing Olave due to recieving a red card, so they're going to be missing someone in their backline," Barrett told the Jared Montz podcast. "We're going to rely on guys coming off the bench tremendously... our whole 18-man roster has been winning our games for us."

Toronto FC - Real Salt Lake live blog

I'll be live-blogging tonight's Toronto FC - Real Salt Lake match tonight at 9:30 p.m. Eastern. It should be a good one; TFC are in second place in the Eastern Conference with a 6-5-4 record and 22 points, one behind D.C. United. Toronto also has a game in hand, and D.C. doesn't have another MLS game until July 4, so a TFC win tonight would vault them into first in the East for a while. Real Salt Lake have cooled down a bit from their strong start to the season. They sit fifth in the West with a 4-6-4 record and 16 points, so they'll be eager to get full points from this one as well. Come join the live blog at 9:30 tonight!

Chad Barrett: Scoring goals is not the most important thing

Chad Barrett has had a rocky time of it this year. Coming the other way in the Brian McBride deal, Barrett's low scoring total was a focal point for those who saw a crisis situation earlier this month. However, he managed to score in TFC's rout of Montreal, and now that Toronto has won something he wannts to remind you what is important.

Former Puerto Rico Islander Jared Montz has a podcast, and when he recently had Barrett in, Chad had a few things to say about fan pressure.

"Especially people up here, you know, people have been questioning whether or not I should be on the field, whether I should be doing whatever... the goals aren't falling in like they have the last two years, or at least they haven't yet... but that's not the most important thing. The only thing I care about is is simple. The only thing I care about is silverware, I care about winning. I don't care if I score, I don't care if Stefan Frei scores. There's lots of goals going in, we're not conceding, and we're winning games, that's really all that matters to me. If people don't accept me, people don't really realize that. This is a team game, and one player isn't going to change a whole lot. I should have more goals than I do, and I know that. Trust me, I'm working on it every day, working on my fitness, working on the shooting... The goals are going to come."

There's some other interesting stuff in there, like his feelings about Canadian teams, compressive socks and whether or not he gets paid in Canadian or American. How do you feel about Chad's performance? Does his goal against Montreal put him back on track?

Question Period: Club or Country?

The politicians have all gone home for the summer. Did you think that that meant you didn't have to work? Well you were wrong, because I have a question for you.

Welcome to Question Period, where I ask a pressing question about Soccer in Canada, and you tell me how you really feel.

With no weight placed on the importance of a game, should a player be able to choose not to answer a call to the international team to play for his club side? If he or she can, should they?

It is now almost one year since the last great club-and-country dustup in world football, when Barcelona successfully sued to prevent FIFA from calling up players to play in the Olympics on non-international game. But next year, the African Cup of Nations will again take players from European clubs at the midpoint of their seasons, and these sorts of battles continue all the time. As supporters of the North American game, we know them very well, because neither MLS nor USL breaks for or schedules around international dates.

As much as that effects teams, it effects them equally. MLS was founded as a promise when the USA was granted the 1994 World Cup to develop the American game and the American player pool. Although Canadian teams are happy adjuncts not really covered by that mission statement, when Toronto FC formed we were told that it would strengthen our national program by developing national team players and having everyone play together. Over the three years since then, Toronto FC did develop a good core of national team stars, but recently, only one of them has been named to the Gold Cup squad. Jim Brennan, Adrian Serioux, and Dwayne DeRosario, all names key to the 2007 semi-final run, are not on the sheet this time around, with DeRosario explicitly refusing the invitation to focus on his club, who play one game during the tournament's group stages.

Should national athletes be required to serve, and regardless, should we hold it against them for not showing?

Montreal won't give up on MLS franchise

Montreal bowed out of the running for an MLS expansion franchise last November, months before it came down to the decision of actually picking a city. As we all know, it was Vancouver and Portland that ended up making it happen. However, Joey Saputo renewed his interest following Montreal's successful run in the CONCACAF Champions League, and started to go to MLS offices semi-regularly to brute-force a franchise in for 2011. In the past, Garber made it clear that MLS was not interested in granting a team for that year. It seemed, for a while, that Saputo's interest was Biff-Tannen-like in its disregard for reciprocation. (I'm okay with describing Portland as George McFly in this metaphor.)

That may have changed. ESPN Soccernet ran a piece today where MLS spokesman Dan Courtemanche refused to rule out the likelihood of Impact to the MLS by 2011. The article details that MLS has eased its stance on one of the major stumbling blocks--the expansion fee. MLS is apparently willing to allow the Impact to pay the expansion fee over the course of five years rather than straight up front. Additionally, while the continuing saga of Saputo's attempts to get money out of the provincial government is not over, he claims to have been approached by them to work something out, rather than the other way around. As we know, Portland is having all kinds of problems getting their stadium together, which I might summarize later this week, and Garber has threatened to withdraw their franchise without a renovation to PGE Park. However, neither this article nor Joey Saputo suggest that Montreal would replace one of the already-announced clubs, instead becoming a third expansion franchise.

According to Saputo, he doesn't consider it an expansion in the practical sense of chewing increasingly more away at the player pool. "With the core we have," he says, "we could add four or five key players that could really make a difference and be competitive in MLS right away." With an eye to the Seattle Sounders, it's a interesting suggestion of how smoothly USL-to-MLS transition might go. Saputo also wants to push this through because Vancouver and Portland are going to be leaving. This makes it seems like he knows more about the death of USL than we do.

My bet: All they have to do is fax papers before the deadline, but the machine tragically fails at the last moment. Isn't that how the Impact operate?

Wait, what? Kevin Harmse to Chivas USA

Surprise time! Canadian international Kevin Harmse, apparently, wanted to go back to the US and is gone. The former Toronto, Galaxy, Nitra, and Whitecaps man has moved on for allocation money. In eight years as a professional soccer player, Harmse has never stayed with a club longer than 2 years or 40 games. He had played 31 games for TFC, 20 of those as a starter. He only scored once, in a Voyageurs Cup game. Interesting to see how he settles at his new club, having played for a spell for the other team in the LA derby.

Toronto FC - New York Red Bulls live blog, and US-Spain analysis

Toronto FC take on the New York Red Bulls tonight at 7:30 at BMO Field. It should be a good game, as TFC look to translate their recent Voyageurs Cup success into MLS play. I'll be live-blogging the match here and at Sporting Madness; come stop by then!

Also,if you're looking for a soccer fix in the meantime, I have some thoughts on the U.S. - Spain Confederations Cup match from earlier today over at The Phoenix Pub, Adam has a good piece for tonight's Last Call at Avoiding The Drop, Jason Davis of Match Fit USA has reversed his stance on Bob Bradley and Andy Hutchins, my colleague at The Rookies, has a nice take over at The Big Lead. Hope to see you for the live blog!

Team news for TFC/NYRB: Questionable feet

Here's the team news before tonight's league game against the New York Red Bulls:

For Toronto, O'Brien White is injured. Amado Guevara has a questionable ankle, and Adrian Serioux has a questionable foot. Marvell Wynne is away on international duty.

For New York, check out this injury list: Carlos Johnson is out for sure, and Albert Celades, Macoumba Kandji, and some fella named Juan Pablo Angel are all questionable. Kevin Goldthwaite and Mike Petke are suspended.

If you're reading this just before going to the game, TFC wants you to arrive as early as possible. They're having a parking shortage due to the Honda Indy. Take the TTC or Go Train if you can swing that instead. If you aren't going, the game is only on GOL-TV Canada, so if you don't have that, stick around here and give our liveblog a read. The game starts at 4:30 and Andrew Bucholtz and the gang will be giving their best thoughts.

In non TFC news, Whitecaps winger Ansu Toure's knee problem that kept him out of last night's match against Cleveland has been operated on today. He will miss the next four weeks, keeping him out of games against Minnesota, Miami, and Carolina. He joins defenders Geordie Lyall and Jeff Parke on the injury list. Wes Charles' suspension ends in time for him to feature against Minnesota, but Charles Gbeke will be unavailable due to a Canadian MNT call-up to the Gold Cup.

Official Don't Stop Believing Week: Dos A Cero

So last week Toronto pulled out a 6-1 result out of some guys who eat cheese. A few days ago, an improbable pair of 3-0 fixtures caused the US to make the group stages, but not many gave them any chance to beat Spain. I mean, Spain are the world #1. The Champions of Europe. They haven't lost for a stretch of 15 matches going back to 2006.

And their A-team just got beat 2-0 by the US.

Anyone else need to not stop believing?

Whitecaps stumble to a draw, Impact slouch to a win

Tonight's USL fixtures saw the Vancouver Whitecap's rough stretch continue as they drew 2-2 away to the struggling Cleveland City Stars and the Impact manage to maintain the momentum they won last Saturday with a home win against Miami.

Vancouver managed to snatch a draw from the jaws of defeat against the City Stars, who are second from bottom in the USL. Vancouver lead out with the scoring with an 18 minute Marcus Haber goal on a rush that typified the poor defensive coverage of the Stars throughout the first two-thirds of the game. Cleveland's Leo Gibson scored ten minutes later and it remained a tie until Taka Hirano conceded a penalty kick just before half-time, which Pato Aguilera sank to make it 2-1.

In the second half, Vancouver were unable to convert a their chances in the second half, which they were getting in spades. The Stars, to their credit, were good at closing down defensively. However, on the ninetieth minute, the Wes Knight Long Throw Watch meter went off the charts as Knight's throw was headed to Martin Nash, who put it in from exactly twenty-eight yards. (Cleveland's Middlefield Cheese Stadium has clear American football lines on the pitch, which seemed to make the Whitecaps more hesitant to commit to wide play.)

In the other game, Miami FC Blues and the Montreal Impact were in an 80-minute deadlock until Nevio Pizzolito scored to put more energy into what was a fairly unexceptional game. Despite late pressure from Miami, the game ended 1-0 to Montreal.

Montreal has now moved past Miami and Rochester into fifth spot on the USL table. Vancouver is one place out of the playoffs in eighth, one point behind Miami. Vancouver has taken four points from the last possible 15 in the league. They don't play again for two weeks until they host Miami at Swangard Stadium.

Whitecaps - Cleveland City Stars live blog

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 to injury.

Cleveland also needs to turn their season around. They're a new USL-1 side, and won the USL-2 title last year in only their second season of existence. Head coach Martin Rennie left after last season for the Carolina Railhawks, though, and that's proved to be a good move for him; Carolina's tied for second in the table with a 7-3-3 record, while Cleveland's second from the bottom with a 2-9-2 record. They do have some faces that will be recognizable to Canadian fans, including former Trinity Western University player and Whitecaps reserve Paul Ballard and former Montreal Impact midfielder Pato Aguilera, who leads the team with seven points from one goal and five assists. They also will have the home-field advantage of playing on FieldTurf at the oddly-named Middlefield Cheese Stadium, which may be a difficult adjustment for the Whitecaps. It should be an interesting one to watch. The game is on USL Live tonight, and the live blog will start at 7 p.m. Eastern. Come join in the fun then!

Bits and Pieces: Ali Gerba signs for TFC

Some pieces to drop before the Vancouver-Cleveland game starts: After here-and-thereing, Ali Gerba is officially a TFC player.

Whitecaps team news: Ansu Toure will not be available through knee problems. He joins midfielder Justin Moose and defenders Jeff Parke and Geordie Lyall on the injury list. Striker Charles Gbeke and defender Wesley Charles are serving the last games of their suspensions.

Iranian football stars banned for protesting

I hope that by now, you've heard about the furor involving the Iranian elections. They're important, and the only reason I haven't written about them so far is that they're not related to football.

Until now. See, last week Iranian football stars wore green armbands to protest irregularities in the Iranian general election, in which Mahmoud Ahmedinejad won by a landslide over reformist candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi. The cited irregularities are confirmed turnout rates of over 100% in some areas and a lack of variation over geographic areas as are usually seen in Iranian elections. Green is the colour worn by Mousavi's supporters.

Six players, including Iran's captain and other stars with English and German league experience, hit the pitch at South Korea for their World Cup Qualifying match wearing the armbands. The match was a 1-1 draw, and when the players arrived back in Iran, they were not given back their passports. It's been announced today that four of those six, have been "retired" from Iranian football.

They weren't (presumably) beaten or shot or sprayed with tear gas, but this is the crux of the issue going on right now in Tehran. The review of the election, according to the Pro-Ahmedinejad Guardian Council, shows it to be legitimate despite the 100%+ turnout. So legitimate, in fact, that they have responded to protests by censorships, limiting foreign journalists, football bans, police brutality, shady arrests, and murder against their own people.

It's not the first piece of governmental/sport issues; the head of Iran's football association from the last time a Reformist was in power was arrested last week. In the past, FIFA has threatened to ban Iran from competition due to government meddling. Might they do so again?

You heard it here first, folks

Gonna take a quick moment here to notice something I thought was cool, being a young journalist: Remember Saturday's post titled "Canadiens sale could help Liverpool pay debts"? I started that post by saying that no soccer outlets had the story, and it was nowhere on Saturday.

So imagine my surprise Sunday when I was watching FSC news late at night and saw this headline on the TV:



Turns out that it's on the BBC, FSC's site, everywhere.

It's pretty cool to be able to have a hand in what other "big" news sources report.

Gold Cup Squad Announce: Never Trust CONCACAF

Okay, so a few days ago CONCACAF put out some preliminary 30-man rosters that were shot full of holes by our intrepid commenters. Luckily, the CSA is willing to step in and right some wrongs. Here is the official 23-man squad:

1- G- Greg Sutton | unattached / sans club
2- D- Adrian Cann | DEN / Esbjerg fB
3- D/M- Mike Klukowski | BEL / Club Brugge KV
4- D- André Hainault | USA / Houston Dynamo
6- M- Julian de Guzman | ESP / Deportivo La Coruna
5- D/F- Kevin McKenna | GER / 1. FC Köln
7- D/M- Paul Stalteri | GER / Borussia Mönchengladbach
8- M- Marcel de Jong | NED / Roda JC
9- F- Ali Gerba | unattached / sans club
10- M/F- Willi Johnson | USA / Real Salt Lake
11- D- Richard Hastings | SCO / Inverness CT
12- M- Issey Nakajima-Farran | DEN / FC Nordsjælland
13- M- Atiba Hutchinson | DEN / F.C. København
14- D- Dejan Jakovic | USA / DC United
15- M/F- Josh Simpson | GER / FC Kaiserslautern
16- F- Simeon Jackson | ENG / Gillingham FC
17- D/M- Jaime Peters | ENG / Ipswich Town FC
18- G- Joshua Wagenaar | ENG / Yeovil Town
19- D/M- Kevin Harmse | CAN / Toronto FC
20- M- Patrice Bernier | DEN / FC Nordsjælland
21- M- Chris Pozniak | SCO / Dundee FC
22- G- Kenny Stamatopoulos | NOR / FC Lyn Oslo (on loan from Tromsø I.L.)
23- F- Charles Gbeke | CAN / Vancouver Whitecaps FC

Who is gone? Four MLS players, first off. We were pretty sure Dwayne de Rosario was going to take this one off, but it's a little surprising to see Adrian Serioux, Nana Attakora-Gyan, and Ante Jazic all dropped. We expected to see some goalies dropped, but not necessarily Lars Hirschfeld. Are we starting Sutton? Stamatopolous? Daniel Imhof, recently capped against Cyprus, sees himself dropped from the tournament roster. Nik Ledgerwood also goes home.

Who is new? Josh Wagenaar, likely as cover for Stamatopolous and Sutton. Also, Whitecaps forward Charles Gbeke, who will likely hilariously leave Vancover for the Gold Cup just a few games after completing his suspension for being angry. Oddly, Vancouver's schedule presents almost the same scenario for games missed accoring to Canada's success as Toronto's fixtures.

The well-traveled Vancouver forward, remembered fondly for scoring twice to help his side win the USL final last year, has seen the beginnings of a career for the national team late in his career. Gbeke, who was born in the Ivory Coast but raised in Quebec, recieved his first cap in the 89th minute against Martinique in January and played twice during Canada's World Cup Qualifying campaign, starting once. He scored against Veilje Boldklub when we played them, but that wasn't a full international so it doesn't count. He has scored six goals in 27 career appearances for the Caps.

What're your thoughts on this roster? Toronto fans breathing a little easier? What do you think of the additions and subtractions?

Dos Santos: NCC needs four teams, semifinals

Montreal Impact manager Marc dos Santos was fine with resting players in last Thursday's concluding Voyageurs Cup match. "I am Christian, and God is very fair," he said Saturday. "He's extremely fair because... I didn't make that decision for me." He made that decision for the club, who after dropping seven players from the team that lost 6-1 to Toronto, managed to beat the Whitecaps, who were missing many players, including both centrebacks, to injury and suspension. However, he's still feeling testy about it.

Marc Weber had an article in the Province that showed up on the Whitecaps website Sunday where Dos Santos joined his voice to the chorus of voices who have an idea of how they would change the structure of the Nutrilite Canadian Championship.

"I know it disappointed the people in Vancouver, I know it disappointed our fans, but in the end, for the club, it was the best decision," said Dos Santos, whose regular starters added insult to injury by beating the Whitecaps 2-1 in a USL-1 game on Saturday at Saputo Stadium.

"The only way I see to have the teams compete with their best players in all the games is to have four teams in the tournament. Play a round-robin and afterward play a semifinals and a finals -- everybody's always alive." The suggestion won't end the debate over Dos Santos's roster decisions, which he called a philosophical matter. Nor will it excuse the Impact's performance Thursday, which club president Joey Saputo apologized for on CBC Saturday.

The article goes on to question where exactly they would find this fourth team, noting the CSL's wish to have their champion represented but also featuring the voices of the CSA's Richard Scott and Whitecaps president Bob Lenarduzzi opining that the competition needs to grow first.

I like the idea of having a final for a number of reasons. What's at stake is too important for the sixth tiebreaker, and final games are just more exciting. However, dos Santos' vision for the tournament presents a problem; essentially, having the four teams compete in semifinals makes the group stage meaningless. And with only four teams, having a group stage helps the visibility of the tournament.

When it comes to a fourth team, there is a good argument to be had about amateurism vs. professionalism. Supporters of the CSL mention that the U.S. Open Cup is open to amateur teams, but as Richard Scott says, there is more of a history to that competition. There is also a question of player safety to be asked. This year, nine players have been sent off for lower-league teams playing against USL-1 sides in the USOC (in the first and second rounds), and those nine reds were spread across just four matches. What's to stop a losing CSL team from doing some damage and getting three sent off like the El Paso Patriots against Austin? To coaches, this might represent a needless injury risk.

I am almost sure, however, that our four-team conundrum will be solved sooner or later without having to decide that point. The Victoria Highlanders, an expansion PDL franchise this year, have already more or less come out and publicly stated they're interested in moving up to USL-1 after the Whitecaps have left (Read the Club Info page, they talk about how great it is for Victoria to have professional football). The only obstacles there are having a larger stadium and probably local sponsorship. If the Highlanders move up, it would be a no-brainer to add them to the tournament. It would even provide east-west balance.

What do you think? Is Santos' logic sound? Does the tournament need four teams, or a final? Is it a risk to have professional teams play amateurs?

Week at a Glance: Don't stop believin'!

It's the end of the week! That means it's time to take the measure of the week's football news. What happened this week?

Nutrilite Canadian Championship
We all know what happened. Montreal midfielder Sandro Grande read an interesting book on the bench. Goalkeeper Srdjan Djekanovic was listening to the audiobook version on his iPod in the goal. Whitecaps manager Teidur Thordasson may have burned his counterpart Marco dos Santos in effigy if the rain ever let up, and captain Martin Nash furiously searched the rulebook to see if there was a rule preventing him from jumping on the pitch and scoring a goal his own damn self. Toronto couldn't have scored more if they brought a suitcase of money to a brothel on 2 for 1 night, while Duane Rollins drank a small Spanish town dry.

FIFA Confederations Cup
Toronto fans and US fans now have something in common that's not Marvell Wynne. Today was the end of the group stages of the Confederations Cup! Gold Cup champions the U.S. haven't done so well in the first two games. 3-0 and 3-1 losses to Brazil and Italy, respectively, have given them the worst record in the tournament, with two losses and a goal differential of -5. Going into today's matchday, Brazil was on 6 points, Egypt on 3, Italy on 3 with a goal differential of +1. It was pretty obvious that the US were going out.

...Or was it? At the same time as the US managed to trounce the African champions Egypt 3-0, World Cup holders Italy were destroyed 3-0 by Brazil. The US managed to go through when almost no-one expected them to. They go on to play Spain next, who have been kind of unstoppable. Brazil will play South Africa in the other semifinal.

Major League Soccer
In midweek, Seattle had a thrilling 3-3 draw against Eastern Conference leaders DC United that was, according to the commentator, a great match to advertise the sport. Or it would have been, if the first hour wouldn't have been pre-empted by the College World Series.The last 25 minutes that did air, though, were MLS' best ratings of '09.

At the weekend, drowning clubs San Jose and New York managed a win and a draw at home, respectively, the Earthquakes beating LA 2-1 and New York grabbing a 1-1 draw from Seattle. League leaders Houston stuttered with a 1-1 draw home to Real Salt Lake, while DC United, 1st in the Eastern conference, fell 3-0 at Colorado. FC Dallas beat Columbus 2-1.

Toronto is third in a three-way tie with KC and Columbus for the last two playoff spots on 19 points. Their next game is against New York on the 24th.

United Soccer Leagues 1st Division
The Whitecaps dealt a fine and a one-game suspension to Charles Gbeke and Wes Charles for their punchup against Miami, making their total layoffs two games each due to the 1-game USL suspension.

Ultras Montreal supporters club refused to show up for the first half of their team's 2-1 victory against Vancouver. The angry Whitecaps struggled with their injuries and suspensions at the centre back positions, playing Marco Reda and teenage midfielder Mason Trafford in front of Jay Nolly.

In other results, 2nd place Carolina went out of the U.S. Open Cup 4-3 on penalties against USL-2 side Wilmington Hammerheads. Miami won at Cleveland twice, 2-1 and 1-0, to push the Blues into a playoff spot. Puerto Rico beat Charleston twice at home, both games ending 1-0, Portland punished Minnesota 5-1, and Austin drew 1-1 with the Rail Hawks but won 2-0 at home.

Puerto Rico leads the league with 25 points. Montreal and Vancouver are tied for the last playoff spot on 14 points, with Montreal having the edge at the moment. Montreal hosts Miami before traveling to Portland next Sunday, while Vancouver heads to Cleveland to take on the troubled City Stars.

What's your take on this week's events? Did we miss anything?

Gold Cup squad announce: July is TFC Reserves month

CONCACAF, it seeems, has leaked everyone's preliminary squads for the upcoming Gold Cup in July. Let's see who we picked--we'll be dropping 6 players from this list before the tournament.

Lars Hirschfeld GK 10/17/1978 Cluj (ROM)
Greg Sutton GK 4/19/1977 Unattached
Kiriakos Stamatopoulos GK 8/26/1976 Lyn FC (NOR)
Asmir Begovic GK 6/20/1987 Portsmouth (ENG)
Adrian Cann DF 9/19/1980 FC Esbjerg (DEN)
Atiba Hutchinson DF/MD 2/8/1983 FC Copenhagen (DEN)
Dwayne de Rosario MD/AT 5/15/1978 Toronto FC
Richard Hastings DF 5/18/1977 Inverness CT (SCO)
Andre Hainault DF 6/16/1986 Houston Dynamo (USA)
Josh Simpson MD 5/15/1983 FC Kaiserslautern (GER)
Patrice Bernier MD 9/23/1979 FC Nordsjaelland (DEN)
Kevin McKenna DF 1/21/1980 FC Cologne (GER)
Mike Klukowski DF/MD 5/27/1981 FC Brugge (BEL)
Nik Ledgerwood DF/MD 1/16/1985 1860 Munich (GER)
Daniel Imhof MD 11/22/1977 Bochum (GER)
Adrian Serioux DF 5/12/1979 Toronto FC
Marcel De Jong DF/MD 10/15/1986 Roda JC (NED)
Issey Nakajima-Farran MD 5/16/1984 FC Nordsjaelland (DEN)
Ali Gerba AT 7/27/1982 Toronto FC
Dejan Jakovic DF 7/16/1985 DC United (USA)
Kevin Harmse DF/MD 7/4/1984 Toronto FC
Simeon Jackson AT 3/28/1987 Gillingham (ENG)
Chris Pozniak DF/MF 1/10/1981 Dundee (SCO)
Jaime Peters DF/MD 5/4/1987 Ipswich Town (ENG)
Nana Attakora-Gyan DF 3/27/1989 Toronto FC
Ante Jazic DF/MD 2/27/1976 Chivas USA (USA)
Julian De Guzman MD 3/25/1981 Deportivo La Coruna (ESP)
Paul Stalteri DF/MD 10/18/1977 Borussia Monchengladbach (GER)
Olivier Occean AT 10/23/1981 Lillestrom (NOR)
Will Johnson AT 1/11/1983 Real Salt Lake (USA)

Some thoughts:
No Rob Friend (injury), and no Martin Nash. Why aren't we picking him? In any case, this is a similar squad to the last Gold Cup. Some other rosters are weak because CONCACAF hex teams aren't risking their stars (Amado Guevara, for instance, won't be called up). The chance is there that we can do something if we defy last year's form.

So what does this mean for Canadian teams?

Montreal Impact
Nobody's going anywhere.

Vancouver Whitecaps
M Kenold Versailles - Haiti

Toronto FC
D Marvell Wynne - USA
D Adrian Serioux - Canada
D Nana Attakora-Gyan - Canada
M Kevin Harmse - Canada
M Dwayne DeRosario - Canada
F Ali Gerba - Canada

This produces an interesting situation for Toronto. The good news for them is that they have very few games in the beginning of July, and so will miss all of these players for only one game for sure, away to San Jose. However, the further USA or Canada get, the more games they miss. If either team makes the quarters, they also miss players at home against Houston. Semis? Away to Columbus. Anyone going to the final will be playing just days before the first leg of the Champions League tie against Puerto Rico. Speaking of which, the CL also conflicts with the All-Star Game, so DeRo will be out this year.

Right now, Toronto fans should just hope that the minimum of three games in a week and 8077 kilometers that Canada will travel doesn't injure anyone.

Update: Reader Greg points out that the Province is running a story today that Vancouver's Charles Gbeke has been called up. Add this to the fact that DeRo has announced he doesn't want to be involved this year and that Begovic is apparently taking care of his new child, and it might be that these CONCACAF 30-man preliminary rosters are incorrect or just out of date. The CSA will announce the official 23-man squad "this week". Thanks, readers!

Canadiens sale may help Liverpool make debt payments

This one's been doing the rounds for a while already, but it's worth noting because goings on in other Canadian sports rarely match up with goings on in British football. BBC doesn't have this story and Canadian outlets don't know about Liverpool's debt problems, but the picture makes sense when you connect the dots.

If there are any Liverpool supporters reading that were worried about the club's mounting debt problems, you can breath a sigh of relief. George Gillet, co-owner of the Merseyside club, has reached an agreement in principle to sell the NHL's Montreal Canadians to Geoff Molson, who is known for making beer or something. The deal, according to La Presse, is worth over $500 million Canadian, which is worth about £260 million in England.

The timing can't be a coincidence. As you can read in the linked BBC article, Liverpool scheduled their £350m debt repayment for next month. While this won't be enough to cover it on its own, it certainly solves a problem of how they will come up with it if they can't find another way around it, especially as they prepare to pay £17m for England international Glen Johnson.

The Canadiens were in a good place, underperforming last year but also celebrating their centenary. The $500 million Molson is rumoured to pay for 80% of the team's shares will make the Canadiens the most valuable NHL franchise, according to the last Forbes ranking from October 2008 that places the Leafs first with a value of $448 million. The Canadiens were evaluated 3rd at $334 million at that time. As an investor, it was a good time to get out, but Gillet is a sports owner, so you would assume he wouldn't necessarily ditch while the ditching was good, especially he was liked in the NHL , and owning Liverpool has been stressful, to say the least. However, I'd say it's likely that this financial decision was influenced by Liverpool's debt problems.

Vancouver Whitecaps - Montreal Impact live blog

If this wasn't enough of a USL grudge match before, it certainly is now after Thursday's events. Come join in the live blog below!

Ultras Montréal to boycott first half of Impact/Whitecaps

Protests seem to be fairly popular in football, these days. According to their website, Ultras Montréal will boycott the first half of the Impact's USL-1 game today against the Vancouver Whitecaps in order to protest a lack of respect to Montreal fans. This comes on the back of a shocking 6-1 loss to Toronto FC, which was a penalty kick away from tying the team record for worst loss ever. "Like our team decided not to give more than 50% last Thursday," their website reads, "the Ultras Montréal have decided to not give more than half a game's effort on Saturday against the Vancouver Whitecaps." [Author's note: Translated from French] Turns out that every game means something to someone, and they put the butts in the seats. Whitecaps fans, of course, have applauded this measure, livid at the Impact for giving Toronto the result they needed to claim the Voyageur's Cup.

Ultras have invited any Montreal fans interested to come to Brasserie 99 to watch the game's first half, at which point they will walk over to Stade Saputo in time to start the second half. This has been noted in the media, both radio and a newspaper article that ran today in the Vancouver Sun. We will be covering the game, which will air at 10:30 PST nationally on CBC, later this morning via live-blog.

La solidarité!

Garber: We will have a winter calendar. Sometime.

MLS Commissioner Don Garber has published his regular "Commissioner Speaks" article, as he does. He congratulated TFC, first off. He also tried to be an apologist for ESPN in regards to the Sounders/DC-College World Series debacle. But he also had other interesting things to say.

It is no secret to anyone who is a fan of soccer that FIFA President Sepp Blatter likes to suggest things that seem unworkable sometimes. They get a lot of publicity! Recently, Blatter spoke at the Confederations Cup, a world away, and suggested, presumably over the sound of the local vuvuzelas, that MLS needs to adopt the European calendar to succeed. You may or not agree with this. Don Garber, however does not. Or does he? In his recent feature, he mentions that the international calendar doesn't make sense. But it will, sometime.

We regularly evaluate all aspects of our competition, including the timing and format of our season. Because of the extreme winter weather in many of our markets in the US and Canada, a switch to the international calendar would pose many challenges for MLS and its fans. I am convinced that the time will come when we do adapt to the international calendar. I just don't believe that time is in the foreseeable future.

So Don Garber says it would make no sense for northern markets like New England and Toronto to play in the winter. But it will, eventually? Maybe Don Garber knows more about global warning than we do.

What do you think? Is the summer calendar an advantage? Does it hurt the North American game?

The Commissioner Speaks (MLSnet.com)

Voyageurs Cup Open Thread

Well, that's that. The Nutrilite Canadian Championship is done and dusted, and Toronto have won the Voyageurs Cup after the concluding game at Saputo. You've heard how the two 24m writers with the initials A.B. feel about it. You haven't heard how Duane feels about it, but I can suggest that he might be hanging off a tree, upside down, drinking, and singing at the same time. How are fans feeling about this? Let's dust around their forums a bit...

The Red Patch Boys are delirious, this has gotta be pretty sweet for them. If you are a Toronto fan, you are probably reading this drunk. Toronto accomplished the unaccomplishable. Congratulations! Interesting tidbit: It was pretty much all Toronto all the time after a key point in the game: Montreal's penalty. That happened on the 24th minute.

The Ultras Montreal, to their credit, refuse to shrug this one off. They are pissed off, and are calling for their general manager to be fired. Someone suggested that they sing a song to us on Saturday apologizing for tonight.

The Southsiders, predictably, are angry as hell at the Impact. It's properly placed, though we've noticed that UM02 feels just as bad as we do. Although we rate the side that ran out as less than a pub team, we're not really begrudging Toronto for it.

So what are your thoughts on the game? Let's hear it in the comments!

EDIT: I have another little tidbit; this is MLSE's first trophy since the Toronto Maple Leafs won the Stanley Cup in 1967. MLSE owns the Leafs, the Raptors, TFC, TFC Academy, and the Marlies. The Leafs, Raptors and the Marlies have each won one division title in that span of years.

When all you can do is watch

Coming back by several goals to win a cup is almost one of the greatest things that can happen to you as a football supporter. Congratulations to Toronto and its fans. I have argued after the match at Swangard that nobody deserves to be champions who can't pull a tough result when its necessary. Regardless of the opposition, 6-1 is not a result that can be taken lightly, and almost nobody believed you could do it two weeks ago; not the fans, and not the media.

That said, as a Caps supporter, I am absolutely gutted at this result. One of the worst things about it is that usually, when you lose a cup, regardless of how sorry you feel for yourself, you lost on the night, and your team may have been able to do more to win. This year, we conceded only one goal in the whole tournament, and we did it away to TFC in the first match. We did all we could have, and there was nothing more we could do than send it to the Impact and hope that they could help us with a result the same way that we did when we took four of six points from Toronto. As fans, as staff, as players, everyone wearing a Whitecaps badge on their chest had a common crisis: all we could do was watch.

We all knew the Impact was going to put out a B-side, what with a league game against us in two days. However, it's not hard to say the soccer world expected more from them. Not just months ago, this franchise was the jewel of Canadian soccer when it brought 50,000 to watch the Impact play in a competitive match. Let's also not forget that their name is the only other one to appear on that trophy in 8 years. The display they put on tonight was shameful. The players and the coaches showed absolutely no will to defeat the "big bullies" from MLS, and haplessly delivered the trophy to a team that was supposed to be contesting a derby match, if you believe news reports from earlier this year. To think that a proud professional franchise should go from 1-0 on 25 minutes to 1-6 an hour later beggars belief. I reserve respect for a worthy opponent, and I won't be changing that come Saturday. Rochester fans called the Impact "North America's Shame" when they were there a couple of weeks back. Were they wrong?

For myself, as a fan, all I can do is finish my beer and put my thoughts ahead to the next game, knowing that we gave a good account for ourselves and essentially lost on penalties. The rush of victory we felt when we poured onto the field two weeks ago is gone, but it will remain a happy memory. I haven't been a Caps fan for very long, and as good as I felt after the game home to Toronto, I would have been spoiled walking in and celebrating a championship without tasting bitter defeat. This hurts tonight, but it will make getting our name on the Cup much sweeter when it eventually happens.

I'll close with one more thought. The first time I watched a live game, I was so psyched and was singing for days. A friend of mine, who is a New England fan, reminded me that "The trick is to remember that feeling when your team is losing in bad weather." As I see the raindrops on the window, I do have to throw a sober note in for celebrating Toronto fans. A lot of you lost belief not two weeks ago. In the comments section of these very pages, we were rebuked for implying that a protest was a bad way to respond to a three-game losing streak. You didn't feel like success was on the horizon, and you had not had a lot of it in your past. Hold tonight in your hands, and the next time you lose in circumstances you'd rather not have had, remember how it felt to celebrate a trophy nobody thought you could win. It is one of the greatest feelings in football, after all.

Post-game thoughts

My post-game take on what tonight's 6-1 win for TFC means for fans in Vancouver, Montreal and Toronto is up over at Sporting Madness. I'm sure Duane will have his take on it here later as well, and our new contributor Andrew Bates may post his thoughts if he has time. This is also advance notice that I'll be live-blogging the Vancouver - Montreal USL match here on Saturday, a match which will certainly have plenty of intensity after tonight's result. That one starts at 1:30 p.m. Eastern.

Toronto FC - Montreal Impact live blog

It's the final game of the Voyageurs Cup tonight, with Toronto FC taking on the Montreal Impact. TFC have their backs against the wall and need to win by four to take the title; otherwise, the Vancouver Whitecaps will claim the championship. Montreal have nothing to play for but pride, but don't underestimate that motivation; they certainly won't roll over and play dead against their bitter archrivals from Ontario.

It should be an interesting one with plenty of offence; Toronto will be going for it, and that might provide Montreal with some counterattack opportunities. Kickoff is at 8 p.m., and the game will be televised on all regions of Rogers Sportsnet. I'll be live-blogging the game here as well, so come join in the fun then!

Obligatory Voyageurs Cup tiebreakers post

It's that time again. Remember the lead-up to the last NCC game a couple of weeks ago? The tiebreaking possibilities were all over the place. Vancouver winning the title on two goals, Toronto winning an ancient amulet if they could find out which Whitecaps players held the five rings of power.

The rumours I've heard going around are that if Toronto matches Vancouver on goal difference it might go to the drawing of lots, a great Canadian pastime, and that Toronto only need four goals against Montreal tonight to win. That was going the rounds on GOL-TV yesterday and even MLSnet and Chris Cummins made it seem like that four goals is all that's necessary.

Here is the official scenario, confirmed by Richard Scott of the CSA: Toronto must win by four or more goals. Whether it be 5-1, 6-2, whatever. Toronto must achieve a goal difference of +4 by the end of this tournament. Any other scenario confirms Vancouver as the champions.

To explain, first, here are the tiebreaking rules, from canadasoccer.com:

The Tie-Breaking Criteria are determined in the following order:
1. Most points in all group matches
2. Greater # of points in matches between the teams concerned
3. Greater goal difference in matches between the teams concerned (if more than two teams finish equal on points)
4. Greater # of goals scored in matches among the teams concerned (if more than two teams finish equal on points)
5. Results from all group matches
a) greater goal difference in all group matches
b) greater # of goals scored in all group matches
6. Drawing of lots
**Tie-Breaker criteria # 3 & 4 are not applicable as only two teams are mathematically eligible to win the 2009 Nutrilite Canadian Championship.

If Toronto fails to win, of course, all this is moot. But if they win, in any case, both teams are even on tiebreaker 1 (9 points) and tiebreaker 2 (3 points head-to-head). Tiebreakers 3 or 4 are not applicable in this case, or else Vancouver would have already won the title. It all comes down to goal difference.

Vancouver's goal difference is currently +4, Toronto's is 0. If Toronto can at least make it to +4, drawing even on 5a), we go to tiebreaker 5b), goals scored. Vancouver have scored 5, while Toronto have got 2. In order to get to this point, Toronto will need to have scored 6 goals, so they will win by that criterion.

So, yeah. There will be no drawing of lots, because there is no scenario where goal difference and goals scored are equal. Toronto can draw Vancouver on goal difference and still win.

Toronto fans, start singing "Don't Stop Believing". Me, I will be chewing on my fingernails and anxious-drinking.

Posting on your soccernets

Good morning! My name's Andrew Bates, and I am the newest blogger at the 24th minute. I'll be posting news about the Whitecaps and other pertinent happenings in the soccer landscape.

I'm a student journalist in Kelowna, British Columbia, in my fourth year of a five-year English degree. I like music, video games, literature, sociology, and a bunch of other stuff, but you care about the football. I support the Whitecaps and Tottenham Hotspur in the "get up at 4 AM to watch them lose 3-1 in a derby" sense, but I have also been known to maintain a passing interest in Inter Milan, Slavia Prague, and Willem II Tilburg for reasons that range from sensical to ridiculous.

One thing to know about me is that I love football and I hate things being written off. So I'm fiercely supportive of the North American game, and I hate whenever we're written off by local media or someone perpetuates the stereotypes about soccer.

I have a journalism background, but blogs are different. I'm a frequent reader of gaming blog Kotaku, and I'll try and hash out a style somewhere between that and hard news.

I'm glad to write for you, and bring a pacific perspective! Canada soccer is pretty great, as we'll see later today. Feel free to drop my a line at my twitter account, teambates.

Leavin' on a Jet plane...

I'll be leaving on a two-week holiday to Barcelona and England late tomorrow. I will be updating (and will be traveling to several football attractions - Camp Nou, baby! - along the way). Obviously my updates will be a little less frequent.

However, Andrew has agreed to pick up the slack a little and I'm hoping to get a few articles in the can tomorrow that will be posted throughout the trip. So keep visiting!

Ricketts is gonzo

I kind of said everything there was to say yesterday, but the news came down at about 6 p.m. that Rohan Ricketts and his Twitter account now longer belongs to TFC (and yes he made a few cryptic messages on Twitter before the announcement came down).

As already stated, Ricketts is still sticking around if this isn't a cap league. He's good enough to provide cover and it's always nice to have guys on the bench that could push the starters. Although he was likely moved to make room for Ali Gerba, TFC lacks a true wing player now. Perhaps there isn't room for one.

At any rate, most of the TFC faithful wish Rohan well. I'm sure we will learn soon enough where he'll end up next (prediction - another MLS team at a lower salary or Scotland).

(I was going to make another Twitter joke, but I just don't have the energy).

The great Canadian game...

Currently in my bathtub sits the entirety of my mouldy, impossibly smelly hockey equipment. It was last on my body about three years ago and it travels from apartment to apartment whenever I move because of a misguided notion that I may one day need it again.

It’s sat on my balcony for the past 11-months – through snow and rain and everything in between. Three weeks ago the lid flew off the Tupperware container I was storing it in. I couldn’t be bothered to replace it for several days. A small pool of water formed in the bottom of the container during that time. When I removed the water today I discovered that it was an odd sort of rust colour.

It was charming.

Meanwhile I ventured out yesterday to buy myself a new pair of soccer boots. It had been a few years and mine were looking a bit ratty. I probably didn’t need a new pair, but I figured what the hell...

This is the story of my life nowadays. Although I always loved football, I never realized how much until I fully discovered the wonders of the daily grind of supporting a club team. It’s engulfed me in ways that I never could have imagined – pushing other sporting interests out the window, forgotten relics of my less enlightened time.

Growing up in rural Ontario, I, obviously, used to count down the days until hockey season. The smell of the rink, the sound of skate to ice the excitement of the first Saturday night of the new season, that’s what I lived for. It connected me to others and made me proud to be a part of a sporting culture.

Even into adulthood I looked forward to that first hint of hockey season. It was what made the winters bearable.

As I’ve said, something started to change a few years ago. As you get older you tend to look outward a little more (at least I do). I no longer was content with feeling connected with a Canadian sporting tradition and culture. I wanted to be a citizen of the world. Without getting too philosophical about it, football was one way that I could do that. Other sports are played around the world, but no other sport is the world’s – connected in every corner.

I don’t think I’m alone. Everywhere I see kids playing soccer now (I live around the corner from a field that routinely hosts seven games at once. Every time I walk past I wonder how we can harness what’s going on to improve the state of the elite game in this country. If I can ever figure it out...). The sport is filtering into our pop culture (I saw a commercial today that was filmed on the Toronto subway. In it a teen was pretending that his candy was a soccer ball. Similar to the old Kids in the Hall crush your skull skit the teen moved the candy around with his hands to make it appear to himself like it was bouncing off other passengers on the train as part of a football build up. He finally scored when the candy popped in his mouth. Although not earth shattering, you know that if the spot was filmed 15-years ago that candy would have been a hockey puck...).

It’s exciting times for us old soccer geeks. We don’t have to wait a month to get substantial football news from an overpriced copy of 4-4-2 bought at the local soccer store. If I had the time today I could have watched three international games live in my living room. On a typical Saturday I can find games than I would know what to do with.

And, of course, I can head on down to the stadium to watch my local IX. It’s a good time.

That’s not to say that football is about to overtake those other passions of Canadian life (I am, after all, going to try and clean my mouldy equipment). It’s just now, unquestionably, a part of that life now. An increasingly more important part.

After years in the wilderness we finally got an invite to the party that the rest of the world has been enjoying. There is no turning back now.

Gerba signed, waiting for league approval

Multiple sources have confirmed that Ali Gerba has agreed to terms with TFC and that the contract is now in the league's hands. He will likely be announced tomorrow and is with the team in Montreal.

If he is fit to play against the Impact he will.

There are also unconfirmed rumours that Rohan Ricketts has been released. I'm working to get clarification on that.

About those de Guzman rumours

Let’s cut this one off right about now. Earlier today a breathless poster on the Red Patch Boys forums claimed that he had firsthand knowledge that Julian de Guzman, likely the best Canadian footballer of all time (or at least the most accomplished) is headed to TFC as a DP “within a couple weeks.”

It’s not the first time JDG (as the supporters refer to him as) has been linked to TFC. After all he’s another one of those Scarborough boys and he remains friends with a lot of the Canadian guys that wear the red of TFC too. He’s also been spotted in the stands on several occasions at Toronto games, most recently this past Saturday against Red Bulls.

The team wants him too. Actually, I’ve had more than one source confirm with me that he was offered a contract (likely in the DP range) last year to come to Toronto. He turned it down flat. Not only was it not particularly competitive with offers he would likely receive in Europe, but de Guzman (rightly) felt that at this point in his career he still needed to be fighting for a spot in the top leagues. He’s been linked for Europa quality teams in a couple different countries. If he leaves Deportivo – and he might have to. The club is struggling financially – he should be aiming at that level.

The only caveat to all this is, as said above, the Spanish league outside of the big two is in a financial mess. Paycheques are routinely, um, delayed. I’ve heard stories that my lawyer won’t allow me to print here about what goes on in La Liga and it’s possible that de Guzman may crave the stability of his hometown and TFC.

It’s also possible that I won’t have to wear that dress on It’s Called Football after Chad Barrett notches his tenth MLS goal of the year, but I’m not going to double down on the bet.

Basically, I’m heard nothing new about JDG and if something this big were coming down the pipe I have a hard time thinking that there wouldn’t be a lot more noise. I’d welcome being wrong in this case, but TFC fans probably shouldn’t get their hopes up.

Where have all the Smiths gone?

Toronto FC announced Tuesday that they have waived forward Johann Smith.
The 22 year old joined the club on August 15, 2008 signing as a free agent.
Smith appeared in a total of 14 games, three of those as a starter. He compiled 418 minutes, and one assist.

That's from Toronto communications. There isn't much to say beyond that, other than it's another body through the revolving door of TFC. Draw your own conclusions as to whether that's good or bad. It's probably a move to free a little cap up (hopefully as part of the Gerba deal). It's also probably for the best as Smith wasn't going to feature in any significant way.

And TFC fans will never look at useless step-overs the same way again.

Some thoughts on Rohan Ricketts...

It was one of the most surreal moments of my career. In the middle of an interview with a professional football player I was forced to explain to the player the rules of the league he plays in. In this case, I briefed Rohan Ricketts on MLS transfer rules as they relate to cap relief.

Basically Ricketts had no idea that if TFC released him prior to June 30 that the team would receive cap relief.

“So that would benefit them, then?” he asked rhetorically after digesting the news. You had to feel for him a little.

Ricketts is a victim of restrictive MLS rules. He’s actually useful as a sub right now. Although it’s not a role he’s in love with he has provided spark off the bench the last two games (the LA game was likely his best in some time). But, in MLS it’s hard to justify six figure salary for a sub. So, it’s likely even money that he’ll be out the door in less than two weeks.

Ricketts as much as said so in a wide ranging interview he did with us on It’s Called Football yesterday. You can listen by clicking on the embedded video below this post. Ricketts was philosophical in his approach to the business side of the game saying that he just wanted to play football and that he wasn’t happy currently not playing.

He also dropped enough juicy hints about the behind the scenes situation in TFC-land to make one curious for more (and he promised to be more detail oriented if and when he was released. “We’ll have a good chat” he told Ben Rycroft during the interview).

It’s popular now to get on Ricketts for his play. Although I agree that he hasn’t done enough to deserve to start, I do question releasing him if there is nothing coming in to replace him. The fact is TFC has the allocation now to afford some extra depth and, as stated, he does have a role off the bench (if he can stay motivated to play, which is a whole other discussion).

Regardless, it will likely be a nervous couple of weeks for Ricketts. I’d keep a close eye on his Twitter account! (And yes, we asked him about that too).

Rohan Ricketts on It's Called Football

Join us live at 2 p.m. EDT for the weekly It's Called Football show, which can be watched at Thatchannel.com

TFC's Rohan Ricketts will join us to talk about Twitter-gate, his charity work in the community and his future in MLS.

And here it is:

You just never know who you might see at the game!

Thanks to Red Patch Boys poster Ageroo who snapped this photo of the MLSE private box during tonight's TFC - Red Bulls game in Toronto.



From top left to right - Jimmy Brennan, Ali Gerba, (bottom left) Julian de Guzman, Atiba Hutchinson.

The guy to the top right again...Ali Gerba. You know, the player Toronto acquired the rights to from San Jose this week. I think it’s pretty safe to say that negotiations are going well...

Toronto FC - New York Red Bulls live blog

It's a big night for Toronto FC as they take on the New York Red Bulls in the infamous date-altered match. TFC could really use some points to break out of the Eastern Conference logjam, while the Red Bulls sit at the bottom of the Eastern table and will be eager to try and gain ground on the sides in front of them. Newly-acquired defender [Paul Attfield, The Globe and Mail] Nick Garcia may make his TFC debut tonight as well. Join me in the live blog below for full coverage!

Whitecaps: Van City Insanity

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 as big of a loss; the Whitecaps don't have too many options up front, as Marlon James is still returning from injury and Marcus Haber is still rather inexperienced, and Gbeke's been their key scoring threat so far.

It's tough to predict exactly what will happen as a result. Marc Weber has some great stuff on the fiasco, and makes an excellent point about the PR dimension. The Whitecaps are a very fan-friendly organization and have quite a focus on appealing to kids and families; you can bet they won't be too thrilled with the conduct of Gbeke and Charles, and I doubt the league will be either. My guess would be that we'll see suspensions for at least one of them, possibly both, and possibly from both the league and the club. It will be an interesting situation to keep tabs on, but you can bet that the Whitecaps fans are hoping that the two can work it out, as they've been key parts of the team to date and will be hard to replace.

P.S. I'll be live-blogging the Toronto FC - New York Red Bulls game at 8 p.m. tonight. Join me then for more soccer coverage!

[Cross-posted to The 24th Minute]