Vanc. Sun: No place like home for Nash

[sstackho]

This could also have gone in the Canada Leagues section, but since he's a national player, I decided it fit here.

Sports

Dan Stinson

No place like home for Nash: Talented midfielder was the Whitecaps' key off-season signing

Dan Stinson

Vancouver Sun

1,044 words

28 April 2004

Vancouver Sun

Final

F1 / Front

English

Copyright © 2004 Vancouver Sun

Family ties mean that he will always be known as the younger brother of the best basketball player ever to come out of B.C. But Martin Nash has made a name for himself in another round ball game. The one that's played on grass and with feet.

While point guard Steve Nash pursues a NBA championship with the Dallas Mavericks this spring, Martin is preparing for his second stint of A-League soccer in Vancouver -- this time with the Whitecaps, who kick off their 2004 season Friday with a home match against the expansion Edmonton Aviators.

Martin Nash has come a long way in soccer since he signed his first professional club contract with the Vancouver 86ers in 1995. After three seasons with the 86ers, the talented midfielder won a gold medal with Canada's CONCACAF Gold Cup tournament championship team in 2000, A-League titles with the Rochester Raging Rhinos in 2000 and 2001 and selection to all-league all-star teams in the same years.

Arguably the biggest off-season signing by the Whitecaps, Nash's career also includes playing stints with English League Third Division clubs Chester City and Macclesfield Town and, most recently, with the Montreal Impact in both the outdoor and indoor games during the past year.

"I've travelled a fair bit in the game, but returning to Vancouver was always something I thought about," the 28-year-old Victoria native says. "But it had to be under the right circumstances. I wanted to make sure that I was making the right move by coming back here . . . and recent developments convinced me that I have. It's a good time to be involved with Vancouver soccer again."

Nash's years with the 86ers -- 1995, '96 and '99 -- were unsettling. While the team enjoyed success on the field by qualifying for the playoffs in each of those seasons, the ownership situation was always uncertain. The 86ers and Whitecaps underwent four ownership changes in five years until Vancouver businessman Greg Kerfoot purchased the franchise in November of 2002 with a stated five-year minimum commitment.

"It was the type of security I was looking for," says Nash, who signed a one-year contract with the Whitecaps on March 30. "Both Rochester and Montreal wanted me back this year, but my preference was to play in Vancouver. This area is close to home and my family and friends."

Nash declines to disclose the details of his Whitecaps' contract, but it's a safe bet that he's playing for considerably less than he earned in his three seasons with Rochester. Long regarded as the league's flagship franchise, the Raging Rhinos draw an average of about 10,000 fans to 14,000-seat Frontier Field and have won a record three A-League championships over-all.

"The average player in Rochester is on a salary of between $25,000 and $30,000 [uS] per year," Nash says. "It's a lot different from Vancouver. Rochester is a small city and soccer is the biggest thing going there during the summer months. There are no competing sports to speak of during the summer, so the fans turn out for soccer."

Nash's career in Rochester coincided with his best years in a Canadian national team jersey. Playing as an attacking midfielder in the Gold Cup tournament in Los Angeles in February of 2000, he recorded three assists in the late playoff stages, including two in Canada's 2-1 overtime victory over Mexico in the quarter-finals and one in Canada's 2-0 title-clinching triumph over Colombia.

"In my opinion, Martin was Canada's best player during that Gold Cup," says Whitecaps' director of operations Bob Lenarduzzi.

Nash has represented Canada in 30 international games, most recently on Jan. 18 in a friendly match against Barbados. He hopes to earn his 31st and 32nd caps June 13 and 17, when Canada plays Belize in the first round of CONCACAF zone World Cup tournament qualifying in Kingston, Ont.

Nash says new national team head coach Frank Yallop, a Vancouver native, is more inclined to select A-League players to the squad than was his predecessor, Germany's Holger Osieck.

"Holger tended to select [Canadian-based] European players and it was a difficult transition for them," he says. "They were playing in different countries under different systems all over Europe and typically came together for only about a week of training before an international game.

"But Frank knows there's a lot of good Canadian players in the A-League. He'll at least give them a chance to play for Canada and that bodes well for players like myself."

Nash is coming off a Major Indoor Soccer League season with Montreal and probably won't start for the Whitecaps on Friday, according to head coach Tony Fonseca.

"His level of fitness for outdoor soccer isn't what it should be yet because he spent the winter playing indoor," Fonseca says. "But he's a very smart and creative player with great ball sense and discipline. We can play him anywhere in midfield and he'll do a solid job for us.

"I see him playing regularly as the season goes on."

GOAL DUST: Nash and his wife Emma have two young boys -- two-year-old Tyler and two-months-old Liam. Currently staying in a Burnaby hotel, the family is looking for a home to rent in the Vancouver area. . . . Steve Nash led Victoria's St. Michaels University to the 1992 B.C. AAA boys high school basketball championship and was named MVP of the tournament. But he was was also a star soccer player in the capital city. He played for the provincial AAA champion Mount Douglas Rams during his Grade 11 year and was selected tourney MVP. "But Steve was skipping too many classes at Mount Doug," Martin Nash says with a chuckle. "So my parents transferred him to a private school [sMU] for his Grade 12 year."

[Guest Ed]

I would like some of the pharmaceuticals the Duze was enjoying during that 2000 Gold Cup. I seem to have a totally different recollection of that tourney.

[Free kick]

I thought Nash was exceptional in that 2000 GC. I am not sure that I would agree with the Duze that he was the best player; Corrazin and Forrest the key players IMO. As was Menezies and DeVos. But coming in as a sub, Nash was awesome and it was he who made that perfect pass to Hastings for the winner versus Mexico. Duze is just promoting his own player and I have no probs with that.

[MikeD]

quote:Originally posted by Free kick

I thought Nash was exceptional in that 2000 GC. I am not sure that I would agree with the Duze that he was the best player; Corrazin and Forrest the key players IMO. As was Menezies and DeVos. But coming in as a sub, Nash was awesome and it was he who made that perfect pass to Hastings for the winner versus Mexico. Duze is just promoting his own player and I have no probs with that.

Yeah, Nash was great in that tournament - his pin-point crosses set up a few goals, but Craig Forrest was the man of the tournament hands down. I loved Nash's great ball to Carlo Corazzin for the tying goal against Mexico in the quarterfinal though.

Ah, those were the days... [8D]