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Whitecaps building for 2011

tovan1

By tovan1
in Major League Soccer

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tovan1 Rookie

tovan1

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Thursday, August 5, 2010

2011 dreamin' in Van City

The bloodletting continues in Vancouver in the lead up to MLS 2011. Today veteran striker Marlon James was released to make room for a much younger forward, Jonathon McDonald.

McDonald is Costa Rican, having played his career domestically up to now. Most recently he was with Herediano where he scored an impressive eight goals in 10 appearances. In the press release, the Whitecaps oversold the quality of Herediano -- they are a long way from their glory years -- but nearly a goal a game is good no matter where you are playing.

It's hard to imagine a first place team making as many moves as the Whitecaps, but it's clear that everything they are doing is with an eye to next year. Moving out a career D2 player in James to make room for a younger Latin player (young Latin talent is what makes MLS go round) is hard to argue with.

Not all of the 'Caps late season signings are going to stick next year, but it seems like Vancouver views the ability to bring guys in as a much bigger deal than Seattle did. They are essentially giving half season trials to a bunch of guys. Vancouver Province writer Marc Weber told It's Called Football that he expected the 'Caps to bring as many as 10 players up (he also suggested that the 'Caps have a pretty good idea of what the rules are going to be for stocking the roster even if they aren't saying yet).

That might end up being a conservative guess.

http://www.24thminute.com/2010/08/2011-dreamin-in-van-city.html

*****

Thursday, August 5, 2010

How to build a football team

As I alluded to in the post below, the Vancouver Whitecaps seem to be looking to build the MLS roster from pieces that were acquired while in D2. No one has ever come out and said it directly, but it fits with the overall philosophy of the club. This is an organization that started an academy before starting an academy was on the radar of most clubs in North America.

It’s a club that has looked to sell players developed as a legitimate revenue stream (how they will do that under MLS rules remains to be seen).

And it’s a club that, in spite of being in first place and in line for another D2 championship this year, is dumping older players to bring in kids.

It is quite the contrast to the ‘Caps expansion cousins from Portland. The Timbers seem to be going about things as business as usual. If you go to the fan boards there they are talking about drafts, both expansion and super, and dreaming of fading European DP stars.

Look at the two rosters. Vancouver has 11 players born after 1988. Portland has three. Despite that, Vancouver is running away with the NASL division and sits in third overall ahead of the Timbers

Obviously, the ‘Caps are going to need to bring in some veteran MLS players along with a couple impact guys if they are going to compete to win a championship. However, if they can find eight, nine, ten squad players from the D2 team that can compete and are familiar with each other...well, that does make the ‘Caps an interesting looking MLS expansion team.

There is a reason that the Whitecaps have been around in one form or another since the NASL years. Not many MLS fans are paying that much attention to the ‘Caps right now, but they might better start. The more I look at what’s going on out there the more I’m convinced that they will be competitive out of the gate (and competitive in a different way than Seattle was).

Portland, meanwhile, is going to be an expansion team.

http://www.24thminute.com/2010/08/how-to-build-football-team.html

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Jeremy Newbie

Jeremy

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i hope another future canadian mls franchise is paying close attention to this and taking notes.

Certainly hope so. Because right now it is not looking good !

Hats off to the Whitecaps organisation though, they are doing a great job so far. Securing a shirt sponsor 1 year before the season, while the Rapids don't even have one yet, haha.

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tmcmurph Newbie

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To be fair the Caps have a few years head start plus a reputation amongst the players of sending players to Europe for trials etc. Once Montreal and TFC get their academies helping kids live their dreams the playing field will level. TFC will be in the best position because they will have the greatest number of local players to draw from.

This year has been interesting for us Caps fans and we are looking forward to this fall and next year. A lot of very young players are getting great experience at the D2 level especially at forward.

Not only did they get a shirt sponsor but they said it was the highest paying sponsor in MLS so that will cover a DP or two :)

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Richard Newbie

Richard

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WHITECAPS FC ADD CANADIAN AND INTERNATIONAL TALENT - BC Soccer Web

August 10, 2010

Vancouver Whitecaps FC announced today the signing of Canadian midfielders Terry Dunfield and Kyle Porter, the acquisition and signing of midfielder Alexandre Morfaw from Bodens Bandyklubb (Bodens BK) of the Swedish Division 1 Norra (third tier in Sweden), as well as the three-month loan acquisition of striker Omar Salgado from Major League Soccer (MLS) - pending USSF D-2 Pro League approval. Per club policy, terms of the acquisitions and contracts were not disclosed.

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Richard Newbie

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Wade Oosterman, president of Bell Mobility, told press at the new kit launch (which I attended) that the deal is more valuable than any currently existing in the league. I think he can be believed. LA Galaxy and Seattle Sounders both collect around US$4 million per year from their sponsorships. The Whitecaps deal can be assumed to at least match those. The Vancouver Sun reported that the BMO deal with Toronto FC was for $1.0 to $1.5 million per year.

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RJB Mentor

RJB

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WHITECAPS FC ADD CANADIAN AND INTERNATIONAL TALENT - BC Soccer Web

August 10, 2010

Vancouver Whitecaps FC announced today the signing of Canadian midfielders Terry Dunfield and Kyle Porter, the acquisition and signing of midfielder Alexandre Morfaw from Bodens Bandyklubb (Bodens BK) of the Swedish Division 1 Norra (third tier in Sweden), as well as the three-month loan acquisition of striker Omar Salgado from Major League Soccer (MLS) - pending USSF D-2 Pro League approval. Per club policy, terms of the acquisitions and contracts were not disclosed.

The activeness of the club is nice to see, as is the addition of Canadians. Do we know yet what the rules are considering what players the Whitecaps can keep and not keep when they move to MLS?

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BringBackTheBlizzard Newbie

BringBackTheBlizzard

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Assuming Dunfield is returning to play in MLS next season it will be interesting to see how he does. League Two is usually viewed as being too low a level for a player to be expected to start regularly in MLS. Worth bearing in mind that he was playing a division below the level Andy Welsh is current playing at and the level at which Ali Gerba was able to score regularly. With TFC having had a head start on signing quality Canadian players it may be tough initially for the Whitecaps and Impact to fill out that portion of their roster.

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paul-collins Newbie

paul-collins

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Wade Oosterman, president of Bell Mobility, told press at the new kit launch (which I attended) that the deal is more valuable than any currently existing in the league. I think he can be believed. LA Galaxy and Seattle Sounders both collect around US$4 million per year from their sponsorships. The Whitecaps deal can be assumed to at least match those. The Vancouver Sun reported that the BMO deal with Toronto FC was for $1.0 to $1.5 million per year.

Timing is everything: Strider's link shows that BMO re-upped with TFC in the wake of Bell signing with the Caps, so it's likely that the Caps set the bar, so to speak.

Is the Van Sun article more recent than the G+M article of July 4?

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Richard Newbie

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No, the Vancouver Sun article was mid-June. Wouldn't surprise me if TFC renegotiated the deal with BMO, seems the level they were at was way below current average. As at June 10 when the Vancouver-Bell deal was announced it was the richest shirt sponsor deal in MLS, that was the only point I was making. It is almost inevitable that as time goes by and contracts are renegotiated the number will keep climbing.

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Macksam Mentor

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Assuming Dunfield is returning to play in MLS next season it will be interesting to see how he does. League Two is usually viewed as being too low a level for a player to be expected to start regularly in MLS. Worth bearing in mind that he was playing a division below the level Andy Welsh is current playing at and the level at which Ali Gerba was able to score regularly. With TFC having had a head start on signing quality Canadian players it may be tough initially for the Whitecaps and Impact to fill out that portion of their roster.

They need to sign 8 Canadians right?

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youllneverwalkalone Veteran

youllneverwalkalone

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Re: Dunfield... One of the Vs favourite passtimes is assessing the "level" of a player. It's so misleading because we assume some sort of perfect free market where everyone is exactly at the level they should be. Every year, reserve and bench players from the Premier League end up in League Two. Then some Championship side will sign some kid from Greater Merseyside Sunday League who steps in and makes an impact. I don't know if Dunfield will stick or not, that's the whole point of these last 8 matches for the Caps. I do remember watching Adrian Cann every day when he was here and thinking he was way better than most players in the league even though, like Dunfield, he was "career" lower league players. There's a thread on the old board where I suggested him for TFC and was told he was A-League rubbish. Now he's more influential for TFC than DeGuzman. For every Welsh there's a Cann. And we should also remember that Samuel, Buddle, Cunningham were ****e for TFC and then went on do really well elsewhere. It;s a lot about timing and opportunity. Maybe both are lined up here for Dunfield.

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loyola Newbie

loyola

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Alain Rochet transfered from FC Zurich to Whitecaps, loaned back to FCZ and will join the Whitecaps in January

http://www.fcz.ch/profis/news_detail.htm?id=918

This is the Swiss player who's born in Quebec. Interesting that he's coming back to play in Canada. He played one game for Switzerland MNT in 2005 (don't know if it was a WCQ or ECQ) and could still be eligible to play for us.

Edit: He played a WCQ against the Faroes.....so he can't play for us.

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