Cdn Champ Second Leg - Tor vs Van

[Watchmen]

The Whitecaps just need to win the replay and put the controversy to rest.

Having said that, do the rules also say that handballs are now legal in the NCC? Yet another rather blatant handball (that should have resulted in a red card) but no call. Getting rather frustrating to watch.

[matthew]

I settled into watch the game on replay and it's not on. I don't know the result and am trying to keep it that way. Is there a reason why the game isn't on (i e it wasn't played) or did sportsnet fornicate me again?

Any ideas?

cheers,

matthew

[TFCRegina]

I settled into watch the game on replay and it's not on. I don't know the result and am trying to keep it that way. Is there a reason why the game isn't on (i e it wasn't played) or did sportsnet fornicate me again?

Any ideas?

cheers,

matthew

There's no result to know. The game was cancelled in the 61st minute due to dangerous playing conditions. Vancouver was winning 1-0. Rules stipulate the match must be completed in its entirity. It's rescheduled for tomorrow, won't be televised.

The game will start from 0 minutes and be played as if Vancouver didn't score.

[Lord Bob]

This game has made me upset.

Sincerely,

Lord Bob

[RS]

Hey "buddy" FIFA has nothing to do with tournament rules... look it up then speak ralphy

Just cruising through the thread and it may have already been pointed out.

http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederation/generic/81/42/36/lawsofthegame_2010_11_e.pdf

Bottom of page 28: "An abandoned match is replayed unless the competition rules provide otherwise." The NCC rules seem to be in line with FIFA, so there it is.

[RS]

There's no result to know. The game was cancelled in the 61st minute due to dangerous playing conditions. Vancouver was winning 1-0. Rules stipulate the match must be completed in its entirity. It's rescheduled for tomorrow, won't be televised.

The game will start from 0 minutes and be played as if Vancouver didn't score.

The ref actually blew his whistle at 59:12, but the clock kept going.

I was watching very closely for this, and everyone around me was as well, as we knew that the time of abandonment may have come into play.

[matthew]

There's no result to know. The game was cancelled in the 61st minute due to dangerous playing conditions. Vancouver was winning 1-0. Rules stipulate the match must be completed in its entirity. It's rescheduled for tomorrow, won't be televised.

The game will start from 0 minutes and be played as if Vancouver didn't score.

Thanks. I had no idea what had happened and didn't want to spoil the "result" if I didn't have to in order to find out why it wasn't being televised on tape delay.

cheers,

matthew

[DJT]

I settled into watch the game on replay and it's not on. I don't know the result and am trying to keep it that way. Is there a reason why the game isn't on (i e it wasn't played) or did sportsnet fornicate me again?

Same here! At both 12:30 and 1:00 AM EDT (the first two scheduled replays), Sportsnet went directly to UEFA Champions League and EPL programming without explanation, so like you I assumed they had "fornicated" us again. It wasn't until the start of the 1:30 AM EDT broadcast that a message scrolled across saying that the game had been abandoned due to lightning (which now appears to be not completely accurate).

Why the heck didn't they show the 60 minutes that were played? I mean, they already spent the money to broadcast it, anyway! I don't suppose anyone recorded it from the stream or Sportsnet One? I would love to get a recording of this.

Evidently the weather varied quite a bit across the city: in my neighbourhood the intensity and amount of rainfall was very average, and there was just a bit of lightning -- nothing notable at all.

As for all the controversy, well, it's not quite the same thing (the match was not abandoned) and it doesn't make the current situation any better, but in terms of the un/fairness of replaying a match from the start, Uzbekistan vs. Bahrain in 2006 WCQ was way worse, and that was a FIFA ruling.

It's rescheduled for tomorrow, won't be televised.

Where was this stated? I can't find anything about it.

I've seen the Scuddeto [...] decided on water logged pitches before

Three cheers to Collina! (He later admitted to being a biancoceleste, but I'm okay with that, especially given what happened the previous week. )

[DJT]

From Sportsnet:

THE CANADIAN PRESS

TORONTO -- Mother Nature dealt the Vancouver Whitecaps a cruel blow Wednesday while granting Toronto FC a do-over.

A relentless lightning storm that pounded Toronto throughout the evening forced the abandonment of the Canadian Nutrilite Championship final between Toronto and the visiting Whitecaps. The game was called off after it was already an hour old, and with Vancouver leading 1-0.

According to Canadian Championship rules, the match will be replayed in its entirety, which didn't sit well with the Whitecaps.

"It's unfair, I feel it's very unfair," Whitecaps coach Teitur Thordarson said. "Under these circumstances you have to start a new game, and obviously the advantage we got under this game doesn't count, so that is obviously unfair."

Thordarson and Toronto coach Aron Winter both said they had been aware of the ruling.

Officials have rescheduled the game for 11 a.m. ET on Thursday, and fans who were at Wednesday's game are welcome to attend the rescheduled match. If the pitch isn't deemed up to playable standards by 9:30 a.m., the game will be rescheduled for another day.

The Whitecaps had the Voyageurs Trophy in their sights in the second of the two-game, total goals series when officials sent the teams to the dressing room in the 60th minutes -- the second suspension of play on the soggy affair.

"There's a risk to play the game this evening, you're speaking about people, something can happen and then nobody's going to discuss an argument about the rules, you have to respect the rules and I'm following the rules," said Winter, who made a reference to Dutch goalkeeper Erik Jongbloed, who was killed by lightning during a match in 1984.

"I know it is not nice for Vancouver at the moment. But the pitch was unplayable and also with the lightning, I think this was the best choice."

After the teams played to a 1-1 draw in last week's opener, the Whitecaps took control of the series in the 17th minute Wednesday when Eric Hassli fired a low, hard left-footed strike that took a wild deflection off the foot of Julian de Guzman and sailed past TFC 'keeper Stefan Frei into the left corner of Toronto's net.

But the deplorable conditions quickly became the story of the night, as players splashed and slipped around on a soggy BMO Field pitch that was pounded by sideways sheets of rain and strong winds blowing in off Lake Ontario. Shivering fans dashed for the nearest cover when the rain started early in the game, and it never let up. A nearby lightning strike just before halftime forced a 45-minute delay to start the second half.

The water-logged pitch was nearly unplayable in the second half -- one pass back to Frei stopped dead and the 'keeper had to sprint out to boot the ball out of danger. Officials suspended the game again in the 60th minute due to lightning, and the few fans that still remained were instructed to leave the stadium.

Canadian Soccer Association officials were keen to finish the game, since both teams have Major League Soccer games scheduled for Saturday -- Toronto is home to Philadelphia while the Whitecaps host the New York Red Bulls.

But after an hour's delay, the game's four officials met with Winter and Thordarson at centre field when they finally ruled that the field was unplayable. To emphasize his point, one official bent down and cupped a puddle of water in his hands.

The forecast called for 20 to 30 millimetres of rain to fall through the night in the city. Complicating matters, the stadium lights were pre-scheduled to shut off at 11:30 p.m.

The cancellation was bad news for the Whitecaps, whose back line had Toronto's offence bottled up for most of the shortened affair.

"They were very disappointed because they wanted to continue playing, we are leading 1-0 and we still have 30 minutes to go and it was quite obvious we wanted to finish this off," Thordarson said. "We were definitely disappointed."

Toronto's leading scorer Maicon Santos had a decent scoring chance in the 41st minute, but under pressure from Whitecaps defender Jay DeMerit, his shot from the left corner of the 18-yard box sailed wide left.

Toronto's best chance, though, came a minute before the game was called off when Joao Plata connected on a cross from Nick Soolsma that Whitecaps 'keeper Jay Nolly managed to just corral on the goal-line.

The winner of the series will play in the 2011-12 CONCACAF Champions League, from which the winner of that competition will represent the CONCACAF zone in the 2012 FIFA Club World Cup.

Toronto, which is looking for its third Nutrilite Canadian title, had salvaged its draw last week in Vancouver when Santos scored the all-important away goal in the 73rd minute. Hassli scored Vancouver's lone goal in that game as well.

The Canadian champion faces Nicaragua's Real Esteli FC in the preliminary round of 2011-12 CONCACAF Champions League. The first leg will be in Canada July 26-28, while the match in Nicaragua will fall somewhere between Aug. 2 and 4.

The Montreal Impact won the first Nutrilite title in 2008, while Toronto won in 2009 and 2010. Last summer, Toronto made it through the preliminary round in the 2010-11 Champions League to make the group stage, but got no further.

Vancouver has just one win to show for its less-than-sparkling MLS debut. The Whitecaps' only victory in 11 league matches was their 4-2 victory over Toronto in their opener at Empire Field.

[Redcoatsforever]

Same here! At both 12:30 and 1:00 AM EDT (the first two scheduled replays), Sportsnet went directly to UEFA Champions League and EPL programming without explanation, so like you I assumed they had "fornicated" us again. It wasn't until the start of the 1:30 AM EDT broadcast that a message scrolled across saying that the game had been abandoned due to lightning (which now appears to be not completely accurate).

Why the heck didn't they show the 60 minutes that were played? I mean, they already spent the money to broadcast it, anyway! I don't suppose anyone recorded it from the stream or Sportsnet One? I would love to get a recording of this.

Evidently the weather varied quite a bit across the city: in my neighbourhood the intensity and amount of rainfall was very average, and there was just a bit of lightning -- nothing notable at all.

As for all the controversy, well, it's not quite the same thing (the match was not abandoned) and it doesn't make the current situation any better, but in terms of the un/fairness of replaying a match from the start, Uzbekistan vs. Bahrain in 2006 WCQ was way worse, and that was a FIFA ruling.

Where was this stated? I can't find anything about it.

Three cheers to Collina! (He later admitted to being a biancoceleste, but I'm okay with that, especially given what happened the previous week. )

It's at 11:00am tomorrow, if the pitch is deemed to be in good enough condition at 9:30am. I really hope that the pitch is okay, and that the game is played in a light drizzle, because that would be so fun to watch. Players sliding all around like it's rugby, so muddy you can't tell whose team it is... excellent way to decide the cup.

Seriously though, it's not being televised, and no-one will tell me if it's going to be streamed again or not...

[Unnamed Trialist]

The fair solution: start over from the minute the game was suspended. A precedent: the Spanish Cup final, 1995, Deportivo de la Coruña-Valencia, rain and hail stop the match around m 80 with it tied 1-1. Restarted at exact minute and precise spot on the pitch 3 days later, Depor's Alfredo scores to get SuperDepor their first trophy. Video here:

The rule, if it really exists, sucks, and the Caps have been screwed over. Against TFC you have to win twice and draw once to win the Cup. And I stayed up last night, watching at 2 AM here, went to bed at half time.

My feeling is that I hope the Caps break a few legs, but I have no doubt the ref will screw us over today and they'll gift it to the inferior team.

Edit: More precedents. A third division match here between Terrassa and Montañesa was suspended m. 77 after a fan tried to attack a linesman, with a penalty called against the locals up 1-0, but down to 9 men. It took over 3 months to restart the game at the penalty, which Montañesa scored. Again, restart at exact spot the match was called off, at the exact minute. Any player already subbed out could not play the restart. All players on the pitch when suspended have to be on for the restart. Players injured could be replaced by others. This went down as "the longest penalty in history", months for the keeper and the taker to think about it. But the same rule was applied, restart at the point the match was called, the fairest solution, following Fifa rules (a friend of mine plays for Montañesa).

http://www.mundodeportivo.com/gen/20110119/54104205283/noticia/hoy-la-continuacion-del-terrassa-montanesa.html

[JamboAl]

I don't normally post about club issues on the Vs board as I feel we are all Canadian supporters of the national teams, and not club teams. But having been at the game last night and unbelievably staying at BMO til almost 10:30, I'll say that even if the referee hadn't delayed things 30 mins, that pitch was dangerous and unplayable. In fact, I saw a few tackles last night that made me cringe and that was cause the ball just died or wouldn't run. It's all hindsight now, but I don't blame the CSA either cause that rainstorm came out of nowhere and it just got heavier with time. If this was Montreal-Toronto, maybe a replay could have been had 2 weeks from now, but the teams probably agreed on a replay on such short notice because of travel/scheduling.

Having said that, do I feel bad that Vancouver was 30+ mins away from the Vs Cup? Nope. That 15 mins in the second half was a lottery and I've never heard of 59 mins constituting a game anywhere (and that Honduras match in Montreal was a friendly). Should it possibly restart with 45 mins to go with VWFC up 1-0? Perhaps, but the rules don't allow for it. So we have what we have. I feel bad for the Vancouver folks who got on a plane and flew to Toronto and get what happened to them; makes my Ottawa journey feel a little less painful.

But at the end of the day, this will only add to the rivalry and legend of our cup competition...and that's good, no?

[Gian-Luca]

Btw I am not questioning that TFC may get an advantage out of all this. Iam just not crazy about the suggestion that that one team is getting screwed by the rulemaker or that rule should changed. What if TFC was leading 2-0 at the time would those those people be holding to same argument.

Yes, I suspect the shoes would be on the other feet in a lot of cases had the situation been reverses (or even still at 0-0 for that matter).

[rdroze]

According the Paul Beirne on Twitter, the game will be replayed Saturday July 2: just three days after Vancouver play their regular MLS game in Toronto.

[mtroads]

From Paul Beirne's Twitter:

"Decision: postponing the match. We will replay on July 2 12:30pm. Tickets will be honoured. Phew!"

Guessing the field isn't looking any better this morning. Wonder what kind of shape it will be in on Saturday for TFC's game against Philly.

[El Hombre]

Yes, I suspect the shoes would be on the other feet in a lot of cases had the situation been reverses (or even still at 0-0 for that matter).

I agree, particularly because TFC played at altitude on the weekend while the Whitecaps had a 3 day vacation.

Seeing as how TFC played last weekend and were put through 60 minutes last night, they should be dog tired and VWFC were only up 1-0. If the game has to be replayed, if I were VWFC I'd want it replayed right away because if you put TFC through another 90 without much rest, there should be no reason why Vancouver shouldn't walk all over them.

[jonovision]

According the Paul Beirne on Twitter, the game will be replayed Saturday July 2: just three days after Vancouver play their regular MLS game in Toronto.

As unfair is this seems, given the situation in the match yesterday when it ended, this is 100x better then playing a full match 12 hours after 2/3rds of a match, on a terrible pitch, and awarding a trophy in front of an empty stadium on a Thursday morning.

[shermanator]

Much better decision! I'm sure Vancouver won't be as happy about it as Toronto though.

[jonovision]

Much better decision! I'm sure Vancouver won't be as happy about it as Toronto though.

True. As other posters have discussed above, even restarting at 0-0 it could be argued that Vancouver might still have the upper hand if the match was replayed today (though less of an advantage than they rightly should have, namely a 1-0 lead). Now teams will be equally rested (probably, I haven't looked at the schedules preceding July 2nd) and Toronto will be able to gather a true home crowd.

Hopefully this gets on TV as a Canadian champion being crowned on Canada Day weekend would be kind of awesome. It's just too bad it happened this way.

[dbailey62]

True. As other posters have discussed above, even restarting at 0-0 it could be argued that Vancouver might still have the upper hand if the match was replayed today (though less of an advantage than they rightly should have, namely a 1-0 lead). Now teams will be equally rested (probably, I haven't looked at the schedules preceding July 2nd) and Toronto will be able to gather a true home crowd.

Hopefully this gets on TV as a Canadian champion being crowned on Canada Day weekend would be kind of awesome. It's just too bad it happened this way.

Vancouver plays Toronto in MLS on Wed., June 29th and will then be able to stay in Toronto until Saturday for the Voyageurs Cup Final so all in all, it will mean two teams that are evenly prepared ... and perhaps with grudges to settle as back to back games often precipitate.

[jpg75]

I'm guessing/hoping this has been cleared by CONCACAF? I thought each country had to have their representative(s) decided by a certain date?

[Lord Bob]

Clearly if conditions were unsafe, postponing to a later date is a good move. July 2 is a great day to pick, too, since it's the Saturday after the Toronto - Vancouver MLS regular season game so both teams will be as equally-fit as can be.

[tmcmurph]

The Whitecaps just need to win the replay and put the controversy to rest.

Having said that, do the rules also say that handballs are now legal in the NCC? Yet another rather blatant handball (that should have resulted in a red card) but no call. Getting rather frustrating to watch.

Yea the officiating .... what else can be said. Even as a Caps fan I thought there was a foul in the box by Vancouver early and the handball was blatant and obvious. The CSA needs to get its act together on the officiating front or give it up. These amateurs who are afraid to call anything in the box and even handballs in the open field? WTF?

As to the rule it needs to be changed. There are lots of examples of games being continued from the point in time it was stopped with the score the same. Here's hoping the Caps win the July 2cd game 1-0 just to get this gong show over with.

Just when you think it can't get any worse...

[hc1]

Just as an FYI, if this were an MLS game, the ruling would have been different: "If a Game is cancelled subsequent to the completion of the first half of play and a Team leads in goals or the score is tied at halftime, the score and all Game statistics will stand as final"

From http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2011/05/26/canadian-championship-second-leg-rescheduled-july-2

[TFCRegina]

Just as an FYI, if this were an MLS game, the ruling would have been different: "If a Game is cancelled subsequent to the completion of the first half of play and a Team leads in goals or the score is tied at halftime, the score and all Game statistics will stand as final"

From http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/2011/05/26/canadian-championship-second-leg-rescheduled-july-2

Yes, but it's not MLS play. It's CONCACAF play, following CONCACAF and FIFA rules on the completion of games.