Slán go fóill Whitecaps Women

[Vic]

The demise of the Vancouver Whitecaps women was first mentioned by carnifex2005 on CSN:

http://goo.gl/kpZus

The original Vancouver Sun article is:

http://goo.gl/kXQD9

Ms. Lewis can wax and opine as effluviently as she likes, but without providing a positive salve of any kind this sure gives the odour of being the corporate equivalent of "I'm taking my ball and going home."

Understanding the frustration is easy. When you're the Vancouver Whitecaps, winning 3 of 14 and having Victoria take 4 of 5 points from you is like having your teeth extracted. Especially when you spent a lot of money to bring in international and high-calibre players to win the whole thing.

We now have three MLS teams, all of which have received millions in funding from Canadian women (one of which is playing in a billion dollar stadium) who's entire combined commitment to Canadian women is now bodypaint ads. If I was Bal Gosal I would want to have a cup of coffee with Victor Montagliani about licensing terms.

Although it's hard to support the Whitecaps on the move, it's very easy to see where they're coming from and their decision. Even without the pooched season.

Although they brought in some older experienced internationals, the W League is a six week suitcase season for women 18-21. Virtually all the players are in school. As a solution for Canada's women's development problems it's extremely inefficient.

We need programs with off-season's that long. We need stable infrastructure and professionalization, which before anyone knee-jerks on the word, means respect and not money. We need heroes.

Bit of a segue. Please bear with me, it's a great story.

It's New Year's Eve 1970. Bernd Schröder, an employee of a local German energy supplier, discovers a strange piece of paper on the company’s blackboard. It says that a women’s football team will be established on March 3, 1971 (the identify of the person responsible for this paper is never established).

Turbine Potsdam was founded March 3, 1971 with Schröder as their coach. The first match played was a 3-0 win. Schröder concentrated on former track and field athletes who were dropped by their clubs.

In 1979, the first unofficial women’s football championship of the GDR (East Germany) was held - unofficial as women’s football was far from being recognised by the Olympic Games. After failing in 1979 and 1980, the team was unbeaten in the final tournament in 1982 and won their first championship. Each player received 50 East German mark (about 25$) and Schröder was lauded by the communist party.

They won again in 1982 and 1983 and were invited to tournaments in Europe, however never received any of these invitations as they were not allowed to travel either to capitalist or communist countries. They travelled to play a tournament in communist Hungary and a travelling government official turned them in and Schröder was banned from coaching for a year. After his reinstatement they went to play an international tournament in communist Poland and another informer forced them to play just a single friendly against the Poles and on returning the team was banned from ever leaving the country.

In 1989 in the last season before the Berlin Wall fell, Turbine won their sixth and final East German title. The company who supported them fell with the wall and many of the players retired. The following season they were put in the second division of unified Germany and narrowly missed qualification to the women's Bundesliga. The next season they were second division champions but failed in the promotion playoffs. After a few years of financial difficulty they finally earned promotion in 1994.

They lost their first Bundesliga game 11-0 and followed it with loss after loss. After the mid-season break they signed three Russians and miraculously avoided relegation. They were sixth the next year and when the Bundesliga was reformed into a superleague two years later they made it in by the skin of their teeth in a last-ditch playoff.

In their first year in the new Bundesliga their main sponsor went broke and they had to cut back on staff and again were sixth place. Then the soccer equivalent of the fall of the Berlin Wall happened.

On March 12, 1999, the women’s section of the SSV Turbine Potsdam decided to establish a separate club. FFC Turbine Potsdam women's soccer club was founded on April 1, 1999.

They rose to fourth in their first year, tying the champions Frankfurt (who led them 4-0 at half-time) and reaching the Cup semi-final. The following season (2000) they were fourth again and undefeated at home. Their youth team were also national champions that year.

In 2001 they finished in second place. Second the next year as well. In the final game of the season against the three-time defending and European champions Frankfurt, they needed a win to take the title and in the 89th minute in front of 8,000 people scored to take the lead but it was called back for offside.

The next year they won the League and the Cup. Since then they have been German champions in 2004, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. They won the Women's UEFA/Champions League in 2005 and 2010 and were runners-up in 2006 and 2011. Their coach? The same Bernd Schröder who 40 years earlier found a piece of paper on his desk.

End of segue. Now the relevance.

Turbine Potsdam has competed since the Vietnam War and segregated busing. Good years, bad years, average years. They're still here for two reasons. First, because they've had to struggle to get where they are. They built their program from the ground up, invented things as they went along and fought for years to earn promotion and then spent many more just defending against relegation. Second, because they're run by people who are truly committed to women's soccer. Not in a Gordon Gecko what-have-you-done-for-me-lately way, but people who get out of bed inspired and passionate about women's soccer. They weren't financiers checking the ink in the books every quarter - they were leaders who blazed the trail as they went. They've lasted half a century because their heart is pointed north.

I've read a lot about the Whitecaps commitment to women's soccer. I've written a lot of that myself and have more than once referred to them as the Mother Teresa of women's soccer in Canada. Even good programs have identity crises. The compass can waver but there are just too many good people involved to not end up in the right direction and out in front again.

Beyond the small collection of women on our national team, there are serious problems in Canada in providing opportunities, infrastructure and development for high-performance women's programs. We participact hundreds of thousands of young girls into the game. We run fully-committed and expensive elite programs for girls up to 18 coast-to-coast in every city with a soccer field. Then as a country we turn the lights out and look the other way.

Vancouver is home to 2.5 million people. There are almost 20 million people in the Quebec City/Windsor corridor. This is the size of Italy, the width of France, the height of Germany, and the distance they play in Sweden (with half the population). We have ridiculous grassroots participation rates. Yet the only word you hear in women's soccer in Canada is "impossible."

Potsdam is 140 thousand people. Think it wasn't impossible there in 1970?

[CoachRich]

Brilliant!!!

[Trillium]

The demise of the Vancouver Whitecaps women was first mentioned by carnifex2005 on CSN:

http://goo.gl/kpZus

The original Vancouver Sun article is:

http://goo.gl/kXQD9

Ms. Lewis can wax and opine as effluviently as she likes, but without providing a positive salve of any kind this sure gives the odour of being the corporate equivalent of "I'm taking my ball and going home."

Understanding the frustration is easy. When you're the Vancouver Whitecaps, winning 3 of 14 and having Victoria take 4 of 5 points from you is like having your teeth extracted. Especially when you spent a lot of money to bring in international and high-calibre players to win the whole thing.

We now have three MLS teams, all of which have received millions in funding from Canadian women (one of which is playing in a billion dollar stadium) who's entire combined commitment to Canadian women is now bodypaint ads. If I was Bal Gosal I would want to have a cup of coffee with Victor Montagliani about licensing terms.

Although it's hard to support the Whitecaps on the move, it's very easy to see where they're coming from and their decision. Even without the pooched season.

Although they brought in some older experienced internationals, the W League is a six week suitcase season for women 18-21. Virtually all the players are in school. As a solution for Canada's women's development problems it's extremely inefficient.

We need programs with off-season's that long. We need stable infrastructure and professionalization, which before anyone knee-jerks on the word, means respect and not money. We need heroes.

Bit of a segue. Please bear with me, it's a great story.

It's New Year's Eve 1970. Bernd Schröder, an employee of a local German energy supplier, discovers a strange piece of paper on the company’s blackboard. It says that a women’s football team will be established on March 3, 1971 (the identify of the person responsible for this paper is never established).

Turbine Potsdam was founded March 3, 1971 with Schröder as their coach. The first match played was a 3-0 win. Schröder concentrated on former track and field athletes who were dropped by their clubs.

In 1979, the first unofficial women’s football championship of the GDR (East Germany) was held - unofficial as women’s football was far from being recognised by the Olympic Games. After failing in 1979 and 1980, the team was unbeaten in the final tournament in 1982 and won their first championship. Each player received 50 East German mark (about 25$) and Schröder was lauded by the communist party.

They won again in 1982 and 1983 and were invited to tournaments in Europe, however never received any of these invitations as they were not allowed to travel either to capitalist or communist countries. They travelled to play a tournament in communist Hungary and a travelling government official turned them in and Schröder was banned from coaching for a year. After his reinstatement they went to play an international tournament in communist Poland and another informer forced them to play just a single friendly against the Poles and on returning the team was banned from ever leaving the country.

In 1989 in the last season before the Berlin Wall fell, Turbine won their sixth and final East German title. The company who supported them fell with the wall and many of the players retired. The following season they were put in the second division of unified Germany and narrowly missed qualification to the women's Bundesliga. The next season they were second division champions but failed in the promotion playoffs. After a few years of financial difficulty they finally earned promotion in 1994.

They lost their first Bundesliga game 11-0 and followed it with loss after loss. After the mid-season break they signed three Russians and miraculously avoided relegation. They were sixth the next year and when the Bundesliga was reformed into a superleague two years later they made it in by the skin of their teeth in a last-ditch playoff.

In their first year in the new Bundesliga their main sponsor went broke and they had to cut back on staff and again were sixth place. Then the soccer equivalent of the fall of the Berlin Wall happened.

On March 12, 1999, the women’s section of the SSV Turbine Potsdam decided to establish a separate club. FFC Turbine Potsdam women's soccer club was founded on April 1, 1999.

They rose to fourth in their first year, tying the champions Frankfurt (who led them 4-0 at half-time) and reaching the Cup semi-final. The following season (2000) they were fourth again and undefeated at home. Their youth team were also national champions that year.

In 2001 they finished in second place. Second the next year as well. In the final game of the season against the three-time defending and European champions Frankfurt, they needed a win to take the title and in the 89th minute in front of 8,000 people scored to take the lead but it was called back for offside.

The next year they won the League and the Cup. Since then they have been German champions in 2004, 2006, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012. They won the Women's UEFA/Champions League in 2005 and 2010 and were runners-up in 2006 and 2011. Their coach? The same Bernd Schröder who 40 years earlier found a piece of paper on his desk.

End of segue. Now the relevance.

Turbine Potsdam has competed since the Vietnam War and segregated busing. Good years, bad years, average years. They're still here for two reasons. First, because they've had to struggle to get where they are. They built their program from the ground up, invented things as they went along and fought for years to earn promotion and then spent many more just defending against relegation. Second, because they're run by people who are truly committed to women's soccer. Not in a Gordon Gecko what-have-you-done-for-me-lately way, but people who get out of bed inspired and passionate about women's soccer. They weren't financiers checking the ink in the books every quarter - they were leaders who blazed the trail as they went. They've lasted half a century because their heart is pointed north.

I've read a lot about the Whitecaps commitment to women's soccer. I've written a lot of that myself and have more than once referred to them as the Mother Teresa of women's soccer in Canada. Even good programs have identity crises. The compass can waver but there are just too many good people involved to not end up in the right direction and out in front again.

Beyond the small collection of women on our national team, there are serious problems in Canada in providing opportunities, infrastructure and development for high-performance women's programs. We participact hundreds of thousands of young girls into the game. We run fully-committed and expensive elite programs for girls up to 18 coast-to-coast in every city with a soccer field. Then as a country we turn the lights out and look the other way.

Vancouver is home to 2.5 million people. There are almost 20 million people in the Quebec City/Windsor corridor. This is the size of Italy, the width of France, the height of Germany, and the distance they play in Sweden (with half the population). We have ridiculous grassroots participation rates. Yet the only word you hear in women's soccer in Canada is "impossible."

Potsdam is 140 thousand people. Think it wasn't impossible there in 1970?

Your trying to compare socialist committment to Canadian we need results now mentality.

Do you think the OSA and Quebec Federation have the staff who will let a top flight women's league be created under the associations sponsorship with staff who go out and get corporate funding ?

Give your head a shake we will be paying Walter S millions to bring of the 2015 women's world cup and there will be no legacy none, nada not zilch....and the reason why is the CSA is still being run by folks, volunteer and paid who simply are not passionate about the game or if they are its only passion for some over home team.

The revoloution needs to come from women to change the women's game, most women in the game are silent and uninvolved.

Plus ca change....

[Vic]

Germany has been capitalist and democratic for a quarter century. It's hard to believe time flies so quickly but the first Women's World Cup was after unification.

Very, very few of the advances of women's soccer in the world have come from women. They've come from FA's, sport bodies, and gods and heroes among men.