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Pacific FC Launch / 2019 off season thread


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1 hour ago, MM3/MM2/MM said:

Pacific FC draft pick Nick Fussell is playing with the Whitecaps u23 development squad.  Any word on the other two (Thomas Gardner and Zach Verhoven)?

The previous page has a link saying that all three would be joining Pacific for preseason training but Fussell was with the Caps U23 team. Unsure how accurate it is if that is the case, or if whoever wrote the article just put all three draft picks assuming they'd be there. Fussell was in a game with Whitecaps U23 on February 24 as well. So maybe he decided not to go the CPL route?

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  • 2 weeks later...

So I counted and every player from Pacific FC is from BC except for 5 (the foreigners, Marcel De Jong and Issey Nakajima-Farran). It would be cool to see them eventually develop that "Bilbao" philosophy. I do wonder what counts as eligible though. Living in British Columbia a certain time, or just born there?

Anyways shame about Marcel De Jong.

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1 hour ago, LatinInuk said:

So I counted and every player from Pacific FC is from BC except for 5 (the foreigners, Marcel De Jong and Issey Nakajima-Farran). It would be cool to see them eventually develop that "Bilbao" philosophy. I do wonder what counts as eligible though. Living in British Columbia a certain time, or just born there?

Anyways shame about Marcel De Jong.

I would be against making any sort of principle or rule of this. As a general orientation, fine.

The At Bilbao philosophy says "Basque". That means the Basque Country, the area of France called Basque (around Biarritz), and then Navarra. Then anyone from Basque stock living anywhere else. I think if you arrive as a minor you don't qualify.

I personally do not like it, I find the racial criteria unadmirable. For me, it's racist. Why shouldn't someone who is a legit immigrant as an adult be able to play for a team? They have non-Basque coaches as well, so don't apply it there. And to fulfill their model end up poaching the other Basque teams constantly), as if it were their right because they are more Basque than the rest. There is nothing that says the other Basque teams are any less representative of the region than At Bilbao. 

I just think they saw they could do it, there was the talent, so went for it. As the league develops, for sure they'll end up tweaking things, though fall-out from the Whitecaps system will always give them a pool to draw from of guys wanting to stay in BC.

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5 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

I would be against making any sort of principle or rule of this. As a general orientation, fine.

The At Bilbao philosophy says "Basque". That means the Basque Country, the area of France called Basque (around Biarritz), and then Navarra. Then anyone from Basque stock living anywhere else. I think if you arrive as a minor you don't qualify.

I personally do not like it, I find the racial criteria unadmirable. For me, it's racist. Why shouldn't someone who is a legit immigrant as an adult be able to play for a team? They have non-Basque coaches as well, so don't apply it there. And to fulfill their model end up poaching the other Basque teams constantly), as if it were their right because they are more Basque than the rest. There is nothing that says the other Basque teams are any less representative of the region than At Bilbao. 

I just think they saw they could do it, there was the talent, so went for it. As the league develops, for sure they'll end up tweaking things, though fall-out from the Whitecaps system will always give them a pool to draw from of guys wanting to stay in BC.

I believe if you are a young immigrant and come up through the basque soccer system you are considered basque and 
Bilbao-eligible by their standards.

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8 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

I personally do not like it, I find the racial criteria unadmirable. For me, it's racist.

Since when is "British Columbian" a race? That undermines and disrespects anyone who ever fought and died fighting against actual racism.

As for the "BC first" philosophy: I am all in. If this club is not about developing "local" kids then it is about nothing worthwhile.

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On a side note, they played a friendly vs. UVIC today.

 

It is interesting to see who scored. I am assuming that is draft pick Thomas Gardner scoring two. That can't hurt his chances. However, I would like to see more information on the trialist and just general camp info. Definitely an area to improve. It will be interesting to see how the roster fills out. We have 15 signed (14 with De Jong out). All of our draft picks are midfielders I believe. Does anyone have an inside information on the roster?

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11 hours ago, ted said:

Since when is "British Columbian" a race? That undermines and disrespects anyone who ever fought and died fighting against actual racism.

As for the "BC first" philosophy: I am all in. If this club is not about developing "local" kids then it is about nothing worthwhile.

A principle, not a rule. A set of values about developing your own, that is logical and proven to be a positive one in a day of high price transfers and a certain mercenary culture in world football.

But not a rule, not a regulation, never used to reject someone who is better in favour of a someone local who is worse, only because he is local. 

It's a Canadian league in any case, we should be thinking about developing Canadian players. And as for Pacific FC: if they don't sign any of their UBC draft picks, time to take another look at that imo. 

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15 hours ago, Vince193 said:

I believe if you are a young immigrant and come up through the basque soccer system you are considered basque and 
Bilbao-eligible by their standards.

That could be. A Basque poster on this board wrote me to temper my opinion, which is fair enough. Most people in Spain think what At Bilbao does is great, I am an exception. 

I also don't like how so many players on Barça leave Bilbao injured after matches, a historically worrisome tradition considering with the other Basque teams pace and strength does not mean similar consequences.

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