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Vancouver Whitecaps - 2023 Season Thread


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Listening to AFTN's Extra podcast.  Schuster on it saying they're just over 9k season tickets this year.  He referenced having about 1000 new season tickets holders and making up for those they've lost recently.  I'm unsure if he meant those they lost after last season (the natural season ticket holder turnover) or it's also making up for the loses during the scandal/COVID years.  Still, it does sound like the numbers have improved over last year at least.

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2 hours ago, footballfreak said:

Your argument would hold a lot more water if you had named even one of these mystery Canadians sitting on the sidelines somewhere that deserve to be MLS starters but aren’t. The Whitecaps main starter needs in the offseason were: GK, ST, LCB. Who were the Canadians available in those positions? 

Not sure where the Whitecaps hate is coming from. They signed multiple Canadian homegrowns to senior contracts in the offseason, drafted two Canadians, brought CanPL players into WFC2, gave a home to Montreal castoff Karifa Yao. What more do you want exactly? Be specific. Who are the players that the Whitecaps have let slip through the cracks?

Like I said, I've had this argument many times before.  Most notably with TFC fans in 2015/2016ish and then lo and behold look at Mark Anthony Kaye starting for LAFC in a few years.  I'm sure similar stories will pop up in a year or two in terms of VWFC.

For everything you say VWFC has done, the two other Canadian MLS teams have done as much or more.  So I should applaud them for doing the bare minimum?

Also, there's no hate here.  Just calling a spade a spade.  I would, and have, done the same with the two other Canadian MLS teams.

My bet for 2023: a US based MLS team will give more minutes to Canadians than VWFC.

Edited by El Hombre
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51 minutes ago, footballfreak said:

Speaking of that World Cup run, here are the players from that list that spent time with the Whitecaps over those ten years you speak of: Davies, Adekugbe, Crépeau, Henry, Cavallini, Cornelius, Gutierrez. By my reckoning, that’s 1.5 starters, 4.5 second string guys, and 1 fringe player.

If you want to add fringe guys who didn’t make any appearances but were reasonably high in the player pool, you can throw in another four in - Teibert, Raposo, Baldisimo, and Ricketts. All could have seen WCQ call-ups under the right injury conditions. Given Canada’s positional needs, there is an outside case that a Simon Colyn or Theo Bair were also in that pool, though I concede both would be considered an outside stretch.  

So by my estimation that’s 11 current or former Whitecaps players who were in the 50-60 man WCQ pool. Is that number really so much lower than the other MLS sides when you consider:

  • A substantial portion of our pool, perhaps 30-40%, have never played in MLS. The names that immediately spring to mind from qualifying are David, Ugbo, Corbeanu, Hoilett, Millar, Brym, Wotherspoon, and Kennedy; but without checking I’m sure there are plenty more in the extended pool.
  • Another cohort spent time in MLS, but have never played for a Canadian team (Tajon, Tesho, St. Clair, etc)

You’re left with something like 30-40 players in the 60 man pool that spent time with a Canadian MLS side at all. Without counting, I’m guessing it’s closer to 30 than to 40.

You're doing a lot of work justifying your fandom of this team.  Hope you enjoy this season.  Let me know how it goes, I most likely won't be watching.

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3 minutes ago, El Hombre said:

You're doing a lot of work justifying your fandom of this team.  Hope you enjoy this season.  Let me know how it goes, I most likely won't be watching.

Nice cop out. Be sure to let the front office know which Canadians they should hire to fulfill your arbitrary quotas. Maybe they’ll hire you to scout for them.

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18 minutes ago, El Hombre said:

My bet for 2023: a US based MLS team will give more minutes to Canadians than VWFC.

I'm not 100% sure I buy this, but if it happens it's because of two players: Crepeau (who the Whitecaps wanted to keep but wanted out) and St Clair (who the Whitecaps tried to acquire last year and the Minnesota wouldn't sell).  Is there another scenario I'm missing?  I think you're underrating how much the Canadians are likely to play on this Whitecaps roster, even if they aren't Day 1 starters.  Yao is about 3rd on the natural centerbacks spot (but admittedly it depends how they use a few of them).  Ahmed will get playing time because Martins can't stay healthy and isn't that much better than him anyway.  The coaches love Raposo and Teibert, so you know they're getting minutes.   Goal is still being sorted out for the backup spot, but whoever it is is likely to get minutes (and will be Canadian).

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13 minutes ago, RS said:

The Whitecaps are projected to have zero Canadian starters tonight. 

Hopefully the subs bench can provide some heavy CanCon.

Likely to see Teibert if we’re winning, Raposo if we’re losing.

Ahmed and Gutierrez are question marks as to where they sit on the depth chart right now. Decent chance one of them sees time tonight, but I don’t know which one. Ahmed supposedly looked good in pre-season, but there’s a bit of a logjam at LB. He may find more joy covering Schöpf at the left 8 position.

Dajome’s pre-season form up top kills any possibility of seeing Habibullah or Johnson.

Yao will see time at some point, but not tonight.

Edited by footballfreak
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3 minutes ago, footballfreak said:

Likely to see Teibert if we’re winning, Raposo if we’re losing.

Ahmed and Gutierrez are question marks as to where they sit on the depth chart right now. Decent chance one of them sees time tonight, but I don’t know which one. Ahmed supposedly looked good in pre-season, but there’s a bit of a logjam at LB. He may find more joy covering Schöpf at the left 8 position.

Dajome’s pre-season form up top kills any possibility of seeing Habibullah or Johnson.

Yao will see time at some point, but not tonight.

Think Gutierrez is still out injured.  Habibullah's time at Pacific killed his chances of seeing time on VWFC any time soon.

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12 minutes ago, Watchmen said:

Think Gutierrez is still out injured.  Habibullah's time at Pacific killed his chances of seeing time on VWFC any time soon.

Ah, thanks. For some reason I thought he was healthy to start the season. 😕 

Big opportunity for Raposo then. Martins is made of glass. Won’t be long until someone needs to step in.

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They can't score, but at least they also can't seem to defend after the 60th minute.

Honestly, I'm enjoying the trio of Schopf-Cubas-Gressel.  It's done some good work controlling the middle of the field, something Whitecaps teams of the past have very rarely done.

I don't know why Vanni still hasn't started his best defenders.  It's Martins(or Ahmed)-Veselinovic-Laborda-Blackmon.  Enough of Brown.  I don't hate him but he's the back up.  And Martins hasn't done anything to earn a starting spot next week.  Post game show said they expected Raposo to start ahead of Martins next game (and maybe next week), just to shake things up if nothing else.

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Could someone re-direct me to a link (either posted earlier here or elsewhere) which says how many and which Whitecaps' games are on TSN this season? Ditto Montreal and TFC?

The Dallas game next weekend is blacked out to non-Apple subscribers.

@Shway I tried that circumventing link you used for last night's TFC-Atlanta game but all I got was a malware threat.

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