It’s going to be an interesting year for the Vancouver Whitecaps. Despite coming into last season as the defending USL champions, expectations weren’t all that high; the team lost five key players from their championship season and largely went with a youth movement, giving significant playing time to the likes of Marcus Haber, Luca Bellisomo and Randy Edwini-Bonsu. Head coach Teitur Thordarson and many of the players reiterated throughout the year that their main focus was on developing young talent for their MLS debut in 2011 rather than making a strong run at the title.
The team’s developmental efforts progressed well, but curiously enough, they also found a lot of short-term success. They were set to claim last year’s Voyageurs Cup before Montreal rolled over and played dead in a 6-1 loss to Toronto FC, and they did well enough in the regular season to make it into the USL-1 playoffs. Once there, they caught fire, upsetting the first- and second-ranked teams (Portland and Carolina) to make it to the final against Montreal, where they came just short. On the whole, though, it had to be considered a very successful season given the team’s expectations.
The problem with that success, though, is that it may put a lot of pressure on the team this year. The team’s still offering those lines about building for the future, but given that they said that last year, many will be expecting them to win now. That could be difficult. The preseason results aren’t too bad (the win over Real Salt Lake is particularly nice), and this team still has a fair bit of experienced talent, particularly in net with Jay Nolly, on defence with Takashi Hirano and in midfield with Martin Nash. They also have up-and-coming stars like Edwini-Bonsu, Bellisomo and Wes Knight. They suffered major losses up front, though, with young star Marcus Haber leaving for West Bromwich Albion and USL-1 top goalscorer Charles Gbeke heading to China. If Marlon James can stay healthy and Edwini-Bonsu and Dever Orgill can step up their efforts, Vancouver may be able to replace that offensive production and find similar success to last season. If that doesn’t happen, this year may be far more about building for the future than competing in the present.
There’s been a lot of change off the field as well. In a move that has implications for the profile of North American soccer as a whole, the team has brought in former Tottenham Hotspur executive director Paul Barber as their new CEO. They’ve also added former DC United head coach Tom Soehn as director of soccer operations and former Canadian star Colin Miller as an assistant coach and interim head of the residency (youth) programs. On the player side, it’s not all about homegrown talent; they’ve added two guys who played in MLS last year, DC United’s Greg Janicki and FC Dallas’ Blake Wagner, as well as several players from other USL teams, including defenders Nelson Akwari and Zourab Tsiskaridze and midfielders Jonny Steele, Chris Williams, and Ricardo Sanchez. Moreover, they’re playing in a new league, the awkwardly-named USSF Division II (comprised of the USL and the breakaway NASL), but for all intents and purposes, the regular season schedule is going to be pretty similar to what USL-1 looked like last year.
The Voyageurs Cup may carry more importance for the Whitecaps than the USSF title, though. For one thing, its shorter tournament format makes it easier for a team like the Whitecaps to win. On paper, they don’t have the talent of an MLS side like Toronto FC, but that talent differential is minimized when you play less games; these kind of tournaments are prone to upsets, as Montreal proved in 2008 and Vancouver nearly showed last year. That makes the title perhaps more attainable for the Whitecaps, so they may focus on it more than the regular season. Coming so close last year also has to irk the team, and being the only Canadian team who hasn’t yet claimed the Voyageurs Cup is likely another burr under their saddle. Moreover, given that they’re jumping to MLS next year, a Voyageurs Cup would probably mean more to the team and its fans over the long term than a USSF title. The Whitecaps will play hard all year in the regular season, and they might just give some teams a run for their money with a little luck, but I’m expecting them to have a particular focus on this tournament. On paper, they’re likely the underdogs, but they could be very dangerous when cornered.
