OT: 2023 Soccer and Vancouver Whitecaps Thread

[Hit the post]

It really does feel that the owners have dropped the ball here and may never recover from it.

Owners didn't drop the ball...they sold it for money & substituted one they found in a garbage bin.

They're all about squeezing whatever money they can from the Whitecaps (it's their own personal 'piggy bank'). For whatever Francesco's faults (and they're a too many to count), you can't say that about him.

 

[SeawaterOnIce]

Ajaccio fans ATTACK eight-year-old with brain cancer

Supporters of French side Ajaccio attacked an eight-year-old boy with brain cancer in the face in shocking scenes on Saturday - as Ajaccio condemned the 'unspeakable acts'.

www.dailymail.co.uk

"

Fans of French club Ajaccio ATTACK an eight-year-old Marseille supporter with brain cancer in disgraceful scenes... with the young boy's shirt ripped off him and BURNT on shameful night"​

 

[Jyrki21]

1. Mandatory mention of Messi coming to MLS

2. VAN and MTL scoreless at halftime in the Voyageurs Cup final. Despite a whole bunch of good scoring chances for the Whitecaps.

And we know what that means with a Vancouver sports team…

 

[Burke's Evil Spirit]

I wish I could bet against Messi ever playing at BC Place.

 

[Jyrki21]

I wish I could bet against Messi ever playing at BC Place.

 

[Jyrki21]

2-0 Caps in the second half after Gauld converts a PK!

 

[Jyrki21]

The Whitecaps pull it off, nearly allowing the tying goal on the final kick of the game… but they pull it off 2-1!

Back to back Voyageurs Cups!

 

[Petey O]

More opportunity to win some more prize money in the CCL and blow it on some has never been from the Colombian 3rd division.

 

[SeawaterOnIce]

Canada beat Panama 2-0 and will face the USA in a Nations League Finals. It is a glorified friendly...but still a good metric to see where this squad is at.

Meanwhile TSN barely covered it aside from a 30 sec blurb after an F1 story. There is no cable outlet showing these matches. You have to get OneSoccer....which is $13 dollars a month for maybe 2 matches a month (both CWNT and CMNT combined).

The CSA is doing f*** all to grow or expand their audience.

 

[4Twenty]

It’s $10 a month for FuboTV. It comes with one soccer. With FuboTV You get EPL, Serie A, Ligue 1, Copa Libertadores etc etc it might be $20 now but still….one soccer also has exclusive rights to Eredivisie.

If you say you’re a soccer fan and don’t have it I don’t know what to say….

It’s a better product than dazn.

The sports networks on cable suck. It’s usually 10 channels with two different programs on all of them.

Blame the cheap networks not the CSA.

 

[MS]

It’s $10 a month for FuboTV. It comes with one soccer. With FuboTV You get EPL, Serie A, Ligue 1, Copa Libertadores etc etc it might be $20 now but still….one soccer also has exclusive rights to Eredivisie.

If you say you’re a soccer fan and don’t have it I don’t know what to say….

It’s a better product than dazn.

The sports networks on cable suck. It’s usually 10 channels with two different programs on all of them.

Blame the cheap networks not the CSA.

If you have a product that's in demand like EPL or UCL then you can sell to the highest bidder and people will follow your product there.

If you have a product that isn't in demand that you want to grow, to me it's a false economy to think that getting a bit more money for a lot less exposure is a good idea.

I have both DAZN and Fubo, for the record. But I'm not paying extra to watch some MNT games.

 

[Frostage]

Canada beat Panama 2-0 and will face the USA in a Nations League Finals. It is a glorified friendly...but still a good metric to see where this squad is at.

Meanwhile TSN barely covered it aside from a 30 sec blurb after an F1 story. There is no cable outlet showing these matches. You have to get OneSoccer....which is $13 dollars a month for maybe 2 matches a month (both CWNT and CMNT combined).

The CSA is doing f*** all to grow or expand their audience.

Agreed.

Also the Mexico vs US game was a testy affair. Quite a few red cards and the game stopped twice for racist chants.

 

[Red]

They were homophobic chants I believe. CONCACAF doesn't actually care about anti-discrimination, they'll do anything to milk the cash cow that is Mexico playing in the US.

Canada/US will be a good final. David and Davies looked in good form against Panama.

I have Fubo, which includes onesoccer so it's been nice to catch these games.

 

[Frostage]

They were homophobic chants I believe. CONCACAF doesn't actually care about anti-discrimination, they'll do anything to milk the cash cow that is Mexico playing in the US.

Canada/US will be a good final. David and Davies looked in good form against Panama.

I have Fubo, which includes onesoccer so it's been nice to catch these games.

Ahh, I only caught the highlights and it said discriminatory chants, which I inferred to be racist. Thanks for that.

 

[SeawaterOnIce]

Canada/US will be a good final. David and Davies looked in good form against Panama.

That finals was a huge stinker and it was against an American team who didn't field their best side due to cards/injuries.

Herdmans lineup selection was crap. This was compounded by awful tactics that brought back flashbacks of the Floro era. A no-posession-longball attack, and a backline that couldn't clear shit or mark anyone near their goal.

I think Herdman is hitting the same wall he did as the manager for the CWNT...motivation and positivety can only bring you so far. You need a manager that can be critical and make adjustments based on poor results.

Also think the CSA has done a piss poor job developing defensive players in the country. Miller, Kennedy and Johnston are very poor football players...

 

[Red]

Johnston was stellar in qualifying and has played very well for Celtic. He's recovering from a bad foot injury. I agree that other than him and Vitoria, we must improve our defenders.

I didn't think the game was that dire. The US was the better team but we weren't completely outmatched. The long ball in the first half and not starting Vitoria were baffling tactics but the team had chances in the second half and our touch was poor and just couldn't finish. The narrow field really killed our strengths as well which is the wide play from the wingbacks.

I think we're competitive but we're also years behind the US who built up its infrastructure in the 2000s and 2010s. We're just now starting to build ours so it makes sense to me that we will have off games: you have to play several of these types of finals. We also lack the depth the US has right now. Not our best game by far but also still lots of promise for the future if the CSA can figure out its funding and spending issues.

 

[Petey O]

Huge, gutsy win on the road vs LAFC. 1st road win since last season. 1st ever road win against LAFC.

Feels good.

 

[Jyrki21]

If they can bottle up that first half… until the very end they were perfect.

 

[SeawaterOnIce]

What on earth????

 

[Just A Bit Outside]

What on earth????

Not surprising. CSA has always been a shit show. Just now more apparent given the recent success of the men and women's teams.

Just f***ing sucks with the WC on the horizon that they can't get their shit together.

 

[SeawaterOnIce]

Not surprising. CSA has always been a shit show. Just now more apparent given the recent success of the men and women's teams.

Just f***ing sucks with the WC on the horizon that they can't get their shit together.

The deal with the Canadian Soccer Business was absolutely horrible. The CSA essentially gave up all sponsorship revenue for peanuts...It was peak corruption with Bontis and the board knowing it would fill the pockets of their buddies and then immediately dipping once most caught onto it.

 

[Hit the post]

The deal with the Canadian Soccer Business was absolutely horrible. The CSA essentially gave up all sponsorship revenue for peanuts...It was peak corruption with Bontis and the board knowing it would fill the pockets of their buddies and then immediately dipping once most caught onto it.

Sounds like great future candidates to work for the Vancouver Whitecaps who's mission statement is to line the pockets of the owners. Anything else isn't even secondary but tertiary.

 

[4Twenty]

It’s funny because a page ago someone was suggesting they take a financial hit to broadcast on Canadian cable.

They would’ve been bankrupt before the World Cup if they did.

 

[SeawaterOnIce]

It’s funny because a page ago someone was suggesting they take a financial hit to broadcast on Canadian cable.

They would’ve been bankrupt before the World Cup if they did.

I hate OneSoccer and prefer the idea of the CanMNT and CanWNT being available on cable TV but it's quite clear Sportsnet and TSN see zero value in European football. Just nil, nada. There is no appetite from TSN or SN to show soccer fixtures across the various leagues.

Rogers/SN is now showing zero soccer after not renewing their agreement with Bundesliga International. SN will be a dedicated hockey network soon which sucks during the summer months. Bell/TSN has a bare bones crew now and is seemingly avoiding showing soccer content during sports segments. You get 1 MLS match up per week and 1 La Liga matchup.

The move to shift content to a dedicate streaming platform was the right one. It just sucks because you cannot tap into the casual viewers anymore. The early 2010's was the golden era. UEFA tournaments, Friendlies , EPL, Champions League, MLS, etc...were available on SN and TSN.

I hate our media oligopoly in Canada.

 

[Red]

Canada draws Guadaloupe with a disappointing performance. Our best players are not at the tournament but still not a good showing at home in Toronto.

Ali Ahmed with his first cap and was the best player for Canada.