OT: 2024 Soccer and Vancouver Whitecaps Thread

[Just A Bit Outside]

Whitecaps should have been more on the ball with this one. Call Miami up once the schedule was released.
Bad look to promote Messi and he doesn’t even come and they priced this game higher from all accounts.

Substantially higher.

They made a killing.

Now you have 50k+ pissed off fans.

Atmosphere is going to be brutal.

 

[carjackmalone]

In Hondsight the Whitecaps and FIFA missed out on chance to do a dry run in terms of installing the temporary blocks of real Grass,which they are doing for WC2026. A missed opportunity logistically to iron out any kinks and see where they can confidently get it right

The World Cup is a big stage,they cant have any technical human errors which would reflect badly on Vancouver

 

[tradervik]

In Hondsight the Whitecaps and FIFA missed out on chance to do a dry run in terms of installing the temporary blocks of real Grass,which they are doing for WC2026. A missed opportunity logistically to iron out any kinks and see where they can confidently get it right

The World Cup is a big stage,they cant have any technical human errors which would reflect badly on Vancouver

I doubt Messi would be playing even if they had natural turf.

 

[StreetHawk]

I doubt Messi would be playing even if they had natural turf.

It’s a 10 hour or so round trip for just 1 game on the west coast then back to Miami. Think that’s the big reason their guys are staying home. MLS has to schedule better. They can’t play every other day but road trips if over 2 hours in flight time should be 2 games. I looked at Miami’s schedule and they didn’t have either sea or pot in 2023 or 2024.

 

[SeawaterOnIce]

https://x.com/i/web/status/1794166251067220204

 

[DFAC]

Soccer players are so soft and spoiled. Only care about the $$$. Gotta feel bad for the people who shelled out for these tickets. Brutal.

 

[StreetHawk]

Soccer players are so soft and spoiled. Only care about the $$$. Gotta feel bad for the people who shelled out for these tickets. Brutal.

Let's also be realistic in that the top Euro leagues, those countries are the size of only a couple of states in the USA or about the size of Ontario. They really don't spend more than 2 hours on a plane for a trip.

This is a 5 plus round each way flight and they have a home game on Wednesday and Saturday. Going to spend all day Sunday getting back to Miami and adjusting back to the 3 hour time zone difference. So, that would be 3 games in 8 days. With the longest possible travel between 2 teams that you can have sandwiched in the middle of that. WTF MLS schedule maker?

I'd blame the schedule maker. Miami did a 1 game trip to LA Galaxy on Feb 25. Next home game was March 2. So, 5 full days off between games.

 

[Javaman]

Silver lining... does the lack of Messi, Suarez, and Busquets mean the Caps have a chance of winning this game?

 

[Hit the post]

Whitecaps should have been more on the ball with this one. Call Miami up once the schedule was released.
Bad look to promote Messi and he doesn’t even come and they priced this game higher from all accounts.

Soccer is an odd schedule. Not quite weekly like football but not as frequent as nhl/nba. Need 3 full days off minimum before you can play again so like 3 games over 2 weeks is the standard.

So you don’t end up with 3/4 game road trips. Maybe 2 games at most since the hotel costs run up and the team needs to practice as well.

Caps ownership don't care so as long as they can line their pockets. Aren't the owners the same back when they "sold" Davies for a HUGE amount of transfer fees (pretty much keeping a good chunk of that for themselves rather than put that money back into the organization in the form of players to replace that talent dealt away?).

At least Fredo Aquaman isn't that cheap.

 

[SeawaterOnIce]

Caps ownership don't care so as long as they can line their pockets. Aren't the owners the same back when they "sold" Davies for a HUGE amount of transfer fees (pretty much keeping a good chunk of that for themselves rather than put that money back into the organization in the form of players to replace that talent dealt away?).

The commissioner called them out for not spending the money so the Whitecaps found a loophole where they could "reinvest" the money into the academy which essentially allowed the owners to bag most of the money anyways.

They have been spending more on players in recent years but have cheaped out when it comes to the front office.

 

[Just A Bit Outside]

Silver lining... does the lack of Messi, Suarez, and Busquets mean the Caps have a chance of winning this game?

No.

 

[Hit the post]

They have been spending more on players in recent years but have cheaped out when it comes to the front office.

The Jim Benning era.

I can understand if ownerships is just a small "mom & pop" operation but they (Caps ownership) probably have around the same amount of $$$'s as the Aquamen?

 

[SeawaterOnIce]

No.

Honestly...they didn't even need them.

This team looks hopeless right now.

 

[Petey O]

Honestly...they didn't even need them.

This team looks hopeless right now.

Yeah Miami has a really nice team even without their big 3/4.

 

[SeawaterOnIce]

Yeah Miami has a really nice team even without their big 3/4.

Alba to Taylor...what a goal.

Whitecaps look like a CPL side against these teams.

 

[Petey O]

Alba to Taylor...what a goal.

Whitecaps look like a CPL side against these teams.

Honestly, the salary discrepancy is just too much for a pretty cheap team like the Whitecaps to overcome.

They're pretty much forced into trying to be "Ajax Canada" and developing/selling on for as much as they can.

Not really a brand of soccer a lot of Vancouverites are going to bother with.

 

[Red]

JT Miller with the biggest cheer so far tonight lol.

 

[SeawaterOnIce]

Aahahahahahaha

 

[Just A Bit Outside]

Since Messi, Suarez and Busquets didn’t show, the Caps figured they’d do the same.

 

[SeawaterOnIce]

Just the worst case scenario for the Whitecaps brand. They market this game around Messi and co. The headliners pull out of the game due to travel...51k people still show up and your team aside from 3 players look like total crap and lose.

Glad the owners will rake in the dough this season but the crap product and inability to attract top stars will once again cause many to tune out.

For the Whitecaps. Fafa, Ahmed and Gauld are your MLS talents. Unfortunately they are surrounded by medicore players. This is compounded by the bargain bin manager who is clearly way in over his head.

It's been 7-8 years since we had a decent team that could compete against other good MLS teams. There is zero reason to invest in this shit right now.

 

[604]

Didn’t the Caps also lose to a CSL team prior to this game?

What a terrible product.

 

[Jyrki21]

I hate being the guy to always "defend" the club in this thread, but a lot of misinformation as usual.

Aren't the owners the same back when they "sold" Davies for a HUGE amount of transfer fees (pretty much keeping a good chunk of that for themselves rather than put that money back into the organization in the form of players to replace that talent dealt away?).

No, they made $13M which was an MLS record at the time, but it has since been surpassed repeatedly and was a drop in the ocean by world soccer standards . They also have a sell-on clause which means they will get more money if Davies is transferred to Real Madrid, which will be nice.

They absolutely spent this money – on guys like Lucas Cavallini and Caio Alexandre. I am going to "tap the sign" on this below, but MLS is like the 15th league in the world – it does not attract big names as a matter of course, and most MLS teams are not signing guys you've heard of except the small handful of league darlings.

Vancouver is no exception there, and to expect differently is fantasyland. What we should want/expect the Whitecaps to be is the Seattle Sounders (whose guys you have also not heard of, they just play much better), not LAFC.

Since Messi, Suarez and Busquets didn’t show, the Caps figured they’d do the same.

Vancouver actually was the better team by all the statistical categories except shots-on-target. Whether score effects or not, it still happened (and suggests they deserved a better fate). Their xG was almost 3 and Miami's was under one.

OK, now I am going to tap the sign again, because I don't think the folks here understand that Vancouver can't just choose to operate like Manchester City and randomly sign big stars whenever they want (in part because of the MLS CBA, and in part because of the below). Vancouver is not a destination in world soccer:

The Caps will always be lower-middle-class in MLS, which is a league where -- despite anything you'll read here -- about 3/4 of the teams are in the mushy middle. As I summed it up in the last thread:

Yeah, the essentialist arguments blaming ownership are lazy at this point. As I constantly point out, the Whitecaps are very much "MLS average", and had quite a good season. They just aren't elite because only a few teams are (and they are in the glitzy markets that foreigners have heard of). They've shelled out quite a bit of money -- the problem is they basically have to go after Canadian players (which is how you get a massive contract for Cavallini for example) because the real problem, and the real reason the Whitecaps will always have a ceiling in MLS is that they play in Western Canada on turf. That is it. They are not getting top international stars as long as that is true, no matter how ambitious the ownership is.

 

[Bubbles]

So I went to the game. Not exactly my choice but that's a whole other story.

Never followed the Caps even though I'm a huge soccer fan that follows European, S. American and of course world football. I'm pretty surprised that there was only 1 Canadian player in the starting 11. And the rest of the team was filled with no one I can recognize even at the international level.

Just anecdotally, I was overhearing a lot of just Messi fans that were their first game at the Whitecaps. Clearly in the "cheap" seats it was mostly newer fans.

Yeah, the Caps offered a free game, but they will never get my money again. They deliberately surge pricing for this game and they should have offered some kind of compensation. Would they charge this much for Real Salt Lake?

 

[StreetHawk]

Yeah, the Caps offered a free game, but they will never get my money again. They deliberately surge pricing for this game and they should have offered some kind of compensation. Would they charge this much for Real Salt Lake?

Caps and MLS messed up big time. Messi only has so many years left in him. He turns 37 in June. Rinaldo is 39 as a comp. Have to make the most of what little time he has left. I looked over Inter Miami's schedule in 2023 and 2024, but didn't see either POR or SEA listed as opponents. With the number of teams in MLS at like 29 and 34 regular season games, this was likely the only time Messi would be scheduled to be in Van and they stick it as a 1 off road team before a stretch 3 games in 8 days.

 

[SeawaterOnIce]

I hate being the guy to always "defend" the club in this thread, but a lot of misinformation as usual.



No, they made $13M which was an MLS record at the time, but it has since been surpassed repeatedly and was a drop in the ocean by world soccer standards . They also have a sell-on clause which means they will get more money if Davies is transferred to Real Madrid, which will be nice.

They absolutely spent this money – on guys like Lucas Cavallini and Caio Alexandre. I am going to "tap the sign" on this below, but MLS is like the 15th league in the world – it does not attract big names as a matter of course, and most MLS teams are not signing guys you've heard of except the small handful of league darlings.

Vancouver is no exception there, and to expect differently is fantasyland. What we should want/expect the Whitecaps to be is the Seattle Sounders (whose guys you have also not heard of, they just play much better), not LAFC.

I can blame the owners in blowing a prime window to contend between 2013-2018. They were f***ing cheap as hell.

Don Garber went behind the scenes and eventually outright told the franchise to spend the Davies money because they ultimately tried allocating the funds towards the academy. They then stupidly blew 7 million dollars on Cavallini.

However year...2020 onwards and we can say this franchise is just never going to win in the MLS due to reasons you outlined. One thing we can definitely spend better on is a quality manager which we have really lacked in our 14 years of existence.