Hi. Remember me? I’m Chris Withers. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
Hi, I’m Chris.
You may remember me as that guy who used to write things on this site from time to time before inexplicably going away for several months!
I’m back now, having dusted off the ol’ keyboard, and I have opinions about the Whitecaps that I will be relaying to you presently.
(Note: Mr Withers is not only a snazzy dresser and the co-founder of PitH — he’s also pretty active as the Director of External Communications of the single largest Whitecaps FC supporter group there is. So much so, in fact, that he appeared on a recent episode of From the Backline podcast to discuss the Southside experience.)Continue reading Whitecaps Preseason Roundup→
The Whitecaps’ offseason of upheaval continues amid reports the club’s MVP, Camilo, is leaving for greener pastures and paycheques in Mexico. The only problem is, according to the Whitecaps, this isn’t even a possibility considering the Brazilian is still under contract with the team through 2014.
Vancouver Whitecaps FC forward Camilo is the ultimate love-him-or-hate-him kind of player. Whichever side of the fence you’re on, you can’t deny the game is more interesting with him on the pitch. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the head.
Adolfo Rios, chairman of Querétaro FC, contradicted this assertion on January 2nd, telling a website that Camilo’s reps at FootballBrazil had informed him the reigning MLS Golden Boot winner was a free agent.
Camilo scored the MLS goal of the year on a spectacular side scissor kick on October 9, 2013. Now rumours swirl of his impending exit from Vancouver Whitecaps FC. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
Ugh. I typed that headline five seconds ago and now I hate myself. NO. The answer is no. Probably no. Ok, the answer might be no, and I would almost certainly say definitely no if we hadn’t been burned before by the Whitecaps. There. You will find no buried ledes here.
As one would expect concerning the MLS Golden Boot winner, rumours have been swirling recently regarding the impending transfer of Camilo Sanvezzo to various locales. Look, up in the sky, it’s a transfer offer from Rosenborg, it’s a transfer offer from Tigres… NO! IT’S A TRANSFER OFFER FROM QUERÉTARO! Continue reading Is O Magico’s next act a disappearing one?→
It’s official — Carl Robinson has received the bump from Assistant Coach to Head Coach of the Vancouver Whitecaps Football Club. Photo courtesy of Whitecaps FC.
This morning, Vancouver Whitecaps FC ended a protracted search for a new manager and settled on Carl Robinson as the 15th head coach in club history. Well-liked by his players, the former assistant coach under Martin Rennie brings a wealth of experience at both the highest levels of English soccer, having played in the Premier League for both Portsmouth and Sunderland, and the lowest levels of Canadian soccer, having spent several years at TFC.
A young Caps fan celebrates amid the smoke after Vancouver drew level in the first half of Saturday’s U-18 tilt. Photo by Chris Withers.
In their last home games of 2013, the Vancouver Whitecaps Residency sides took to the pitch at Coquitlam’s Percy Perry Stadium on Saturday in front of perhaps 200 spectators, and handed the visiting Portland Timbers a pair of losses. The U-18 squad overcame an early blunder to win 3-2, while the U-16’s rode a pair of Dario Zanatta goals to a 2-0 victory.
It was an inauspicious start for Vancouver, and especially goalkeeper Nolan Wirth. Early in the first half, a Timbers attack died when a foul was assessed to one of their forwards. Wirth shooed his teammates away, opting to take the free kick himself from just outside his own 18-yard box. Instead of clearing the ball up the field, however, he tried to kick the ball across the field to left back Sam Adekugbe. The cross was easily picked off by the Timbers player – who must have blended into the turf, or something – and he had acres and hours to roll the ball in for a 1-0 Portland lead. Continue reading Whitecaps Residency Continues Cascadian Dominance→
When Whitecaps striker Darren Mattocks plays at his best, he has some of the fastest feet in Major League Soccer. Less than 48 hours after landing in Jamaica for the off-season, he ran off his mouth on a television program called Soccer GPS, blaming Martin Rennie for both his own lacklustre play this season and the team’s failure to make the playoffs.
Forward Darren Mattocks was one of the few Whitecaps to resort to blatant simulation on the pitch this season. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
“When Darren lead [sic] the team as a rookie, Vancouver was in the playoffs, right?” Yes, Mattocks referred to himself in the third person throughout the interview. It gets better. “In my second season, the coach have me on the bench the majority of the season. We couldn’t agree. The player who lead the MLS in scoring played for Vancouver, couldn’t put them in the playoffs. So you read between the lines.”
Let’s not forget, last Christmas Mattocks predicted it would be him, not Camilo, who would score 20 goals this season.
There has been a lot of banter over the last few weeks regarding Martin Rennie and his uncertain future here in Vancouver. I thought I’d weigh in with my thoughts on the situation and why Martin Rennie should stay, for now.
He was widely regarded as a saviour for the club when it was revealed he would be taking over for Tom Soehn to start the 2012 campaign. His signing was seen as a coup for Bob Lenarduzzi and the front office – bringing in a young, highly regarded coach to grow with the expansion MLS franchise.
Once the players are on the pitch, Whitecaps FC bench boss Martin Rennie can only stand at the sidelines and watch his MLS future unfold, just like the rest of us. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
If it seems the Whitecaps have been playing must-win games for pretty much the entire 2013 season, it’s only because it’s true. The MLS Western Conference is, to quote Roger Waters, as tight as a funeral drum. Sadly for Vancouver soccer fans, that’s exactly what the Southsiders might as well be beating after the club has taken just six points out of a possible 24 since mid-August.
Sunday’s 2-2 draw with the Portland Timbers offered wonderful entertainment — not least of which was Camilo’s world-class scissor kick strike in the 78th minute to draw the homeside even — but leaves Vancouver six points below the playoff bar with just three games remaining in the regular season.
Camilo scored on a spectacular side scissor kick to pull Vancouver Whitecaps FC even with the Portland Timbers in MLS action October 9, 2013. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
Somehow we managed to get on the list — although Chris’s game report today may put that status in jeopardy for next year. Soccer poet Russell Arbuthnot and Yours Truly donned the blue and white to represent the mighty Pucked in the Head, both playing on a squad led by former Team Canada captain Jason Devos. We didn’t do too badly, either. Russell scored a couple of highlight goals, while I made weekend warriors look like a goaltending god on four separate occasions. (Sure, I’d like to have tiptoed around a couple of defenders and slotted a cheeky left footer under Peter Schad’s outstretched arm, but I’m mostly just happy my recent spate of exercise kept me from having to spend the afternoon wheezing and retching. It’s amazing what eight weeks of training will do for a body.)
Highlights? In the first of three games, I put a 25-yard cross onto the head of our team captain just a few feet from the goal line — may I remind you that this is the same Jason Devos who scored the game-winner to secure Canada’s only Gold Cup crown in men’s soccer history? — but the big man got submarined by some morning newspaper hack, and wasn’t able to put the ball in the back of the net.
I did score once, on a beautiful give-and-go with Whitecaps staffer Ann Nikitiuk. She gave me the ball pretty much on the goal line, so there was no chance to mess it up. Still, I’ll take it and fill out my top three moments with the time I put the ball through Martin Rennie’s legs to go round the bench boss on my way up the right flank in game #2.
But oh yeah, the Whitecaps.
One week after a convincing 3-nil road win in Montreal, the Whitecaps were looking to carry some good karma forward; the mood at BC Place Friday suggested they were doing just that. Rarely have sports media in a city been so unanimously positive as they were this day, as everyone taking part had a flipping blast. Team Sulkowski won the trophy with an undefeated record, while we on Team Devos brought home a hardfought 1-1-1 record.
For duffers like me, it was gut check time during the first annual Whitecaps Media Challenge on Friday afternoon.
Unfortunately, the positive juju didn’t last, as the club was unable to muster much against a squad of Real Salt Lake reserves. The 1-nil loss Saturday afternoon was just their third home loss of the year, but it all but guarantees Vancouver will be on the outside looking in come playoff time.
To make matters worse, during the loss, TSN ran a clip of me looking desperately out of position as a right defensive back — and that yellow pinny during game time doesn’t let me hide what’s left of my gut. I swear, I’ve lost 10 kilos and it’s still a work in progress! Jeez, you people are harsh.
Long-suffering Southsider Duncan Nicol has gone a loooooong time — and even longer road trips — without seeing a Whitecaps FC away win. Photograph by: Jenelle Schneider, PNG , The Province
It’s Saturday morning, and Norwich City is being so drastically outplayed by Tottenham that I just can’t bear to watch anymore. I haven’t seen something get hammered this efficiently on Canadian television since This Old House went off the air. It’s so bad that I would rather do math problems. In Friday’s edition of The Province newspaper, Whitecaps beat writer Marc Weber did a fantastic piece chronicling the misfortunes of one Duncan Nicol. Duncan, a passionate Caps fan who can often be found pitch-side with his camera at home games, has been to an incredible TWENTY away matches for Whitecaps FC. To date, he has not seen a win. The title of the piece was “The Unluckiest Fan.” This got me thinking: how unlucky is Duncan? Anyone who watches Vancouver with regularity knows that they are shit on the road. And not just any shit, we’re talking about the kind of intense coiler that Sigi Schmid drops pre-game after his 37th pie.
