This is the kind of column you write at the midway point of the season.
This is not the midway point of the season.
But this follows the first long break the Vancouver Whitecaps have had in their inaugural MLS campaign and its back-to-school time. With that in mind, here is the first annual Vancouver Whitecaps Report Card.
In this first of two parts, Ill mark the Whitecaps leadership. Tomorrow, I grade the players.
Paul Barber, CEO: A-
The other night I got a call from a nice young woman from the Whitecaps front office.
She said, "Hi, Geoff. I'm calling from the Whitecaps. How are you?"
I said, "Fine, Whitecaps girl. How are you?"
She didn't answer but went on to thank me for my support. Apparently every Whitecaps season ticket holder got the same call. A classy move from what is proving to be a classy organization.
Well done in bringing in Manchester City and giving season ticket holders free access.
And well done on the social marketing and communications strategy. While the marketing plan and website appears to be a template that every MLS team uses, the regular videos and behind-the-scenes updates keep the team uppermost in the mind of the local soccer fan.
If any of this is the hand of CEO Paul Barber at work, kudos.
Tom Soehn, interm coach: C+
If a coach should be judged on his or her record alone, Soehn doesn't get high marks. He took over from Teitur Thordarson early in the season at a time when the playoffs were still a possibility. But he did little to lead them to that promised land.
He did, however, start putting a more entertaining product on the field.
He benched the hardworking but creatively limited Terry Dunfield, moved the shifty Davide Chiumiento into the middle of the park to help set up Eric Hassli (Hassli is now near the top of the league in scoring and Chiumiento near the top in assists), and he appears to be encouraging his fullbacks to play more like wingers on the attack.
And slotting in Long Tan rather than Omar Salgado in the final minutes of the game against Houston was risky (given Salgado was the Whitecaps' first overall pick, and first overall). But it worked.
So, really, the jury's still out on Soehn as coach, a position he wont retain after this season. Martin Rennie takes over as head coach next year.
Technical Staff: A-
(Bobby Lenarduzzi, President; Tom Soehn, Technical Director; Martin Rennie, soon-to-be coach)
No, that's not a typo. And, no, I'm not high.
Sure, they're bottom of the league. Sure, they're going to miss the playoffs. Ostensibly, that's a fail.
But we all feared the first season could be rough. What's more important is to look at what the organization has done to improve.
Sacking head coach Teitur Thordarson three months into their first season was ballsy... and the right thing to do. Trading hometown boy Terry Dunfield was risky... and the right thing to do.
Dunfield was game and Thordarson adequate, but neither brought any creativity or brilliance to the pitch. Those moves and the waiving of the keen but lacking Wes Knight shows the organization isn't settling for New Jersey Devils-style hockey, even if it wins games.
Plus, acquiring the relatively unknown Hassli as their first designated player was, again, risky but exactly the right move. Rather than bring in an aging star with name-recognition who might sell a few tickets to the uninitiated, the 'Caps spent their money on a quality player who still has something to prove in his career. Sure, the jury's still out on Mustapha Jarju, their second designated player with similarly low name recognition, but the strategy is sound.
It would be nice to see more local talent, but perhaps that will come in time.
Empire Stadium: A-
Held together by wax and wire, the rattling girl is a beautiful thing.
The lineups for beer and, consequently, toilets are awkward at best. The player change rooms are portables. The traffic to and from is cramped (unless you're on your bike, like me).
The turf, artificial. (Amazing quality compared to years ago but still, artificial.).
The setting, stunning. And the sense of history, chilling.
Hearing those seated on the western bleachers chant, "WHITE," and those on the east side answer "CAPS!" brings you right back to the semi-final game in 1979 when the Whitecaps beat the New York Cosmos to advance to the Soccer Bowl final and when Jim McKay called us "the village of Vancouver."
Will B.C. Place curry the same passion? This remains to be seen. Two things against it: history and, ironically, location.
For many of us, the experience of soccer in B.C Place is one of a sterile wasteland where soccer went to die in the '80s. That's its history. As for place, Empire sits squeezed between the Hastings-Sunrise neighbourhood and Burnaby North, both areas have a strong Italian heritage (just ask Bobby Lenarduzzi, who grew up a mile from the stadium). And Hastings-Sunrise is the place where young hipster families are now going to nesta pretty good demographic for a reasonably priced soccer ticket, which is going to be hard to replace.
The B.C. Place renovations, on the other hand, should remove the stench of soccer's premature death from those blue, plastic seats. Let's hope they got rid of that 10-foot wall separating spectators from the action. And sitting at the crossroad between Yaletown, Gastown, and Chinatown, it's easy to imagine the younger crowds taking to the bars and trendy restaurants before and after the game.
But will the young families driving from Coquitlam, New Westminster, Surrey and Burnaby be put off by the price of parking and the lack of family-style options in the land where the women carry dogs in their purses and the men pay $100 for a haircut? Or will this become the arena for the after-work corporate types with free tickets from the company purse (see: Canucks, Vancouver).
Remains to be seen.
Twitter: @GeoffreyD123
After more than 35 years playing soccer with stints at some of the highest levels in the North American game, Vancouverite Geoff DAuria recently discovered it's much easier on his knees to watch the game than play, though he does still play in the Vancouver Metro Soccer League. Hes followed professional soccer in Vancouver for decades.
