Coaches Talk Up Rivalries At Cascadia Summit

The second forum at this afternoon’s Cascadia Summit involved the coaches of the three clubs and Teitur Thordarson, Sigi Schmid and John Spencer provided an entertaining, if not too revealing, 40 minute session.

Arlo White again chaired proceedings and each coach was given time to share their thoughts on a number of issues.

What soon became evident from the whole session was how interesting all three coaches are to listen to and their knowledge and passion for the game clearly comes across.

The strengths of each team was one of the first talking points. Asked which player has surprised him most from the pre-season training, Teitur was quick to name Omar Salgado. The kid certainly seems to be highly thought of from the coaching staff but there is still no word whether he will be able to kick a ball in anger before the New York game in September.

John Spencer was posed the same question and immediately named AFTN villain Darlington Nagbe. Portland’s first draft choice already seems to be beyond the expectations of the Scot.

Talk soon turned to the Cascadia rivalries.

Teitur was asked which games meant more to the Whitecaps, the Cascadia derbies or the Canadian one with TFC.

Every game is important, he acknowledged, but seemed to feel that the Canadian one “may be bigger”. Let’s get him set straight on that one right now! The Toronto games mean nowhere near as much to many of us as the Cascadia ones do. Voyaguers Cup games are different, but in the League it’s Portland and Seattle match ups all the way.

Sigi Schmid pointed out that the rivalry also extends to the coaches but they’re “not allowed to kick each other” so the talking has to be done on the pitch!

The Seattle coach continued that he was “Looking forward to each and every one of these (Cascadia) games because it’s going to be special for soccer in this country”

And that’s certainly something that fans of all three Cascadia clubs can agree on.

We captured some video footage of the session, but apologies in advance for the horrendous sound. Between the acoustics, planes and trains, it wasn’t great!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X1MXSE1yTTg&w=500&h=405]