Time To Show Why We’re Canada’s Team
Tomorrow sees the Caps kick off their 2010 Nutrilite Canadian Championship campaign. A campaign that will hopefully see Vancouver reach the holy grail of the CONCACAF Champions League for the first time.
It really is only fitting after all for Canada’s most successful football side to be rightly seen to be Canada’s team on the international stage.
We certainly have a great shot at it again this year. There’s no point crying any more over last season’s debacle in Montreal. That’s history, we’ll just never forget or forgive.
Canada’s shame come a calling tomorrow and there will be no better way for payback than to pretty much end their chances of success in this year’s tournament before they can even begin.
A poor Toronto side have already dented their hopes in the first game of this year’s campaign with a 2-0 victory at BMO Field last Wednesday. The Impact looked a very poor side and will be missing that man we all hate tomorrow, Roberto Brown – The Falling Down Clown.
Brown’s decision to punch Nick Garcia in the head last week was cowardly at best and it was good to see Montreal respond by banning him indefinitely. The CSA two game ban automatically rules him out for the game tomorrow anyway, but let’s hope we don’t see him back in the Canadian game any time soon. I’m pretty sure he will be though but he’s been a disgrace on many levels for years now.
The Limpact always seem up for playing against Vancouver, not so much Toronto it would surprisingly appear, so we’ll no doubt see them battling away tomorrow. We showed enough in the loss to Portland last week though to convince me that things are starting to click with all the new players and I see a comfortable 2-0 victory tomorrow evening, with Marcus Haber finding his first goal upon his return.
I have to say that these are the games I most look forward to each season at the moment. I’d quite happily forego all the League stuff. For me, this is the real excitement and there’s nothing like a midweek nightime Cup match for atmosphere and thrills in my experience.
There are two slight dampeners on proceedings for the Caps and their fans tomorrow though.
The first, of course, is the fact that the game will clash with the Canucks Game 3 match up with Chicago in the NHL playoffs. How this will affect attendance we don’t know yet. A lot of tickets will have been sold well before the playoff dates were decided. Whether these people choose to come along to the game or stay at home and watch the hockey is anyone’s guess at the moment.
You would hope that if they were interested enough to buy tickets in the first place that they would show up, but we all know how fickle the hockey loving Vancouver public can be at times. At least TFC don’t have to worry about such things. There’s never any May playoff action clashing with the football there.
With a nationwide TV audience, it would be disappointing to see any empty spaces at Swangard tomorrow, but that in itself is the other dampener.
It isn’t really going to be a national TV audience, as the game is only being shown on Sportsnet West. Fine if you have the complete Sportsnet regional package, which according to them most people do, but in reality it sucks for those not able to afford such luxuries and having to make do with their own Pacific station. I mean, who can’t live without their dose of Tampa Bay Rays?
Shame on the station for showing baseball instead. Why bid for the rights then treat the tournament with disrespect. How is the game meant to grow in the country? It’s already up against playoff hockey and now you make it hard for locals to see it.
Nothing will dampen our spirits in the Southside though. We’re looking forward to tomorrow so much already. So remember Southsiders. Sing loud. Sing proud. And show everyone why we are Canada’s team.
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I don't care at all. No, really. However, I do find this curious:
Why is it OK for a Vancouver-based writer to ask for the 'Caps to go out and prove they are “Canada's team,” but if I were to do so with TFC I'd set off a mini Internet riot.
And 1970 isn't that much later than 1967 😉
That's half the fun Duane! I like the banter 🙂
We should all be thinking of our sides as Canada's team.
Hey, guys,
I've been seeing the list of songs in your website,
http://www.vancouversouthsiders.ca/songbook.html,
but there are too many to learn… Which ones are the most popular so I can begin with them?
Also, where is the best place to buy WhiteCaps stuffs, like jerseys and tees?
See you!
Labaki:
Boundary Road is our anthem. The St. Pauli chant and Vancouver Vindaloo are very popular too.
Just listen and follow – the others are easier to join along with than you might expect.
Duane, here's your answer: because a team that's been around since 1987, winning four national championships and another two North American league titles, and still holding the continental record for longest unbeaten streak in team sports… not ot mention the home club of many of our national team stars during our only World Cup appearance… well that just has more sway in my mind as “Canada's team” than a club formed three years ago whose only trophy was gifted to them by a disinterested B squad.
Then again, GoF raises the point in jest… nobody in Vancouver would be so presumptuous to declare the Caps “Canada's team” knowing full well they have rivals in two cities who are strongly supported. That level of arrogance is strictly reserved for the clueless marketing wanks at MLSE who thought that buying TFC ad space in Vancouver newspapers would win them fans.
Did it?
It is not “only being shown on Sportsnet West”, it is also being shown on East. That's one step further national coverage, don't you think?
True. I don't have Sportsnet East in HD on Telus. Only check HD as most other channels I have on Telus are crap quality!
Jeremy: Except that sportsnet West is not part of the standard cable package in BC. We get Sportsnet Pacific.
Sportsnet Eest is the default broadcast for the Prairie provinces. Why they would bother putting this match on for viewers in Red Deer and Moose Jaw is beyond comprehension.
As mentioned by Krammerhead… this has everything to do with extorting viewers into buying expanded cable bundles.