Vancouver’s Qwest For The Cup Begins Tomorrow

In the Kingdom of the Blind, the one eyed man is king.

In the Kingdom of the Bland, the Sounders front office are getting their paranoid draconian measures in place for tomorrow’s Cascadia Cup clash and members of Seattle’s ECS are getting hard ons at the thought of how much bigger and better their tifo display will be compared to ours.

That’ll show them pesky Canadians.

It’s amazing what a week travelling up the California and Oregon coasts can do to revive and refresh.

As I sit here in Rockaway Beach, the noise of the waves crashing into the unspoilt sandy Oregonian beach is a good backdrop for writing this pre match preamble. The Salt Lake debacle is almost forgotten. Almost.

My anger and jadedness at the display at Rio Tinto has been replaced by excitement and enthusiasm for the Caps first MLS encounter at Qwest Field tomorrow. I’m so looking forward to the match. The Southsiders and other travelling Vancouver hordes are really up for the game.

Let’s just hope the players are.

For if they can’t rise to the occasion of a Cascadia derby clash, where it’s not just points but pride on the line, then frankly they shouldn’t be a Whitecap and I don’t want them at the Club a minute longer.

Going in to the game, I don’t expect too much after watching the last two away games up close and personal. I would probably be very happy with a point tomorrow. Three would just make the perfect ending to a great vacation following the Caps.

What I want to see most of all though is some pride, some passion and total commitment from every single player that takes the field in a Whitecaps jersey tomorrow evening.

There is no place to hide and those that do will not be tolerated. I can accept defeat, not gracefully, but I will accept it, but only if we’ve had a proper go.

For weeks I’ve felt that we just haven’t got the breaks. That we have a great squad but one that just hasn’t quite risen to the occasion yet and when they do, boy, watch us go.

The last two games have made me re-evaluate these thoughts. Do we indeed just have a very below average squad and we’re where we should be? Let’s have the players prove that wrong in the next few games and most of all starting tomorrow.

Those Cascadia MLS followers that are expecting another barnstormer both on and off the pitch, like the recent Timbers visit to Qwest, may be a little disappointed tomorrow.

The ECS will bitch post-game that we’re no match for their tifo displays, are a disgrace to the fan culture blah blah blah.

Here’s the news now guys so you can start your wankfest super early – we will not be anything like the Timbers Army were down at Qwest.

You try getting all your shit into Empire, let alone over the border, in September, then we’ll talk.

It doesn’t help that the ticket allocation for the game have been farcical here in Vancouver. There’s not really too much need to retread old watery ground with this, but when you have tickets allocated willy nilly and families interspersed with Southsiders, it’s not going to make for the best atmosphere we could have generated.

I still have this dread that my seat is going to be surrounded by families telling me not to swear and to sit down. I’ve found very little Southsiders with seats anywhere near me.

The sensible thing would have been to put certain rows and a section aside for those that want to stand and scream and those that don’t. Sensibility and the Vancouver FO don’t make happy bedfellows of course.

We’ll enjoy ourselves anyway and make some noise for the boys, but it has the potential to look like a shit show.

Then we have the paranoid androids in the Seattle FO.

So we all meet up at 5.30, enter via a specific gate, stand around inside the stadium for two hours and then be held back for 30-45 minutes post game. Oh and whilst you’re at it, don’t even think of talking to any Sounders fans whilst you’re there.

I think I’ve been transported to China or at the very best, 1980’s England.

Of course, the Sounders FO have that sword hanging over us of do what we say or you won’t get tickets next year.

To them, I say fuck you.

Most of us will do as you ask, but take away the ticket allocation and you’ll have a bigger problem on your hands next year as we all head down and buy tickets in amongst the Sounders support.

I say most of us because when you have so many of us travelling via trains, planes and automobiles independently, you can’t herd that. Cars will break down. Public transport will be late. Border line ups will be horrendous. You also have a re-sale market where people will have bought tickets and have no idea that they’re meant to be at a certain point at a certain time.

None of this was meant to happen but it is.

For the Club and support that you would almost think invented “supporters culture” in the US, they haven’t got a clue. Such draconian measures only leads to people being pissed off at you, not wanting to work with you.

A final message to those of us travelling to the game. FFS behave. Don’t give these assholes any little thing that they can use to beat us over the head with in the future.

I love the Cascadia Cup. We have a proud history and record in it. The Cup is now bigger scale in MLS. We have a great chance to stake an early lead in the standings but we all need to do our part to make that happen – whether that be on the pitch or in the stands.

C’mon Vancouver. Do us proud.