Whitecaps Football Shorts #9

Viva Mouloud Akloul!

Great news coming out of the Whitecaps this morning that fan favourite Mouloud Akloul is now officially the 29th man on the Caps MLS squad.

In the press release, Caps gaffer Teitur Thordarson seemed very pleased to be able to finally add him to the team: “Mouloud has done extremely well to overcome the unfortunate injury he suffered last season and be part of our MLS roster. We know Mouloud has many qualities as a centre back, but his determination to get himself fit again just shows how strong of a character he is. I’m very much looking forward to working with him this season.”

Mouloud isn’t just an tremendous addition to the squad on the pitch but he brings a charisma off it and his community work for the Club has been fantastic.

He’s a joker and a real character and anyone who made the trip to Merlo Field for the playoffs against Portland last season will long remember his hilarious post-game taunting of Timber Joey.

I missed all of his dramatic 17 minutes against St Louis on April 24th last year. Unfortunately I was working till 4pm and by the time I got to the game, he’d scored and been taken off injured.

We’ve often joked on the terraces that Mouloud is the best Caps player we’ve never seen. Well now we’ll all get that chance.

Good luck Mouloud.

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We’re not even three games into the season yet and our players seem to be falling like flies.

Eric Hassli’s sending off last week will greatly impact our striking potency against Kansas City on Saturday, but our back line is also going to take a hit again.

Jay DeMerit’s groin injury whilst playing for the US the other night, is infuriating. These meaningless friendlies, right at the start of the new MLS season, aren’t helpful to anyone.

The less internationals we can end up with on our books the better.

It’s great recognition of their, and the Club’s, efforts but as we’ve harped on about in the blog before, MLS really does need to have a rule in place where games can be called off if more than a certain number of players are away on international duty.

Sadly, this still doesn’t help in the aftermath of all the problems then caused by these games.

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Talking of Jay DeMerit, our interview with one of the Producers/Directors of “Rise and Shine: The Jay DeMerit Story” has proved very popular. Check it out in Tuesday’s blog post now if you haven’t already.

Many of you are really looking forward to seeing the documentary and a couple of you now have the chance thanks to our friends at The Offside.

Click the link above and leave a comment about Jay in their piece about the film. It can be anything from a chant, a story, a tweet or anything else. The best two comments will win a ticket to a private screening of the documentary this coming Monday.

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With the announcement that Manchester United will be coming back to the US West Coast to play Seattle Sounders on July 20th, speculation has been rife as to whether we will see a friendly at Empire this year.

Personally, we hope not. Or if there was to be one, then it will be one that won’t feature the Whitecaps.

I really don’t see the point in cluttering up an already busy schedule (and hopefully an even busier one that we currently think with some Concacaf Champions League games). It serves no purpose apart from making some money.

Fine to have pre and post season friendlies, but our consideration first and foremost should always be the regular season and the Voyaguers Cup.

Of course, if East Fife were to come over for a game then I would obviously be changing my tune!