I will be very interested to see how many butts there are in the seats come kickoff.

krisaug5 said: Late march time = more drinking. I like that for mid week games

I really liked the 8pm start time vs NYRB. I hope to see more of that next season.

Really wonder what not having Mattocks & Richards will mean to our attacking options.

Im thinking harris to replace richards, Miller to replace Mattocks, and Thorrington to replace koffie.

Ive heard that he is ready to go and that he probably will play Wednesday. We will see.

Surprisingly little interest in this game. Big game for us. Dallas are on a mini-tear, and 3pts for us at this point will do wonders for our standing in the Western Conference, and leave us well-positioned heading into the Seattle game.

Brenton said: Surprisingly little interest in this game. Big game for us. Dallas are on a mini-tear, and 3pts for us at this point will do wonders for our standing in the Western Conference, and leave us well-positioned heading into the Seattle game.

It's a huge game and a real test of our depth with some real key players out. Pretty nervous about it to be honest.

They should honour the players during half-time.

Whitecaps NASL Alumni Night as well.

The Whitecaps will be wearing their third kit (the so-called Arbutus Brown) for tomorrow's match

Our darling Valentine's blog has me over the top excited for tonight!

http://www.whitecapsfc.com/blog/two-one/2012/08/14/two-one-just-old-times

Over 70 Whitecaps alums in the house!

Elisant said: So, with O'Brien, Thorrington, Harris, and Miller looking to be likely candidates to start tonight due to International Duty, Injury, Yellow Card Accumulation... who do you think will make up the subs, and which 3 do you think are most likely to get some time on the field?

If I'm doing the math right, we're down to 20 available guys, one of whom is a No.3 keeper. That means only one available player to NOT make the 18. I'd guess that's probably Caleb Clarke.

Given that O'Brien played very well on Saturday but is still a bit of a fitness and readiness question mark, I wouldn't be surprised at all to see Mitchell make the bench just in case. But it would probably be at Alderson's expense rather than Clarke for the reasons fourfourtwo mentions.

the_old_one_two said: Mitchell is away on international duty, no?

I was operating under this impression as well.

Which begs an interesting question. Who is the emergency CB.

Rochat would be primary cover and then would it be Harvey, JMD or Robson?

I would imagine that at some point nano comes on for miller and then camilo or harris would move forward. Would love a big lead to blood the youngsters.

fourfourtwo said: Except we are short on forwards so Clarke would seem obvious for the bench. I also would expect Miller to not play 90 minutes.

When I figure it out though, this is how many player we have available:

Cannon Lee - O'Brien - Bonjour - Rochat JMD - Thor - Robbo Harris Camilo Miller

Bench : Knighton, Harvey, Klazura, Watson,Nanchoff, Alderson, Clarke,

Only Sylvestre would be left off the roster.

I think you're right. I kept getting 19 or 20, was trying to subtract, rather than simply counting who was available.

And I wondered about Clarke filling the forward spot, but Harris and Camillo could both slide into the middle, and Harvey, Nanchoff and Robson could all play one of the wide slots, so I kept Alderson in ahead of him.

cixceven said: CB cover would be Rochat over and Harvey in. If (flying spaghetti monster forbid) Rochat is hurt... well I'll bring my cleats tonight.

Harvey has started a few Reserves matches in the middle. Performed decently I suppose, but nothing I wish to see in a 1st team match.

BianconeroSouthsider said:

fourfourtwo said: Which begs an interesting question. Who is the emergency CB.

Rochat would be primary cover and then would it be Harvey, JMD or Robson?

Rochat is not as strong in the middle as he is on the flank, but he's the best option available to us.

I agree. I was just talking about the hypothetical situations where we would be forced into an emergency beyond just deploying Rochat.

Anyone have insider info on which alumni will be there? Any chance of a Willie Johnston appearance?

Major League Soccer ‏@MLS "I don’t know how they can fit that number of quality players under the salary cap." Schellas Hyndman on @WhitecapsFC

mlssoccer.com/news/article/2012/08/15/short-handed-fc-dallas-wary-loaded-whitecaps

Fynnsky said: Anyone have insider info on which alumni will be there? Any chance of a Willie Johnston appearance?

I don't think they flew guys in; it may just be people who live locally. Not 100% sure though.

Anyone know what time this is happening?

fourfourtwo said: As much as we trash MLS this schedule has worked out because every game we have been playing recently and every game left will be important in one way or another.

I've seen this mentioned a few times, but the devils advocate position is that all these games would be just as important in a single table plus we wouldn't have been able to essentially go "well at least that game against Chicago wasn't that important."

While I'd really like a win, want a win, and think we are a stronger team than Dallas, the last game they played us tough, and we have lots of players out from the 11 and 18. I'd also be somewhat satisfied with a tie although it makes getting into 3rd much harder considering games in hand.

Fynnsky said: Anyone have insider info on which alumni will be there? Any chance of a Willie Johnston appearance?

On the video interview on the VWFC site, Lenarduzzi mentions the first NASL goal scorer for Whitecaps, Neil Ellet. Like most of the 74 team, he was Canadian. He mentioned Andrea Neill and a few 00s players like 'Beef' Alfredo Valente; expect a bunch of players from that vintage and era.

This is great to do. Now the team needs to do it annually, and fly in one big name from 74-84 (like Johnston, or Whymark, etc) every year.