Whitecaps Prepare For Portland Showdown
September 28, 2009 - USL First Division (USL-1)
Vancouver Whitecaps News Release
VANCOUVER, BC - Vancouver Whitecaps FC (11W-10L-9D in the regular season and 1W-0L-1D in the playoffs) continue the defence of their USL First Division championship title when they take on Pacific Northwest rivals and regular season champions Portland Timbers (16W-4L-10D in the regular season) in this week's playoff semifinals.
Teitur Thordarson's side showed their pedigree as a USL-1 playoff outfit by upsetting second-seeded Carolina RailHawks in the first round this past weekend. Randy Edwini-Bonsu's late goal in the first leg proved to be the difference, as the Whitecaps claimed a 0-0 draw in Sunday's second leg to earn a 1-0 aggregate victory. As a result, the Whitecaps have only lost one match in their last 12 USL-1 contests (5W-1L-6D). The Blue and White will host Portland in the first leg at Swangard Stadium on Thursday night before heading to The City of Roses for Sunday afternoon's second leg at PGE Park.
This will be the fourth time in which the Whitecaps and Timbers have met in the postseason. Their first playoff encounter came way back in the 1978 North American Soccer League (NASL) season, with Portland taking the National Conference semifinal series with a 1-0 home win on August 12 and a 2-1 victory in Vancouver on August 16. Steve Kember scored in the home match for the 'Caps. Their next playoff meeting was in the 2002 USL-1 campaign, as the Whitecaps defeated the Timbers 2-0 on aggregate in their Western Conference first round series. Paul Dailly scored Vancouver's goal in the first leg in Portland on September 8 before Steve Kindel had the winner in a 1-0 second-leg win at Swangard on September 11. Their last playoff meeting was in 2007, as the Timbers ended the Whitecaps defence of their 2006 USL-1 championship title with a 3-1 aggregate success in the playoff quarterfinals. Though Jason Jordan struck the winner in a 1-0 first leg home win on September 14, Portland rallied to claim a 3-0 victory at PGE Park on September 16 and advance to the semifinals.
This season, the Timbers claimed silverware by winning the regular season series versus the Whitecaps. Portland won the fan-based Cascadia Cup for the first time in club history after winning two of their three contests against Vancouver. On April 25, captain Martin Nash scored his first goal of the season in a 1-0 victory over the Timbers at Swangard Stadium. The Oregon-based outfit then avenged that defeat with a 2-0 victory at PGE Park on May 30. An early Ryan Pore penalty and a late first-half strike by George Josten brought Vancouver's four-match winning streak versus the Timbers to an end. Portland then claimed the Cascadia Cup with a 1-0 home win over the Whitecaps on August 6. A first-half strike by Pore was the difference between the two sides.
The Whitecaps continue to lead the overall series of results with 31 wins, 21 defeats, and seven draws going back to the 1975 NASL season. This included 10 wins and 11 defeats versus Portland in the NASL between 1975 and 1982. Since the 2001 USL-1 campaign, the Whitecaps have registered 21 wins, 10 defeats, and seven draws against the Timbers. This includes an impressive all-time home record of 15 wins, one defeat, and two draws, with Portland's last USL-1 victory at Swangard coming on May 23, 2004. Thursday's match will be the 60th all-time meeting between the Whitecaps and Timbers.
Thursday's game will also be the Whitecaps 93rd playoff match all-time, with the club's record of 45 wins, 33 defeats, and 14 draws stretching back to the 1976 NASL season. In fact, since the club's first NASL season back in 1974, the Whitecaps have only missed the playoffs on four occasions, with 2009 being the 13th consecutive year that Vancouver have played postseason soccer. The last time the Whitecaps missed the playoffs was during the 1996 American Professional Soccer League campaign.
WHITECAPS
The experience of playoff time and succeeding in the postseason shone through during the first round, as the Whitecaps managed Carolina in a professional manner during the two legs last week. Though the series win was an upset in the form of a seventh seed beating a second seed, Vancouver's resilience to get results at this stage of the season underlined the club's determination to end a challenging year on a high note. "We're not feeling that there is any pressure on us at the moment," Thordarson revealed to whitecapsfc.com. "Nobody expected us to eliminate Carolina after the season they had. The RailHawks had not lost many games at home, and yet, we were able to bring their season to an end by earning two shutouts. Having eliminated a top team like Carolina, we can go into the Portland series with the same attitude as we had last week."
Their seventh-place finish in the USL-1 standings may have the 'Caps tagged as underdogs, but a solid run of results since early August would suggest that Thordarson's side may coming into form at the right time. "If you look at the way we've been playing the last six to seven weeks, we've hardly lost a game and should've had better results than what we earned," he stated. "The first game of this semifinal is at home, so I'm looking forward to that because I feel we have been doing our things very well. Like the Carolina series, we will need to be very good tactically and be disciplined in our performance."
The Whitecaps have been boosted by the news that centre back Chris Pozniak will start training again this week after missing the last three games with a groin problem. Central midfielder Gordon Chin missed Sunday's match in Carolina with a medial collateral ligament (MCL) problem in his knee and remains day-to-day. Defender Geordie Lyall remains sidelined with a pulled abdominal muscle problem, while striker Dever Orgill is out for the rest of the season following a knee operation last month. Midfielders Philippe Davies and Alex Semenets are currently in Beirut, Lebanon, at the VI Francophone Games with Canada's U-20 national team.
USL First Division Stories from September 28, 2009
- Whitecaps Prepare For Portland Showdown - Vancouver Whitecaps
- Timbers, Vancouver Square Off In First Division Semifinal Series - Portland Timbers
- Rhinos Announce Front Office/Coaching Changes - Rochester Rhinos
- USL-1 Semifinals Set - USL-1
- Montreal advances past Charleston Battery - Charleston Battery
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