Corintians of Caico Head to Canada

translated from Diaro de Natal

more information here.

The Corintians of Caico embarked this morning on the first leg of their first international trip. The team will participate in an international tour featuring local teams in Vancouver and presentations at universities in Canada. In the early afternoon, the group met for lunch in a restaurant in the city of Natal, and then left to the Augusto Severo International Airport to board the plane that led to the city of Sao Paulo. The team will depart at 2200hrs.

At the airport waiting to baord, the players were taking pictures and playing soccer with each other, demonstrating their very anxious mood in this new experience. many of the them are travelling to the outside world for the first time, as is Alison, a player who is native to the city of Arez and is only 19 years old.

Brazilian trip organizer Solomon Batista came to the airport visibily excited to lead the team to Canada. Solomon emphasized that it had been difficult to make the trip and that their passports had only just been handed to him, with the Canadian visas arriving yesterday (Sunday). He said, “We have succeeded in achieving a miracle. We received 22 passports and now we can leave with this team, which took US $57,000 to create. A miracle happened,” said the entrepreneur, with tears in his eyes.

Besides taking the team to another country so that the players gain more visibity, Solomon reveals his intention to bring Canadian athletes to train and learn to play football in Caico. “Our expectations are very high. We know that we are a small team going into a country that is developed and has no tradition of football. Brining players to our state is a project for well into the future.”

The delegation is going through the unusual situation of featuring a player goach, Humberto Cardoso da Silva (Betinho), with the aid of physical trainer Marcio Ferreira. The chairman of AC Corintians of Caico, Gurgel Rogerio da Silva, is also accompanying the team during the trip.

The rest of the team is: dham Eristh Bonaventure Vincent, Alison Medeiros do Nascimento, Diego Aparecido Ferreira Oliveira, Ducivan Nascimento de Souza, Everton Wanderley Cosme dos Santos, Francisco Magno Gondim de Medeiros, France Sandro Francisco da Silva, Hugo Bruno de Azevedo, Humberto Cardoso da Silva, Isaac Keys Adonias, Joao Luiz Tavares, Julio Palmeira de Morais Neto, Kairo Weshley Figueiredo Dantas, Lenilson Estevam dos Santos, Marciel Luiz da Silva, Murilo de Lucena Roberto Santos, Thiago Oliveira da Silva and Marcos Teodoro. Betinho takes over as coach after Betinho the resignation of Reginaldo Souza, who left the command of the team to be candidate for councilman in the city of Paraibana Itaporanga.

For Betinho, acting as player-coach of the team was an unexpected situation, but he does so with the support of physical trainer Marcio Ferreira. “Marcio stays off the field and has a good look at the team and if I have to leave during the game, I can stay out and look at the boys,” said Betinho.

Betinho explains that only 18 players could go on the trip due to financial limitations. “I chose the players who formed the most balanced team,” he said. “If you had four in the same position, I cut some to make the team more balanced.”

The commander of the Corintians showed his belief that this is the first international journey for a football team from the state, which has left many players very anxious. For the player, the expectation is that the team shows the values of the northeast, which means that Canadians will get to see that the team is capable of playing beautiful football and giving good results, returning from Canada with a great experience. “We’re not going to toy around, we’re not going to walk. Our intention is to show that we are a team capable of representing Brazil very well,” says Betinho.

Regarding the difference in climate between Brazil and Caico, Betinho said that the players are taking their own clothes to withstand the cold. He believes the temperature will be well below what the athletes are accustomed to, around 14 degrees. He does not expect this to disturb the Corintians’ play and the team will return with excellent results. The Corintians should arrive on Canadian soil today. The first stop will be the city of Toronto, where the group will follow a flight home to Vancouver.

The Battle Over BMO

by Lucas Teodoro da Silva

The verdict is in from Toronto FC fans: the Canadian Football League (CFL) wants to ruin football. Not the Toronto Argonaut’s version of football, but the version of football that soccer players in Canada and the rest of the world, beyond North America, play.

The Toronto Argonauts polled its fans in August 2008 about the idea of moving the CFL team to BMO Field when the Argonaut’s present contract with the Rogers Centre (formerly SkyDome) expires. Playing at the Rogers Centre since 1989, Argonaut’s team management, in May 2005, signed a series of three five-year leases that would keep the team in the building until 2019. There is an option, however, to terminate the lease at the end of each five-year portion, and the first of the three leases will expire in 2009.

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Despite the reassurance of Argonauts’ CEO Michael “Pinball” Clemens, who insists that the team has “no plan” to move in the foreseeable future, Toronto FC fans are worried that the CFL team is planning to invade onto TFC turf.
Continue reading The Battle Over BMO…

The Web Howes Weaves: How one man works to advocate soccer in BC

By Lucas Teodoro da Silva

For soccer aficionados in British Columbia who need somewhere to turn for the latest in soccer news, the BC Soccer Web (bcsoccerweb.com) is a well-laid out website which has been around since the early days of the web in the mid-1990s.

Soccer enthusiast Martin Rose, who is probably best known for naming Canada’s soccer supporter’s club – “The Voyageurs”, created the BC Soccer Web site in 1996 and ran it until he moved to England in 2005.

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Richard Howes, a volunteer who joined Rose in running the site in the mid-90s, is now the sole proprietor of the venture, with the help of a few collaborators.

Howes, a common fixture at Whitecaps games and local tournaments, always brings his long-lens camera to shoot photos, which he later puts up on his website. He is out at some soccer game almost every weekend, and has been for several years now. Soccer fans in British Columbia will recognize Howes by his white goatee and his fun assortment of hats.

What inspires Richard Howes to do all this work?

“Soccer’s like an addiction to tobacco I suppose. Kind of odd,” he says.

Continue reading The Web Howes Weaves: How one man works to advocate soccer in BC…

BCSA Youth Provincials

EVENT: BCSA Youth Provincial Cup DATE: July 2008 LOCATION: Burnaby Lake West Photos by Wilson Wong VIEW PICTURE SHOW (4m in length)

Cheating in the World of Soccer

The Italian Serie A has been hit with a second round of probing as five Italian players were charged in July 2008 with fixing matches between Atalanta and relegated Livorno.

Four Livorno players and an Atalanta player will face a disciplinary commission after the two teams had a pair of suspicious results in a home-away series last year. The sides drew 1-1 on December 23, 2007 and then Atalanta won a late-season match 3-2 on May 4, 2008.
Atalanta’s Gian Paolo Bellini and Livorno’s former captain David Balleri were the main players in the alleged scandal, while Livorno brothers Emanuele and Antonio Filippini and team-mate Alessandro Grandoni were charged with failing to report the fix to authorities when they found out about it.

Soccer fans know that this is not the first time the Italian league has been rocked by accusations of match fixing. In 2006, Lazio, Fiorentina and AC Milan were all deducted points for taking part in a match-fixing scandal, while Juventus was relegated to Serie B (the club has since returned to Serie A and finished in third place last season).
Here in North America, we hardly hear about soccer scandals in Europe, because almost nothing is written in the local media about soccer. So how much cheating occurs around the world in soccer and how bad is it?

Continue reading Cheating in the World of Soccer…

Higgs Hangs Hat

Tom Higgs, who became a soccer volunteer when he signed his children up to play the sport approximately 25 years ago, has hung up his cleats and the accountant’s hat that he used for KLM Soccer Club. In 2008 Higgs decided to retire and will now go chasing the sun from under a sombrero in his second house, in far away Mexico land.

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Canada’s FIFA Drop to 77th Warranted

Despite the complaints of many Canadian soccer fans that the FIFA/Coca-Cola World Rankings don’t accurately reflect reality, Canada’s new ranking of 77th, a drop of 17 places on the rankings of men’s senior teams, is fairly accurate.

Canada’s drop occurred in large part due to the fact that the FIFA rankings no longer take into account games played over the previous eight years. Instead, the new rankings only take into account games played over the previous four years.

Continue reading Canada’s FIFA Drop to 77th Warranted…

West Coast Success… East Coast Dreams

No one was more thrilled to see Jenny Dunn score the winning goal for SurDel Sting in the U16 Division A Provincial Cup than her younger brother Liam Dunn. With his hair painted green and a green lei hanging around his neck, it was obvious whom he was cheering for.

“Did you see that goal?” he asked another audience member enthusiastically. “My sister is Awesome!”

Rarely do such words come out of the mouth of a young boy to describe his sister…but in this case, the words were warranted.

The overtime goal put SurDel through to the National Championships in Nova Scotia and left the defeated side, Burnaby Girls, in tears following the intense match.

SurDel is one of six teams attending the National Championships in eastern Canada this fall, and one of 23 teams to claim gold at this year’s youth Provincial Cup, which took place July 4-6, 2008.

The other B.C. teams attending National Championships will be Richmond City United (U14 Boys), Surrey United Selects 92s (U16 Boys), Vancouver Selects A (U18 Boys), Cliff Avenue Synergy (U14 Girls) and Burnaby Girls Titans (U18 Girls).

Cliff Avenue Synergy was another team to win in dramatic fashion. Their game against Tsawwassen Triple Threat stood at a 0-0 draw until the final minutes of the match.

It was then that tiny Shayla Chorney picked up a ball with her back to the net, split the defense, and, turning around, rifled a shot into the back of the Triple Threat goal.

“I like to score goals,” Shayla Chorney meekly told reporters after the game.

Chorney’s dominance had been felt all match. She stuck out from all the players on the field for her deft touches with the ball. “Cristiano Ronaldo is my favourite player,” Chorney said after the game. “I don’t know why.”

No doubt Chorney, a student at Killarney Secondary in Vancouver, will have many more years to practice interviews as she climbs the ranks in soccer.

BCSA representatives Ed Kennedy (Vice-President Finance), Les Sinnott (Vice-President of Youth), and Don Dancey (Competition Chair) were on hand to give out medals to the winning participants and runners-up.

“Everybody’s been out here today. The fences are lined and the bleachers are full and we can’t ask for anything more,” said Dancey.

“There’s a quite high calibre of play out here this weekend,” said Dancey. “It gets stronger and stronger every year, and that’s thanks to our technical department. They pushed us and pushed our coaches, and the kids are getting better and better coaching,” he added.

As for the parents, Dancey said that the BCSA noticed their great support for the kids, and he had no doubt as to which team had the most passionate fans.

“Most definitely the SurDel Sting supporters with their green hair and green everything they got were the most passionate. I just hope that they have the big enough plane to take them all back to Nova Scotia.”

AC Corintians coming to Vancouver

Bob Lenarduzzi

The Vancouver Whitecaps have made a significant amount of changes to their soccer club over the past few years, and, with last month’s announcement that they would move into BC Place in 2011, it is obvious that many more changes are coming.  We spoke to Whitecaps’ boss Bob Lenarduzzi to get his take on the state of the club.

The Nutrilite Canadian Champions Cup may be one of the more exciting developments in recent Canadian soccer.  How are you feeling going into this competition?
Lenarduzzi: I think I would share that enthusiasm and excitement for the tournament itself, regardless of who ends up winning it.  I think that a tournament that will crown a champion that will go off to play in the CONCACAF Club Champions Cup will be a great evolution in our game.  In general, I’m excited about the tournament, and from a club perspective, I’m hopeful that we’re going to be competitive and ultimately we hope to win it.

How long has this tournament been coming?
It’s something that hadn’t really been on the radar screen.  A lot of it has to do with the actual CONCACAF Club Champions Cup.  Recently, when it took on more of significance.
With this new Canadian Champions Cup, we are looking to model ourselves on the European Club Champions League, which has provided so much more of awareness for the sport.

Having our own regional championship that mirrors the European Club Champions League gives people an idea of what we’re doing, as opposed to starting from scratch.

I’m not sure that had it happened much sooner it would have the impact that it’s having now; but three clubs across the country all have stable ownership and either have, or are looking at, building their own soccer-specific buildings, demonstrating that the pro game is as strong as it’s ever been.

CBC will be broadcasting the Canadian Championship.  How much does this mean to the event?
I think that it’s another indication that they see soccer as a valuable property.

The Canadian Champions Cup is in its infancy. With each year that goes by, the interest in the tournament is going to get greater. Perhaps someday the tournament may look more like an US Open Cup or a FA Cup.  If that happens, it’s going to be possible to get the Cinderella-type scenarios that you find in other cup competitions around the world.

If the tournament were to expand, would you rely on established cups to determine entry into the tournament, or would you create a whole new entry system for those smaller amateur clubs to get involved?
Anything that I say would be purely speculation, but I don’t think you need to reinvent the wheel.  I think we have easily transferable competitions. I think it’s as simple as looking at the Senior Amateur National Championships that take place every year.  Maybe you take the two finalists or the four semi-finalists and there are other leagues that exist.

But I think that one of the things that we need to do before we think about expanding the tournament is to make sure that we try to establish some hierarchy.  What are the standards that leagues need to meet in order to establish where they fit into the country’s Pyramid of Play?

We have a loose Pyramid but the problems we have are that we have different seasons and the leagues across the country are labelled differently. For example, in Ontario, the CPSL, or CSL, is branded as the level beneath [the USL].

I’m not disputing that, but we need to figure out what actually is the hierarchy of the game in this country and make sure that we understand that before we decide to expand [the tournament]. I’m all for including more teams, but only when we feel that we have a handle on what the Pyramid of Play is.

In the meantime, building the brand of the tournament is no doubt a priority.
No question.  The brand will be built simply because of the interest that there will be in the three games.  As the years go by, that interest is going to become greater and greater.

Your club has been quite involved in international play recently, to the extent that half of your women’s team seems to be missing this year.  What are some of the challenges facing the Women’s Whitecaps?
I don’t think they’re challenges, I think they’re opportunities.  Everything we’ve done is to provide the best possible vehicle to go and to do well on the international stage.  A lot of our players over the last two years have been involved with the National Team’s residency program that we have funded.

What we’ve needed to do is to figure out what is our priority when it comes to the Whitecaps’ teams. After bringing in American players last year, we decided that we might as well have a hand in our country’s destiny and we created an Under-20 type team that allows those players to play at a good level – more so than they would have done under other circumstances.  Results are important, but at this stage, developing the players is equally important, if not more so.

The Whitecaps have quite a developmental model for their soccer club, which is pretty unique in North America.  Can you talk about how the developmental model has progressed, and where you expect to take it over the next five years?
We have what we call “vision 2011,” that is, post-Olympics and post-2010.  By then we would be in our [new] venue, and in the best league in North America.

The BC Place announcement has provided another alternative to building our own soccer-specific stadium and it gets us back in the MLS game. We’re assuming that at the All-Star game the MLS league will speak to what their expansion plans are, and that will give us an understanding of where we fit into that whole process.

We can’t control whether we’re in or we’re out.  What we can do before then is to make sure that if we are in, we hit the ground running.

Our residency program is an example of that.  We’re investing significant time and money in trying to assemble the best players from across Canada.  In the case of one player in particular, a young guy from Jamaica who is an Under-17 Jamaican international, our objective is to have some of these kids play on our senior team this year.

Already we saw Randy Edwini[-Bonsu] come on against the Galaxy and not look out of place.  There are another four or five that could very well see some time next year, increasing their playing times as their experience grows. We continue to be a conveyor belt, bringing the younger players in, so that we’re having a hand in our own destiny.  That’s the technical side.

There are also measurables that we have in place: to determine how well we’re doing from a sponsorship point of view, from an event management perspective… the ability to host the Galaxy in Vancouver and in Edmonton in front of [large crowds].  Those are things that show we’re reaching for new heights and giving ourselves the best chance to succeed.

You have spoken quite a bit recently about making the jump to the MLS.  If you were to move there as a club, would the developmental model you have in place still allow for a team in the USL, where you currently play?
Oh I don’t think that there’s any reason for there not to be.  To be a true club, we need the vehicles for the elite players to perform in, and the USL would likely fit that bill.  On the USL front, there are some exciting moves in the works there with the fact that when you look at the quality of ownership in our league now, versus what it was two or three years ago, there are owners that have staying power and want to upgrade the quality of our league.  So, in general, the health of the sport is better than it has been for quite a while.

You were just in Montreal.  The commissioner of the MLS, Don Garber, was also there.  Did you get a chance to speak with him about your future in that league at all?
We spoke, however it wasn’t the time to be speaking formally.  It was very informal.  He’s aware of the fact that we now have a stadium option and they’re okay with that option, as long as we continue to pursue that soccer-specific stadium. There wasn’t really much discussed in the way of what our chances are other than they’ve acknowledged that Vancouver’s a great soccer market and Montreal is as well.

Describe Saputo Stadium, the new home of the Montreal Impact, to those of us who haven’t seen it yet.
It’s a 13,000 seater.  Beautiful lush green grass field.  Seats right up next to the field.  It has a very intimate feel to it with a great sound system.  The changing rooms are upscale.  I came away with a good impression about what the Saputos have done in Montreal with their facility.

Now that we have Saputo Stadium and BMO [in Toronto]… if someone had said to me even five years ago that we’d have two soccer-specific stadiums and a third on the way, once ours is approved, I would have said that they were crazy.  The game has improved as a result of that.

BC Place will be an open-air facility, but it still won’t be a soccer-specific stadium; do you worry that BC Place will lack an atmosphere for soccer?
Well, when you look at the plans that they unveiled at the announcement for the renovated BC Place, the things that were appealing to us were a willingness to provide an intimate atmosphere, with the draping of the seats in the upper bowl. Creating that intimate atmosphere is very important to us.  The willingness to reconfigure the seats to get them closer to the action is something that’s very important to us.
Also, they’re willing to address the issues that they’ve had over the years with the concessions and, of course, the open-air roof.  It’s a much different scenario to the one that currently exists.

The building was state-of-the-art when we played the first sporting event in BC Place, which I was fortunate to be a part of in front of 60,000 people, and it will be state-of-the-art again when it re-opens in 2011.  The whole area down around False Creek, where the new art gallery will go, will be an entertainment hub.  If you’re coming downtown and you want to make a day of it, or a night of it, you’ll have the opportunity to do that because you’ll have a plaza that will provide more than just the events you’re coming to.

We applaud the government for having the foresight to go ahead and refurbish the building.  It would have cost $1.2 billion to take it down and rebuild it.  It costs significantly less to refurbish it.

At the last Whitecaps game that I went to, I bumped into a bunch of visitors from Mexico who had decided to check out a game while they were here in Vancouver.  They found the commute by transit to Swangard confusing, since they were new to the city.  Do you think a stadium downtown would help to attract more tourists to see games, as well as more of an international flare?
Well, that’s one of the reasons that we believe we need to be downtown. We want to be downtown.  Whether it’s more of an international flavour or whether it’s simply people who feel it’s more accessible by transit – there’s no doubt in my mind that the fan-base will increase substantially.

It’s not a question of just opening the doors… it’s more a question of doing what we’ve been doing out of Swangard lately, and that’s making it more of an event.  I’ve spoken to people who are now coming to our games, who haven’t been for a while, and are surprised by the differences.  It’s night and day.  They couldn’t believe the branding and the lively concourse.  We’re trying to do everything we can to ensure that when we take that stuff up, we’re ready for it.

Are you a believer in “If you build it they will come?”  If you move to BC Place, how many seats can you fill on a regular basis?  You did have just about 50,000 people at a recent Galaxy game there.  If that’s the case and you move to Waterfront Stadium and only have 20,000 seats, will you have to expand the stadium?
That’s the million-dollar question.  I think that if we continue to grow as a club and we’re playing in the best league in North America… I look down the I-5 and see what they’ve done in Seattle.  They’ve taken Qwest field and they’ve scaled it down to a 24,000-seat capacity, much like is going on at BC Place, trying to create intimacy, and they already have deposits for 15,000 season tickets.  By the time of kick-off next season, they’ll probably have 20,000 season tickets and they’ll be selling out all of their 24,000 seats allotted.

The upside of moving into a bigger building is that if you happen to do everything right and you get yourself to a place where you’re the event that people want to come out and support, then you have the extra room to play with.