Official 2006 Vancouver Whitecaps Season Thread

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Robbie
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Canuck_4_Life
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Up until tonight, had a city ever held the W League and USL Div 1 titles at the same time?
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Robbie
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Canuck_4_Life wrote:Up until tonight, had a city ever held the W League and USL Div 1 titles at the same time?
No, the Whitecaps are the first to accomplish this feat. Although there were two other cities that won both the W-League and other men's USL divisions (not Division 1) in the same year.

Taken from:
http://www.uslsoccer.com/home/150837.html

"The USL First Division championship gave the Whitecaps organization a 'double' for the year after claiming the W-League Championship in August in Vancouver. They are the third to accomplish the feat with Long Island winning the W-League and USL Second Division titles in 1995 and Mass Premier Soccer winning the W-League (Boston Renegades) and Premier Development League (Cape Cod Crusaders) in 2002."
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Robbie
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Good to see the Whitecaps championship make both the front and back page of the Province today.

[img]http://www.canada.com/images/NewsPages/ ... ntpage.jpg[/img][img]http://www.canada.com/images/NewsPages/ ... ckpage.jpg[/img]

Several articles in today's Province were dedicated to the championship:

http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/ ... 08&k=15150

http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/ ... 39bcaf3faf

http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/ ... a408680369
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Robbie
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Several good personal pictures from Saturday's USL championship game can be seen at these two Rochester Raging Rhinos fan sites:

http://www.rhinopit.com/matchdayphotos/06champ_pics/

http://www.rochesterstampede.com/photos ... hp?cat=520

I noticed that notwithstanding Olympic events, soccer seems to be the only league sport that gives the winning (and runner-ups too) individuals medals in addition to the championship trophy. I guess while other sports leagues give the winners personalized championship rings several months after the event, soccer gives medals right after the event.
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What's the average salary of the players ?
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Robbie
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TheLionKing wrote:What's the average salary of the players ?
I do not know. Unlike other sports and leagues, I've never heard of the USL announcing something like: "Player X has been signed to a 3 year deal worth $____".
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Robbie
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Robbie wrote:I noticed that notwithstanding Olympic events, soccer seems to be the only league sport that gives the winning (and runner-ups too) individuals medals in addition to the championship trophy. I guess while other sports leagues give the winners personalized championship rings several months after the event, soccer gives medals right after the event.
I also noticed that unlike the Olympics, soccer awards a medal to EVERY member of the team - not just the players like the Olympics. In this picture below as well as the picture that I posted on page 2 showing the Whitecaps Women with their medals, the coaches and other staff members are also wearing medals. But one person who is dearly missing from all these group shots is Bob Lenarduzzi. What happened to him?

[img]http://www.rhinopit.com/matchdayphotos/ ... 0_1122.JPG[/img]
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Robbie
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When it comes to championship games in any league, one thing I like to do is read the newspaper articles of both the winning and losing city and see how they contrast. I presented three articles by the Vancouver Province above.

Here are three articles from the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle detailing the championship loss of their Raging Rhinos. The first article includes to a link to some additional pictures:

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/app ... 007/SPORTS

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/app ... 007/SPORTS

http://www.democratandchronicle.com/app ... 007/SPORTS

I also think it's very lucky that this man, defender Nate Craft, is an American living in America, where people are more forgiving for mistakes. He scored his own goal which proved to be a key turning point in the game. In the 1994 World Cup, Andres Escobar of Team Colombia accidentally scored on his own goal, and paid for it with his life shortly after returning to Colombia.
http://www.rhinossoccer.com/includes/he ... php?id=163
Dan Russell
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Congrats to the Whitecaps for their historic run after people had doubted them due to travel concerns.
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Robbie
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Dan Russell wrote:Congrats to the Whitecaps for their historic run after people had doubted them due to travel concerns.
:whs:
Thank you, Dan Russell. It seems like I've been the only one praising the team after their championship win. It's good to see someone else finally acknowledge them!
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I could not believe it either when no one acknowledged this championship. Well I guess this is not the Canucks so people do not care. I am glad they get full rein of the newspaper headlines as they deserved it and not publish a Canucks pre-season game instead.
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TheLionKing wrote:What's the average salary of the players ?
According to:
http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/ ... 07&k=10444

"USL teams keep quiet about what they pay players, but it's probably about $350,000 Cdn per team."
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Robbie
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It's good to see the Vancouver Sun acknowledge the Whitecaps too.

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news ... 9a&k=60631

[img]http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d ... 06_210.jpg[/img]
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Robbie
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According Bob Lenarduzzi and this article in The Province, don't expect the Whitecaps to enter the MLS soon, unlike Toronto FC.

http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/ ... 07&k=10444

[img]http://a123.g.akamai.net/f/123/12465/1d ... 06_210.jpg[/img]

It was good to see a crowd await the Whitecaps at the airport. Of course, it was nothing compared to 1979 when the Whitecaps returned home with the Soccer Bowl.
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