Winning some hardware in the pre-season was a nice way to start off Vancouver’s sophomore year in the MLS, and sitting down with Brad Knighton, Matt Watson and Sebastien Le Toux for my sophomore outing of "Nightcap With A Whitecap" might have been the best scenario imaginable.
Although the three of them had just arrived home from a disappointing loss in North Carolina, their sense of humour was still well intact, and it was all I could do just to keep up. These guys banter back-and-forth like old friends, and occasionally bicker like married couples, with strong friendships developed through time spent playing in Philadelphia (Knighton and Le Toux) and Carolina (Knighton and Watson), as well as sharing plenty of time stuck in hotel rooms together on the road.
To start things off, it wouldn’t be Nightcap With A Whitecap if we didn’t discuss Favourite Nightcaps and Favourite Whitecaps:
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
<i>MW: I don’t really drink, but the only thing I do drink is Baileys, so we’ll say Baileys.
BK: I’d have to say, a White Russian.</i>
Sorry Sebastien, I heard you don’t drink…
<i>SLT: I drink sometimes, when it’s a good moment… like, winning. I like wine, but I prefer a very sweet drinks. It has to be sweet.
BK: He means, a girlie drink.</i>
Ah, so, something with an umbrella?
<i>SLT: Yes, exactly. When I can’t taste the alcohol, I can drink it all night.</i>
I would have never pegged Le Toux for a fruity cocktail kind of guy, but he’s got the je ne sais quoi to pull it off.
Now it’s time for the hard question. Three guys, new to the team, who are your favourite Whitecaps?
<i>MW: My favourite Whitecap? That’s hard to say. I would say… Brad.
SLT: Choose me.
MW: Ok, Sebastien.
BK: Oh, it’s that easy?
MW: I’m going back and forth but I have to say… Brad. He’s hurt, he’s looking right into my soul, I have to say Brad.</i>
Meanwhile Knighton is casting what can only be described as a sad puppy dog stare across the table, which lasts for a few seconds before they all erupt in laughter – the first of MANY times this will happen throughout the evening.
<i>BK: My favourite Whitecap would have to be, Joe Cannon. He’s just an all-around Whitecap. He is funny…
MW: [aside] It’s the goalkeeping club…
BK: Yes, he’s a goalkeeper, we stick together. So, I would have to say, right now, as of this moment, Joe Cannon.
MW: Can I change my answer?</i>
Seriously Matt? Is this because Brad didn’t pick you?
<i>MW: I want to say, Greg Klazura, because I find him absolutely hilarious. He’s my favourite. He’s my NEW favourite.
BK: a.k.a. Napoleon Dynamite.
SLT: Is it my turn? Are you sure you don’t want to change again? My favourite Whitecap? Carl Valentine.</i>
Hmmm… I know I didn’t specify, but how about your favourite current Whitecap?
<i>SLT: I love every guy, it’s hard to say one. I would say, off the top of my head, Michael Nanchoff. He’s a funny guy. I like him.</i>
Now that we’ve got that out of the way, all in all, how are you getting on with the new team?
<i>MW: Great, really well. Martin [Rennie] brings in players that he knows are going to get along and gel well. He brings in guys that are willing to get along with the other guys. I think it will work out well this year.
SLT: It’s great because there are no groups. This year, because there is a mix of people who came from new teams, different countries, younger, older, guys from last year who want to do well, we all have the same objective. You never know what could happen tomorrow, but right now, it’s pretty cool.</i>
How about your wives, girlfriends, families? They can’t be crazy about the constant moving?
<i>MW: We’ve been moving twice a year for the past six years, but hopefully now we’re settled… for at least a year.
BK: It’s tough. I don’t know if I can do it many more times. This has been a rough move.
MW: He’s been on the phone every day, shouting with the moving company.
BK: I really wanted my family to be here for the opener, and I’ve tried every avenue, but it’s just not working out. They finally picked up our stuff today, but I heard there was a huge windstorm and our TV rolled three times. A brand new, 55” TV still in the box… hopefully it arrives in one piece.
MW: You know that if they say it rolled three times, it really rolled seven…</i>
Yeah, Matt, not sure that’s helping.
As for Sebastien, he made the smart move of simply bringing his luggage and renting a fully-furnished apartment. Perhaps, after spending some time around the MLS, he’s learned a thing or two about how to handle a trade and a move to a new city.
What do you guys think of Vancouver?
<i>SLT: Fantastic, wonderful, I don’t have enough adjectives to describe it. I am very happy to be here, discovering another beautiful city.
BK: It’s one of the nicest places I’ve ever seen or been to.
MW: Especially coming from Carolina, where there’s not a lot to do. Sometimes you’d be driving around and it would be a ghost town. Not here. If you’re in Vancouver, there are people walking, there are always people around.
SLT: … And people speak French, it couldn’t be any better!</i>
Now, other than Vancouver being a beautiful city, it is also home to last season’s worst team in the MLS. What were you thinking when you found out you were coming to Vancouver? Were you scared, unhappy?
This question is answered immediately with a resounding <i>"NO"</i> from around the table.
<i>MW: No. Just from knowing Martin’s record previously, he always does well everywhere he goes. He turned Carolina around. I played there before Martin came and that year we didn’t make the playoffs, and he came in, and we were flying straight away.
I knew he was going to change things up. I know he’s good at motivating the players and identifying strengths – and the chance to play in the MLS – I didn’t even really think about it. All I thought was, 'If [Rennie] wants me to go, I’ll go.'
BK: Martin has a winning mentality everywhere he goes, and he gets the best out of the players in the locker room. He has an approach with the players that is very unique. The way he motivates the players, and everything in the locker room, is unlike any other locker room I’ve ever been in. I think that’s one area where he’s been very successful. At this level, most of the players are probably the best in this country, or wherever they’re from, and they’ve probably been the best on their team, but to be able to get that extra edge, getting to be one of the better teams in the MLS, I think Martin’s going to take this team to the next level.
As the results have shown already through preseason, the team has come a lot further already than they did last year. And that’s from the coaching staff, bringing in players that are going to be competitive week in and week out, and I think we have a really deep roster this year.
Anybody on the roster can play at any minute, and that’s a testament to the coaching staff, and everyone buying in to one goal -- coming to win a championship. Martin wants to win everywhere he goes, and I think that’s the kind of players he looks for.
It’s very refreshing.
Everyone is going to be competitive.
SLT: I was actually very surprised to come here. I was very happy, because I love it here. I hope it’s still going to be the best for me after I play my first game. I feel confident of my teammates and the coaching staff. I’m happy – with a big "H".
There is a saying we have in French, "What is true of one day is not the same of the next day," and that is very true of Vancouver. You can’t say from one day how the next day will be. I didn’t score a goal after 22 games, but I scored a goal in each of my last 10 games. You never know what will happen.</i>
So then, Sebastien, as someone who played a lot of minutes in Philadelphia, and as Brad has just mentioned the roster is very deep this year, how do you feel about your playing time for this season?
<i>SLT: If I’m good, I will play, and I hope to play every game. That’s my hope, but my first responsibility is to help the team win, and if that takes me being on the bench, and I don’t play because people are better than me, then I go for it. Let’s win games. I’m not playing a game to score goals and be the last man standing – I’m playing to win the title and win the Cup at the end.
If I score zero goals and have zero assists but we are champions at the end, I’ll still sign for it.
But if I score lots of goals and we still win, I’ll sign for that too.
MW: That’s a good answer.
BK: Yeah, that was a really good answer.
SLT: In the end, I want the cup – we have the potential to do something. We have chemistry.</i>
I couldn’t agree more. Are you guys excited for Saturday?
<i>SLT: Excited is too small of a word.
MW: Ecstatic?
SLT: Oh, how do you spell that?
MW: e-c-s-t-a-t-i-c.
BK: We do crosswords together – Sebastien does the French clues.</i>
Are there that many French clues in crosswords?
<i>BK: At least one or two a crossword.
MW: You should do a section of your column where we ask YOU questions.</i>
Umm, no.
<i>SLT: Yes, let us interview you. How much money do you make in a year?</i>
And, next topic!
You’re all very active on social media, how does it feel to be so close to your fans and, on the flip side, your haters?
<i>BK: It’s a lot different now than it has been with previous teams. The media coverage around this team is unlike anything I’ve ever seen.
We were in the airport today, and I got a tweet today – this guy took a picture of me in the airport and tweeted that he saw me in the airport. I wrote him back, and it ended up being the guy who directs the planes. It was him who tweeted me, but I had no idea.
The amount of coverage here is incredible. There’s stuff going on every day.
We were out to dinner in Victoria and people were tweeting stuff about us. It’s nice. It’s nice to be able to connect with fans. For example if you need something, like a restaurant, or someplace to go that people recommend that has the kind of food that you like, everyone has been super nice in telling us places to go and where to eat.
MW: I think it’s cool because I think some people’s perception is that we think we’re “above” them because we play soccer, but I like it because it shows them that we’re just normal people. So if someone tweets me, even if I don’t know them at all, I’ll tweet them back, straight away. Just to let them know that I’m just a regular guy.</i>
Do you feel a little bit on display?
<i>MW: [laughing] You have to think before you tweet…
BK: I feel like everything we do is watched – every step, you have to watch what you’re doing.</i>
So, Brad, do you feel like all of your penalty kicks are being watched, too?
<i>BK: I call that my own “Shot heard ‘round the world.” That’s actually the first penalty I’ve ever missed in my life.
MW: Made up for alllll the other ones…</i>
For those of you who didn’t watch the Whitecaps play in Carolina on Sunday, ending off their pre-season, you probably still heard about Brad’s kick… Trust me, it’s even MORE painful when he describes it. I actually felt bad asking him about it – but I couldn’t resist.
<i>BK: I took a penalty last year in our playoff game, so Martin had already signed me up before I even asked if I could take one. All the guys on Carolina knew exactly where I was going to go, so then it was a mind game of ‘the goalie was my backup goalie last year, so he knows where I’m going to go – do I go to the same spot?’ And I changed my mind at the last minute and I said, “I’m just going to rip it down the middle, hit it hard…”
MW: [laughs] He did rip it down…
BK: I’ve never seen a ball go so high, so fast, and I think it cleared the trees behind the stadium. So we get in the locker room yesterday and Martin calls over our equipment manager and says to him, "I think you need to go back there and get Brad’s ball, because I don’t think it’s coming back."
I’ll probably step up and take another one, one day, but I’ll never forget that, especially since it was in front of my fans, my friends, my family, my wife, my mom, my buddies that drove down, my old teammates. The whole stadium was laughing, after I hit it. I’ve never heard an entire stadium laugh after a penalty kick.
SLT: [joking] So you can say in your story that he can’t handle the pressure.
MW: I was so upset for him – just because, obviously, I played for Carolina last year, and I know, if that had been me… I would have been devastated.
SLT: I was very upset for him too…
MW: You were not upset.
SLT: No, I was not sad.</i>
Turns out Sebastien is a pretty funny guy:
<i>BK: So, I needed 13 tickets for the game in Carolina, Sebastien needed one. I asked him, "Who do you know in Carolina?" He said, "What’s your wife’s name?"
MW: I heard him say that about three times to different people…
BK: … because he loved the joke so much.
SLT: It was a good joke… </i>
Are you looking forward to Montreal? Your first regular season clash? Any former friends out there you want to take down?
<i>BK: It’s funny, once you’ve been around this league for a couple of years you have friends on every team because there’s so much “turnover” in this league, so you’ve got friends on every team or guys you know through other people on other teams, so every weekend you see someone you know or are acquainted with. It’s pretty neat.
SLT: I don’t have any friends in the league.
MW: I wonder why… I wonder why…</i>
Any closing comments for your fans before we see you on Saturday at First Kick?
<i>SLT: Please come more and more to the stadium. We need you. We would be nothing without you.
MW: I hope to have a great season, looking forward to seeing everyone at BC Place.
SLT: You’re not speaking from your heart… be Matthew Watson.
MW: I am being Matthew Watson… Brad, go ahead.
BK: I’m really excited to be here, I’m really excited for the home opener against Montreal, seeing our fans in full force for the first time is going to be an experience like no other. We have some great fans in Philadelphia and New England, but the fans here are some of the best in the league, if not THE best fans in the league. Hopefully they come out and support us all year, and stay behind us 110% like we know they will, and I look forward to playing in front of them.</i>
If their chemistry off the field is any indication, when Martin Rennie’s Blue & White Army take to the field on Saturday, it’s going to be a very different squad than what we saw last season.
Thank you a million times over to Brad Knighton, Matt Watson and Sebastien Le Toux for being incredible and hilarious interviewees, and all around great guys.
I couldn’t have asked for a better evening; stay tuned for another Nightcap with a Whitecap, coming soon!
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