One down, 35 spots still to be filled.
<a href="http://www.canadiansoccernews.com/content.php?5214-Vancouver-Whitecaps-All-Time-Greats-Phil-Parkes" target="_blank"><u>Phil Parkes</u></a> claimed the goalkeeper's spot in the NASL XI last week. This week we search for the goalkeeper for the CSL/D2 XI and there's a number of great 86ers/Whitecaps candidates to consider, but it might end up coming down to two.
Somewhat crazily, getting all the info and stats from those years was more difficult to come by than from the NASL days many years before. We still have some gaps.
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If you're new to the series, just a quick recap. Last month we <a href="http://www.canadiansoccernews.com/content.php?5141-AFTN-launches-our-Vancouver-Whitecaps-All-Time-Greats" target="_blank"><u>announced</u></a> the launch of our interactive series to find Vancouver Whitecaps' (and 86ers') All-Time Greats, position by position, from the first forty years.
The Caps' teams will be split into three eras, selecting the best XI from the <b>NASL days (1974 to 1984)</b>, the <b>CSL/D2 days (1987 to 2010)</b> and the <b>MLS days (2011 to present day)</b>. All teams will line up in a 4-4-2 formation and then a final All Time Greats XI selected.
Every Sunday we'll run an article on here to vote for a certain position for a certain team. Each team's position will be allocated an article and a week to itself and we'll chat about some of the possible contenders for the crown to jog memories.
You can cast your vote in the article comments, on Twitter, on Facebook, and on the Southsiders forum. Voting will run from the Sunday till 11.59pm on the Friday. You don't have to have seen the players play to vote. Just know your history.
So, summary over, we continue the series as we try and narrow down a goalkeeper from the CSL and D2 days of 1987 to 2010.
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When the Whitecaps went out of business at the end of the 1984 season, Vancouver was without a professional football team for two years. From out of the ashes, Vancouver 86ers were born. Founded in 1986, they played their first season in 1987 and reclaimed the Vancouver Whitecaps name in 2001.
The first six seasons were played in the Canadian Soccer League (CSL), and the 86ers did an amazing Championship fourpeat from 1988 to 1991. For the next 18 seasons (1993 to 2010), the team played in the second tier of the North American soccer pyramid in Leagues that underwent many mergers, splits and name changes along the way.
From the American Professional Soccer League (APSL) to the United Soccer Leagues (USL) to back to the name of where it all began, the new North American Soccer League (NASL), the Whitecaps and 86ers played in them all.
Information and stats from some of those years, especially in the late 90's, are patchy, so we've not been able to be as thorough as our NASL recap and name every single goalkeeper on the 86ers/Caps' books.
So what we've done is narrow down the main contenders to make this eras Best XI and make some other notable mentions along the way as well.
The CSL years saw Vancouver dominate. Four Championships, a further final and a semi final loss was the tale of those six successful years.
When it all kicked off in 1987, two men shared the goalkeeping duties. <b>Pat Onstad</b> and <b>Brian Kennedy</b>. Both UBC Thunderbirds and both now in the Tbirds Hall of Fame.
Kennedy played one season, making 9 appearances and playing 817 minutes, on the way to three clean sheets and conceding 12 goals.
Onstad <i>(pictured)</i> was 18 when he made his 86ers debut. He played one season, clocking 1170 minutes, keeping one clean sheet and conceding 20 goals in his 13 appearances. Onstad left the team to go to school and was a pivotal member of a Thunderbirds side that went on a 54 game unbeaten streak and claimed three CIS Championships in the early 90's.
Onstad went on to have a distinguished goalkeeping career, winning 3 MLS Cups (2 with Houston and one with San Jose), amongst many honours, and making 57 appearances for Canada, winning the Gold Cup in 2000.
Former Canadian national team keeper <b>Sven Habermann</b> had the starting goalie's job in 1988 and 1989, guiding the 86ers to their first two CSL Championships. He played a total of 45 games and 4020 minutes those seasons, keeping 12 clean sheets and conceding just 55 goals. Habermann went to the 1986 World Cup with Canada but didn't play and you might have seen him on Dragon's Den last year securing a deal from the dragons for a self defence security device!
<b>Rob Merkl</b> might not be a name known to many, but he was the only Vancouver keeper to play on the team in each of their CSL Championship winning seasons and was the starting keeper for the 1988 victory. The SFU alumni joined the 86ers in 1988 and played for around nine seasons in total for the club, primarily as the back up goalie (we think - lot of stats say till 1994 but we have a match report from a game in 1996!). We don't have anything like the full stats for Merkl, but in terms of longevity and loyalty to one team, we have to tip our hat to him. Merkl also won the inaugural Francophone Games with Canada in 1989.
If we're talking about longevity in this era though, then step forward <b>Paul Dolan</b> <i>(pictured)</i>. Dolie the Goalie made his 86ers debut in their first CSL Championship winning season in 1988, making 7 appearances. He re-signed for the club in 1990 and went on to play a further 216 games over the next nine seasons, for 223 total appearances over his ten year Vancouver career, clocking up an amazing (and approximate!) 19,913 minutes. Those games played see Dolan at 10th in the all time list of Vancouver appearances.
Dolan won two CSL Championships in his time with Vancouver (he left the club before their 1988 final appearance), finishing his career in the city and hanging up his boots in 1998. Dolan made 51 appearances for the Canadian national team from 1984 to 1997 and is inducted into the Canadian Soccer Hall of Fame.
Paul Dolan had dominated the number one jersey for so long that for the next few years a number of keepers shared the goalkeeping duties.
<b>Paul Shepherd</b> had six seasons with the club in two spells from 1994 to 1997 as Dolan's back up and then returning from 1999 to 2000. In his latter spell with the 86ers he split time with <b>Didar Sandhu</b>, who spent five seasons with the 86ers from 1997 to 2001, before deciding to step away from the professional game to concentrate on work. Sandhu was a former Canadian U20 international with a reputation as a great penalty stopper. He signed for the club in 1997 and made his debut in the 1998 season, coming on for one appearance as a second half substitute. By the time his 86ers career was over he had made 52 appearances, clocking up 15 clean sheets and a 1.39 goals against average in his 72 goals conceded.
Several keepers came and went after this pair without making much impact but the now renamed Whitecaps brought silverware back to Vancouver in 2006 with the USL-1 Championship and the man between the sticks for most of that season was <b>Tony Caig</b>.
The Englishman started off his career at Carlisle and after eight seasons there he had become a bit of a journeyman before heading to Vancouver in April of 2006. He made his debut the next month and established himself as the starting keeper, going on to make 28 appearances that season. He played a further 11 games in 2007 before heading back home for personal reasons, only to surprisingly re-emerge briefly at Houston Dynamo in MLS in 2008.
Caig played a total of 3540 minutes for the Whitecaps, keeping 14 clean sheets in his 39 games and ending with an impressive 0.9 goals against record (35 goals) in his short spell. In the Caps' playoff run to the 2006 Championship, Caig kept four clean sheets in Vancouver's five games.
The last star keeper of the pre MLS era was a player who moved with the Caps into Major League Soccer, <b>Jay Nolly</b> <i>(pictured)</i>. Nolly had previous MLS experience with Real Salt Lake and DC United. He came to Vancouver in 2008 and initially shared the goalkeeping duties with Srdjan Djekanovic, who was in his third year with the Caps. Nolly's quality soon shone through and he made the starting position his own, going on to make 31 appearances that season in all competitions and lifting another USL Championship for the Whitecaps at Swangard Stadium.
In his three season D2 career with the Whitecaps, Nolly made 109 appearance in all competitions, becoming only the second keeper in Caps' history to play over 100 games. His record is outstanding. 3442 minutes played, with 18 clean sheets and a goals against record of exactly 1.0 (109 goals). He added to his appearance tally in MLS the following season, but more on that next time. Nolly was named USSF-D2 Goalkeeper of the Year in 2010 and was also named on the USSF Best XI.
One final word about <b>Simon Thomas</b>. The Whitecaps Residency alumni only made one first team appearance for the Caps in the D2 days and even that was brief, playing just 8 minutes after Jay Nolly was sent off. He didn't make the move into MLS with the club but returned to grab a place on the 2013 squad, before being released at the end of last season. But he's back in training camp and hoping to land a place on the squad for the upcoming season. There's a little bit of destiny about all that.
Other goalkeepers on 86ers and Whitecaps squads in this era were:
Carlo Marini (2 seasons - 1989 to 1990)
Mike Franks (4 seasons - 1998 and 2003 - 2005)
Lars Hirschfeld (1 season - 2001)
Steve London (2 seasons - 2001 to 2002)
Jim Larkin (1 season - 2002)
Alex Marques-Delgado (3 seasons - 2002 to 2004)
Josh Wicks (2 seasons - 2005 to 2006)
Srdjan Djekanovic (3 seasons - 2005 to 2006 and 2008)
Richard Goddard (1 season - 2007)
Matthew Nelson (1 season - 2007)
Lutz Pfannenstiel (1 season - 2007)
Tyler Baldock (1 season - 2008)
Diego (1 season - 2009)
Dan Pelc (1 season - 2010)
Sorry for the incomplete stats on some of these guys, but if anyone reading this can share those with us, then please get in touch. Likewise if we've any info wrong or missed anyone out.
So that's the shortlist, now it's up to you guys for the voting.
Who is your pick to make the <b>Vancouver Whitecaps CSL/D2 XI</b> as starting keeper?
Let us know below, on <a href="http://www.twitter.com/aftncanada" target="_blank"><u>Twitter</u></a>, on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/aftn.canada/" target="_blank"><u>Facebook</u></a> or on the <a href="http://vancouversouthsiders.ca/forum/discussion/4165/vancouver-whitecaps-all-time-greats#Item_1" target="_blank"><u>Southsiders</u></a> forum. You can leave your comment under your name or as anonymous, whatever is easier for you.
But also for those of you of a certain age, share your memories and stories of any of these guys for us all to enjoy.
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