It's that time of year already. On Saturday, the Vancouver Whitecaps travel to Qwest Field and take on the Seattle Sounders. While the rest of Canada's soccer community will be focusing on the national team's tie with Guadeloupe in Tampa, on the west coast all the attention will be on Sounders - Whitecaps: the second game, and first for Vancouver, of the 2011 Cascadia Cup.
The Cascadia Cup isn't the sort of tournament most of the soccer world would take notice of. Heck, it's not even a proper tournament: just a table of results from regular season games used to award what is, frankly, a rather homely trophy. However, in Vancouver, Seattle, and Portland, Cascadia Cup games are as important as anything on the calendar.
The Cup has been fought for since 2004 in the old A-League, survived through 2009 and 2010 between Portland and Vancouver exclusively, and is now played for in Major League Soccer. The teams have risen in stature a little bit, but if the 500-strong Vancouver contingent traveling to this game or the passionate show Sounders and Timbers fan put on in the first leg are any indication, the Cup has remained just as important.
I do mean the Cup, not merely the rivalry. Of course the three-way fight between Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver is the greatest soccer derby in North America. Yet the Cascadia Cup, the trophy and competition itself, are almost as important.
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Why do we care about the Cascadia Cup? At heart, it's a superfluous physical prize to a natural rivalry. Seattle and Portland are rivals in everything and Vancouver, while definitely the third wheel, is a traditionally strong team that's played some bitter games. They're close enough that travel is easy and all three clubs are using up their entire away allocation for the six games.
So why put any merit in the competition itself, rather than just enjoying the war? A Seattle - Vancouver game at Qwest Field is important whether or not there's a piece of brass on the line. New Vancouver fans won't have a problem working up a hate for the Sounders but why worry about the Cascadia Cup? Toronto FC fans may care about Columbus but I'm not sure I've ever seen one crave the Trillium Cup as an end in of itself, though I'm open to correction on that point. Why should Vancouver be any different?
It's the Cascadia Cup's history which makes it important as more than just a symbol of Cascadian rivalry. The trophy shares similar roots to the familiar Voyageurs Cup: it was purchased as a trophy by the supporters' groups to have a trophy to hand out at already-raucous games. Unlike the Voyageurs Cup, the Cascadia Cup has no meaningful official status and no prize attached beyond bragging rights. Bragging rights can be pretty important, though: Portland is two-time defending champion but turned the trick without the Seattle Sounders participating and some Seattle fans will furiously state that those two trophies "don't count." So will some Vancouver fans, actually; being humbled two years running will do that (but both years, the Whitecaps got their sweet revenge in the playoffs).
In the past, I've railed against Vancouver neglecting any symbolism of their past more meaningful than a "Since 1974" on the back of their shirts. The Cascadia Cup is one of the most vibrant, palpable symbols of that past. It is the totem of a rivalry that is already redefining Major League Soccer. It's a salute to the old supporters of all three clubs who stuck with their teams through the worst years of the A-League and whose support allowed their sides to get into MLS.
This competition probably won't be that competitive. On form, Seattle is going to sweep Vancouver off the field. You see if that diminishes the supporters' enthusiasm for the Cup. If Portland fails to repeat, watch the Timbers Army when they hand the Cup to the victor and tell me if they don't care.
Enjoy the game, enjoy the tifo, enjoy the rivalry. But make sure you also enjoy the little symbols, like the Cascadia Cup, which remind us that soccer wasn't invented in 2007 and that, no matter how corporate and modern the sport is getting, the grass roots still make all the difference.