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Vancouver Whitecaps - 2024 Season Thread


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17 hours ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

Even if Messi doesn't play or is injured, you are getting Suárez, Busquets. They are still premium players.

The thing about Suárez, if he'd signed for any other team, say NYCFC, LAFC, Seattle, it would be huge news and a major selling point, as well as a draw for them at home and teams hosting them. But going to Miami it is just a sidebar, filler news. 

Even if the Caps only have 10 or 15,000 tickets available after season tix sales, the 4-match deal, they are going to pull in 1 to 1.5 million in revenue for the match. True, BC Place probably charges more to open the upper tier, but it is still a windfall. The Caps spend about 10 million a year on salaries, so that covers 10% or more in a single night.

The Messi effect has even reached Hong Kong. Inter Miami are here next weekend playing a local semi pro select side. I was thinking of going but when Miller got traded I sort of lost interest a bit and then tickets went on sale and sold out in 1 hour.  My wife knows one of the sponsors and she just gave us some tickets.  I looked at the face value and they are going for $625 USD a ticket! I almost fell off my chair. This is a preseason game against a bunch of freaking amateurs. 

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2 hours ago, An Observer said:

The Messi effect has even reached Hong Kong. Inter Miami are here next weekend playing a local semi pro select side. I was thinking of going but when Miller got traded I sort of lost interest a bit and then tickets went on sale and sold out in 1 hour.  My wife knows one of the sponsors and she just gave us some tickets.  I looked at the face value and they are going for $625 USD a ticket! I almost fell off my chair. This is a preseason game against a bunch of freaking amateurs. 

About the price of a year of watching the four of the former FCB players at Camp Nou. When they were all top of their game.

If you are a club member of Barça, as I am, you can apply for season tickets, although there is a tens of thousands waiting list (170,000 club members, about 93,000 season tix available). Your membership plus a year of matches, including Champions League, up in third tier goal, was about that price.

Since they couldn't beat El Salvador, and lost to Dallas, they may actually play at a high level and give you a show.

Edited by Unnamed Trialist
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They lost to Serbian side Backa Topola yesterday, 2-1, seemed like late goals for the rival as White scored first. They play Norway's Haugesund on Tuesday.

I see the Sounders are now at the same facility near Marbella, are playing this same Serbian team in a few days.

Edited by Unnamed Trialist
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15 hours ago, saladroit said:

Not a traditional Eliteserien team but been in top flight for a few years. I see they were above Rosenborg last season, upper mid table, so that is a reasonable level. And were at that level for the past few seasons, more or less: over 200 matches at Norway top flight level. Played for Norway national team youth up to u-21. Has a fairly high transfer value but was out of contract it seems. The age is also right, not too old, optimal experience. 

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Meanwhile, they tied Eliteserien Haugesund today in Marbella, 1-1, went up, rival went down to 10 after a straight red, the Norwegians tied.

I find it curious because the new Norway signing was a youth player at Haugesund, and was born near there; wonder if he was training with his former club to stay in shape.

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1 hour ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

Not a traditional Eliteserien team but been in top flight for a few years. I see they were above Rosenborg last season, upper mid table, so that is a reasonable level. And were at that level for the past few seasons, more or less: over 200 matches at Norway top flight level. Played for Norway national team youth up to u-21. Has a fairly high transfer value but was out of contract it seems. The age is also right, not too old, optimal experience. 

Oddly, I watched Sarpsborg v Valerenga this past spring and Utvik was in the 11 for Sarpsborg. They were very meat-and-potatoes, playing long balls out of the back. Looking back at the highlights, he was skipper for the match, headed a set piece off the bar, had a goal-line clearance and put in the cross that led to the winning goal. My main impression of that match was that the Caps would beat both teams 9 times out of 10.

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5 hours ago, Stryker911 said:

I see Vancouver is going to likely have another season of being the anti-Bilboa of Canada. Will likely only have Raposo and Adekugbe as sometimes starters and a couple Canadian subs. 

And Ahmed, who's injured. And they'd love to bring back Laryea, but can't make it work so far.

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1 hour ago, Soro17 said:

Oddly, I watched Sarpsborg v Valerenga this past spring and Utvik was in the 11 for Sarpsborg. They were very meat-and-potatoes, playing long balls out of the back. Looking back at the highlights, he was skipper for the match, headed a set piece off the bar, had a goal-line clearance and put in the cross that led to the winning goal. My main impression of that match was that the Caps would beat both teams 9 times out of 10.

Was it when Adekugbe was at Valerenga still? Were you there?

I realise that is the usual fare in Norway. But then, their top teams actually compete decently in Europe, and they don't seem so rudimentary at all. 

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On 12/21/2023 at 12:32 PM, BearcatSA said:

Will TSN still have a similar number of matches this year?  If so, I get the feeling that neither Canadian appearance by Messi will be one of them this time around.

So unless I have misread the TSN schedules, neither Messi Canadian appearances will be on the network, so it's just Apple subscrption for the viewing.

Edited by BearcatSA
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59 minutes ago, BearcatSA said:

So unless I have misread the TSN schedules, neither Messi Canadian appearances will be on the network, so it's just Apple subscrption for the viewing.

Miami vs Montreal is on TSN. Though I don't know if that's in Miami and I don't feel like checking now.

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On 1/30/2024 at 2:33 PM, Watchmen said:

Miami vs Montreal is on TSN. Though I don't know if that's in Miami and I don't feel like checking now.

Fourteen games each for the Caps and TFC, 13 for Montreal but they get the Messi game at Saputo.  I think Inter Miami is on the Fox nation-wide  broadcast only once but on FS1 the other time.  Otherwise, it is Apple only, as expected.

I wonder who Garber and the league suits are working on to bring into the league post-Messi?  

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3 minutes ago, BearcatSA said:

I wonder who Garber and the league suits are working on to bring into the league post-Messi?  

I'm sure teams are watching for who to bring in next, but other than Ronaldo (who's older and made his decision on league to age-out in) there's no comparable. I mean, Lewandowski might be of interest (to some people, I don't care about the star players they bring over) but there's just no one who would move the needle the way Messi is.

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