By Simon Fudge/whitecapsfc.com
Saturday afternoon at Swangard Stadium will be a unique experience for fans of Vancouver Whitecaps FC, as the regular season finale will offer a mix of nostalgia and a vision of the future.
It is rare in the sport of soccer for fans to watch two clubs that will be making the move to the next level up the following season. The only exception is two clubs that are in positions to be promoted from the level they are currently playing.
Whitecaps FC and Portland Timbers will provide that scenario on Saturday, with Vancouver playing their last-ever regular season match at Swangard. By March 2011, these two Pacific Northwest rivals will become the latest members of Major League Soccer (MLS).
There will be similarities in the make-up of Whitecaps FC and Timbers next year, with both clubs likely to carry over a number of players from their current USSF D-2 Pro League squads. Though the talent pool of both teams includes players that can make a successful transition to MLS, it remains to be seen how many of those players will make the move up.
The build-up to MLS has also seen Vancouver and Portland take different approaches to formulating their squads. Since January, Whitecaps FC director of soccer operations Tommy Soehn has been hard at work with the early identification of talent from around the world. This resulted in 11 players being signed by the Blue and White during this summer's transfer window. They include defenders
Willis Forko
and
Alain Rochat
; midfielders
Davide Chiumiento
,
Terry Dunfield
,
Alex Elliott
,
Gershon Koffie
,
Alexandre Morfaw
, and
Kyle Porter
; as well as strikers
Cody Arnoux
,
Jonathan McDonald
, and
Ridge Mobulu
. These latest additions not only brought change to Vancouver's current squad, it set some preliminary groundwork towards the look of Whitecaps FC for their inaugural MLS season.
Down Interstate 5 in The City of Roses, Timbers technical director Gavin Wilkinson has also been in the process of a global talent search. So far, the former New Zealand international's efforts have resulted in the signing of Ghana U-20 international midfielder Kalif Alhassan, experienced Dutch striker Ibad Muhamadu, and former Toronto FC defender Kevin Goldthwaite. Though Portland were not as busy as the 'Caps in the last summer transfer window, Wilkinson is sure to have a list of players that he will look to unveil in a newly-renovated PGE Park next year.
Another big piece of squad building for Vancouver and Portland are the eight MLS player acquisition mechanisms, for which the priority was sorted amongst both clubs last month. Whitecaps FC will look to make the most of their top pick in the 2011 MLS SuperDraft and their top ranking for Allocation, USSF D-2 Priority, and Waiver/Re-entry. For the Timbers, their goal will be to make some important selections in the MLS Expansion Draft later this year, as well as use their top ranking for Designated Player, Discovery, and Lottery players.
With both clubs looking to achieve success from the start in MLS, the roads that Vancouver and Portland have taken to reaching those goals already look different. For fans and observers alike, the interesting part will be how those roads shape the early MLS existence of these two Pacific Northwest clubs.
