March 19, 2011.
It's a day that will forever be etched in the memory of Vancouver Whitecaps FC fans.
The day it all began.
The day Whitecaps FC played their inaugural match in Major League Soccer, kicking off a new era of soccer in Vancouver.
- WATCH A FULL REPLAY OF THE MATCH AT 7 PM PT TONIGHT ON TSN1
To celebrate the anniversary of this memorable occasion, whitecapsfc.com caught up with Jay DeMerit (the club's inaugural MLS captain), Terry Dunfield (a Vancouver native who scored on the day), and Russell Teibert (a Whitecaps FC BMO Academy System product who started the match as an 18-year-old and remains with the club to this day) to recount the day.
Over to you, guys.
DeMerit: People were excited, the streets were filled with Whitecaps flags and people cared, people really, really cared about what was about to happen. Vancouver’s a great sports city, there’s no doubt about that. When the hype is real in Vancouver, the hype is real. The Whitecaps were hyped.
Dunfield: I thought the marketing team had done a fantastic job on the 30-day countdown. Bryan Adams was heading balls, Trevor Linden and Lui Passaglia were involved, there was a 3D projection of myself and the team on buildings. It was almost like a soccer advent calendar leading up to the game.
Teibert: I just remember the hype around the city and what it meant for the city to have an MLS team in Vancouver. Going to sleep the night before was a little bit difficult with all the excitement, the nervousness being my first professional game in MLS, and just the excitement of wanting to play in front of the fans of Vancouver. My dream was to play at Swangard Stadium when the ‘Caps were in the USL. That was in front of 5,000 people. I thought that was a lot of people. And I heard how many people were going to be at Empire, that it was going to be sold out, I just couldn’t wait to play my first game in front of the big crowd.
DeMerit: We had a wide mix of players from all over the world and a couple of guys that came through that the fans already knew. We are playing in an environment that was kind of created all by itself. With the history to be told. I think I remember there was this tagline: “Where will you be March 19?” and people getting excited about that. It was kind of great to see because that was the plan and it worked.
Dunfield: I lived in False Creek so every morning before a home game I’d go for a walk and I didn’t really know what to expect. You kind of see BC Place in the horizon, you're walking past the boats, you're visualizing how the day is going to go, maybe doing a press conference after having won the inaugural game for the Vancouver Whitecaps in MLS. I wasn't too sure what to expect, which was kind of exciting and I could feel my senses really starting to tingle.
Teibert: I remember the forecast, it was actually supposed to be a rainy day and I think everybody was preparing for that. They even gave out ponchos because of the forecast, it was supposed to pour. But it turned out to be a beautiful day.
Dunfield: I remember Bob Lenarduzzi saying that the sun might shine and if it shines, that could be a good omen that it could be our day. I think the players really bought into that analogy. Even going into that walk in the morning I remember the sun touching the boats on the harbour and yeah there was a feeling that it could be a special day.
DeMerit: I think because it was against a Canadian team, I think that made it extra special, and I think there was always that hidden rivalry which wasn’t fully created yet, between Toronto and Vancouver. The players felt that, I felt that.
Dunfield: We had worked really hard all preseason to get ready for the game, but nothing had prepared me for when I pulled up in the car on March 19. It was incredible. The hairs on the back of my neck are standing up now as I say this. It was a sea of over 20,000 of white and blue walking into the game and I remember driving past everyone from downtown going, “Holy, this is incredible.” And then I get to the parking lot and I'm brought right back down to earth. I remember parking beside Eric Hassli, who had this crazy Batmobile Mercedes SLR. I didn't even know the doors kind of opened up like the car from Back to the Future and he actually told me to move over in front of all the fans because I blocked him and Davide. But yeah, it was just a sea of white and blue, tons of smiles. And it was really cool to see the mountains there in the background.
DeMerit: I loved Empire because when I think about it even now, moving into entrepreneurship, it’s a start-up. The dim light, the press conferences with the three lights on and stuff, for me it was kind of a start of this new MLS club and this is what we had to do in the beginning. I remember the stairwell, there was this kind of crickety metal stairwell, which I liked. Again, I think it worked. Everyone was like “This is all part of it.” I think the Whitecaps did a fantastic job creating an environment where they were making people feel like they were part of something special and new. I think that showed in how we walked out, to the drum ceremony, the fireworks, and some of the other stuff that went on.
Dunfield: I remember walking out of the tunnel, the anthem, and I remember actually standing there in the tunnel and rather than taking it all in, I just wanted to play. My muscles were twitching. Coming into the game, I’ll never forget that moment where I was like okay, “let’s get it on” and that was when Jay DeMerit clattered their centre forward maybe five or six minutes into the game. Our captain clattered their nine and I was like, “Alright, here we go.”
DeMerit: I remember the game was kind of like a wave. It started like, “Okay we’ll keep the crowd in it, we’ll keep them excited.” It was probably a little bit nervy in the beginning. But then we got our goal.
Teibert: I remember making a run to the near post, a cross came over top and then it fell to Hassli’s feet. It has to be one of the hardest shots I’ve ever seen as a professional. I remember him hitting the back of the net and just running over to him trying to climb up the back of his shoulders celebrating. It was so much emotion, so much excitement, so much passion, so much energy, the entire stadium was echoed by that goal, people were throwing the ponchos onto the field, it was truly special.
DeMerit: It was just this really funny thing because we didn’t really know what they were at the start. We were all like, “What are these big white blocks being thrown at us?” Then all of a sudden everyone is starting to look at each other and we see people throwing them on the field. It was very, “We can do whatever we want right now,” which I thought was cool. The first couple of times we could just kick them off. But by the time Dunfield scored, it was just this rain of white bricks.
Dunfield: We had a little genius in our team back in 2011, Davide Chiumiento. Some players you have chemistry with and it just happens naturally and I had a chemistry with Davide. As soon as he picked up the ball, you knew to just get on your bike and start running because he was going to find you. I noticed Eric Hassli had dropped deep, so there was some space in behind, I ran off Nathan Sturgis and it just sat there, beautifully for me to hit. I wish I'd done it more in my career and again it was like something off the training ground, it was another pattern we'd worked on. And then finally I lost all that composure, I lost my head, I just wanted to celebrate with my family, my friends, the fans. It was just such a special moment and then to see now Whitecaps legend Russell Teibert jump on me in there it was just so special. It was one of the best moments of my life jumping in the crowd.
Teibert: I remember following him there, being in the stands there with him. It was kind of cool because that was my first experience as a professional soccer player, first real opportunity to play in front of a lot of fans, and first time waking up the next morning seeing myself in The Province. I remember the article and the paper, it was Terry and I on the front page with the fans. They’re memories that are close to my heart for sure.
DeMerit: Once those ponchos started raining in again, it was this whole scene of craziness, but awesome because there was only going to be one winner then.
The ‘Caps entered halftime with a 2-1 lead and added a third goal in the 64th minute through Atiba Harris and a fourth through Hassli, eventually winning the match 4-2.
Teibert: Honestly one of the best feelings I’ve had in my career. Again, just all the emotion, all the build-up, all the hype. It was almost surreal in a way that the last game I played was in front of a handful of people, which my parents were watching up at SFU. Then fast forward two months later, pre-season games, you get your first take on what to expect as a professional athlete, then performing in front of thousands of people. I remember just the pure joy from my parents and family members calling, texting and emailing. I think it was maybe Skype at that time, maybe it was FaceTime, I don’t know, but seeing phone calls, just how happy everybody was for the Whitecaps, for myself. It was a perfect day, it really was a perfect day.
Dunfield: I was numb to be honest, I was numb for 30 days. It was a lot of emotion, it was a lot of work that had gone into that day. I signed the summer before and it was almost 10 months of work that had gone into March 19. The best way I could describe it is I was numb like I didn't have a drink, I didn't have a beer, I didn't celebrate. It was a strange feeling but such a nice one. My family had flown in from all over Canada to see the game and to spend the next day with them was cool. There’s a nice picture of the team and the fans in The Province, but it probably didn't really sink in until a few years later. It was something I never thought would happen in Vancouver as a boy. My family were season ticket holders to the Vancouver 86ers, we’d go to Swangard, I never deep down really thought that the game in Vancouver and Canada would grow, to the levels of almost 25,000 people packing into Empire to watch the Vancouver Whitecaps play in MLS.
DeMerit: It’s just like this feeling of gratitude. When you put your mind and effort into things and it’s a team effort and everyone does their part, then these types of things happen. Sometimes people are like, “I can’t believe this just happened? and then I’m always one of the mindsets that go, "You can’t? This is totally what I believed was supposed to happen." This is what we hoped would happen and it did. There’s a feeling of achievement that comes with that for sure.
Dunfield: We were able to connect with the fans and we were really playing for the city and it was just too bad it wasn't able to last longer. Having said all that, March 19 is a special day that no one will ever be able to take away from the fans, the staff, and players of the Vancouver Whitecaps and hopefully there are more games like that to come.
