BEHIND THE PLAY #37

Rise FC temperature gauge coming in October

The Whitecaps League 1 BC women’s team that has been playing CONCACAF W Champions Cup games, and advancing, will now take on two NWSL teams in October at BC Place. On Tuesday, October 1 they play San Diego Wave and then on the 15th the Portland Thorns come to town. This allows for some interesting data points for Rise FC, the new Vancouver-based Northern Super League (NSL) franchise.

While Rise FC is ostensibly a separate entity from the Whitecaps, the reality is that there are some ties and it is very likely that several of the players that have been parachuted into the League 1 team to help make them more competitive against their Champions Cup opponents from Panama, Mexico and the USA will be on the Rise FC roster next year.

Local clubs were sent an email last week promoting the games and providing an option to buy tickets. The seat map shows, not surprisingly, that the game against Portland has sold almost twice as many tickets. Keep in mind this will be the last time people will be able to see Christine Sinclair play (spoiler: she won’t be playing for Rise FC but is rumoured, strongly, to be taking up some sort of role with the club).

Back to the implications these games have for Rise FC. People at the Caps told me they’re hoping to get a bit more than 1000 people at the San Diego game and considerably more for the Portland game. Given these are two top NWSL teams there could end up being two takeaways from these games.

First of all consider that the Whitecaps lost their first game in this group stage to Atlas in Mexico. It was 7-0. Portland beat Atlas after that game 3-1 (in Portland). San Diego then beat Portland 3-2. Last year San Diego finished first in league play and Portland was second but this year Portland sit seventh and San Diego tenth. So these are mid-level NWSL teams this season.

If, and it’s a big if, the Whitecaps team that plays against these two teams does reasonably well, it an incredibly positive moment that the league and Rise can build off of. These are not pre-season friendles; this competition is a big deal. If they don’t it’s not the end of the world but it will be a clear reminder that getting top players for this league will be a real challenge.

That’s the first potential takeaway. The other is the crowd for the games. The Portland game has a clear selling point: Sinclair. The San Diego game does not and is sneaking up on people on a Tuesday after a long weekend. I touched on the fact that the breakthrough that the NSL has to manage is to move women’s soccer from what it has been: event-based through to being club-based. As I said in BTP #15, women’s soccer has to make the following progression: to go from occasion (World Cup, Olympics, Sinclair swan-song) to habit (season ticket holder) to priority (making an emotional and mental investment in the club, choosing it over other expenses and expenditures and, if allowed, to buy shares in it).

The difference in attendance will be a litmus test for where we are at on this continuum. The closer in number the crowds are, the healthier the situation is and Rise FC (and NSL in general) can take comfort that people are now coming to support a club and the general idea of women’s professional football and not just another event.

Does it help that both games are on a Tuesday night downtown in October? It does not but I’d suggest the following numbers are what the focus should be. If they can draw 2000 to San Diego off the back of limited marketing that will be a gate of about $50,000. While it would be nice to see 8,000+ ($200,000+ gate) at the Portland game it suggests there’s a big bridge to gulf still from both the club culture and financial perspectives. There won’t be Christine Sinclairs to drive attendance at NSL games. A crowd difference of only 2000 or less would, counter-intuitively, actually be the best thing that could come of these two games.

Playing soccer can make your kid a better driver

Yes, this is written in response to another day driving on Vancouver roads and seeing some real head shaking, dangerous stuff.

There’s many parallels between playing the game well and those abilities transferring from the field to the road. Consider the shouts you’ll hear a good coach give in training and games and how well they might work in a driving context.

“Scan the field!” Be aware of your surroundings. Constantly be scanning traffic ahead of you and checking your mirrors for cars to the side of you. Know where pedestrians and cyclists are.

“Talk to each other!” Communication extends to driving. While far too many see driving as a combat sport, it can and should be viewed as a cooperative effort. Use your turn signals early to show where you want to go and hope that informs positive behaviour from others who see where you want to go.

“Take the space!” To take the space you have to help create the space. Anticipate when you will need to turn, when you should accelerate to safely make it through an intersection and when you will need to slow down. Know when the pedestrian count down sign is getting close to seeing your light turn yellow. Once you see space in a game, you form a plan around how and when you want to use it; no different than when driving safely.

“Don’t play at one speed!” There’s a gas pedal and a brake pedal for a reason. Recognizing that these should not always be used in reaction to an event on the road but pro-actively as part of a plan at times is a great crossover from soccer and knowing when to slow play down or speed it up.

“Don’t put yourself before the team!” Recognize, as mentioned above, that showing a co-operative spirit on the road does not equate to being a doormat. It is not humiliating or emasculating to let someone merge in ahead of you. If everyone knew how to do this without stop/start driving and just kept moving while doing zipper merges we’d all get where we’re going a bit quicker.

“Be decisive!” This does not correlate to driving arrogantly or aggressively. It correlates to knowing where you’re going, know how you’re getting there and focus on that without distractions or being un-nverved by heavy traffic, busy intersections or how others are driving.

So there you go, another reason to have your kid play soccer through to at least the age where they are learning to drive. Now if we could just get Costco shoppers to sign up to play…