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With new head coach Carl Robinson at the helm, the Vancouver Whitecaps will look to get back into the MLS Western Conference playoff picture. Martin Jones Sharks Jersey . TSN soccer analyst Luke Wileman tells you everything you need to know about the 2014 Whitecaps, while TSN soccer analyst Jason deVos tells you how they will succeed or fail during the new campaign. Luke Wileman: After missing out on the playoffs in 2013, Vancouver Whitecaps have re-tooled ahead of the new season. They lost their leading scorer, Camilo, in controversial circumstances, but the Caps will enter the 2014 season with a stronger overall squad. The biggest change of the offseason was the departure of head coach Martin Rennie. After two years with the club, Rennies contract was not renewed, and after a long search, the Whitecaps promoted Carl Robinson from his role as assistant coach to take the top job. I said at the time that Robinson was the perfect choice. He already knew the inner workings of the club from his time on Rennies coaching staff, but has brought a fresh outlook. Robinson is heading into his rookie season as a head coach, and it will be a steep learning curve, but theres little doubt he is ready for the task ahead. The way he handled difficult situations during the offseason was superb, and his leadership and communication with players through preseason has earned him plenty of respect within the locker room. So what can we expect from Robinsons team? The Whitecaps coach has made no secret of the fact that he wants to play an attractive entertaining style of soccer. He has also said he wont be afraid to give youth a chance. Robinsons squad is young, but with experience in key areas throughout the team. In fact there is a strong veteran presence down the spine of the team with David Ousted in goal, Jay DeMerit and Andy OBrien at the back, Nigel Reo Coker in midfield and Kenny Miller up front. The Whitecaps have made some strong additions in the offseason but the biggest question mark is whether they will be able to replace the league-leading 22 goals scored by Camilo. There wont be one person who shoulders the responsibility of filling the void left by the Brazilian, it will need to be a team effort, and the way the squad has been built should help that to happen. Uruguyan duo Sebastian Fernandez and Nicolas Mezquida have shown evidence of their creativity and technical ability during preseason, and the expected arrival of Chilean attacking midfielder Pedro Morales from Spanish side Malaga will be a massive piece of the puzzle. Vancouver already has quality in attack. Keeping Kenny Miller fit is key for the Caps. It will also be interesting to see the development of youngsters Kekuta Manneh, Darren Mattocks, Erik Hurtado, Omar Salgado and Russell Teibert. All five of those players have the ability to contribute significantly to the Whitecaps attacking play. The Whitecaps added former MLS All-Star Steven Beitashour at right back to replace the retired YP Lee and have options in the central defensive positions with DeMerit and OBrien likely to be favoured to open the season, but Carlyle Mitchell, Johnny Leveron and draft pick Christian Dean all capable of stepping in at any time. With Carl Robinson likely to play a 4-2-3-1 formation, the two defensive midfield players will need to protect the back four but also start a lot of the Whitecaps play moving forward. On his day, Nigel Reo-Coker can be one of the top midfielders in the league, but Robinson will want to see more consistency from the Englishman this season dictating the play and getting box to box. One of the Whitecaps big offseason additions was young Argentine midfielder Matias Laba who arrived from Toronto FC. Hes a superb signing who will complement the qualities of Reo Coker. Laba is a destroyer. He breaks up the play and gets it going again in an effective manner. The defensive midfield pairing of Reo Coker and Laba could be particularly strong for the Whitecaps this season. Despite my view that the overall squad is better than a year ago, the Whitecaps wont find it easy to achieve their goal of making the playoffs in a Western Conference that is packed with quality. Last year, Vancouver improved on their points total from a year earlier, but didnt make it to the postseason. They improved, but not enough because the other teams around them had made bigger strides. This time around, the Whitecaps have made some significant changes. It might take them time to settle into their new identity, but it should be a fun ride. TSN Soccer analyst Jason deVos weighs in on how the Whitecaps will succeed or fail during the 2014 season. Jason deVos: Vancouver Whitecaps will succeed if… …the young guns come out firing. Rookie head coach Carl Robinson has a squad full of talented youngsters. Russell Teibert, Kekuta Manneh, Gershon Koffie, Omar Salgado, Darren Mattocks, Nicolás Mezquida, Matías Laba, Erik Hurtado, Andre Lewis and Sam Adekugbe are all under the age of 23. With youth comes inconsistency; an amazing performance one week, followed up by a flat one the next. If Robinson can get the young players to find a measure of consistency, the Whitecaps will fare far better than many predict this season. The reason for that is that this team is quick - and I mean, lightning fast. Mattocks, Manneh and Hurtado are whippets, and will win races against virtually every player in MLS. If the experienced players in the squad - Nigel Reo-Coker, Andy OBrien and Jay DeMerit - can shepherd the young players along the right path, the Whitecaps are going to surprise a few people this season. Vancouver Whitecaps will fail if… …they show up one week and not the next. Succeeding in professional soccer is all about finding a level of consistency from week to week. Reliability comes with experience - something that is severely lacking from this squad of players. The onus is on Robinson to set the standards of performance that he expects from all of his players. Experienced campaigners like Reo-Coker, OBrien and DeMerit wont be the issue - they know what they need to do to succeed in the game, and will rarely dip below a 7 out of 10 performance. It is the young players that need to learn this. They need to learn that you cannot turn it on one week, then not bother showing up the next. That will be Robinsons biggest challenge this season - getting a consistent level out of his talented crop of youngsters. If he can do that, this will be an exciting season for Whitecaps fans. If not, the Whitecaps will again fail to make the playoffs. 2013 finish: 13-12-9 (seventh in Western Conference). Did not qualify for MLS Cup playoffs. Whos In?: M Mehdi Ballouchy (Re-Entry Draft), D Steven Beitashour (traded from San Jose), M/F Sebastian Fernandez (loan from Boston River), M Matías Laba (trade from Toronto), M/F Nicolas Mezquida (transfer from Boston River), GK Paolo Tornaghi (signed). Whos Out?: GK Joe Cannon (option declined), M Jun Marques Davidson (option declined), F Tommy Heinemann (option declined), F Corey Hertzog (option declined), D Greg Klazura (option declined), GK Brad Knighton (traded to New England), M Daigo Kobayashi (option declined), D Lee Young-Pyo (retired), D Brad Rusin (option declined), F Camilo Sanvezzo (transfer to Queretaro), GK Simon Thomas (option declined). SuperDraft: D Christian Dean (1-3), MF Andre Lewis (1-7), F Mamadou Diouf (2-30). Logan Couture Sharks Jersey . The 10-horse field of 3-year-old pacers will leave the starting gate at approximately 10:14pm et. Co-owned and trained by David Menary, Hes Watching will be driven by Tim Tetrick and is the 5-1 fourth selection in the field. Joe Thornton Sharks Jersey . So heres what I do when I want to get into the baseball mood—I delve into "The Baseball Project".TSN Hockey Insiders Bob McKenzie, Pierre LeBrun and Darren Dreger gathered for the latest installment of Insider Trading and the topics discussed were the deal that sent Thomas Vanek to the Islanders, Rick DiPietros NHL future, the Dion Phaneuf contract negotiations and more. The Thomas Vanek trade to the Islanders was interesting enough, but even more intriguing is where Vanek could have gone. The Sabres did offer him to the Toronto Maple Leafs, but was the asking price too high? Darren Dreger: Yes. The Sabres were believed to be asking for a key forward from the Toronto Maple Leafs and financially the deal didnt work either, even though the Buffalo Sabres were willing to retain salary as they did in making the deal with the New York Islanders. Theyre believed to have retained somewhere between $1.3 and $1.4 million. It was not a fit for the Leafs, so the negotiation or conversation between Darcy Regier and Dave Nonis didnt take all that long. It was not a good fit from a player perspective, either, with Vanek being a winger. Pierre LeBrun: The other wrinkle that came out today from that deal was not only that the Islanders got Buffalo to eat some of the salary but also they got some protection on that first round pick that they sent to the Sabres, or at least perceived protection. If its a top-10 pick come June, they can defer for the Sabres to draft in 2015 instead, a decision that the Islanders can make at that draft. Who gets drafted in 2015? I think Connor McDavid … is that his name? Weve heard about him. So, really, to me, even if it is a top-10 pick for Garth Snow that hes giving away to the Sabres, I just dont know how you can defer that to 2015. James Duthie: Almost everybody wants to hold onto that pick, just in case theyre down there and, remember, every team that doesnt make the playoffs has a shot at that number one pick. What about Ryan Miller now? LeBrun: Hes the next big name that the Buffalo Sabres will move between now and the March 5 trade deadline, but right now theres just no real market. I spoke to Darcy Regier on Monday and he said that theres absolutely nothing going on that front right now. Thats going to change. At some point theres going to be a key injury to a top netminder or someones not going to play well, but right now that market is very soft. The team that I keep coming back to, guys, is the St. Louis Blues. I think if Jaroslav Halak - whos had a lot of injuries the last few years – gets hurt again or is not playing well, to me thats a perfect fit. But, right now Jaroslav Halak has been absolutely spectacular for the St. Louis Blues so right now theres no plan to change anything there. Meanwhile, another goalie is trying to get back to the NHL. Rick DiPietro got the second largest buyout in NHL history, $24 million. Hell never see that kind of money again, but will he get another shot in the NHL? Bob McKenzie: Its a possibility. The Carolina Hurricanes are having problems in net. Obviously, Cam Ward is out for the next few weeks with an injury and Anton Khudobin is out for at least another week. David Schlemko Jersey. So, they signed DiPietro to an AHL tryout contract on the weekend and whats going to happen now is that they want to see him in action. On Wednesday and Thursday night, DiPietro is scheduled to play for the Charlotte Checkers in the American Hockey league, on the road in Grand Rapids and Rockford. How he performs in those games, coupled with how Justin Peters plays for the Hurricanes in their next game against the Tampa Bay Lightning on Friday night will determine how quickly or if Rick DiPietro can get back up. If he has two games where hes really good in the American Hockey League and Peters stumbles at all, then the Hurricanes would look at putting DiPietro on an NHL contract. Theyre doing the same thing with Manny Malhotra, but they would probably need an injury before they could open up a roster spot for him. Five of the Montreal Canadiens six top defencemen will be without a contract at the end of this season. So, what is Marc Bergevins game plan? McKenzie: The high profile guys are obviously P.K. Subban, the one restricted free agent and then youve got Andrei Markov, Raphael Diaz, Francis Bouillon and Alexei Emelin. It might surprise some people that Emelin of that group - whos not even in the line-up, hes out with an ACL injury and probably wont be back until Christmas or later – is the guy thats probably first up and most likely to get a deal done in the next little while. Nothings done to this point, but the conversations are headed in that direction and it could get done fairly soon. Everybodys talking about Dion Phaneuf in Toronto. What are we looking at, in terms of size of that contract and length? LeBrun: First of all, no numbers have been exchanged between the two sides. They had a brief meeting last week, just to sort of set up the timetable over the next month. I dont think the Leafs are comfortable going north of $7 million, hes making $6.5 million this year, but the term will be interesting. I would suspect that Newport Sports Management would start at eight years and that the Leafs would be more comfortable at six and at some point youve got to find the middle. Two months from now, Canada will be in the midst of group play at the World Junior Hockey Championship in Sweden. Are we likely to see Sean Monahan, Morgan Rielly, Mathew Dumba and guys like that making the trip? Dreger: It all depends on the flexibility that Hockey Canada presents. Its been strong policy that all players invited to training camp need to be there at the start of camp on Dec. 13, but theres policy in place that could be changed by the policy committee so that those NHL players like Monahan, Rielly, Dumba or Washington Capitals forward Tom Wilson could come in late, perhaps as late in certain situations as the exhibition run in late December. Cheap NFL JerseysCheap NFL Jerseys ChinaCheap Jerseys From ChinaCheap NFL Jerseys AuthenticWholesale Jerseys ChinaCheap NFL Jerseys ChinaNFL Cheap Jerseys ' ' '
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