Lenarduzzi Speaks

Courtesy The Soccer Paper

LENARDUZZI SPEAKS ABOUT THE GALAXY GAME, NEXT SEASON, MLS EXPANSION and THE CSA
By Lucas Teodoro da Silva

We spoke to Bob Lenarduzzi, GM of the Vancouver Whitecaps, following their disappointing season in which the club fell from defending USL champions in both men’s and women’s categories to being knocked out in the first round of playoffs in men’s play and not qualifying for the post-season in women’s action.

SOCCER PAPER: David Beckham is going to be coming to Vancouver sometime in November. How are things going arranging the final date?

BOB LENARDUZZI: The rescheduled date was always going to be contingent on the [Los Angeles] Galaxy’s success and if in fact they could make the playoffs or not.

Four games ago, that looked highly unlikely, but since then they’ve won all four games.

So, we couldn’t confirm the date because we needed them to be officially eliminated from the playoffs, and so far that hasn¹t happened, and it seems that they might make the playoffs so it seems more like a late November date rather than an early November date.

How are the Whitecaps doing right now? Following a disappointing season and a coaching change, how is the team preparing for their upcoming match against the Galaxy?

Well, in spite of not having a head coach, [assistant coach] Todd Wawrousek has been charged with making sure that the players are in shape for the Galaxy game.

The players have been playing with players from the residency program. So, as far as the makeup of the squad, it’s going to look totally different from the squad at the end of the season.

We’re in the process of making decisions about players from last year’s squad, and at the same time there will be a lot of new faces that people will see well, maybe not a lot of new faces, but certainly more than perhaps people are expecting for the game against the Galaxy.

Where are these new faces coming from? Are the new players going to be young players coming up from the residency program, or are they new acquisitions from other clubs that you’re considering for next season?

Well, in terms of the residency program it’s a strong squad. The carrot for those players is that they might get themselves a spot on the roster for the Galaxy game so there’s that incentive for them. The other players we’re considering well, we don’t know if Seattle is playing in the USL next season, so players that are free agents could play. We’ll likely be using the game as a recruiting tool to see players we want to have a look at. We will be training for two weeks straight prior to the Galaxy game to prepare, so it’ll give us a good opportunity to look at players much sooner, perhaps, then we would have had the opportunity to do. We have the core of our players that are returning, but we¹re also looking to add to the roster.

As a Vancouver soccer fan, we’ve had a pretty busy year, with the FIFA U20 World Cup and all. But in terms of the health of Canadian soccer over-all, it’s been sort of a disappointing year. We had the CSA debacle with people quitting and suing and such, and the early exits of a scoreless men’s U20 team from a cup they were hosting and the disappointing finish of the national women’s team in the Women’s World Cup. Do you think the Galaxy game will help light the candle for soccer again in Vancouver? Is it more than a game?

It’s not much more than a game, quite frankly. With the match being rescheduled, our concern was, of course, how many people will be looking for refunds? However, even with the match being rescheduled, we¹re still over 40,000 sold. Only two percent of people requested refunds, and that was primarily because they were coming from out of town, and they couldn’t rearrange their schedule. Really, it’s an interest in Beckham, and I think it will help promote the health of the professional game.

In spite of all that you’ve just said, those things can be corrected on the men’s side, and on the women’s side as well, because one of our projects is to establish a residency program for women, so in doing so not only does it help our club, but we help the national team as well.

Recently, the three professional clubs, the Toronto FC, the Montreal Impact, [and the Whitecaps] met in Toronto in regards to taking a leadership role in the growth of the sport. That’ll include perhaps a cup competition between the three teams and they’re looking at what we’re doing here in Vancouver with the residency program and I think the other two clubs will likely look to do the same. If they do, what will happen then is, between the three clubs, you’ll have sixty players that will be essentially young professionals. That will enhance the success of our national team programs. I kind of look at it as the glass is half full. Poor results, no question, over the course of the last year by our national teams, but if you look at what the pro clubs are doing and what we’ve done in Vancouver with the residency program, investing upwards of a half-a-million dollars in that if Toronto and Montreal do that, that’s sixty players who are going to be immersed in the sport. That can only be a good thing.

Toronto FC have a stadium, filling it regularly with 20,000, Montreal are close to finishing their stadium that will be ready for next season, and we’re looking to build ours so the health of the pro game is probably as good as it’s ever been and we have solid ownership in each of the cities.

Ultimately, you can try to duplicate that through programming, which has been tried, but it’s no coincidence that the greatest success that our national teams have had was in 1986 when our national team, which I was a part of, qualified for the World Cup. That was because of the North American Soccer League [NASL]. There is a bright future that lies ahead and it¹s great to see the three clubs coming together to work towards the betterment of the game.

In terms of the development model that you’ve established how long is it until we see some of those young players from your very successful youth system start working their way into the Whitecaps roster?

I think what we’re doing right now with the residency program you’re going to see dividends as early as next year. Some of those players will see themselves on the Vancouver roster and some of them are going to be seeing some minutes. I think that if you look beneath the Jeff Clarkes and Steve Kindels and that age group, there’s a real void that has evolved. The players seem to be seeking other alternatives. With our residency program, we’ve got three very good players from Ontario and a very good player from Quebec, and it’s good to see that players are making this an option instead of simply going to Europe. I am very excited about the program we’ve started up. We have a five year plan, and at the end of five years, our idea is that a number of players on our roster will have come from our residency program.

What can fans look forward to for next year from the Whitecaps in terms of a fresh look at them?

You’re going to see different personnel. I can safely suggest that, having reviewed the roster. You’ll see a sprinkling of youth you’ll see some familiar players coming back like [Tony] Donatelli, like [Martin] Nash, like [Adrian] Cann, some of those kinds of players. We’re looking to upgrade at the centreback position, we’d like to add some punch up front we probably could do with a left-sided player. It’s an opportunity for us to reinvent ourselves. We had some success last year [winning the USL championship in 2006], but this year was a very disappointing year, and despite that we still made the playoffs. Our success is relative, because we expect to make the playoffs, but we went out in the first round and that was disappointing. I think that the fans can expect to see a new-look, new-approach team that will put a premium on giving 100% in each game and looking to entertain.

In terms of the style of play, are you looking to stick with the same system, or to change that as well?

Any system that results in goals being scored and playing to your strengths and a commitment to all-out attack, I think most fans will enjoy that. We don’t want to be kick-and-run, but I think it’s important to make a commitment to entertain.

Both the men’s and women’s sides were affected by the plans of the national teams last year the men went on the road for a month and the women as well, ended up playing games at UBC and Coquitlam and all sorts of alternate venues.Then the women lost key players to national team competition do you feel that more could be done to ensure that the CSA doesn’t step on your organization’s toes, or was all of that basically inevitable?It was inevitable. Obviously national team plans are established in advance. But we’d like to ensure that we have a hybrid plan, particularly on the women’s side, to ensure that the women are properly prepared for the Olympics and at the same time have the players available for as long as possible. On the men’s side, we’d be happy to do that road trip all over again, quite frankly, provided that people can benefit from watching the kind of soccer that they did at the Under-20 [World Cup] this summer. There’s a bigger picture there that you need to look at and accept. It may impact us in the short term, but what does it do for the game?The tournament being hosted in Vancouver was great for the game. It highlighted the game to an extent that a lot more people weighed in on the disappointment of the Canadian team than probably would have done had the tournament not been here. That’s not a bad thing. Whether you’re successful or not successful, you want people to care. Certainly, hosting the U-20s meant that people cared, and from a Whitecaps perspective, it’s the driving force behind player development because we want our national teams to do better.In that respect, it’s a disappointment that the Whitecaps didn’t do better this season, because it was a banner year for soccer in the city of Vancouver following the summer.

It’s a disappointment, but it’s also a by-product of what took place. It impacted our schedule. Do we want to be away for a month for as many road games as we were? No. But, if the game is being better promoted, then we’d do it again. I think you understand that things happen and we need to host the kind of tournaments that the U-20 provided because it’s good for the game. At the same time, if we do the things that we want to in terms of player development, then we’ll be talking in five year’s time about all the players we’ve produced.

I hadn’t planned to ask this, but you were talking earlier about cooperation with Toronto FC and it reminded me of the speech given two months ago by MLS commissioner Don Garber in which he mentioned possible expansion to a dozen or so cities, one of them being Vancouver. At the time, you noted that Vancouver was not engaging in any active talks with the MLS and no mainstream press has followed up with you since then. Knowing the developments going on in St. Louis and now Seattle towards possible expansion in the MLS, has Vancouver engaged in any talks with the MLS since August?

No and it’s for good reason. MLS is a moot point until we get ourselves a stadium. We need to get a commitment on the stadium and once we do, we can move forward accordingly. Ideally, the people that are interested in making decisions and need to know it’s in their hands. If they sit on them for too long, then maybe that opportunity, you know, isn’t there. We’re as interested as ever in building a stadium but we need approval from the various stakeholders, that being the Port of Vancouver and the City of Vancouver.

How much does it bother you, knowing that St. Louis is going for it, building a stadium, and Philidelphia’s in talks, and that sort of stuff and you’re sitting and waiting for other people?

Oh it’s frustrating. But at the same time, good things are worth waiting for. There’s no point in ranting and raving, we just need to get our heads down and continue to do what we¹re doing and put pressure on the people who can make it happen so that they can make the right decision.

If a fan wanted to get involved and urge the city to get this stadium built, how could they best go about doing that?

It’s letting the city know that they think that this would not only be a great soccer stadium and provide great opportunities for the sport, but it would also be a great venue for multiple events rugby, concerts, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and potentially tennis. It would be a jewel in downtown Vancouver, not only for soccer people, but people in general who love attending events would benefit from this not that we’re advocating picketing the city, but just reminding them that it’s a good idea.