Vancouver Whitecaps FC

2005 season
Chairman	Greg Kerfoot
Head coach	Bob Lilley
USL First Division	3rd
USL–1 Playoffs	Play-In Round
Voyageurs Cup	2nd
Highest home attendance	6,192 Sept 11 vs MTL
Lowest home attendance	2,440 July 9 (Apple Bowl) vs POR
Average home league attendance	5,102
Home colours Away colours
← 2004 2006 →

The 2005 Vancouver Whitecaps FC season was the club's 19th year of play (or 29th if counting the NASL Whitecaps), as well as their 13th as a Division 2 club in the franchise model of US-based soccer leagues. They played in the now defunct USL First Division which in 2005 was rebranded from A-League and was the highest level of Canadian club soccer. 2005 was Bob Lilley's first season as head coach after Tony Fonseca was released to take on the new District Development Centre Technical Director position with the BCSA. ^[1] Under Tony Fonseca the Whitecaps had playoffs qualifications three straight years and advanced to the semifinals once. Part of the re-organization of BC youth soccer involved the Whitecaps expanding their youth program to ten Super Y League teams. The Whitecaps were one of only a few US or Canadian clubs with a complete youth system. MLS teams in 2005 did not have as extensive a club structure. ^[2]

They started the season strongly going undefeated in their first six matches. The Whitecaps were hard to beat all year and finished third in the league table. This was the ninth consecutive playoff appearance for the Whitecaps. In the playoffs Vancouver had a play-in round series against Richmond Kickers and couldn't find a way to score with both legs of the series finishing 0-0, the Kickers advanced on penalty kicks. Jason Jordan was named league most value player with seventeen goals. ^[3]

The name of the league was not the only thing that changed in 2005, so did the league format, from two conferences to a single table. The schedule was not balanced; it was home and away against every team in the league with additional matches against Seattle, Portland, and Minnesota. Head to head results were the first tie-breaker. Average attendance increased for the fourth year in a row and was above 5,000 for the first time since 2001. ^[4] Three double-headers were played with the Whitecaps Women of the USL W-League.

Off the field, 2005 was the first year (counting NASL Whitecaps) since 1984 that all home and away games had live radio broadcasts. The games had a thirty-minute pre and post game show, and the AM sports radio station also carried a sixty-minute weekly soccer program early Saturday mornings. ^[5] The Whitecaps featured on a weekly local soccer show on Saturday at 2 p.m. as well as on Fox Soccer World twice via the United Soccer League agreement for sixteen weeks of coverage June 17 to October 1. ^[6] The partnership with the BCSA for the mid-season friendly with Sunderland A.F.C. was also a success with the largest crowd in five years – 6,857 watching the Whitecaps win 3 – 0. ^[7] The Whitecaps played one of their double headers (Women's and Men's teams) at the Apple Bowl in Kelowna, BC on July 9, 2005. The club also unveiled renderings and details of its Whitecaps Waterfront Stadium proposal publicly on October 13, 2005. ^[8] They also had plans announced in 2004, for a training centre for their men's, women's, and youth teams to be shared with the Canadian Women's National Team at Simon Fraser University that had been on hold other than artificial turf field upgrades. ^[9]

League Tables

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Montreal Impact	28	18	3	7	37	15	+22	61	Commissioner's Cup, bye to semifinal round of playoffs
2	Rochester Raging Rhinos	28	15	7	6	45	27	+18	51	Bye to semifinal round of playoffs
3	Vancouver Whitecaps	28	12	7	9	37	21	+16	45	First round of playoffs
4	Seattle Sounders (C)	28	11	6	11	33	25	+8	44
5	Portland Timbers	28	10	9	9	40	42	−2	39 [a]
6	Richmond Kickers	28	10	9	9	28	30	−2	39 [a]
7	Puerto Rico Islanders	28	10	10	8	46	43	+3	38
8	Atlanta Silverbacks	28	10	15	3	40	52	−12	33
9	Charleston Battery	28	9	14	5	27	36	−9	32
10	Minnesota Thunder	28	7	11	10	37	42	−5	31
11	Virginia Beach Mariners	28	7	14	7	26	39	−13	28
12	Toronto Lynx	28	3	17	8	26	50	−24	17

Expanded Table

Overall								Home						Away
Pld	Pts	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD	W	L	T	GF	GA	GD
28	45	12	7	9	36	21	+15	9	1	4	26	7	+19	3	6	5	10	14	−4

Last updated: April 26, 2006
Source: uslsoccer.com
Pld = Matches played; Pts = Points; W = Matches won; T = Matches tied; L = Matches lost; GF = Goals for; GA = Goals against; GD = Goal difference

Pre-season

  Win   Draw   Loss

The Whitecaps opened their four-week training camp on March 25, 2005 at Surrey's Newton Athletic Park although most sessions were at Simon Fraser University's Terry Fox Field. ^{[10] [11]} The preseason schedule was announced March 1, 2005. ^[12] Note no record can be found of the first match listed and archived whitecapsfc.com headlines imply the match was cancelled.

USL-1

Results by round

April

May

June

July

August

September

Post-season

Play-in Round

Voyageurs Cup

Prior to 2008, from when it has been awarded to the Canadian Championship winners, the men's title was decided on regular-season matches between Canada's USL First Division sides.

Pos	Team v t e	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts
1	Montreal Impact	4	4	0	0	5	1	+4	12
2	Vancouver Whitecaps FC	4	1	1	2	1	2	−1	4
3	Toronto Lynx	4	0	1	3	1	4	−3	1

Cascadia Cup

Standings

Team v t e	Pld	W	L	D	GF	GA	GD	Pts
Vancouver Whitecaps	8	2	0	6	10	5	+5	12
Portland Timbers	8	2	3	3	10	15	−5	9
Seattle Sounders (U)	8	1	2	5	7	7	0	8

Mid-Season Friendly

Sunderland A.F.C. did a preseason tour with matches against the Vancouver Whitecaps, Seattle Sounders, and Portland Timbers from July 16 – 23, 2005. ^[14]

Staff

• President – John Rocha
• General Manager – Bob Lenarduzzi
• Office Manager – Lindsay Puchlik
• Communication Manager – Nathan Vanstone
• Director Sales and Marketing – Rick Ramsbottom
• Men's Head Coach – Bob Lilley
• Men's Assistant Coach – Michael Toshack
• Reserve Team Men's Head Coach –
• Women's Head Coach – Patrick Rohla
• Reserve Team Women's Head Coach –
• Director Youth Operations – Dan Lenarduzzi

Current roster

The Whitecaps released 2004 rookie defender Justin Thompson, eight year Whitecap veteran forward Oliver Heald, and defender Nico Craveiro. Justin Thompson played in Europe before playing two seasons for rival Portland Timbers.

The Whitecaps signed Canadian international defender Mark Watson in December 2004. Midfielder Steve Klein was also signed in the offseason. At the end of the season, Nick Dasovic, Chris and Mike Franks, and Kevin Harmse all moved on from the Whitecaps.

Jason Jordan scored seventeen goals to win the USL-1 golden boot while Martin Nash was ninth in assists with five and played in every game of the year. ^[15]

References