nolando

All three Canadians in the starting lineup for Orlando tonight

But just to be clear, we took the high ground to throw things at you.

A couple of my friends taught him in grade school. They say he is an outstanding young man from a great family. Best of luck to him. Nice when good things happen to good people. Thanks to @pöhelö and please keep us posted.

Yeah in a single match, I'm sure several La Liga teams have outpossessed Barca. But over a full season, the highest avg possession figure Rayo Vallecano - or the other small Spanish club that generally plays possession based, Las Palmas have had - was "only" below 57%. Or that is what Whoscored tells me at least? So in that sense I think our system was even more extreme. 
Traditionally the club has neglected its own junior teams so the players haven't generally been good enough for the top division level & VPS have had to steal the local players from the other clubs around age 20. But for a couple of the last years the VPS junior teams, too, are adopting a similar-ish Vuorinen influenced philosophy that puts weight on ball control and player development instead of the result itself, and already it seems to be paying off a bit, yesterday in the opening 11 there were 3 young guys from VPS' own academy including the goal scorer. 
What do the fans want to see, though, is a more difficult question. The general sentiment in the stands seems to be very divided in that, while us younger fans are generally more understanding to a structured, possession based game (although it can get frustrating to anyone when it goes wrong and we get 0 shots in a game...), the old fellas who have watched the team for a long time are usually up in the arms and screaming at the head coach every time the ball is passed laterally or, heaven forbid, back to the GK.
He was called to a U21 camp in January where they played an unofficial game against a club team, yes. Don't think Häkkinen has any caps with Canada so it doesn't tie his final adults team choice yet even if he plays an official U21 match for Finland? 
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So finally about the game. VPS beat KuPS 1-0 which was a very good game and result for us, and Häkkinen played the full 90 in the central defense. The 1 thing that struck me was how surprisingly assured he was with the ball already in his debut, not afraid to go for the more difficult pass option and play forward quickly, which allowed us to make some rapid attacks in a couple of instances. 
While it was not perfect game by Jonas by any means, as he lost a couple of physical battles due to his lighter build - the way he looked confident and very much gelled with the team in his first game created a lot of positive sentiment amongst the fans, with nearly everybody agreeing that it looks like he could become a very good player for us. 
On the flipside, Jonas' haircut has already attracted considerable criticism. (It's genuinely terrible.)

A couple of my friends taught him in grade school. They say he is an outstanding young man from a great family. Best of luck to him. Nice when good things happen to good people. Thanks to @pöhelö and please keep us posted.

A couple of my friends taught him in grade school. They say he is an outstanding young man from a great family. Best of luck to him. Nice when good things happen to good people. Thanks to @pöhelö and please keep us posted.

So in a couple of hours VPS are gonna play their 2nd game in the Finnish Cup group stage, and since Jonas Häkkinen's paperwork is finally done (it wasn't for the first game...) it also probably means that he's gonna make his debut tonight, possibly from the bench but still. I will be watching him today and post a report later in the other thread. 
Now to make this news a bit more interesting to you I'm gonna post a medium sized wall of background as to what kind of club Jonas has arrived in from Vancouver. 
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So VPS are a Finnish top flight club who come from a city in the West Coast that starts with V. But that is as far as the similarities with Vaasa and Vancouver go as while 70k is a good mid-sized town in Finnish standards, Vancouver kinda shades it in comparison. 
For a long while VPS were just a run of the mill club, traditionally playing long ball football, for most of the time aiming just to survive in the top division and never winning a title since the 40's. So essentially we were one very boring team for any outsider to follow & was justifiably nothing to get excited about when some earlier Canucks played for us (Andrew Barsalona 2014 and Tomer Chencinski 2011). 
But everything changed when the long time assistant manager named Petri Vuorinen rescued the team from relegation in 2015 and was named the head coach before 2016. He decided to change around the entire philosophy of the team, and VPS were suddenly playing very much a possession based game. Along with a renovated stadium with a smooth artificial pitch replacing the old, bumpy stadium mid season, Vuorinen's 4-2-3-1 format genuinely worked and we were actually quite close to title that year. 
So along came 2017 and Vuorinen decided to take his system one step further. Some young coaches were recruited from Portugal to assist Vuorinen, he changed the system to 3-5-2 and turned the football absolutely crazy. Tall defenders who, prior to VPS never looked like they had any business passing the ball, were now passing the ball A LOT. Like, genuinely A LOT. Between the goalkeepers and the 3 stoppers VPS just wouldn't give the ball away, but even under intense pressure from the opposition team, would just pass the ball amongst each other, seemingly more afraid of losing the ball than conceding goals. 
I genuinely believe Vuorinen's system has no precedent in the history of football amongst teams that are not dominant, because when you're a small club and have shite players it just doesn't make any sense to play like Barcelona. But Vuorinen thought otherwise and thought he can develop any lanky tall defenders into Gerard Pique, small young midfield prospects into Xavi and journeymen wingers into Messi. And now put your Swansea example back in your bag, I'm genuinely not exaggerating when I say "no precedent" and "like Barcelona". We ended that season with an average possession of 63.3%, breaking the 70% figure many times. We also had over 600 successful passes a game and almost broke 1000 in one game. Out of ALL clubs in Europe in 2017, only Bayern Munich had higher avg figures in their league than us. Barcelona was 3rd, PSG 4th and City 5th. 
And for the first half of 2017, this....worked. The players genuinely adopted the system in time for the league started, and time and again even stronger opposition teams would be surprised by the system, not knowing at all how to combat "Vepsulona" because usually the worse team doesn't keep the ball. Of course we would still sometimes concede silly goals, losing possession in the ever-going rondo in our own penalty box, but regardless of them mid-summer we found ourselves 2nd in the league standings, and in Europa League qualifiers we surprised the 10 times richer and larger Olimpija Ljubljana 1-0, 0-1; they clearly hadn't scouted us and didn't know what hit them when the VPS carousel set off and left them looking like a low league club. And the 30 times larger Bröndby that was our next opponent beat us 2-0 at their home but at our stadium we had the advantage of a smooth artificial pitch. We took the control of the game from the first whistle, scored an early 1-0, the entire stadium if not the city was pumped and bouncing... and then our GK scored a ridiculous own goal from a corner. So we won 2-1 anyway but was not enough. 
Then after the disappointment opposition teams finally learned to combat us in the league too and we hit a rapid downward spiral, not winning in 13 games a row or something. And the way we played suddenly looked absolutely horrible and frustrating, as understandably when a possession based football goes wrong, it looks like the players aren't even trying so we dropped to midfield in the league eventually.
So after the disastrous end to the season, Vuorinen was forced to tone the Barcelona aspect down for 2018 and we had a bit of a "meh" season with a bit of a mishmash playing system, with some signs of the ball playing defensework retained, but the formation reverted back to 4-5-1 and some counter attacks attempted. We still finished 6th but after all this, Vuorinen has now attracted a lot of criticism for refusing to go back to the long ball system. 
So now we're in 2019, and unfortunately the new stadium has turned out to be very expensive to maintain and the cashflow isn't what it used to be. We've had to offload many important players, have a lot of injuries and only got a GK just before the first game, so people are expecting us to fight against the relegation mostly. Now I know Häkkinen has also played in the central midfield in the past, but that position has enough players as it is. Whereas apart from Jonas the club has 2 serious stoppers right now. One of them is Timi Lahti who is something of a club legend by now and will not give away his spot in the first 11 any time soon, but the other is the young Eero Auvinen, who didn't really impress last year nor in the first game. So at least the fans are counting on Häkkinen a lot & expecting the young Vancouverian to impress and perhaps even claim the other spot in the opening 11.
Finally, below there is a nice video made by Copa90 about our club & how it is for a foreign footballer to settle in here (albeit from before the new system): 
 
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Tl;dr? In short - Jonas' new club might be fighting against relegation this year, but the club now counts on Jonas a lot because of financial reasons & still have knowledgeable coaches who believe in player development, and the playing system which likely still relies a lot on the defenders' on the ball skills which, hopefully is going to improve Jonas's skills. So I hope it's a good place for him. 

Finished in 7th last year in the top flight. Nice move up for Boakai, hopefully he can get his career back on track.

I believe this sums up all the moves for the week.
Fraser Aird (23) loaned from Dundee United to Queen of the South in the Scottish Championship.
Rocco Romeo (18) loaned from TFC to HB Koge in the Danish 2nd tier.
Liam Millar (19) loaned from Liverpool to Kilmarnock in the Scottish Premiership.
Ballou Tabla (19) loaned from Barcelona to Albacete in La Liga 2.
Adonijah Reid (19) signs Le Havre Ac in Ligue 2.
Will include Zorhan Bassong because he is still eligible for us. (19) transfers to Cercle Bruges of the Belgium 1st tier.
That is a lot of young Canadian talent, imagine it will only increase with the CPL starting!!
While looking at Le Havre wiki page noticed that they have a 17 year old Canadian goalie playing on their reserve squad. Nikola Curcija, anyone know anything about him?

Hanson Boakai has moved on to Inter Turku 
 

@nichoprasad FollowFollow @nichoprasad More Delighted to announce that I have begun a new chapter of my football career with @spvggbayreuth in Germany. Many thanks to the @WhitecapsFC and @seattleumsoc coaches that have supported me thus far. I am very grateful to be able to continue living out my dream.
1:58 PM - 11 Jul 2018  

What I think, he was just signed by Cadiz. A left back, left-footed, they say he can also play CB. Unlikely to get more bites with the Dutch national team. Born in Brazil and Brazil-Dutch nationality. So not sure if he holds CDN as well. 

Opare is a Canadian citizen who wants to play for Canada. For me that is enough to warrant being interested in him and following his career even if FIFA regulations prevent him from ever playing for Canada.

A former Coquitlam Metro player. Apparently, Mobilio was a coach/ role model: http://www.cmfsc.ca/domenic-mobilio-tribute/salvatore-angela-brando-amp-cristiano-ciccone
Italian articles mostly just mentioning his signing: http://www.messinasportiva.it/rescindera-anche-cristiano-ciccone-catania-tre-pedine-cambio-pozzebon/
http://www.cornermessina.it/messina-ufficiali-capua-rafati-e-ciccone-vicino-laccordo-con-marseglia-7048
His twitter : https://mobile.twitter.com/cristianoc16?lang=en
 
 

According to the Orlando Sentinel, Will Johnson has signed a two year deal with Orlando City, expected to be announced Friday.
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/sports/orlando-city-lions/on-the-pitch/os-orlando-city-agrees-to-deal-with-former-toronto-midfielder-will-johnson-20161221-story.html

No - he needs to lay off the brakes, step it up and get back to where he was.

Yes, but until he plays an official match for us we can't afford to be complacent. A 22 yr old playing well domestically in Romania would draw the attention of some of their big clubs and their NT staff would likely start courting him too. If we crash out in the next 2 weeks our only official matches for the next 3 years will be next summer's GC. So there's nothing paranoid about keeping a close eye on the guy.

Good move if he can break into the starting XI. Augsburg has not been a good situation, the jump from Regionalliga (4th tier) with the reserves to B1 is huge.
Stanese is eligible for Romania and i believe has already been approached by their U21/23 program a couple of years ago. We need to keep in close contact and bring him in as soon as he's racking up minutes and doing well.

LMAO, these guys are clueless. 

^ Imagine Ricketts being short. That's Edwini-Bonsu.

Typically discussion was always kept to a minimum in this thread over the years. If discussion was warranted posters were encouraged to start a new thread, such as "Derek Cornelius trialing at Terek Grozny". That way new info. relating to a player would not get lost in the clutter of a few pages of new posts in a short time span. It makes sense imo.

Hey, what do you guys think about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict?

I never said Germany is a terrible place to live or that neo-Nazis are everywhere. LOK Leipzig games have a large number of neo-Nazis, but they make up a very low percentage of the overall Leipzig population. What I am saying is having lived in both Germany and Russia both have good and bad qualities and that your presentation of nice Lubeck versus horrible Grozny is not accurate nor do you seem to have much of a background to make such a judgement. Yes the standard of living is much higher in Germany but we are not talking about him going to Grozny and earning a typical Russian salary but rather of him going there and earning a much higher salary than he would in the German 4th division and the opportunity to earn very large sums of money in the future if he is successful. And personally if I were to earn the same salary I would choose to live in Russia over Germany but if living in Russia meant earning a typical Russian salary I would choose Germany. And Grozny would not be high on my list of Russian cities I want to live in due to the problems of the past and the possibility they could start again but if I had the type of career opportunity Cornelius will be offered if they sign him then I would certainly consider moving there.
As for Kadyrov, you can be sure you will never hear one good thing about him in any article or documentary in our Western "free press". Yet 10 to 15 years ago Chechnya was in a similar state to what Syria is now in and seemed a problem without solution but now is mostly rebuilt and stable. Kadyrov may indeed be doing some bad things to achieve this stability but for the vast majority of Chechens life is far better. A Kadyrov in Syria would be far better to the current situation just like Hussein, Ghadafy and Assad were not great guys but are far better than what the West has brought to those countries with our promotion/exportation of "democracy" and "human rights" that has mostly been a front for military conquest and exploitation.
As to the Russian system, just like most countries in Europe they have a pyramid. They also have a large population and money in soccer so the level does not drop as rapidly as in many of the other European countries that aren't England, Spain, Italy, Germany and France. The reserve teams play a system where they travel with the first club and play a match against the club's opponent usually the day before the first team match. The 2nd division is still pretty strong, a bit better than the 3rd Bundesliga and must pay decently as well because there are still quite a few foreigners playing there. Also both divisions have a lot of players from the former Soviet Union countries, Eastern Europe, South America, Africa and also places like Iran. Many of these players never play in the West and are not EPL or La Liga level but a lot of them are pretty solid players even if unfamiliar to us. At 3rd division level it gets regional and the level drops and I suspect there is a big drop in pay as well since there are mostly Russia players. It would still be as good as the level in Lubeck though. There is also a lot of relation between the Russian leagues and many of the other Eastern European leagues. DiChiara went through the system and after things did not work out at Samara transferred to Hungary and then the Russian 2nd tier. He finally did not make it but he certainly was given an opportunity. Also given that Cornelius seems to be on good terms still with Lubeck and they are not opposing a transfer there is no reason he would be either required to stay in Russia or could not return to Germany if things do not work out with Terek. If he does not make it at Terek he is not going to drop of the map of football unless he does not have the talent to become a professional. Terek also has a lot of foreigners on its squad including Australian internation Luke Wilkshire who just transferred there from Feyernoord. He played several years previously for Dinamo Moscow so also has played games in Grozny before and knows what the situation is so I think if it was so terrible a guy like Wilkshire would not sign there.
Terek finished their 2nd stage of training camp in Malta yesterday with a friendly against a Maltese team that Cornelius did not play in. The opposition was weaker and Terek started a weaker lineup as well and only won 1-0 so not sure what the significance was of Cornelius not playing. They will start the 3rd stage in Italy in a few days so it will be interesting to see if he is invited to that stage. Even if the trial is not successful it has to be a very good experience for him at 18 years old to train and play several games with a first division Russian team against at times pretty decent teams much higher than those he would face in German 4th division. Plus he has been in Germany for 2 years and despite the praises of Lubeck's staff as far as I know has not gone on trial in any of the bigger clubs a short drive away from Lubeck. There is no guarantee he would in the future. Sometimes one can stuck in a system or at a level for a number of reasons or not get the right opportunity at the right time so he would be crazy not to take the chance to jump up several rungs on the professional football ladder when given the opportunity.

That's your opinion and you're entitled to it, however i'm sure you'll find alot of senior V's  would rather not relinquish a piece of our tradition. If you can't understand that then i'm sorry, but i'm not going to budge on my opposition to you moving our list over to an external site. The info. may be public knowledge, but our seperate, sovereign list must remain on this site. No one is stopping you from posting your list wherever you like, but if you take on the position of maintaining the V's MOACA it should temain on our site, shared or not.
As with anything on this site there should be input from everyone, especially the senior members, contributors, past stewards and leaders.

The idea is that the MOACA list is property of the Voyageurs and that we are the safe keepers of said property. Hosting the list on an external site is essentially outsourcing something that numerous people have worked hard to maintain for this supporters group for almost 20 years.