To this day, I still remember watching on television the Whitecaps beating the Tampa Bay Rowdies for the 1979 NASL championship. Somewhere in my parents’ basement is a box with all of the newspaper clippings collected, of every mention of Vancouver’s run and eventual victory that year.

Obviously, I’ve seen this “story” before, and I’m cautiously optimistic about MLS expansion. As exciting as it is having truly “Div 1″ football coming back to Vancouver, I hope there are real and reasonable plans for sustaining the growth, especially with local development and support, and with reaching out and maintaining ties with youth teams. (The story about the MLS in Toronto has been an interesting one to follow.)

Now that I live in Chile, the footy has been much easier to follow, especially, Argentinian fútbol, where some of their announcers are even more animated than their counterparts in Latin America. I understand a little better the quality of their players and just how many have gone abroad to play in the various professional leagues in Europe. I’m continually stunned by the depth and passion over “El Classico” between Boca Juniors and River Plate in one (of many) derbies in Buenos Aires.

(p.s. The W of my youth will also be the sight of the rotating red-W above the Woodward’s building on West Hastings between Abbott and Cambie. As Beck has mentioned in a previous blogpost, I also have my own memories of the downtown store in its heyday, of going to “Tuesday $1.49 day” or to the “Food Floor”.)