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Teitur Thordarson.
Teitur Thordarson.

Here's how my day went. There's never a dull moment.

It started with a drive to Thornhill Park to watch Canada train before their friendly with Ecuador on Wednesday.

As soon as I got there, in came the email from the Vancouver Whitecaps that they had called a news conference for later Monday morning.

Something slapped together that quickly is never good news.

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Then for kicks, the Sepp Blatter comedy hour took over which included pictures of bags of money offered as bribes for World Cup votes. It was evidence of the kind of nonsense we'd always been told about.

Then just before the Canada-Ecuador coaches' news conference came the stunner that the Whitecaps had fired head coach Teitur Thordarson.

What to make of that one?

I spoke with Teitur a short while later. He said he was shocked, never saw it coming. They never do though.

Did the Whitecaps pull the trigger too soon? It's not even halfway through their first season, and yet as team president Bob Lenarduzzi told me after the firing, Teitur had already been there for three seasons as USL team coach and they hadn't seen enough improvement.

Still, I'm not sure about the timing. Tom Soehn takes over until the end of the year, perhaps beyond, maybe not.

Keep in mind Tom Soehn is a former head coach with DC United. Once a coach, always a coach.

There is an element of sympathy for Thordarson, partly because he's such a great guy. Anyone who has ever dealt with him will say the same.

As for the future, he told me he'll go wherever the next job takes him.

He'd love to stay in North America though, and he has a soft spot for the city of Vancouver.

So now Soehn is on the hot seat is. They're his players.

Let's see what he can get out of them.

About

Gerry Dobson photo
Gerry Dobson

Twenty-five years in this business means if you're lucky enough to cross paths with the Olympics, you get to do just about everything. Five Olympics later, I still learn new things everyday.

Sportsnet's launch in 1998 and its subsequent designation of soccer as a priority led to my latest...

 

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