44 — Wednesday. September 8, 1999 ~ North Shore News nitecaps fi Bob Mackin News Reporter IT was 20 years ago today. The Vancouver Whitecaps went to play — and win — Soccer Bowl °79 at Giants Stadium in East Rutherford, N.J. The Whitecaps only North American Soccer League championship came in a 2-] victory over the Tampa Bay Rowdies on Sept. &, 1979. Some of the key figures in one of B.C.’s greatest sports triumphs gathered Monday at Swangard Stadium in Burnaby. The reunion could’ve been held on the North Shore where said key figures now live — like West Vancouver’s England-born Tony Waiters. He coached West Vancouver’s Derck Possee and North Vancouver’s Bob Lenarduzzi and Car! Valentine to the top of the 24-team league. lan Michaud, another Norch Vancouverite, described the game for fisten- ers of CJOR radio trom the play-by-play booth while West Vancouver club direc- tors Herb Capozzi and John Laxton watched from their seats at Giants Stadium. Ir all started when Capozzi paid $25,000 for a franchise in the 15-city cir- cuit. The team was conceived Dee. 11, 1973 and later named Whitecaps by director and general manager Denny Veitch. Coached by Jim Easton, they opened with a 2- 1 loss to the San Jose Earthquakes May 5, 1974 at Empire Stadium. East Vancouver-raised Lenarduzzi wore number five, just like he did 11 years later when the team played its final game. Waiters, a Blackpool goal- keeper in the °60s and Plymouth Argyle coach in the 70s, came along five weeks into the 1977 season to replace fired coach Eckhard Krautzun. Among his carly recruits was ex-Totrenham Hotspur Possce. In 16 games he scored 11 goals to lead Vancouver to its first playoff appearance, a 2-0 loss to the Seattle Sounders. The red, white and black Whitecaps went 24-6 in 1978, beat Toronto Metros-Croatia in the first round, but were felled by the Portland Timbers in the second. “We went on a 13-game winning streak that year and basically screwed up in the playoffs,” says Possce, a West Vancowver- based salesman and soccer school instructor. “Against Portland, we played tactically wrong and we learned an awful lot which helped us the following year.” The team changed its colours to royal blue, cyan and white in 1979 and the number 21 jersey was given to 20-year- old Manchester, England import Carl Valentine. He was thrilled to be teammates with established British stars like scoring aces “King” Kevin Hector and Trevor Whymark; rough and tumble centrebacks John Craven and Roger Kenyon; forwards “Wee” Willie Johnston and tiny Derek Possee and goalkeeper Phil “Lofty” Parkes. north shore news @ SPORTS DEREK Possee (ieft) and Tony Waiters came to the Vancouver Whitecaps from England in 1977 and were big reasons why the team won the North American Soccer League’s Soccer Bowl championship on Sept. 8, 1979. Alan Ball, veteran of England’s 1966 World Cup team, joined midseason to spark the Caps’ run for the cup. “He was a living legend,” says Michaud. “That’s what players from that 1966 World Cup-winning team were. A young guy like Car! would certainly have been looking up to him.” The 20-10 Whitecaps dominated the — two-time defending champion New York Cosmos in both regular season meetings. The Caps’ beat che Dallas Tornado and Los Angeles Aztecs in the playoffs to set up a home-and- home semi-final clash with the Casnios, “We had their number and we got their number in the ’ first game here,” says Waiters, whe coached Canada to the 1986 World Cup and now produces educational soccer books and videos. The Whitecaps won the first leg 2- 0 on Aug. 29 before 32,875 fans at Empire. The teams bat- ded in a 3.5-hour marathon Sept. | before the Cosmos’ fans. “There was so much on the 1AN Michaud {right) was CJOR radio’s piay-by-play man. He introduced fellow North Vanccuverites Bob Lenarduzzi (left) and Carl Valentine at Valentine's retire- ment ceremony lastMay..-.. - - - line, no one wanted to make any mistakes,” Valentine says. “You were just going on adrenaline.” The New Yorkers were stunned when Possec’s goal in the second shootout of the day stood as the winner. “The league, I’m sure, was shocked the Whitecaps were (in Soccer Bow!),” says Michaud. Turmoil brewed behind the scenes over the team’s reluctance to match the league’s championship bonus payments of up to $4,000 a player. General manager John Best already had a $1-million player payroll and was reluc- tant to spend more. The cost- conscious team even eschewed a motorcoach in favour of rented station wagons when it arrived in other cities. On game day, Ball’s cmo- tional locker room address cooled tempers toward man- agement. He implored his teammates to enjoy the rare chance to play in a final and make ic a day they wouldn’c regret. Whymark scored twice before the announced crowd of 66,843 on Sept. 8, a game beamed live across the conti- nent on ABC TV’s Wide World of Sports. Telecaster Jim McKay angered many in Vancouver the city a “village”. An esti- nated 106,000 “villagers” welcomed the team from Richinond to Robson Square the following day. “Everyone expected we'd jump in the cars, go down and meet the mayor and all go home,” Waiters says. “But it was just a phenomenal reac- tion and response from the people of Vancouver.” Whymark, Lenarduzzi and Valentine received the biggest cheers at the Robson Square rally where fans chanted for a new stadium to replace aging Empire. Four years later Lenarduzzi and Valentine were the only remaining starters from Soccer Bowl when the team moved to B.C. Place Stadium and aver- aged almost 30,000 fans a game through 1983. Crowds plummeted to less than 14,000 in 1984. “My dad used to walk to all the games (at Empire), my mum could hear the roar of the crowd from her porch,” Lenarduzzi laments. “It was like being in my backyard. We moved to essentially an artifi- cial facility that I don’t think anybody liked.”. The Whitccaps limped through 1984, on field and off, finally ending with a 4-3 semi-tinal loss in Chicago to the Sting on Sept. 28, 1984. The move to the dome and the ill-fated wintertime indvor soccer season at the Pacific Coliseum left the team’s finances in chaos. Four months fster the score was assets $50,900 and debts $2.5 million. Lone remaining director John Laxton announced the Whitecaps were bankrupt. The club was put to rest with a March 14, 1985 auc- tion/liquidation sale in the B.C. Pavilion at the PNE. Even the name and logo were on the block. Laxton snapped those up. He wants to bring the Whitecaps back to life in Major League Soccer. But the city needs a 20,000-seat natur- af grass, outdoor stadium first. It’s easier said than done. “Vancouver was and could stil be the soccer capital of North America,” says Laxton, the comroversial — ex-BC Hydro chairman and lawyer. Even with a stadium, MLS may never come north. The league is operated by the U.S. Soccer Federation to support American players and théir World Cup dreams. Canadian Soccer Association officials are mect- ing this weekend in Toronto to discuss the formation of a new, top-level national ieague by 2001. Such a league could give more Canadians a chance to play the game for a living at home while keeping the nucleus of the World Cup squad on this continent. For now, Vancouver soccer fans can cnjoy the playoff- bound Eighry-Sixers of the high-excitement, low-budget A-League, one step below the MLS. Game one is Friday at Swangard against U.S. Pro 40 Selects. The 12-year-old Vancouver team is ably coached by Valenzine and managed by Lenarduzzi. The duo, synonymous with soccer in B.C., learned a thing or two from Waiters 20 years ween eee eee oe Vanicouverites. when he. called . -ago today. Martial art as Exercise ITS origins can be traced back some 6,000 years. It has been part of the Olympic games since 688 BC. Using one’s fists in an act of aggression or self-defense was one of those activities much like running or hunt- ing. A practice that was essential to the existence of early man in order to survive his hostile environment. With no inanimate hardware at hand, the fist became the natural and most effective weapon available and it is natural to have eventually found its way into the sport- ing arena of our ancestors. Martial arts have been around for thousands of years, and whether it be box- ing, kung-fu, karate or hap- keido, modern man contin- ues to be fascinated by the skill, courage and savagery these ancient sports demon- strate. It should be no surprise then that people looking for ways to gct physically fir and challenge themselves are turning to these disciplines in great numbers. Boxing gyms and oriental dojos are spring- ing up around the Vancouver area, There are many different types of training available but it would be wise to visit the location you may be thinking of joining and view a training session before handing over your hard-earned cash. One of the more popular facilities on the North Shore is Wolfe’s Realistic Self- Defense, where they cater to people of ail ages and athletic abilities. In talking with part- ner and instructor Jackson Loychuk I got the impres- sion that people can be con- fused about the different styles of martial arts training, and spending a little time educating yourself now can save you a lot of grief and frustration down the road. Loychuk explains that most conventional dojos . offer ongoing levels of learn- - ing which will help you get - |” fit and develop a heightened - sense of self-confidence and self-esteem, but they do not. prepare you for practical self-. defense out there in che real world. , He believes his gym will - certainly help you get in shape, but the type of instruction is specifically designed to teach street-prac- tical self-defense that can be used when necessary. While they work with local police forces and specialized emer- gency response teams, the focus of their business is helping the average man. See Boxing page 45