With new head coach Carl Robinson at the helm, the Vancouver Whitecaps will look to get back into the MLS Western Conference playoff picture. Jurgen Klinsmann Germany Jersey . TSN soccer analyst Luke Wileman tells you everything you need to know about the 2014 Whitecaps, while TSN soccer analyst Jason deVos tells you how they will succeed or fail during the new campaign. Luke Wileman: After missing out on the playoffs in 2013, Vancouver Whitecaps have re-tooled ahead of the new season. They lost their leading scorer, Camilo, in controversial circumstances, but the Caps will enter the 2014 season with a stronger overall squad. The biggest change of the offseason was the departure of head coach Martin Rennie. After two years with the club, Rennies contract was not renewed, and after a long search, the Whitecaps promoted Carl Robinson from his role as assistant coach to take the top job. I said at the time that Robinson was the perfect choice. He already knew the inner workings of the club from his time on Rennies coaching staff, but has brought a fresh outlook. Robinson is heading into his rookie season as a head coach, and it will be a steep learning curve, but theres little doubt he is ready for the task ahead. The way he handled difficult situations during the offseason was superb, and his leadership and communication with players through preseason has earned him plenty of respect within the locker room. So what can we expect from Robinsons team? The Whitecaps coach has made no secret of the fact that he wants to play an attractive entertaining style of soccer. He has also said he wont be afraid to give youth a chance. Robinsons squad is young, but with experience in key areas throughout the team. In fact there is a strong veteran presence down the spine of the team with David Ousted in goal, Jay DeMerit and Andy OBrien at the back, Nigel Reo Coker in midfield and Kenny Miller up front. The Whitecaps have made some strong additions in the offseason but the biggest question mark is whether they will be able to replace the league-leading 22 goals scored by Camilo. There wont be one person who shoulders the responsibility of filling the void left by the Brazilian, it will need to be a team effort, and the way the squad has been built should help that to happen. Uruguyan duo Sebastian Fernandez and Nicolas Mezquida have shown evidence of their creativity and technical ability during preseason, and the expected arrival of Chilean attacking midfielder Pedro Morales from Spanish side Malaga will be a massive piece of the puzzle. Vancouver already has quality in attack. Keeping Kenny Miller fit is key for the Caps. It will also be interesting to see the development of youngsters Kekuta Manneh, Darren Mattocks, Erik Hurtado, Omar Salgado and Russell Teibert. All five of those players have the ability to contribute significantly to the Whitecaps attacking play. The Whitecaps added former MLS All-Star Steven Beitashour at right back to replace the retired YP Lee and have options in the central defensive positions with DeMerit and OBrien likely to be favoured to open the season, but Carlyle Mitchell, Johnny Leveron and draft pick Christian Dean all capable of stepping in at any time. With Carl Robinson likely to play a 4-2-3-1 formation, the two defensive midfield players will need to protect the back four but also start a lot of the Whitecaps play moving forward. On his day, Nigel Reo-Coker can be one of the top midfielders in the league, but Robinson will want to see more consistency from the Englishman this season dictating the play and getting box to box. One of the Whitecaps big offseason additions was young Argentine midfielder Matias Laba who arrived from Toronto FC. Hes a superb signing who will complement the qualities of Reo Coker. Laba is a destroyer. He breaks up the play and gets it going again in an effective manner. The defensive midfield pairing of Reo Coker and Laba could be particularly strong for the Whitecaps this season. Despite my view that the overall squad is better than a year ago, the Whitecaps wont find it easy to achieve their goal of making the playoffs in a Western Conference that is packed with quality. Last year, Vancouver improved on their points total from a year earlier, but didnt make it to the postseason. They improved, but not enough because the other teams around them had made bigger strides. This time around, the Whitecaps have made some significant changes. It might take them time to settle into their new identity, but it should be a fun ride. TSN Soccer analyst Jason deVos weighs in on how the Whitecaps will succeed or fail during the 2014 season. Jason deVos: Vancouver Whitecaps will succeed if… …the young guns come out firing. Rookie head coach Carl Robinson has a squad full of talented youngsters. Russell Teibert, Kekuta Manneh, Gershon Koffie, Omar Salgado, Darren Mattocks, Nicolás Mezquida, Matías Laba, Erik Hurtado, Andre Lewis and Sam Adekugbe are all under the age of 23. With youth comes inconsistency; an amazing performance one week, followed up by a flat one the next. If Robinson can get the young players to find a measure of consistency, the Whitecaps will fare far better than many predict this season. The reason for that is that this team is quick - and I mean, lightning fast. Mattocks, Manneh and Hurtado are whippets, and will win races against virtually every player in MLS. If the experienced players in the squad - Nigel Reo-Coker, Andy OBrien and Jay DeMerit - can shepherd the young players along the right path, the Whitecaps are going to surprise a few people this season. Vancouver Whitecaps will fail if… …they show up one week and not the next. Succeeding in professional soccer is all about finding a level of consistency from week to week. Reliability comes with experience - something that is severely lacking from this squad of players. The onus is on Robinson to set the standards of performance that he expects from all of his players. Experienced campaigners like Reo-Coker, OBrien and DeMerit wont be the issue - they know what they need to do to succeed in the game, and will rarely dip below a 7 out of 10 performance. It is the young players that need to learn this. They need to learn that you cannot turn it on one week, then not bother showing up the next. That will be Robinsons biggest challenge this season - getting a consistent level out of his talented crop of youngsters. If he can do that, this will be an exciting season for Whitecaps fans. If not, the Whitecaps will again fail to make the playoffs. 2013 finish: 13-12-9 (seventh in Western Conference). Did not qualify for MLS Cup playoffs. Whos In?: M Mehdi Ballouchy (Re-Entry Draft), D Steven Beitashour (traded from San Jose), M/F Sebastian Fernandez (loan from Boston River), M Matías Laba (trade from Toronto), M/F Nicolas Mezquida (transfer from Boston River), GK Paolo Tornaghi (signed). Whos Out?: GK Joe Cannon (option declined), M Jun Marques Davidson (option declined), F Tommy Heinemann (option declined), F Corey Hertzog (option declined), D Greg Klazura (option declined), GK Brad Knighton (traded to New England), M Daigo Kobayashi (option declined), D Lee Young-Pyo (retired), D Brad Rusin (option declined), F Camilo Sanvezzo (transfer to Queretaro), GK Simon Thomas (option declined). SuperDraft: D Christian Dean (1-3), MF Andre Lewis (1-7), F Mamadou Diouf (2-30). Mario Gotze Replica Jersey . Play hard, play tough and play rough. The philosophy has been a lesson in frustration for opponents. Mats Hummels Jersey . Police leaflets seen by an Associated Press reporter at a central Sochi hotel on Tuesday contain warnings about three potential suicide bombers. A police letter said that one of them, Ruzanna Ibragimova, a 22-year-old widow of an Islamic militant, was at large in Sochi. MISSISSAUGA, Ont. -- Patrick Chan was third after the Skate Canada International mens short program Friday night, and that didnt bother the world champion in the least. The top three are bunched together after the short program -- Javier Fernandez of Spain has 84.71 points, Daisuke Takahashi of Japan is at 84.66 and Canadas champion Chan at 83.28 -- and gold is up for grabs going into the Saturday free skating show. "Its a great position to be in," Chan said. "Its better than I did at Skate Canada last year. I didnt fall three times this time." The 20-year-old Torontonian was his usual optimistic self. "The points are close and this is the first Grand Prix for me this season," he said. "My goal is to make it to the Grand Prix Final. It can be ugly or it can be pretty. It doesnt matter. As long as I get there, Ill be satisfied." Olympic ice dance champions Tessa Virtue of London, Ont., and Scott Moir of Ilderton, Ont., breezed to first place in the short dance with 71.61 points, while Canadas No. 2 ice dancers, Kaitlyn Weaver and Andrew Poje of Toronto were second with 63.31. In the womens short program, Elizaveta Tuktamisheva, the 14-year-old Russian sensation, grabbed first with 59.57 points. Chan landed a quad toe loop jump but a sloppy landing with a hand on the ice led him to omit his combos scheduled triple toe loop. He then reduced his triple Axel to a double. He then added a triple toe to his triple Lutz to score the required combo. "Winning the worlds kind of gives you the room to make mistakes," he reasoned. "It gives you the leisure to not be hard on yourself. I think thats why Im happy to be third. I really am grateful to have the God-given gifts to skate." Hes been training on an Olympic-sized ice surface in Colorado and returning to the NHL-sized Hershey Centre might have thrown his timing off. "I had some mental hesitation with the patterns," he said. Fernandez, 19, is coached in Toronto by former world and Canadian champ Brian Orser. He opened with a quad toe loop -- he was the only skater with a perfectly clean quad -- then went into a triple Lutz-triple toe and added a tremendous triple Axel before doing his spins and footwork. The triple Axel was Orsers trademark jump." I am really happy that everything I practised worked," said Fernandez, who was 10th at the 2011 world championships. "I am really, really happy working with Brian. I think we are going to be a really good team." The two got together four months ago. "I think Ill stay," he said with a big grin. Takahashi, 25, the 2010 world champ, slipped to fifth when Chan won the 2011 world title. Adam Rippon of the United States was fourth with 72.89. An iffy landing on his triple Axel was his only miscue. "I havent competed since last February so I kind of just tried to ease back into the competition feeling again," he said. "Im really happy with the changes I made during the summer. (Coach) Jason Dungjen has helped me a lot with my mindset. I felt kind of shaky but Jason helped me centre back to skating in the moment." Andrei Rogozine, 18, of Richmond Hill, Ont., was sixth with 67.28 and Elladj Balde, 20. Of Pierrefonds, Que., was last among 10. Tuktamisheva may only be 14 but shes already turning heads. Shes so good that Alexei Mishin, the veteran Russian coach helping to guide Tuktamisheva, calls her "the main hope for the gold medal at the Sochi Olympics" in 2014. Tuktamisheva wont meet the International Skating Union age requirement to compete in a ssenior world figure skating championship until 2013, but she certainly appears ready to take full advantage of the green light the ISU gave her to enter senior Grand Prix meets this season. Thomas Muller Replica Jersey. . Tuktamisheva, the 2011 world junior silver medallist, was the only skater to cleanly land a triple-triple combo. The five-foot-one skater needs to improve her spins, but she clearly has huge potential. Americans Ashley Wagner and Rachael Flatt were second (54.50) and third (54.23), respectively. Both landed triple-double combos. "I was very satisfied with that program," said Wagner, 20, who was sixth at the 2011 U.S. nationals. "It was solid. "I stood up on everything, which was my main goal. I would have preferred that the Lutz had not been such a death-defying act on the ice but I stood up and thats really all that counts in the long run. I think its a great start to my Grand Prix season and, hopefully, its only up from here." The 19-year-old Flatt, a silver medallist at her nationals last winter, was 12th at the world championships. "I havent started out this well at a Grand Prix in a while," she said. "Im very pleased." Amelie Lacoste of Delson, Que., was sixth (50.60), Canadian champion Cynthia Phaneuf of Brossard, Que., was eighth (48.70) and Adriana Desanctis of Barrie, Ont., was ninth (47.14) among 10 skaters. Lacoste, 22, the 2011 Canadian bronze medallist was 16th at the world championships. She fell on a triple Lutz and reduced a scheduled triple-triple to triple-double. "I rushed the triple Lutz," said Lacoste. "Thats why I missed it. I lost a level in my layback and I couldnt get my speed back to get it to a level three. But its a start and Im looking forward to the long program (Saturday)." She hopes to turn bronze to gold at the 2012 nationals, and Phaneuf will have to skate much better than she did Friday to stand a chance of holding off Lacoste. Phaneuf, 23, who was fifth in 2010 then 13th at the 2011 world championships, singled on her planned triple Lutz and there was a lack of oomph in her performance. "Losing points here and there makes a big difference at the end," said Phaneuf. "Im very disappointed with the Lutz. But I did the rest of the jumps and Im looking forward to (Saturday)." Alena Leonova, 20, the 2009 world junior champion and fourth at the senior level last spring, showed more polish than most, but she made too many mistakes to avoid slipping to seventh. She stumbled out of her triple-triple combo and singled a planned double Axel. Leonova came into the meet as the favourite and will have to be much better in the free skating to step onto the podium. In pairs, world silver medallists and Russian champions Tatiana Volosozhar and Maxim Trankov earned 70.42 points to outdistance their closest rivals in the short program. Meagan Duhamel and Eric Radford, the 2011 Canadian silver medallists, scored 62.37 and were elated to be second. They were seventh at 2011 world championships. Duhamel of Lively, Ont., teamed up with Torontos Radford after previous partner Craig Buntin retired in 2010. "That was our first clean short program as a pairs team and, regardless of the levels and the points, that was our goal so mission accomplished," said Duhamel. "Its an amazing way to start off the season," added Radford. Jessica Dube of Drummondville, Que., and Sebastien Wolfe of Montreal were sixth with 53.23, and Paige Lawrence of Kennedy, Sask., and Rudi Swiegers of Virden, Man., were seventh among eight pairs with 50.11. cheap nfl jerseyscheap jerseys ' ' '
