As you may have heard, the Vancouver Whitecaps recently announced plans for a new downtown outdoor stadium. Right on the waterfront in historic Gastown, the stadium will have spectacular views of Burrard Inlet and the North Shore Mountains. With a capacity of 15,000 seats, fans will have a close-up experience for a wide range of events including Whitecaps games, international soccer matches, outdoor concerts plus much more.

You can show your support for this great project by visiting www.whitecapsnewstadium.com. Just for signing up, you will receive priority rights for all first year events and the opportunity to attend a special open house prior to the general public grand opening!

Plus, if you sign up before November 24th, you could win one of four dream prizes:

-A trip for 2 to the 2006 FIFA World Cup in Germany
-A trip for 2 to the IRB Rugby 7's Event at the Home Depot Center in Los Angeles
-A trip for 2 to a Coldplay concert in an outdoor stadium
-A trip for 2 to a concert at the Tanglewood Music Festival, summer home to the Boston Symphony Orchestra

The stadium will also have several unique premium seat options that showcase the best of Vancouver. These packages range from Regular Season Tickets, Club Seats, Loge Boxes up to Suites.

For priority information and details about our premium options please contact Farnaz Farrokhi at 604.669.9283 ext 244. Thank you for your support.

We're hoping that as members of LFC Vancouver we can bring you special offers with our local side, the Vancouver Whitecaps.

The week began with an early Saturday morning wake-up call in time to watch the live coverage of Liverpool vs. West Ham (Sportsnet). It’s been a while since we played “The Hammers” but every time we do, my mind is taken back to the January 1967 match where Peter Thompson scored two in the first half to finish them off easily and quickly.

At that time, this was the team that included Bobby Moore, Martin Peters and Geoff Hurst. All three of them were World Cup winners with England the previous summer. Of course, Roger Hunt was also one of the medal winners, and even though it was equally deserved, he didn’t get the publicity or the recognition that the others received. This was typical of the day, where there was a distinct feeling of remoteness on Merseyside; a feeling that still largely exists to this day. It was somehow more satisfying that Liverpool wrapped up the first two championships under Shankly by beating Arsenal in '64 and Chelsea in '66, both known at that time as “those soft southern shite!” Of course, our other main rivals back then were Everton and the dreaded Mancs – some things don’t change.

The mood of the era, along with the Merseyside / Thamesside rivalry, was well captured in the television comedy series “Till Death Us Do Part.” (For North American readers, this was the series that was later transformed into “All in the Family”) Alf Garnett the right-wing bigot was a hard core Hammers supporter, while son-in-law Mike was a true red-blooded left-wing Liverpudlian. In one famous episode, Alf wins a pair of tickets to see West Ham at Anfield; and so finally, with great reluctance, allows Mike to have one of them. The pair travel to Merseyside and see the above mentioned match, with some of the “Match of the Day” highlights spliced into the episode. The second goal was worthy of any highlight reel. Thompson took the ball deep into the West Ham half along the left wing, beat a couple of men at the edge of the box, cut back for a better angle and fired a shot low toward the near post. The ball struck the outside of the post and rebounded right to where Thompson had now moved to, which gave him an ideal second shot which this time went easily into the net. It was just one of those days when it all went right, including the inevitable humiliation of the unlovable Alf!

The players may have changed many times over the years, but it is still satisfying to see another 2-0 result. The pace of the game was much livelier than other recent performances, partly because of West Ham's desire to play against, rather than shut down, the Reds. Chances came for Garcia, Hyppia, Morientes, Gerrard and Cisse. It was worrying for a while that all the chances and all the work in the build-up was going unrewarded, until Alonso scored a superb goal from the edge of the area. The choice for most players, given that opportunity, would have been to blast it goalwards (hit and hope) or try to place it into the danger area. The intelligent choice turned out to be the "controlled power" shot which took a slight deflection on its way into the net. The second half goal from Zenden was also a quality effort, coming at the end of a well-worked move down the left side. A good result, from an entertaining match, that was well worth waking up early for. Little did I know that my morning’s entertainment was to continue!

Q: What’s almost as good as watching Liverpool win? A: Watching Man Ure lose, of course! They did that in spectacular fashion, 4-1 in the game against Middlesbrough, shown on tape delay after SoccerCentral. Steve "the pupil becomes the master" McLaren showed exactly why his team are so tough to beat (we already knew but survived 0-0 on opening day).

The Reds’ Saturday result gave the lads some much needed confidence and optimism for the Tuesday Champions League match against Anderlecht. Rafa’s decision to put Gerrard on the right side with Garcia on the left looks like it may be the master-stroke of the season. The change allows Alonso and Sissoko to rule the middle, and may just be the solution to finding that elusive right side player that Rafa wants so badly. Morientes looked good against West Ham on Saturday, finding himself in some good scoring positions, so it was no surprise that he netted one (at last) on Tuesday. Two more from Garcia and Cisse made it look easy. Meanwhile, over at Real Betis, Chel$ki lost 1-0. A win for Moro’s men, along with ours, would have put both of us into the last 16. That fact was apparently lost on the Anfield faithful as it was reported that a loud cheer went around the ground when the result was announced.

It hasn’t been such a great couple of weeks for the "special one". Dropped points against Everton of all people followed by elimination from the League Cup, along with a suddenly leaky back line. The best defensive team in the league’s history are now on track to allow 20 plus against this season. Now, this loss in Europe adds insult to injury. With Chel$ki’s result, we are on top of the group, 3 points clear of second place, and only needing one point in our last two matches to go through to the second round. It just doesn’t get any better than this, does it? Well, yes it does!

Wednesday’s results included Lille 1 Man Ure 0. Not a good week for Fergie either. Watching him sitting quietly on the bench almost had me convinced that gum chewing could qualify as aerobic exercise. Whatever happened to that magic hairdryer? Incidentally, rumour has it that SAF will be gone at the end of the season unless he brings home at least one major trophy. The Yank Mancs just don’t see eye-to-eye with their manager and are reportedly looking for a new boss already. Could this be the golden opportunity for Roy “I hate my useless team-mates” Keane to start his new career? No, I don’t think so either, but you never know.

This coming weekend brings us an even earlier than normal start on Saturday at Villa Park (Sportsnet Pacific, 4:30 AM). Let’s hope it’s a good result and the start of a sustained winning run in the league. The match of the week comes on Sunday (live on The Score) with the struggling Man Ure hosting the less than impressive Chel$ki. I hope they both lose.

What do you think? Fire us a reply and we'll get it to Keith, and try to put it in next week's newsletter

"Anybody who says we dont have pride in playing for Liverpool should have seen us in the dressing room when we lost to Fulham. Everybody was really down and all you could see in the dressing room was sad faces. That should answer any suggestion that we don't care."

"We know the responsibilty of playing for Liverpool and we dont take that lightly. It means so much to me every time I pull on a Liverpool shirt" - Xabi Alonso

The thing about Xabi that I adore (aside from his ability and footballing genius) is how much he loves the club. Xabi's improved his tackling this season, and though the passing radar hasn't been quite as 'on' as last season, he's a vital part of our team.

You can also say the same thing about Luis Garcia. The Merseyside derby last season showed his determination to play on after sustaining a harsh injury in the first half but when we were out of subs, little Luis soldiered on and fought for the cause. He's always giving [excuse the sports cliche] 110% and rushing about being a general nuisance to defenders. Frustrating at times with his overelaboration but surely you can't question his commitment and attitude.

My point? I hate hearing about foreigners killing the team and "too many Spaniards" and all that nonsense. Players like Hyypia and Riise are synonymous with the club, they love LFC. Ex-Red Stephane Henchoz went on record to say that he'd never play for Man Ure after Slur Alex Ferguson stupidly declared that every player out there would love to play for his team. Top man, Stephane.

No matter what you think of Djbril Cisse, you can't deny that he really loves LFC. I have doubts on his finishing (the blast-it-at-the-keeper approach, though Wednesday's finish was more precise) but I love his commitment and would love to see him able to fill the big boots left of the legends of lore like Owen, Fowler, Rush, Keegan etc...the fact that he's French makes no difference to me, his love for our cause does.

For me, I was pretty livid about the whole Stevie G saga over the last two summers...for a born and bred Liverpool man, to be tempted by the evil Chel$ki was disappointing. He's ours now, but for me I'm still disappointed at Stevie from having his head turned in the first place. Let bygones be bygones, I guess, but that whole thing really stung and I haven't quite cheered Stevie on in the same way since.

Of course there's local lad Carragher, as dedicated as you'll get. I'm sure you've all heard the odd story about Carragher professing how this is his club for life and he's as dedicated as you get. A real inspiration. As the song goes, we all dream of a team of him, don't we?

That said, don't underestimate the commitment and loyalty of our foreign contingent to the Liverpool cause. Our club undeniably has a spirit to it like few other clubs in the world. How can you not love LFC, or at least respect it if you're the opposition? I think a lot of our players know what it means to pull on the shirt (not all of them of course, but I'd bet most of them do) and no matter where they're from they should be left to do their talking on the pitch. Imagine one of us Canadians playing for LFC and getting stick for being Canadian so we're not aware of what LFC is all about. That's just stupid.

The title of this comes from a Gerard Houllier quote he said about the players: "Their country is Liverpool and their language is football". Love that quote, suits my point perfectly.

What do you think? Fire us a reply and we'll get it to Paul, and try to put it in next week's newsletter

There's a pretty strong rumour that Robbie Fowler could be coming back home in January on a pay as you play basis. He could be on an exchange for Neil Mellor. Yes, he's not the same as he used to be, but to me there doesn't seem to be a lot to lose. Imagine Anfield if he scored for us again, too! But I'm personally not sure about that one.

Joaquin and Simao are still strongly linked with us in January but no central defenders I've heard of lately are linked. What do you guys think about (God) Fowler coming back and what about January? Any ideas/opinions on who we should get (realistically, so keep the Ronaldinho/Kaka/Adriano wishes within logic!)? Tell us what you think.

name:Nigel Mitchell

age (optional!): 40 something

how long have you supported Liverpool for?: 30 something years

why Liverpool?: first games I remember watching on TV

best memory of being a Red: Champions League Final

worst memory/moment as a Red: Hillsborough

fave LFC players (all-time): Fowler, Dalglish, Owen

current LFC faves: Riiser, Gerrard.

most hated team(s): Any team Becks is on

best LFC game: Champions League final

fave non-LFC player (current): Owen

all-time best non LFC player: Franz Bechenbauer

how's Rafa doing?: Not good with the English game. But the best in European play.

If you were the manager, 3 players you'd sign: Owen, Henry, Kahn

what do we need to do to the side right now?:

LFC dream starting 11 (and 5 for the bench): Only 11?? Take too long.

International footy...yay or nay?: Yay

Which country's team does it for you (if yay): England without Becks and Germany

Opinion on the state of football right now: Great new stadium for the Whitecaps.

thanks Nigel. See you all next week!