San Diego Wave 3 – 1 Portland Thorns
Whatever is happening on the San Diego training ground, it’s paying off. The Wave played a disciplined, relentless, smothering style against Portland all night, giving the visitors little time to think about what they were doing, while at the same time exploiting space and creating chance after chance. If it wasn’t for Messner in the Thorns goal, this score would have been far less flattering to Portland.
The Wave led through excellent team play and individual brilliance. They press high and hard and smothered the midfield, marking Jesse Fleming into near oblivion. This generated many turnovers, and the Thorns left huge amounts of space in which the sublime Dudinha could operate. Paired with Ludmila cutting in from the wing, the Brazillians created havoc for the Thorns backline throughout the first half. I Can’t imagine what will happen when Adriana Leon returns to this side after her foot heals.
Portland’s only goal came off a mistake in the first half. The Thorns threatened several times, notably through set pieces which were delivered with perfection by Olivia Moultrie but the story of the match was that they couldn’t finish their chances. Even a half time substitution which saw Sophia Wilson come into the game couldn’t spark much. The Wave simply didn’t afford them the space or time on the ball.
The last 15 minutes of the game opened up more, but it was Portland that paid the price, giving up a third goal that sealed the game. A terrific coaching battle, and although the Thorns held their own they gave up their first goals of the season after 180 minutes of clean sheets, and now the tactics board beckons.
The cliffs at the end of the world, near Sagres, Portugal.
Tottenham 0 – 3 Nottingham Forest
I moved to Cheshunt, Herts, in England in 1978, just six weeks after the English football season ended. Under the guidance of Brian Clough, Nottingham Forest won the First Division that season, setting them up for an epic couple of years in which they were the dominant force in European football. Tottenham on the other hand had been dire. They were relegated to the second division in 1976-77, and won promotion the following year on the strength of goal difference alone. When I arrived on the scene, Tottenham was back, a top flight local team stacked with fresh talent like Glen Hoddle and World Cup winners Ricardo Villa and Ozzie Ardilles. That team grew in stature and swagger, winning the FA Cup in 1981 and 1982 and then the UEFA Cup in 1984.
So I never knew the pain of relegation for Spurs, nor could have I ever imagined that Nottingham Forest would not be the best team in the world. And yet here we are, Tottenham coming off our first European trophy since that UEFA Cup, and Forest FINALLY pulling themselves clear of 23 years outside of the top flight.
This morning, a six point game beckoned. Forest, who have struggled this season travelled to north London to play Tottenham. Six points were on the line here. It was Nottingham’s chance to leap frog Spurs towards 16th place and some modicum of safety. Tottenham, West Ham and Forest are trying hard to NOT finish in 18th place. We had to win.
And we didn’t. We outplayed Forest for much of the game, sending corner after corner harmlessly into the box. We hit a couple of posts and crossbars and exacted a couple of key saves. But in the end? It was dire, terrible, uninspired, without shape or identity or any kind of idea. Forest found three goals from think chances, and on a normal day you might say that the scoreline flattered them but not today. Today our undoing was the collective shrug we played with. Archie Grey, the 20 year old midfielder was the only one who see to show any kind of creativity. Mattias Tel, cutting in from the left wing provided a handful to deal with, but there isn’t much point winning corners if they serve no further purpose.
I can’t help think that we are going down. Two home wins in the premier league all season. No wins in 2026, and it’s almost April. The only good news today was Arsenal bottling the League Cup Final, but even a lost trophy to our biggest rivals is no salve for the wounds. Spurs are bleeding.
Tottenham 3 (5) v 2 (7) Athletico Madrid
It might be the last Spurs match in Europe for a while. Having navigated the league stage of the Champions League with style, Spurs were dire in the round of 16 versus Atletico Madrid. Last week in Madrid a series of goalkeeping mistakes from Kinsky and then defensive lapses from everyone else put us down 5-2 in the first leg.
Returning to London, the crowd was surprisingly loud at home. After a week in which we barely survived a tie against Liverpool, and Igor Tudor survived his day to day career as manager, Spurs had no choice but to start bright.
We did, and the breakthrough came at 30' when Archie Grey created a fine chance that led to Kolo Muoni heading home to narrow the difference to two goals. Madrid, who had absorbed pressure in the half finished with some very dangerous chances but couldn't convert.
As the second half began our defensive openness led to a goal by Simeone. We responded with a beautiful strike from Xavi Simons five minutes later. Madrid ramped up the attack as the second half progressed, taking advantage of our need to score, and that paid dividends as Alvarez, who was sending our defenders into conniptions all night, found Hancko at the near post, where he walked through three stationary defenders and headed home.
From there the game petered out. A late penalty to Xavi meant we ended the match with a second leg win, which the crowd appreciated. but bundled out of Europe. This season now sees us with nothing left to play for now but our survival in the Premier League. That's not guaranteed, nor is Igor Tudor's tenure.
Dark times.
The weather has been glorious this week on the west coast, warm and sunny with beautiful conditions for walking and bird watching. Since I knew we were travelling this year to Costa Rica, Texas, Europe and eastern Canada this year I decided to see if I could observe or hear 365 species of birds during the year. I’m off to a good start with 151 so far (104 of which we saw in Costa Rica) and the weather has brought about plumage changes in the gulls so it’s getting easier to pick out the Californias from the Glaucous-winged. Yesterday I added the year’s first Black Oystercatcher and Hutton’s vireo (heard but not seen).
This weekend the Men’s Six Nations has started and it is know as rugby’s greatest championship for good reason. France absolutely dismantled Ireland yesterday and I just watched Italy nick a famous victory at home over Scotland in a downpour. England hosts Wales now, and although I would love the Celts to recover some form, I doubt this will be a very close game. Still, rugby delivers fantastic surprises.
Thursday night I finally got to see Tanya Tagaq live at the Chan Centre at UBC, as part of the PuSh Arts Festival. She is one of the most powerful performers I’ve ever seen. She channels and works with power, rage, love, sensuality, joy and the raw, wet, glossy work of life. Her art has always had a @sit down and pay attention” quality to it. I can only listen to albums like “Retribution” maybe once a year, in a dedicated sitting. Her work this week – Split Tooth Saputjiji – contained elements of her “Inuit mythic realism” book Split Tooth and recent to-be-released album Saputjiji. Predictability there were a couple of walk outs but you don’t have to know much about Tagaq’s work to know that the throat singing is not offered as an ethnic curiosity but rather as the vehicle for her to draw the source power from life itself to put hair raising power behind “Fuck War.” She is amazing.
Kian Proctor scoring his last goal for TSS Rovers in a 7-1 rout over Burnaby FC last season. Last night he turned pro in a debut for the ages. Photo by Residual image for AFTN
The North American soccer season is slowly awakening from its winter slumber. This week the CONCACAF Champions Cup competition got underway with several Canadian teams in the mix for the continental championship. Last season the Vancouver Whitecaps made it to the final only to be pummelled by Mexican giants Cruz Azul 5-0 in Mexico, who won their seventh title. Last night, Vancouver FC debuted in the competition. They are the Canadian Premier League team who finished last in the league last year but qualified through the fact that they made it to the Canadian Championship Final against the sam Whitecaps. And the team they faced was Cruz Azul.
It was an underdog story of the highest order and there was almost no chance of VFC scoring goals, let alone winning this first leg, even at home, in front of a pretty full house, on a mild mid winter west coast night. Indeed Cruz Azul won 3-0, but the game held some special significance for our TSS Rovers FC owners and supporters, because two of our former players dressed for VFC.
Marcello Polisi marked his return to Canada with his first start for VFC. He played for our Rovers teams pre-pandemic from 2017-2019 appearing in 32 games as a stalwart defensive midfielder. He then moved to the Canadian Premier League first for Halifax Wanderers and then the late departed Valour of Winnipeg. After two years there, he moved to Detroit City FC in the USL where he played alongside a number of other Canadians in Danny Dichio’s side. This winter he signed for VFC, coming home to play and last night he started and he looked terrific. He will be a key piece of the VFC midfield going forward this year as they try to finally put together a decent season after three season of being the worst team in the league.
The other notable appearance last night was Kian Proctor, who subbed in at 64′ for VFC and made his professional debut last night. Kian is a tall, strong full back, who also plays as a forward and is a set piece threat. Kian played 40 games for us from 2023-2025 and is still only 20 years old. Because the CPL has under 21 roster rules, I reckon Kian has locked his spot. To appear for the first time against Cruz Azul is magnificent and he looked absolutely the part. Sometimes you see a footballer who rises to every challenge they face and you really don;t know what they are capable of. Marcello and Kian both represent those kinds of players and last night we witnessed the beginning of a next level for a talent who is still learning his game. This domestic season – which doesn’t start for another three months! – will be one to watch for Kian.