Game On!: Vancouver Whitecaps and the Major League Soccer Explosion

by Bob Lenarduzzi, Jim Taylor (With)

Hockey, hell yes. Baseball, of course. Basketball and football, certainly. But pro soccer? There was no way that soccer could ever elbow its way into a share of the North American professional sports market, said the pundits and naysayers. Sure, thousands of kids and adults were playing the game in minor soccer leagues on weekends. Yes, soccer is the most popular game on the planet--but not on this part of it. Even backed by owners willing to spend millions to plant the seeds and the patience to wait for growth, this was a gamble of the wildest kind.
But an incredible thing it worked.
Major League Soccer has kicked off its booties, tied on its cleats and grown to a twenty-team-and-counting league with new stadiums, television contracts, world-recognized stars and no-nonsense leadership. And the Vancouver Whitecaps have become one of its elite contending teams.
This is their story, from league entry in 2010 through last season's run at the MLS championship--and the believe-it-or-not story of the league that turned The Little Engine That Could from fairy tale to fact.

224 pages, Paperback

First published March 31, 2016