Ipswich and NASL

For those who don’t know me, I’m Stephen Brandt. I host Yellowcard Podcast on Tuesday’s in the States at 7pm EST. I’ve written on the history of the sport, all over the world. One of the major themes in my writing has always been the old North American Soccer League. I could do another article on the league, but there’s enough great pieces out there for you. This will be about some of the players who played for Town and in the NASL. 

There’s a theme with the Town players coming over, they seemed to congregate on the Vancouver Whitecaps. No fewer than three players turned out for the Whitecaps: Frans Thijssen, Bruce Twamley, and Trevor Whymark. Vancouver was a very good club, but the connection seemed to allude me, until reading on the Whitecaps page, when they honored Thijssen a few years ago. In the article, Sir Bobby Robson, recommended the city to Frans, since Robson had coached a previous club in the city called the Vancouver Royals in 1968. 

So how did these players do with the Whitecaps, well Thijssen’s career in Vancouver, he spent two seasons: 1983 and 1984, he played 45 matches from the midfield wearing the number 9 jersey, and scored nine goals. He left Vancouver, returning to Holland to see out his career. In 2013 Frans returned to Vancouver for an alumni event, and spent some time with the youth players in the city coaching.

Trevor Whymark played two seasons also in Vancouver, in 1979, and 1980, where he played 57 matches, and scored an amazing 25 goals. He would go back over to the UK, and finish out his career first with Grimsby, then Petersborough, Colchester, and then Diss Town. 

Bruce Twamley was a Canadian playing in the UK, when he wanted to return to his homeland. He returned in 1975 to British Columbia, where he played one year playing 18 times, and scoring two goals. He’d stay in the league to finish his career, bouncing from team to team, first to the Cosmos, then to the Minnesota Kicks, then to Oakland Stompers and finally with the Edmonton Drillers. He’s been a coach in Canada since his retirement. 

To keep up with my podcast or writings, follow me @yellowcardscb 

Next season will be our time to shine

The realistic though of promotion this season has been rather up and down in recent months, with our form taking us out of the playoff positions. But we need to completely ignore this, for the simple fact that, promotion or not, next season will be our time to shine.

I give a huge amount of praise to Mick McCarthy and Terry Connor, who have transformed our club from the threat of relegation to the promotion mix. If we miss promotion this season, next season will be our moment to build on our strengths and to iron out our weaknesses.

Another season in the championship will be challenging, with the Premier League clubs coming down from relegation who will be seeking immediate promotion, as well as the newly promoted League 1 clubs seeking to build a performance as Brentford have this season.

To maintain our squad stability and skill, we must hold on to premier league transfer targets Tyrone Mings and Teddy Bishop, as they have put in a great shift this season, being the creative-minded players that we need to set up and score goals. A bit of investment is needed though, with

Our campaign for promotion has taken a lot of hard work from the players, manager, coaching staff and physios, and it is our duty as fans of the club to praise the hard work they have put in to put us in the position we are in today.

My favourite transfer of the season has to be Kévin Bru, as he’s such a hardworking player and is very talented on the ball - has a lot of talent that we must reward him for! Bru is followed shortly by Bartosz Bialkowski, who has been solid in goal and deserves a lot of praise for quickly fitting in with the team and showing us what a great goalkeeper he is.

Thank you Ipswich Town Football Club for a great 2014-2015 season in the championship, let’s look to the future and see what it holds. I can only be optimistic!