Episode 718 – The AFTN Soccer Show (Breaking Lines and Breaking Time - Tristan Blackmon and Mihail Gherasimencov interviews, Whitecaps beat TFC)

We’re back with another AFTN Soccer Show packed full of Vancouver Whitecaps, Major League Soccer, CONCACAF Champions Cup, and general football chat. It was a another two-game week for the Whitecaps, with two victories in two different competitions and two clean sheets to boot. The 'Caps dispatched a tough test in Costa Rican side Cartagines on Wednesday night in Champions Cup action to set up a Cascadian clash with Seattle in the next round. They followed that up with a Canadian derby win against Toronto on Saturday. We pick over the bones of both matches and the main talking points coming out of them. Plus we round up this week’s action around MLS West and look at how the battle to be the Canadian number one goalkeeper is playing out down in Florida between Max Crepeau and Dayne St Clair after their derby. It was a good week in Whitecapsland all round, with two key pieces signing contract extensions and some new corporate deals announced. We chat with one of those key pieces, MLS Defender of the Year Tristan Blackmon, about last year's heroics, his very eventful and headline-making offseason, his new deal, what the club and city mean to him, and the season to come. We also chat with a player starting out his Whitecaps journey, homegrown defender Mihail Gherasimencov, about joining the first team, his time in the CPL with Cavalry, playing internationally for Moldova, and his footballing journey so far. All of this plus we move onto the letter J in our Canadian Soccer A to Z series and music-wise, Scottish band Bis begin their residency as our Artists of the Month, The Pastels are the latest band to feature in our 40th anniversary tribute year to the C86 movement, and Football Violence Awareness Month begins again in Wavelength. Here’s the rundown for the main segments from the episode: 01.26: Intro - gold tier thankyous, CiTR fundrive 08.15: Canadian Soccer A to Z - J 13.26: Whitecaps beat Cartagines to advance in Champions Cup 24.05: Whitecaps continue Canadian supremacy with win over Toronto 53.10: TFC postgame audio - Robin Fraser and Raheem Edwards 64.55: MLS West round-up 87.50: Dayne vs Max - The battle to be Canadian number one 109.00: Blackmon and Cubas sign contract extensions 124.12: Tristan Blackmon interview 141.40: Mihail Gherasimencov interview 157:00 Wavelength - Crazy and The Fog - Blood On The Terraces