Camilo, Y.P. Lee give fans a night to remember

Camilo and Young-Pyo Lee made the Vancouver Whitecaps’ final, supposedly meaningless, game of the 2013 MLS season a memorable one.

Years from now, fans will be able to talk about the time Camilo scored three goals, which gave him 21 on the season, to win the Golden Boot in a 3-0 win over the Colorado Rapids. Sunday's hat-trick avoided the need to use assists as tiebreaker with Chicago’s Mike Magee, who scored earlier in the day to finish the campaign with 21 goals.

Fans will also be able to recall how they watched Young Pyo-Lee receive a resounding send-off in the final game of his stellar career. Rookie Sam Adekugbe’s first game of his MLS career will also be talked about, if not remembered as vividly, except in his mind’s eye.

Never mind that the Caps missed the playoffs a year after getting in. For one night, all was forgiven and forgotten as Vancouver dominated a playoff-bound Colorado team that still had plenty to play for.

“As a team, we came into tonight making sure that this was what we wanted to happen,” said Whitecaps captain Jay DeMerit. “There was an effort behind that. There was a lot of emotion on a lot of different occasions tonight.

Of course, Sam coming in for his first game and Y.P. leaving with his last. And, there were still a lot of things on the line as far as the season goes, Camilo finishing on the right foot. All these things carried through and made sure that as an organization, and as a team, we were moving forward. We could have easily given up. … But we wanted to end on the right note, because it’s a team that cares and it’s a team that wants to get better – and tonight proved that.”

Camilo’s third, history-making goal came in the 85th minute came as he ran on to a long bouncing ball from Canadian midfielder Russell Teibert and volleyed it home.
“I’m very proud, because I’ve been training hard every single day,” said Camilo. “The coaching staff helped me a lot, especially (Carl Robinson). … Every single day, he (was) there with me. (He) helped me a lot.”

The second goal was also one for the highlight reels as Camilo took a pass from second-half substitute Matt Watson and then deked Colorado defender Drew Moor, putting the ball through his legs and firing a shot inside the right post.
Camilo’s opening goal came on a penalty-kick two minutes before half-time, after teammate Kekuta Manneh was tripped in Colorado’s 18-yard box. The Brazilian dynamo took the spot kick although Lee had supposedly been designated to take penalties.

“I said, ‘Please, Y.P., let me take that penalty,’” said Camilo, drawing laughs from a crowd of reporters.

Lee left to a standing ovation in the 90th minute as his illustrious career which included three World Cups with his native South Korea and championships and cups in the top leagues in England, the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia came to a close.
Coach Martin Rennie got the timing of Rennie’s departure right as he allowed the crowd to serenade him with three minutes of stoppage time remaining.

Now, time will tell whether the Whitecaps get the decision on Rennie right. The embattled coach is widely expected to be fired after the Whitecaps went through their second consecutive summer swoon, from which they could not recover, even though they had a revamped lineup from 2012.

But Rennie also had to deal with extenuating circumstances that included injuries to key strikers Kenny Miller, who went to Sweden to have a sore knee checked out; Camilo; and Darren Mattocks. International call-ups and inconsistency also hampered Rennie’s efforts to field a consistent lineup, and the Whitecaps again lacked a midfield general who could distribute the ball fluidly and consistently while also providing some goals.

Rennie made some questionable lineup decisions, the most glaring being the one to keep Manneh, 18, parked at the bench for extended stretches during the mid-season meltdown.
But Rennie has also shown a knack for developing young talent. Manneh has the traits – speed, creativity and finish – that all world-class players possess. He scored six goals, which matched the number of games that he started, while appearing in 20 games with a minute total that equated to barely eight games.

Rennie also managed to get much out of Watson, a journeyman midfielder, and Jordan Harvey, a well-travelled defender who filled in admirably after Alain Rochat’s controversial trade to Washington.

Most importantly, Rennie has established a program that integrates young players like Adekugbe, 18, who was born in England and grew up in Calgary and Manneh, a Gambia native who was tutored for a while in Texas. As Rennie has noted, the Whitecaps improved in many areas, particularly goals, wins and and points. The Caps also won the Cascadia Cup, an in-season competition between Vancouver, Portland and Seattle that supposedly means a lot to fans, who founded it, but means little in terms of final standings – on which Rennie will ultimately be judged.

Naturally, he stressed the positives, as he addressed reporters for, possibly, the final time as Vancouver’s coach.

“Obviously, we wanted to do better but we know that it takes time to build a team, and we’ve got to the point where we are very close to doing that,” he said. “It’s extremely exciting going forward, the ticket sales are better than they’ve ever been, the fan support is better than it has ever been and we’ve got young players coming through that are starting in the first team and doing well.

“I think we are just extremely excited about what the team can do and be. You look at how far it’s come in a short space of time and look forward to what it can become in the future.”

The next few days will determine whether he is part of that future.

If the Whitecaps are smart and pay heed to teams that have enjoyed continued success by employing coaches over the long term, such as the English Premier League’s Manchester United, NHL’s Detroit Red Wings and CFL’s B.C. Lions, he will be.

My sports blog is back

My sports blog is back. Check back here for a piece on the final game of the Vancouver Whitecaps' 2013 season.