Rivero shines in disappointing Whitecaps effort

The Vancouver Whitecaps had several causes for concern Saturday – but, for a change, Octavio Rivero wasn’t one of them.

Rivero’s goal in the 52nd minute gave the Vancouver Whitecaps a 1-1 tie with the Houston Dynamo before a sellout crowd of 22,120 at B.C. Place Stadium, sparing the home side a huge embarrassment.

Rivero, who has come under criticism for his lack of offence in two seasons with Vancouver, put home a a rebound off a corner-kick. He helped the Whitecaps (6-6-3) gain at least a share of third place in the Western Conference, pending the results of games later Saturday involving the L.A. Galaxy and Real Salt Lake.

Rivero’s performance was encouraging to see, considering that the 24-year-old Uruguay native has been an enigma since joining the Whitecaps for the start of the 2015 Major League Soccer season. The goal was only his second of the season. Two weeks ago, he was the subject of trade speculation, and he has struggled to stay in the starting 11 when not injured.

“He’ll be delighted with the goal, and I’m delighted for him for the goal, but his all-around performance, I thought, was excellent,” said Whitecaps coach Robinson. “I thought he held the ball up. He was a problem for their two centre backs, who are real good players, and he was a platform for our team to build. I put him in the team today. I left Erik Hurtado out, who’d done very well. I put (Rivero) in the team because he’d trained well. He’d been finishing up a number of training lately and doing extra work because he wants to get better, and that showed in his performance today.”

On the other hand, most of the other Whitecaps were not up to par for much of the game, which saw both teams reduced 10 players following a skirmish between Houston’s Alex and Vancouver captain Pedro Morales, who were sent off shortly before half-time.

The Dynamo, the Western Conference cellar dweller, entered the game deep in the doldrums after coach Owen Coyle parted ways with the club by mutual consent Wednesday. But Houston, which had lost all five of its previous games in Vancouver, controlled play at the start, keeping the ball in the Whitecaps half for about the first 12 minutes. You would never have known that the visitors had lost 10 straight road games.

DaMarcus Beasley gave the Dynamo a 1-0 lead in the 20th when he was allowed to take the ball down the left wing and chip a shot over Whitecaps goalkeeper David Ousted after eluding central defender Tim Parker’s attempted sliding tackle. Based on where the teams were in the Western Conference standings – Vancouver near the top and Houston at the bottom – the Whitecaps should have had a chance at a romp.

But they only looked good after Rivero’s goal turned their fortunes around.

“Great goal,” said Ousted. “I thought he found the right decision. He struck it perfectly, and I’m happy for the guy for getting that goal. He deserves it. He works so hard in this league. In the second half, he had a number of chances, so I’m happy with that goal.”

From that point on, Vancouver forced Houston goalkeeper Tyler Deric to make a number of difficult saves. But Houston also could have won, if not stymied by Ousted.

“I do feel we need to be better on a number of points, especially in the first half,” said Ousted. “We weren’t at the races. But, the second half, we can take a lot away from that performance. The work rate was up to standards, and we had the chances.”

However, even forever-positive Canadian midfielder Russell Teibert was subdued after the comeback draw. The Niagara Falls, Ont., native did not like a reporter’s suggestion that the Caps had squandered two of a possible three points, but he was not about to sugar-coat his team’s effort.

“That would be the negative way to look at it – two points lost,” said Teibert. “The positive of it is one point gained, and that could be a crucial point coming down to the end of the season. But I do agree with you in the sense that three points (are) crucial in a game like this, and we had opportunities to go out and win that game.”

But all things considered, the Caps struggled when they should have controlled the game from the outset against a vulnerable Houston side. The Dynamo’s 10-game road losing streak was part of a longer winless slide that has extended to 15 games, including ties.

“It’s been an interesting week around our camp,” said Wade Barrett, one of three Houston assistant coaches who guided the club against the Whitecaps.

Fortunately for the Caps, Rivero made Saturday’s game much more interesting for the Whitecaps than it could have been. And, he offered some hope of providing even better showings in the future.

 

Whitecaps striker Blas Perez finding form after slow start

Blas Perez is making a minor trade look like a masterpiece.

After an innocuous start to his first season with the Vancouver Whitecaps, Perez has two goals and and unofficial assist for distraction in the past two games. He is likely to figure more prominently from Saturday, when the Whitecaps (5-5-2) visit Toronto FC (4-3-2) onward as the Whitecaps battle key injuries and inconsistency at the striker spot.

Masato Kudo is out of the lineup indefinitely with a broken jaw – and Octavio Rivero, the subject of trade speculation before a transfer window closed during the past week, missed their last game with an ankle injury. Rivero, a designated player, remains an enigma when he is on the pitch.

Perez, 35, is making his acquisition from FC Dallas for Mauro Rosales in February look like a steal, especially after scoring on a bicycle kick in the 89th minute to give Vancouver a 2-1 victory over the Chicago Fire on Wednesday night. The goals came after Perez subbed in for Kudo following a collision with Chicago goalkeeper Matt Lampson in the 11th minute. Kudo lay on the pitch for seven minutes before he was transported off the field on a power cart.  A Whitecaps spokesman said Kudo during the game that Kudo suffered a concussion and facial cuts.

But Perez, a Panama native who spent four seasons with Dallas and has also toiled in Mexico, the United Arab Emirates, Spain, Colombia, Uruguay and his homeland, took his heroics in stride.

"Any time you see a colleague, a friend, a brother of yours on the field hurt, obviously it's a little surprising and it's not nice," he said through a Spanish interpreter. "You've got to be ready when you're on the bench. You've just got to be ready to come on and do your job."

That attitude should help the Whitecaps as Kudo, a former Japanese League star who is in his first MLS season, remains out for an extended period. While Rosales was a popular figure with his Whitecaps teammates and media, his minimal offensive production and relatively low playing time did not pay sufficient dividends on the pitch.

Perez, known for his physical play and unpopular with fans before he arrived in Vancouver, provides a mean streak not seen among Whitecap strikers previously. And, with 38 career MLS goals, he also has a nice finishing touch – as demonstrated by Wednesday’s winning tally.

“I thought the referee called the foul, so I was a little surprised because normally balls like that high up in the air, the referee sometimes calls fouls for high feet,” he said. “But that’s what I normally wanted to do, when I saw my teammates coming towards me, that’s when I realized the ball had gone in.”

Perez said the planned bicycle-kick goal ranks among the best of his career. On his first goal, which provded the Whitecaps with a 1-0 lead at half-time, he sneaked in behind a defender and tapped in a Christian Balonos pass inside the far post.

The goals were a nice follow-up to last weekend, when the six-foot-one Perez distracted Portland goalkeeper Jake Gleeson and Bolanos gave the Caps a 2-1 comeback win over the defending MLS-champion Timbers. Bolanos was actually attempting to lob a pass to Perez for a header, but the ball skipped through Gleeson’s legs instead as he was kneeling down to get it.

But Perez was not about to rave about his recent performances after a slow start.

 “I always come to work and do my job,” he said. “I just support my team. I just haven’t scored goals and I was working hard and that’s the result.”

Such a low-key approach was no longer good enough for the FC Dallas brain trust as Perez was sent packing. But Whitecaps coach Carl Robinson had no problem adding him to Vancouver’s roster.

"He's an exceptional, experienced professional — and he's still going," said Robinson. "Every time we played against him, he caused us problems. That's why I wanted to bring him to the club. I did my research on him with his character."
Physical play and some hard fouls aside, there seems to be little debate about Perez’s character. But there has been ongoing debate about the Whitecaps’ scoring ability for some time – and he might help mute it for a while.

Whitecaps show signs of moving upward with win over Timbers

The Vancouver Whitecaps could finally be on the ascent after a slow start to the MLS season – thanks to some timely goals from Christian Bolanos.

Bolanos scored his third goal in three games Saturday to give the Whitecaps a comeback 2-1 victory over the Portland Timbers before a sellout crowd of 21,122 at B.C. Place Stadium.

“I am happy because we (won) the game, not because I scored three goals in three games, but because players in my position need to get chances by playing (with) confidence,” said Bolanos, a 31-year-old Costa Rican attacking midfielder who is in his first season with Vancouver.

Both of Vancouver's goals came in the second half after Portland led 1-0 following the first 45 minutes.  With the victory, the Caps (4-5-2) have now beaten the defending MLS champion Timbers (3-4-3), who ousted them from the 2015 playoffs, and Western Conference co-leader FC Dallas.

Bolanos netted the winner in the 66th minute on a lob into the Portland box that Timbers goalkeeper Jake Gleeson misplayed after making a number of exceptional saves on much tougher shots.

“Actually, I tried to play the ball for Blas (Perez),” said Bolanos. “He didn’t touch the ball, but I think (Perez) made (a) problem for the goalkeeper,” said Bolanos. “That’s why he (was) thinking, maybe, Blas (will) touched the ball. So I was lucky, but it was good and I’m happy. This goal is 95 per cent for (Perez).”

Matsuto Kudo, a former Japanese League star, drew the Whitecaps even in the 60th minute with his first MLS goal. He beat Gleeson with a shot to the short side from a sharp angle. Nat Borchers opened the scoring for Portland in the 34th minute as he slid onto a Darlington Nagbe cross, tapping the ball just inside the far post.

“I thought we deserved something out of the game, or at least a draw, but credit Vancouver in that second half for clawing back and scoring two goals,” said Timbers coach Caleb Porter, whose team's win streak ended at three games. “The reason I felt we deserved something out of it is: Up 1-0 starting the second half, I thought we were in great position. We were getting counter-attacks.”

But the Whitecaps enjoyed several more opportunities as they controlled play for much of the first 45 minutes and were unlucky to score as Gleeson stopped Nicolas Mezquida just seven minutes in, Bolanos in the 19th minute, Mezquida again in the 39th and Kendall Waston’s header off the ensuing corner-kick.

“I thought that, if we kept creating chances – and I think everyone did – that eventually the ball was going to go in the back of the net,” said Vancouver defender Fraser Aird. “The way we scored (the winning goal) was probably our easiest chance that we created. We had a few in the six-yard box that just didn’t go in. I thought their ‘keeper had a really good game, had some really good saves, but at the end of the day we’re sitting here with three points and we’re happy.”

The game’s stat sheet backed up Aird’s comment. The Whitecaps had 26 shots, including blocked efforts, compared to Portland’s nine. Of those, 13 Vancouver shots were on target while the Timbers were credited with putting only three on Caps goalkeeper David Ousted. Meanwhile, the Whitecaps generated 11 corner-kicks to Portland’s five.

But with his team down a goal at half-time, Whitecaps coach Carl Robinson, still felt a need for some inspiration.

"It's a special day for me today, my (late) father's birthday," said Robinson. "At half-time ... I'm talking to myself and one of the coaches said: 'Are you OK?' I said: 'Yeah. Bring me some luck, Dad.'

"He brought me some luck with a mistake from the goalkeeper."

During the intermission, Robinson also told his players to keep doing what they were doing. He lauded them afterward for remaining intense “from the first minute to the last minute.”

“I think today we showed what we can be,” said Robinson.

The Caps will face expectations to do likewise again Wednesday as they host the Chicago Fire, an Eastern Conference bottom-feeder, and then visit Canadian rival Toronto FC next weekend.