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.