Whitecaps spoil Rooney's rare visit

Wayne Rooney drew a crowd Saturday night, but he did not dazzle it.

The Vancouver Whitecaps held the former English Premier League star in check, blanking Rooney’s D.C. United squad 1-0 before a sellout crowd of 22,120 at B.C. Place Stadium. Rooney, making his first – and probably last – Major League Soccer appearance in Vancouver rarely touched the ball during the run of play.

That was not so much a case of Rooney playing poorly. It was more a case of Vancouver closing the door defensively.

“We were, by far, the better team, created the better chances,” said Rooney who, unlike many visiting stars to B.C. Place this season, made himself available to reporters promptly after the contest. “We were very unlucky not to get anything out of the game.”

The Whitecaps (6-12-9) ended their home losing streak at six games. They registered their first home win since May 25 against FC Dallas.

But D.C. (10-8-9) outshone the hosts in almost every statistical category by a wide margin – except one: Shots on target. Both teams had two and the Whitecaps scored on one of theirs, when Yordy Reyna converted a sublime pass from Russell Teibert in the 18th minute.

Vancouver rookie goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau, who has been a rainbow during a season full of dark clouds, recorded his fifth shutout of the campaign – an amazing feat number considering that the Caps have just six wins.

“Any clean sheet feels amazing,” said Crepeau. “At that point, it’s three points. After that, it’s keeping a clean sheet. If it’s against Rooney, even better. It’s a great evening.”

With the Whitecaps destined to miss the playoffs and going through a management reorganization, Rooney was the primary drawing card. The crowd cheered the former Manchester United icon during the pre-game introductions and offered a mixture of jeers and cheers when he touched the ball – mostly on free kicks and corner-kicks. He also received a nice – but not overwhelming – round of applause when he subbed off in the 74th minute.

“The stadium is very nice,” he said. “The fans are good, too.”

After exiting the pitch, he castigated the fourth official for a lack of hand-ball calls on the Whitecaps in their 18-yard box and perceived recent poor officiating. Later, while speaking with reporters, he noted he had been criticizing the officiating lately, expressed his belief in his right to do so, and called on Howard Webb, the league’s head of officiating, to come to D.C. and explain how calls were made.

Rooney also expressed concerns about long coach-class air travel to Vancouver.

“The travel doesn’t help, obviously,” he said. “It was a very long trip, two flights. Maybe we should have used one of the charter flights to come here.”

MLS limits the number of flights that teams may take during a season. A loss by an eastern team on the West Coast due to travel fatigue is nothing new. But Rooney refused to use the long travel as an excuse for his lack of output.

“It’s part of the job, unfortunately, so you have to do it,” he said. “But there’s a better way to do it. Unfortunately, we didn’t take that way.”

Travel fatigue was likely not a factor. D.C. outshot the Caps 24-8, held roughly a 65-35 edge in possession percentage and was much accurate than Vancouver with passes and crosses. While Rooney did not exactly shine, he deserved credit just for showing up.

In the past, some eastern-based stars have found reasons not to come to Vancouver, because of the artificial turf at B.C. Place and other factors. But, Rooney, who recently ventured back to the U.K. to announce that he would serve as a player-coach with Derby County starting in January, said he was all-in for the game – charter or no charter.

“There was no reason for me not to come on this trip,” he said.

“(The possibility of Rooney staying home from a long road game) was never an issue,” added D.C. coach Ben Olsen. “We talked about that. That’s what it is. He’s on the team and he’ll come to every game that we play if he’s healthy, and that was the case.”

Whitecaps coach Marc Dos Santos said the club strived to prevent D.C. from getting through balls to Rooney between defenders, who were instructed to be compact in front of the net and allow D.C. to make crosses from the wings.

“What I told the players before the game is: even if many people come to see Rooney, the sum of our parts (has) to be the difference maker,” said Dos Santos. “I think that today in every facet of the game, in everything we did, there was such a commitment from everyone. I’m proud of that, there’s no sign of this team giving up.”

Dos Santos is evaluating players for their commitment to the team’s long-term cause, especially after some humiliating losses at home. It went without saying that the Whitecaps have little to play for the rest of the season. So a win over the legendary Wayne Rooney’s squad added some meaning to a lost season.

However, Teibert contended that the Caps did not do anything special to deter him from scoring.

“Our approach to the game is: We have to stick to what we do defensively,” said Teibert. “We’ve been sound defensively in the past four games. We have to keep building on that. Rooney is a big name, he attracts a lot of attention everywhere he goes, but our game plan was essentially the same.”