Whitecaps get rare taste of life at the top

The Vancouver Whitecaps have traditionally been climbers, but now they hope to avoid a fall.
The Whitecaps (13-9-5) sit first in Major League Soccer’s Western Conference heading into Saturday’s home game against the Columbus Crew (13-12-4) at B.C. Stadium. The Caps usually find themselves battling for a playoff spot at this time of year, with the end of the regular season approaching, but they have avoided their seemingly annual summer swoon – and displayed more consistency than expected.
However, Vancouver coach Carl Robinson and his players are not making a big deal of their success.
 “We’ve just got to keep ticking along,” said Robinson.
The Whitecaps are coming off a 3-0 thrashing of expansion side Minnesota United on Wednesday at home, where they made amends for squandering a 2-0 lead earlier this season in the Twin Cities and settling for a tie.
They have climbed up the standings by going 7-2-2 in their past 11 games
“It feels good, but we want to be there at the end of the season,” said Caps rookie defender Jake Nerwinski. “It’s good to be in first now, but we’ve got seven games left.”  
Saturday’s tilt is likely to be much more difficult for the Whitecaps. The Crew is 3-0-2 in its last five games and arrived early to watch Wednesday’s game at B.C. Place. After the game, many Whitecaps renewed acquaintances with former popular teammate Kekuta Manneh. The popular Gambia native, who has played both striker and midfielder, was traded to Columbus early in the season for Tony Tchani, who has performed well albeit with less flair.
“I hope he does well against us, but I hope we get the win,” said Whitecaps striker Erik Hurtado.
On Wednesday, Hurtado scored in a starting role against Minnesota after rarely seeing the pitch for most of the season as Robinson elected to go with other players. Hurtado could finding himself watching again Saturday. The Caps will likely draw heavily again on Yordy Reyna, a player who has provided the consistency that was often lacking with Manneh, who struggled with injuries in Vancouver and never quite lived up to expectations after his play hinted that he could earn a large transfer fee from a European club.
Reyna, a Peurvian international who missed much of the season with a broken foot suffered in the preseason, has three goals and an assist in his past five games. He scored a brilliant goal against Minnesota on a long lead ball from Canadian midfielder Marcel de Jong and also provided a helper.
“He’s such an exciting player,” said Nerwinski. “He’s explosive, he’s quick, he’s skillful and he makes things happen.”
And, if he continue to make more things happen on a regular basis, the Whitecaps may just avoid a fall from first place.

 

Whitecaps looking for more magic in "Mission Impossible"

The Vancouver Whitecaps found magic in one game.

The question now is: Can they do it again Wednesday night?

As they take on Mexico’s Tigres UANL in the second leg of their CONCACAF Champions League semifinal at B.C. Place stadium, the Whitecaps hope to deliver the same masterful display that they showed in a 4-2 comeback victory over the Los Angeles Galaxy on Saturday.

The Caps scored three second-half goals to overcome a 2-1 defiicit. For most of the night, Vancouver defenders, midfielders and forwards moved in unison – something they rarely did when the team missed the 2016 MLS playoffs.

Win provides nice setup

“That (win) sets us up nicely for Wednesday – for Mission Impossible,” said Whitecaps coach Carl Robinson.

His two-word description sums up Vancouver’s task effectively. The Caps trail 2-0 in the aggregate-goals competition and need to score at least three times to have the slightest hope for a win. If Tigres scores one goal, the Caps will need to net at least. A tie on aggregate will be determined by which team has more away goals, but the Caps do not have any.

Saturday’s win – Vancouver’s first of the Major League Soccer season – hinted what the Whitecaps are capable of – and suggested that they might be able to pull off a miracle against Tigres. Holding midfielder Matias Laba led the Caps with two goals – one on a superb shot at the top of the L.A. box and the other on a header of teammate Fredy Montero’s rebound.

Rare offensive showing from Laba

How rare was Laba’s showing?

A defensive specialist, he had only managed to score two goals in 112 previous MLS games – a span of three-plus seasons. Montero also scored after coming off the bench after half-time in place of injured striker Erik Hurtado (foot), while Cristian (the Bug) Techera also scored while showing some of the speed that he had displayed last season.

The Whitecaps also received outstanding efforts from central defenders Kendall Waston and Tim Parker, who clogged the middle as the Galaxy tried a series of through balls as well as long lobs.

“You’ve got two centre backs that, I think, were outstanding; you’ve got a holding midfield player that scores two goals; and, obviously, Fredy (Montero) makes a difference when he comes on,” said Robinson. “The Bug was electric as well.”

Some players and Robinson, as well as certain media types, have contended that Saturday’s win was a positive after-effect of star winger Kekuta Manneh’s trade to the Columbus Crew on Thursday. (Tony Tchani, the player acquired from Columbus, provided glimpses of offensive flair in a substitute role.)

“We’re all professional sportsmen,” said Robinson. “So I said to the group: Listen, you’re fighting for your places. We all are.”

Manneh's trade likely a business decision

That was a nice bit of spin or, perhaps, insight into how players are affected psychologically by a standout player’s trade. But the reality is that the offensively gifted Manneh’s trade was quite likely based on business factors, even if – as some have claimed – management grew tired of his inability to finish his scoring chances.

Manneh’s contract is due to expire at the end of this season and he has previously indicated a desire to play in Europe. Hence, it was evident that he did not want to re-sign with Vancouver. Otherwise, the Whitecaps would have signed him even if they still wanted to move him. The Caps decided to get something while they could, in the form of Tchani, a decent player with MLS experience who was in the New York Red Bulls and Toronto organizations when Robinson toiled as a player and assistant coach with those clubs.

The Whitecaps also secured a guaranteed $300,000 in allocation money, a 2018 first-round Super Draft pick if Manneh signs a contract extension with Columbus, or a share of the transfer fee if he is sold internationally. In other words, the Whitecaps made sure they got something for him now instead of losing him for nothing later.

Consistency the real challenge

Any motivation to the rest of the team will likely be temporary at best.  The Whitecaps’ real challenge will be to duplicate Saturday’s performance on a regular basis – and Robinson is extremely aware of that point.

As the coach sat behind the microphone after Saturday’s game, he sounded like a scientist who wished he could preserve the ingredients of that in a test tube for future use – because he knows that the club’s previous success has been fleeting.

“Belief, energy, passion – that group in there has got it,” said Robinson. “We just need to do it more consistently.”

Starting Wednesday.

Good start critical 

Laba suggested it will be “super-important” for the Whitecaps to bring a good effort against Tigres if they are going to overcome the 2-0 deficit.

“We’re not worried about: What are they going to do?” he said. “We know that they are a top-level team in Central America and North America. We need to score the first goal as soon as possible and then have that belief that we can keep going and score the second one.”

The winner of the series will advance to the CONCACAF Champions League final, which will determine the North American, Central American and Caribbean zone’s representative in the next FIFA Club World Cup. Mexico’s top league is widely considered to be of a higher caliber than MLS, but Laba, naturally, contended that  his team is capable of pulling off Mission Impossible.

“We can do it,” said Laba.

 

Mattocks excels in first start of season as Caps tie Crew

Darren Mattocks finally got a chance to start a game for the Vancouver Whitecaps on Wednesday, and he did not disappoint.
Mattocks scored the tying goal in the 64th minute and added an assist as the Whitecaps rallied to earn a 2-2 draw with the Columbus Crew at B.C. Place Stadium. He was named the man of the match as the Whitecaps (4-1-1) extended their unbeaten streak to five games in the young MLS season.
“A fantastic game. We should have gotten the three points. I scored, but I think I should at least get one more. I’ve got to consider that that’s my first 90 minutes, so I’m going to take it as a positive.”
In his fourth season with the Whitecaps, Mattocks has appeared in three other games as a substitute while missing another game due to international duty with Jamaica. He helped the Whitecaps come back from a pair of deficits as Kai Kamara scored both Crew goals, in the 24th and 50th minutes.
Second-half substitute Kekuta Manneh enabled Mattocks to cash in for an easy first goal of the season. Manneh broke down left wing with the ball, cut towards the net and then, when he was within six yards, made a sublime pass back through two defenders to Mattocks in the middle of the Columbus area.
“He’s a great player and, every game he plays, we know what he’s capable of doing and what he’s expected to do. … Fortunately for me, I was in the right place at the right time,” said Mattocks.
Mattocks set up Vancouver’s first goal by making a long throw-in to Octavio Rivero in the 31st minute. After taking the ball in the Columbus box, Rivero sidestepped a defender and fired a shot just inside the near post.
Mattocks showed versatility by playing on both wings. He started on the left wing and then switched to the right after Manneh came on for Nicolas Mezquida. Late in the game, Mattocks put the would-be winning goal off the corner of the crossbar. He also played one of his better games defensively in a Caps jersey, hustling back to mark opponents and being strong on the ball.
“When I’m scoring, that’s expected of me, to score, but I never can see myself doing so much work defensively,” he said. “It’s something I’m not used to on a nightly basis, because I’m a striker. But I think I did really good defensively. I think that’s what I’m going to take out of this game. And if I can continue to do that on both sides of the ball, creating chances for the team but working extremely hard defensively, I think I’m going to be in pretty good shape going forward.”
The Whitecaps spent a fair amount of time going backward in the first half as Columbus pressed forward with regularity. Both of Kamara’s goals resulted from poor defensive play.
He scored the first by firing in a loose ball after it bounced off the feet of centre back Kendall Waston and a Columbus player. The second was a terrible goal, with the Whitecaps leaving Kamara alone in their box and free to take a slow cross along the turf from Justin Meram.
“I think we had enough chances to, probably, win the game,” said Whitecaps coach Carl Robinson. “We didn’t take enough of our chances, but we weren’t good enough defensively. We (allowed) two sloppy goals. We got countered and the second goal, obviously, was a bad goal for us to concede.”
But Robinson, who juggled his lineup to avoid his players getting fatigued in three games this week, was impressed with Mattocks.
“He was very good,” said Robinson. “He got his goal. He could have, maybe, had one or two more. But there was a lot of positive play. I can’t fault my players in there today, because we’re exciting to watch attacking-wise. We’ve just gotta to tidy up a few things on the defensive side of it.”
Mattocks has not always been the hardest working Whitecap or displayed the most vision on the pitch. But he showed that Robinson made a good choice in putting him for 92 minutes before he was replaced by Robert Earnshaw in stoppage time.
“I felt it was the right time to give (Mattocks) the opportunity,” said Robinson. “He’s been away with Jamaica, he scored two goals, he got very very lively in training. And the decision was correct, because he came on and put a very strong performance for 90- odd minutes. He ran out of gas in the end, which is why I tried to put Earnie on to see if we could nick a second ball off a Kendall header or something, but (Mattocks) should be very proud of his performance today.”
The Whitecaps pulled out the draw while dealing with injuries. They lost centre back Diego Rodriguez to a groin injury in the 15th minute as his return from a two-game league suspension was brief. Waston, who was dominant in the air, also hurt his neck late in the game as he was upended by Kamara and landed head-first. But, surprisingly, Waston remained in the game.
“Maybe he got a little bit undercut and fell awkwardly, which made me angry, as you could see,” said Robinson.
The Whitecaps visit the San Jose Earthquakes on Saturday, hoping to keep their unbeaten streak alive while Mattocks looks forward to another start in the near future.