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.”
