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.”

Johnson steals show, helps Canadian soccer grow

A Canadian played the role of villain as Toronto FC stole the Voyageurs Cup from the Vancouver Whitecaps on Wednesday night.
As 19,376 Vancouver fans were on their feet, chanting and getting ready to celebrate what they thought would be a successful title defence,  Will Johnson's last-second goal gave TFC the 2016 Amway Canadian championship. The away goal was the tiebreaker after Johnson knotted the two-leg, total-goals series 2-2 on aggregate.
"Every time you dodge a bullet down here, you think: Maybe we will get a chance, and we did," said Johnson, a Toronto native who suffered a fractured leg on the play and is expected to miss six weeks. "Fortunately, it went in and it worked out. I'm not sure you can put it into words and describe it."Actually, the goal defied belief, but it was not that difficult to describe. Vancouver goalkeeper David Ousted and central defender Kendall Waston collided as they both went up for Tsubasa Endoh's lob into the box. Ousted dropped the ball and Johnson fired it high over Vancouver players into the net.
"You just take a chance," said Johnson. "When the ball was in the air, I had a good feeling it might bounce. ... I just wanted a look. I just put my foot through it, tried to connect well."
He literally gave Vancouver's title hope the boot in the fourth and final minute of added time as all goals came in the second half.
Johnson nullified nice goals by Vancouver's Nicolas Mezquida, who put home a header in the 47th minute, and defender Tim Parker. Mezquida scored only two minutes after coming on for injured Canadian midfielder Russ Teibert (quad strain) at the start of the second half. Parker was in front of the opposition for a rare time after a Vancouver corner-kick was cleared and Caps midfielder Matias Laba sent the ball back into the Toronto penalty area.
Vancouver goalkeeper Ousted blamed himself for the loss after Waston did not hear him call for the ball.
"Not what we wanted to happen," said Ousted. "I cost us that one. I cost us the championship. It's heart wrenching ... Do I have to come (out of the net) on that one. Definitely, I do. If you want a 'keeper that is going to stay on his line and not take responsibility, I'm not your guy. That's my ball. Should I punch it? Maybe. I would make that decision again. It's my ball. If I hold it, its over. That's the job. Some days that happens, and one mistakes can be the difference."
Ousted called the loss devastating, underscoring a unique irony of this Canadian championship competition. Clearly, Canada's MLS teams place less emphasis on winning a Canadian title, because the competition falls in the middle of their league season, adding to a busy week. So coaches routinely start players who would other wise be backups.
But Ousted's comments, and devastation, underscored the fact that players still hold a Canadian title close to their hearts, even if they are not from Canada. As Teibert's emotional reaction after Vancouver claimed its first title in 2015 indicated, Canadian players treasure a national championship even more.
Even coaches, who use the contests for the dual purpose of developing young talent and building a championship culture, can get pretty emotional, as Toronto's Greg Vanney and Vancouver's Carl Robinson confirmed Wednesday.
"It's just a huge swing emotionally," said Vanney, referring to TFC being behind and then pulling out the win. "For me, I let loose for a second (after Johnson's goal) and probably did something stupid. But then I pulled myself together and realized that Will, one of our key guys, was on the ground. I didn't realize he took a bit of a knock when he hit that ball."
Countered Robinson:  "I'm absolutely gutted for the guys, because they gave me and the club and the organization absolutely everything. We deserved to win, but we didn't win."
The Reds claimed their fifth Voyageurs Cup since 2008, the most by any team, while the Whitecaps placed second for the sixth time, also a record. But the real winner was Canadian soccer. The game offered another example that Canadians can stand out at times against international-calibre talent.
The entire competition showed that Canada is starting to develop quality young talent on a wider, if not reasonably consistent, basis. And, young Canadians are playing at the highest level in North America earlier. Vancouver's 15-year-old midfielder Alphonso Davies, an Edmonton native, was a revelation as he shined at times against Toronto and Ottawa in the semi-final series.  
Granted, many more of these examples are needed and, arguably, Canadians might not have stood out as much as they did last year, when Teibert was chosen the most valuable player of the competition. But more than 19,000 fans still bothered to show up for a mid-week game, and the entire Canadian championship competition exceeded 100,000 in attendance for the first time, according to a Soccer Canada spokeswoman. That accomplishment may not seem like much in comparison to European Cup and World Cup single-game crowds.
But for a country whose men's team has not qualified for the World Cup since 1976 and is still marred at times by the effects of original North American Soccer League's troubles, 100,000 fans represent progress. And, it also shows that soccer enthusiasts are starting to care about a Toronto-Vancouver rivalry, which helps to grow the game.
"(Wednesday's result) probably adds another level to (the Toronto-Vancouver rivalry), for sure," said Johnson, who helped the Portland Timbers win their first MLS Cup last season before he was traded to Toronto. "Vancouver is a great team. For us to come in here and get thee result we need is no small feat. We are proud of that. It will add fuel to the fire. It's good for the sport. This was a good Canadian soccer match between two good teams. There (were) a lot of good Candian players on the field, too.
I was proud to be part of it."
Perhaps more importantly, Johnson's never-say-die effort gave a lot of people, including players and fans, a reason to be proud of Canadian soccer. In the grand scheme of things, that is a good thing for a country whose men's program has been lurching along for 30 years since its last World Cup appearance. Truth be told, Canada's men's side might not get back to the World Cup anytime soon, but Wednesday's game and others in the Canadian championship competition showed that the chances of qualifying might, just might, be stronger in coming years than it has lately.
And save for the feelings of 19,000-plus Whitecaps supporters, it did not hurt that a Canadian stole the show in a national final that featured players from all over the world.

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.