It’s hard to know what to take away from a game where the Vancouver Whitecaps were so depleted by a combination of injuries, suspensions, visa issues and health and safety protocols.
But, perhaps surprisingly, by the end of the 2-1 defeat in Charlotte it felt like points unnecessarily dropped rather than a brave defeat in the face of impossible odds.
After an initial flurry of attacks following an early Whitecaps goal Charlotte turned out to be pretty terrible at breaking down the Vancouver backline and stand in goalkeeper Max Anchor was more troubled by set-pieces than he was by the opposition creating clear cut chances.
But, just as the game looked to be stumbling to a dull conclusion, Ranko Veselinovic decided that kicking the ball away from his own six yard area was the ungentlemanly thing to do and the game was lost.
That felt like a brutal blow for the rest of the players at the time but maybe if the team as a whole had taken the game to Charlotte a little more such a mistake would have counted for less?
And maybe if they had kept the ball better when they were in possession that kind of tired error wouldn’t have occurred?
Inactions have as many consequences as actions.
This may be a defeat that the coach can point to as caused by the astonishing array of off the field bad luck that is following this team around at the moment. But it was also caused by his team failing to do the basics when it mattered.
They got away with such sloppiness over the recent home stand, but the moving finger of fate is very big on rewrites and ethically appropriate denouements and so it came to pass.
Time for this team to change the script.
It’s also time for the Soccer Shorts player ratings!
Anchor-3, Brown-6*, Veselinovic-3, Jungwirth-5, Godhino-5, Dajome-4, Berhlater-5, Owusu-4, Gauld-5.5, Caicedo-6, Ricketts-4.5 (Teibert-5)
Soccer Shorts (The Director's Cut) 