So farewell then Leagues Cup.
The Whitecaps ended their “campaign” undefeated over ninety minutes and having matched two good Mexican teams at BC Place.
The 1-1 tie and penalty loss to Tigres wasn’t quite the humdinger that the Leon game was but it was still a good game of football punctuated by two very good goals.
It’s always easy to fall back on the “concentrate on the league” cliché after this kind of defeat but in this case it’s probably right.
More than a few Vancouver players looked weary by the end of the game on Friday evening so a period of rest and a chance to work on systems with new signings Sam Adekugbe and Richie Laryea is no bad thing.
Both those newcomers should be able to provide a better final ball than we saw against Tigres (oh wherefore art thou Julian Gressel?) and if we never have to see Laborda try to hit a cross again we will all be more spiritually content than we are now.
Coincidentally (or maybe not) Ryan Raposo had his best game in the left wing back role. It was highlighted by a fantastic goal line clearance but he also provided far more impetus going forward than he has been inclined to do.
Having said that there were still numerous times when having a left footed player on the left side would have kept the attacking momentum going more than Raposo was able to do.
But while he will inevitably lose minutes in the coming weeks it’s not inconceivable that Sartini will play Laryea in the role played by Gressel from time to time and this display ensured that Raposo will be a consideration on the right (especially given how poor Brown was after a lengthy lay off).
Elsewhere Pedro Vite continues to be one of the Whitecaps best players, Berhalter continues to always do a job wherever he is asked to play and Cubas continues to be Cubas.
The Whitecaps are in a good place right now. They know how they want to play, they know how to play that way and they are fun to watch.
Now they just need to break through the invisible wall of their own self-belief when the crunch times come.
Time for the Soccer Shorts player ratings!
Takaoka-5, Veselinovic-6, Blackmon-5.5, Raposo-6.5, Brown-3, Berhalter-6, Cubas-6.5, Schopf-5, Vite-7*, Gauld-6, White-6 (Laborda-5)
Soccer Shorts (The Director's Cut) 