Tag: Vancouver Whitecaps

The release of the MLS Player’s Salary details this week provided a perfect storm of confirmation bias for fans of the Whitecaps.

For they now knew they had an ownership group who weren’t interested in keeping up with the new spending levels in MLS and a coach who was more than happy to use that lack of ambition as an excuse for the unimaginative way his team played week after week.

And, for the majority of the game, the visit of the Houston Dynamo did nothing other than confirm the arrival of said storm.

The Whitecaps struggled to play any kind of coherent football, missed any half chances that came their way and conceded to a nicely constructed move only to grab a scrappy goal in return just before half-time.

Those of us who wondered if Vancouver would build on that late goal were left disappointed as we simply got more of the same disjointed attacks and half-hearted flurries forward.

But then, without about twenty minutes to go, Juarez and Reyna came on to the field and out of nowhere the Whitecaps looked as though they were actually interested in playing some decent football and actually wanted to score a goal.

A previously lifeless Davies suddenly looked a threat and a previously frustrated Felipe suddenly started playing passes in dangerous areas.

For for the first time in a long time the Vancouver Whitecaps were almost fun to watch.

Obviously they missed all of their gilt-edged chances and conceded a late goal and even a very, very late Waston equalizer couldn’t hide the fact that a home tie against Houston isn’t going to turn around any kind of slump.

But let’s hope those twenty minutes somehow convince the coach that actively trying to score goals isn’t that bad an idea at home and that playing some kind of football along the turf isn’t really the highfalutin madness he sometimes seems to think it is.

Will he send out a more attacking lineup against San Jose on Wednesday evening?

We interrupt this blog to bring you some thoughts from the following morning.

In his post-game presser Robinson spoke of how he asked his team to player quicker at half-time and how he was pleased with the way in which the fans got behind the team.

Let’s assume he realizes (or somebody tells him) that those two events are not unrelated and that playing on the front foot at home can often be a very effective strategy (especially against a very poor road team).

Imagine a world where the Whitecaps try to win a game from the get go at BC Place? Can such a wondrous place exist?

Perhaps the most perplexing thing about the aftermath of that game though is that we are still nowhere close to knowing what the best eleven for this team is.

There are those within the Whitecaps organization who will opine that it really doesn’t make any difference who is on the field, such is the flatly balanced ability of all in the squad, but it really does.

A team can’t find coherence if it’s constantly being switched around to keep everybody happy or if the coach is far too frequently reacting to the last game or the last game but one.

From a supporter’s point of view the best case scenario right now is that the players who can somehow break out of Robinson’s tactical passivity all get to start and that means the likes of Davies, Reyna and Felipe.

Those tantalizing glimpses of pleasant football we saw on Friday evening need to be converted in to something so much more from here on in.

Will Robinson encourage that kind of play against San Jose on Wednesday evening?

We now return you to your previous blog.

Almost certainly not, but we can at least dream.

Finally a special shout out to Brek Shea (a Designated Player and the second highest earner on the Whitecaps) who produced a startling cameo in which he missed the easiest chance to score a goal in the history of humanity before cleverly setting up Houston for their second goal with a nice cross field pass.

That’s efficiency right there.

Time for your Soccer Shorts Player Ratings.

Rowe-6, de Jong-5.5, Franklin-6, Aja-5.5, Waston-6*, Felipe-5.5, Ghazal-5, Ibini-4, Davies-5.5, Blondell-5, Kamara-5 (Jaurez-6, Reyna-6, Shea-2)

It’s hard to know if the Vancouver Whitecaps 2-0 win over Real Salt Lake on Friday evening was a genuinely entertaining game or if it’s just a case of it simply being better than the turgid fare previously on offer.

Whatever the case the Whitecaps won and that should at least be something to build on.

So let’s ignore (for now) Carl Robinson’s increasingly bizarre compulsion to talk down the quality of his players and look at what went right.

Yes! A look at the Whitecaps that accentuates the positive!

(Apart from those previous digs about turgid football and Carl Robinson obviously. And there will be a few negative side comments to come as well but other than that….)

Jordon Mutch and Nicolas Mezquida both did well in the number ten role.

Robinson is never really going to be happy with a creative player in that position so having someone who will harry the opposition and still operate with an attack minded focus works well.

It also worked well in Columbus which was probably Vancouver’s best performance of the season so far.

But if Mutch’s injury keeps him out for a period of time then Mezquida doesn’t have the overall quality to fill the role on a full time basis and Reyna currently has neither the form or discipline to do it either.

And from what we’ve seen of Felipe he isn’t a player who can build his game around pressing.

Which leaves a problem.

Could Blondell play there? Probably but it would limit his ability to get behind a defence. Teibert? To a degree I guess but it would seem cruel to move him out of the central midfield during a period in which he’s playing some of his best football.

Hurtado? No. Juarez? That seems a stretch.

Spolier Alert! I’m not going to come up with a satisfactory answer here because I don’t think there is one. But chances are we’ll see either Reyna or Blondell trying to make a silk purse from the sow’s ear of tactical rigidity.

There was more good news with the performance of Aly Ghazal.

The Egyptian isn’t an obvious “look how much I care” kind of guy but his reaction to having his bouncing shot saved and his collapse to the turf when the final whistle went spoke louder than words.

Far too many people within the club are all too eager to talk the talk and far too few ever really manage to walk the walk.

Having Ghazal once again become a regular in the middle of the field should help with that.

And let’s not forget how well the two new fullbacks played.

Neither Franklin nor Levis looked out of place and the only shame is they are fighting for a place with a young player in the form of Jake Nerwinski.

Could it be that the Whitecaps should have put more faith in youth much earlier on?

That constantly signing players who are “good in the locker room” simply results in high turnover and low morale?

And it could be that Robinson is far more comfortable communicating with young players who are willing to listen to their first coach than more experienced players who have other templates to compare against?

It’s certainly true that every mercurial player who has flown into Robinson’s orbit has been left looking saturnine sooner or later.

Not sure how that problem gets solved this season without the kind of wholesale starting eleven decisions that simply aren’t going to be made and, in the end, the club will once again pay the price for recruiting players based on availability rather than suitability.

That didn’t really end up being all that positive at all did it?

Three points!

Fans of the Vancouver Whitecaps probably feel more like joining a support group than supporter’s group right now.

There feels such a disconnect between the way the club and the team is perceived from the outside and the inside of the tent.

But Friday’s 6-0 shellacking at the hands of Sporting Kansas City feels like a turning point. The moment when even those who were granting the coach and the Front Office leeway decided enough is enough.

That the excuses and the hand wringing about how tough things are for them and how fans should really just be grateful for every morsel of comfort tossed their way need to stop.

That the tired clichés about “bouncing back” and “being stronger” no longer wash.

So what happens now?

Well, the smart money is on nobody at the club doing anything. Sitting on their hands in the hope the upcoming run of four home games from the next six will see the team eke out enough points to keep the wolves of discontent at bay and allow the Whitecaps to float there or thereabouts when it comes to playoff contention.

It’s not an inspiring vision but it will mean the players won’t really be challenged by the coach and the coach won’t really be challenged by the Front Office and the Front office won’t really be challenged by the ownership group.

And while no alarms and no surprises might make for a pleasant working environment for all concerned it’s a long drawn out death sentence when it comes to success on the field.

But what if they don’t eke out those points?

Real Salt Lake bunkered when they were at home against Vancouver so expect the same and more next Friday and then expect the same again from Houston, San Jose and New England.

It’s a weird infinite loop of tedium Carl Robinson has created in which his particularly unadventurous style of play is best combatted by an even more unadventurous style of play.

Would four more games at BC Place similar to the two LA contests drive somebody into action?

Maybe so, maybe not.

But the Whitecaps need to ensure something changes before all the current anger turns into permanent disinterest.

For the last two years (maybe a little longer) there’s been a plastic shopping bag hanging from the tree that sits directly outside the window from which this very blog is written.

And for all that time it’s taunted me.

During the Fall and Winter it’s dangled there as a constant reminder of the folly of humanity. A damp and dirty piece of plastic wrapping itself around one of nature’s finest creations.

And in the Spring and Summer when the tree is in full bloom it remains visible. Peaking through the blossoms like the spectre of death at Prom Night. A constant reminder that the only permanent and inevitable aspects of our lives are the ones we prefer not to contemplate.

But then, last week, it was gone.

Perhaps somebody else had grown tired of it’s presence and had finally taken action? But the more likely explanation is that two years (maybe a little longer) of Vancouver rainfall had filled it to bursting point and it had splashed to the ground in the night, unnoticed and unmourned.

Except, to my surprise, it’s not completely unmourned because now that it’s no longer there my contempt has been replaced by a kind of melancholy.

After all, if I can project so much feeling onto an inanimate object when it’s there then why not do the same in it’s absence?

If that scrap of plastic can represent the folly of humanity when I can see it, then why can’t it represent our transience when I can’t?

This is all incredibly (and mundanely) human of me of course. It’s what we do. We make up stories about just about everybody and everything in a desperate attempt to somehow explain the inexplicable.

And that’s very much what we do with sports and the players who play them. Turn them into characters in our personal fictionalized version of the world.

But every now and then one of those players does the exact same thing to themselves.

So say “hello” to the new Russell Teibert.

The Canadian is almost the very definition of a limited player. He’s not especially fast, not exceptionally skillful and his range of passing mostly falls within an arc of about twenty metres behind and beside him.

But this season, the season when it seemed the overall calibre of the squad would finally see him eased out of the picture altogether, Teibert has stepped his game up a notch.

It’s a small sample size to be sure but he has at least thought about playing the ball forward this year. And not in the “I’ll hit this in the general direction of Kei Kamara” kind of a way but in the “I’ve seen a breaking player in space and I’m going to find him” kind of a way.

Maybe that change is a reaction to the increased competition, maybe it’s a reaction to instructions from the coach or maybe having better players around him makes Teibert a better player?

But it could just be that he took a good look at where his career was heading during the post-season and decided the narrative needed to change before it petered out in a banal series of increasingly low level moves.

So right now seeing Teibert’s name in the starting eleven isn’t quite the sigh inducing news it used to be because, at the very least, he will offer just a little bit more than safety first, second and third.

It’s still a long shot to suggest he will become a regular starter as the season progresses and as the higher quality players begin to find their feet and their groove, but that’s no longer an impossibility.

Teibert has had the presence of mind to bring his own bags with him and he’s been rewarded by not having to try and explain to a computer screen that he can’t remove the item because the item isn’t even there! (sorry, the whole metaphor got a bit lost at the end) .