Post Match: Fair Enough

The Vancouver Whitecaps drew 1-1 with the New York Red Bulls. A cross-continental road game against a team in the supporter’s shield race is essentially a scheduled loss in MLS so I very much see this as a point gained rather than two points lost, even though it was Vancouver that took the lead. 

RBNY’s 4-4-2 with its emphasis on pace and overlapping fullbacks was a tough style matchup for Vancouver. Lewis Morgan had back-to-back decent looks early but Takaoka was alert to the task. Other than that though, while New York had a lot of shots, they created few high-danger chances in the first half. They certainly threatened but Vancouver was generally able to adjust in time to make last-ditch interventions. The Red Bulls were, therefore, mostly limited to shots from sharp angles and long range. Vancouver, meanwhile was able to counter with a smaller number of more dangerous chances, one of which was a goal by Brian White. But, unfortunately for Vancouver, Yohei Takaoka had a bit of a brain malfunction in the second half and failed to deal with a corner allowing Morgan to head into an empty net. The Red Bulls were reduced to 10 men after Noah Elie reached up and swatted the ball away, preventing Ryan Gauld from being through on goal. But rather than give the game a kick this event seemed to whig both teams out to such a degree that they both agreed to just run around until the game was over. 

The Whitecaps have a good thing going with this more defensive 3-4-3. The Whitecaps mostly cede possession and limit the opponent to poor shots in exchange for a smaller number of high-danger chances. For the most part, this is working out great. But if we are thinking about ways to put the Whitecaps over the top, there probably needs to be a more reliable release valve when they are under long periods of pressure. When the ‘Caps have gotten in trouble this year it has mostly been because they are put under pressure for so long that eventually there is some kind of slip-up, like Takaoka’s brain fart in this match, and the other team gets a jammy goal. This could be the 3rd fast guy for the front three that we all want. Having a player like that might keep opponents a bit more honest and prevent them from throwing so many players forward. Or it might be some sort of tactical tweak that allows the Whitecaps to retain the ball a little bit better. You don’t need to totally re-invent the wheel, things are still going quite well overall. But this stands out as an area that could be improved in my opinion. 

We saw Ralph Priso’s first extended run in this game. I thought he looked quite good. Nothing flashy but he won the ball back and pushed it forward pretty consistently and that is what he is out there to do. I also thought Pedro Vite was a standout performer in this match which was nice to see after he’d been a bit underwhelming to this point. We also have to say a quick word about Brian White becoming the all-time leading scorer in the MLS era in this match. On a narrative level, the current era of Whitecaps soccer feels like an exorcising of past demons. Winning back-to-back Canadian Championships, finally have a DP #10, Camilo no longer being the all-time leading scorer. It’s nice to have new things to talk about and be proud of. Hopefully, there will be some playoff wins at the end of all this! But for now, the Whitecaps will look ahead to Austin F.C. next week. Austin is on a bit of a hot streak after looking pretty dreadful to start the season so it will be interesting to see how real that turnaround is.