Wednesday night at BC Place, the Vancouver Whitecaps trounced the visiting Houston Dynamo by a final score of 6-2.
It was a weird match for Vancouver. They played very poorly at times, especially in the first half, but also looked completely dominant as the match went on. Overall, this result helped buck the trend of the Whitecaps struggling to finish their chances, and perhaps revealed that Vancouver’s long clean-sheet streak was more fluke than a pure reflection of quality. As Vanni Sartini indicated after the match, there’s work to be done, but it’s still nice to see the Whitecaps take care of business at home and continue to work their way up the Western Conference standings.
Alright, on to player grades.
Yohei Takaoka (6.0) A pretty solid outing for someone who was scored on twice, Takaoka was busy in this one. Perhaps he could have come out more aggressively on the second Dynamo goal but overall his presence in the box is getting better and better.
Javain Brown (3.5) The first Dynamo goal was a howler for Javain, and he kept the runner onside in the lead-up to the second goal. He looked lost to be honest, his positioning was all over the place.
Mathias Laborda (5.0) Perhaps this is what Sartini was seeing from Laborda at training in a back four. The Uruguayan is so eager to be aggressive it leads to some errors, and really is not a great fit in a back four with Brown and Martins at fullback.
Tristan Blackmon (5.5) The American did his best but it was a sloppy night all-round for Vancouver defensively.
Luis Martins (5.5) Martins continues to create with his crossing, but he almost never closes down with any urgency defensively, which is very frustrating.
Andres Cubas (6.0) The Dynamo mostly tried to avoid Cubas by playing direct long balls, which was quite effective. When Cubas was involved he was a effective creating turnovers and breaking up Houston’s rhythm on the ball.
Julian Gressel (7.5) The midfield star continues to have a very solid season. Gressel left little doubt with two clinical finishes and is really finding a rhythm playing with Pedro Vite and Ryan Gauld in front of him.
Alessandro Schopf (5.5) At the moment, the Austrian’s movement is pretty concerning. He just does not look like he can run at full tilt, and it left some massive holes in the midfield at times. He’s still very good on the ball, but right now Ali Ahmed is sorely missed.
Pedro Vite (7.0) The youngster continues his upward trend and now has three goals in his last four in MLS play. What’s great to see is that he appears to have confidence in his finishing again, making him a more dynamic threat.
Ryan Gauld (7.5) A lot of the same can be said for Gauld in the other attacking mid spot. Gauld’s willingness to shoot from distance created two goals in this one and overall, the Whitecaps, as they are currently playing, offer a much wider variety of goal-scoring threats than at the beginning of the season, where they were trying to play everything through the striker.
Brian White (7.0) A business-like goal and assist from the American striker. His hold-up play gave the Houston defense issues, and he’s looking calmer in front of goal as the season has gone on.
Substitutes The switch to three at the back appeared to settle things down, at least somewhat, at halftime. Ranko Veselinovic (6.0) was decent, but there were still some sketchy moments as the match opened up. Sebastian Berhalter (7.0) is making a case as a starter alongside Cubas, especially if they look to change shape and Ahmed remains out. This was perhaps Deiber Caicedo’s (6.5) best showing of the year so far as he added some threat in attack, and had a nice secondary assist. Russel Teibert (6.0) played out some minutes in the midfield and Sergio Cordova (5.5) still looks quite lost in Vancouver, especially when the ball is crossed into him, but he did make a few decent runs in wide areas.
Vanni Sartini (6.0) Credit to the manager for admitting that despite the scoreline, this was not their best showing. I think Sartini should take a serious look at a back three, because the fullbacks remain a defensive liability and Vancouver has more than enough midfield and attacking play to find goals. Whether it’s been the players or coaching, Vite and Gauld have found their form at a good time for Vancouver, so the next mission is to get the likes of Cordova, Schopf, and Caicedo involved as depth contributors while ironing out defensive inconsistencies. The upcoming international break will be a nice deep breath, but this team has some serious business to take care of over the next week or so.
Ok, those were my thoughts, let me know yours in the comments.
A 6.0 for Cubas and a 6.5 for Dieber. Come-on. Cubas was a beast all game and should never be less than a 7.0. Berhalter would never be able to make his runs without Cubas’ support. Although I have not been a fan I thought Schopf was pretty good in the 2nd half. I liked Laborda at right back as well, I think he has a lot of upside
Nice grades overall.
Cordova tho… I’d say 3.5… He looks a bit lost. He’s a total bust as a DP striker at this point. He needs to be able to do much more and much better with the ball at his feet. He also narrowly avoided a second yellow (sure a second yellow would have been harsh) but still, he could have been sent off.
Or perhaps the issue is starting two centrebacks together that don’t play together often and if you gave them time they’d settle in. Hard to say without a latger sample size or eyes on practice.
you are 100% right- there are concerns about the defence– but DAMN… it sure was nice to be entertained with some quality goals- we all hope we see more, especially on the road, our achilles heel (we have 3/21 points- can we imagine where we would be if we would have taken 8/21 points (which was possible)?? first place in the west)
Axel should be trying to add 2 solid players to the squad- a back-up experienced goalie who can fill in for Takaoka should GULP an injury come; and secondly, a defender who is capable of playing centrally or RB– if Blackmon goes down, we are in TROUBLE as he cleans up all the messes
Javain Brown can be horrible and then very good, all in the space of a few minutes and that doesnt lead to a good defence- he needs to be a back-up; Laborda still needs some seasoning, but there is potential to be mined; and Martins is a very good crosser on set pieces, but is slow-footed when up against a pacey opposing player, so he will always need a CB like Blackmon to cover for him
i would take ahmed over schopf; laborda over brown; berhalter in MF; becher over cordova
deciding on the team formation is on Vanni– if he gets it right, the Team does well—
will it be a 1-3-4-3 or a 1-4-3-3 or a 1-4-4-2
so my usual plan is a 1-3-4-3– our MF leads the way so its where i would maximize that; my second plan would be 1-4-4-2
takaoka (main sub is ?)
laborda veselinovic blackmon (main sub is martins)
gressel cubas berhalter ahmed (main sub is schopf)
white gauld vite (main sub is becher)
I think you have hit on all the key points. Good summary! I would only add that I think Shopf continues to be a disappointment. I expected so much more dominance in MLS from a guy of his past pedigree and stats when first joining. He has never came close to matching my expectation. Cubas and Gressel are just so good and Ahmed has been such a revelation they mask his weakness.