The 1-1 draw between the Vancouver Whitecaps and FC Cincinnati Saturday night at BC Place felt like a somewhat inevitable conclusion to a week in which the Caps had to play in the Canadian Championship midweek and FCC had to boost their frequent flyer miles with a cross-country trip.

While the away side may have had the better of the chances, both teams were tired enough, had decent enough organization, and aside from a furious 10-minute window in the second half, seemed content to play for a draw. What does that all mean for the report card grades? Well, read on.

Yohei Takaoka: 6.5

He was a bit out of position on Lucho Acosta’s wonder chip (though that was a top shot to stop no matter what) and had a couple of heart-in-throat moments.  He was also called upon a couple of times in the first half to make important stops and delivered.

Mathias Laborda: 7

Shuffled over to the left side of the back three, Laborda didn’t blink, and after a slow start to his time in Vancouver, he clearly seems to be headed in the right direction. He was pretty good on the ball to boot.

Ranko Veselinovic: 7.5

Solid at the back, marshalling the line and setting the tone, he pinged in diagonal balls, channelling his normal defensive mate, Tristan Blackmon. He got caught out a bit by Lucho Acosta on the goal, and had one slip up against Brandon Vazquez in the first half, but otherwise, marked Cincinnati’s star striker well and had a good night.

Javain Brown: 7

Brown turned in his second strong performance in less than a week, frequently putting himself in the right place at the right time, such as his vital block on Alvaro Barreal in the first half. He was clearly gassed but went stride for stride with FCC’s attacking band early, no mean feat.

Luis Martins: 6

His service remains rather hit or miss (either inch perfect or failing to beat the first man). Nothing really special from Martins here, but he also has seemed to button up his defensive game after a couple of really concerning performances early in the season.

Sebastian Berhalter: 5.5

I like what Berhalter offers generally and thought the notion of starting him with Cubas was a good one given the context of the match and the fact that the pair seem to work well together. That being said, he had some wayward passes and got caught out of position at times.

Andres Cubas: 6

I thought Cubas looked tired (understandably) and he had a couple uncharacteristic errors in the passing game. Still, FCC got very little in the middle of the park and Cubas seems to have a nice chemistry with Berhalter when a more defensive posture is required.

Ryan Raposo: 6.5

Raposo seemed to grow into the match and got some nice service into the box late in the first half and early in the second, particularly off set pieces. He also worked well with Vite moving forward and had no obvious errors defensively. Raposo certainly looked fatigued at times and didn’t look quite as dynamic as usual, but it was an effective performance in light of starting midweek for Raposo.

Pedro Vite: 6.5

A very energetic start from Vite, who was probably the most effective Caps player at bursting through the lines and actually making things happen early on (he had more successful dribbles than any of his teammates). He seemed to really fade as the match wore on and never was really able to create a clear cut chance for himself.

Sergio Cordova: 7.5

So, I’m going to preface this by saying that, when you’re a DP striker, you need to be, like, actually scoring — moral victories are not acceptable. That being said, I thought it was a decent match from Cordova, though he remains a frustrating player to watch on the pitch. The Caps’ strategy involved a heaping dose of direct through balls intended for Cordova and this had some success; despite some fairly good defensive organization, Cordova forced the decisive penalty.

Cordova provided some real danger with his runs but this is a match where a striker of his calibre should be taking the initiative. We saw some glimpses of that but nothing more.

Brian White: 5

A pretty quiet match for White, aside from two chips he couldn’t quite execute over Roman Celetano. The change in formation and strategy seemed to take away some of White’s other strong suits and he just doesn’t seem to fit well with Cordova when they both play.

Julian Gressel: 6.5

The endgame of this match was to make it through to the 60th minute or so 0-0 and let Gressel, Gauld and others make an impact of the bench. Gressel perhaps didn’t quite live up to that billing but he put in some nice service almost immediately coming off the bench and he added a creative element that didn’t exist earlier.

Tristan Blackmon: 6

He didn’t get his number called much after coming on as reinforcement for a tired back-line, but had no obvious errors.

Ryan Gauld: 6.5

He didn’t do much, but what he did salvaged a point for the Caps, with a perfectly placed penalty for the third match in a row.

Simon Becher: N/A

He only had two touches, not much to say here.

Deiber Caicedo: N/A

Caicedo arguably should be in line for a start, as he has looked good off the bench.

 

The Vancouver Whitecaps now have more than a week to rest and recuperate. Let us know your thoughts on the match in the comments.