Saturday afternoon at BC Place, the Vancouver Whitecaps played out a 1-1 draw against Charlotte FC to open up their 2024 MLS regular season campaign. With a crowd of almost 30,000 in attendance, there was the opportunity for the Whitecaps to build some early momentum with a win and create a memorable opening day experience. Unfortunately for Vancouver, reality did not live up to that hopeful picture.

In its totality, the match was by no means a disaster for the Whitecaps. After a slow first 30 minutes, they were the much better side, and the ‘Caps did look particularly threatening in the late stages with some fresh faces coming off the bench. That being said, it was frustrating to see Vancouver look so toothless in those opening stages, with the front three of Kreilach, White, and Gauld seeing very little of the ball, while defensive errors came dangerously close to seeing Vancouver go down by two if not for the heroics of Yohei Takaoka.

In short, the performance and result from Saturday night would be perfectly acceptable in a world where Vancouver’s only goal as a club is to make the MLS playoffs and see what happens from there. Yet, it’s clear that Vancouver is aiming for much more than that, not only in terms of results, but also in terms of the level of engagement they are able to create in this city. So, in that context, the Whitecaps will need to go back to the drawing board as they head out on a two-game roadtrip looking for a proper kick-start to their campaign.

Alright, let’s have a look at the player ratings:

Yohei Takaoka – 7.5

The Japanese keeper made 4 saves, all from inside the box, and none more important than his dead to rights denial of Enzo Copetti in the 41st minute. Overall, it’s been a good start to year 2 for Takaoka.

Javain Brown – 5.5

Called into action with Laborda suspended, I think it’s pretty obvious Javain is not the right fit for this system, though he did have some positive moments with his long throws, as well as playing speculative crosses into the box (1/6 for the match). Overall, Javain is a bit too attack-minded to play in this back three, which left Blackmon and Veselinovic exposed on a few occasions.

Ranko Veselinovic – 5.0

The Serbian defender always has pretty good counting stats, but sometimes the eye test tells a different story. Overall, neither Veselinovic nor Blackmon were particularly impactful with their distribution, something that was well orchestrated by Dean Smith’s gameplan. Equally, Ranko had a few moments defensively that left me wanting more. He was too soft marking Copetti on the Charlotte goal, allowing the striker time for his false touch, while his stumble near the end of the first half almost put his team down a second goal. Ranko is rarely “bad” but his performances often leave you wanting more.

Tristan Blackmon – 5.5

There are certain matches where the American just looks a bit too casual, and this was one of them. This hurt Vancouver most in possession, where Blackmon was guilty of giving the ball away too cheaply, especially in the opening phase of the match. Additionally, if he had timed his run a bit better, he may very well have opened scoring for Vancouver off of Ryan Gauld’s free kick. As a general note, even though Vancouver’s backline did not look great in this match, they did not give away too many quality scoring chances, so that is somewhat encouraging in the long term.

Ryan Raposo – 6.5

This match was a roller coaster for the Canadian. His misplaced pass led to Charlotte’s goal, but he was also the most positive attacking player for Vancouver most of the afternoon, with a goal and two key passes. I think Raposo is a very nice complementary piece for Vancouver, but the Whitecaps need more from their front three to take some pressure away from the wingbacks in coming matches.

Alessandro Schopf – 5.0

This was a prototypical Schopf match in the sense that he did not do much of anything notable. Charlotte forced Vancouver into wide areas, which put the ball at Javain Brown’s feet far more often than Schopf. With a positive showing from Ali Ahmed, I can’t imagine we see the Austrian start next weekend.

Andres Cubas – 6.5

It appeared to me as though Cubas’ impact grew as the match went on. He did a nice job frustrating Charlotte’s midfield physically and played some good side-switching passes as Vancouver grew more comfortable in possession.

Pedro Vite – 6.5

As mentioned, Charlotte’s set-up pretty much eliminated Vancouver’s central midfield in the first 30 minutes, but Vite was able to get going from there on out, arriving more often in dangerous areas and playing a wonderful touch pass to Raposo for Vancouver’s goal. It wasn’t a perfect start to the “Vite as a deep-lying midfielder” experiment, but I think there were positive signs.

Damir Kreilach – 5.0

Kreilach and Brian White combined for just 41 touches against Charlotte, which tells a pretty good story of Vancouver’s struggles to get the front three involved. Without the ball at his feet, Kreilach is going to have issues making an impact for Vancouver, so in those cases, the Whitecaps are probably better off deploying either Fafa Picault or Levonte Johnson in the front three, as they both provide more in terms of their off-ball movement.

Brian White – 5.0

White struggled to get involved in this match and I thought that Adilson Malanda did a nice job for Charlotte denying White the ball in hold-up play, which limited his effectiveness. Again, it seems like Vancouver needs a slightly different mix in the front three at the moment to open up more space for White and Gauld to do their thing.

Ryan Gauld – 6.5

While still an impact performer, this was a bit of a mediocre match by Ryan Gauld’s lofty standards. He did have two key passes, but was just 2 for 8 on crosses and 3 for 7 on ground duels as he tried to get something going in the attacking third.

Substitutes

Fafa Picault (7.0) showed an energy and industry which was a much needed change of pace for Vancouver, really opening things up in attack late on. The same can be said of Ali Ahmed (7.0) who the Whitecaps will no doubt be very eager to start, if he is ready, come next weekend. Seb Berhalter (6.0) and Luis Martins (6.0) were both solid off the bench as well, while Levonte Johnson (NR) only played in added time, but I’d like to see a longer stint from him up front.

Vanni Sartini & Michael D’Agostino – 5.5

It seemed like Dean Smith’s tactics caught Vancouver by surprise off the bat, especially how willing Charlotte was to hold possession, and just how aggressively they funnelled the Whitecaps into wide areas. D’Agostino did make some good adjustments, though the chemistry in the front three never really looked optimized at any one point in the match. Defensively, the tactics looked solid for Vancouver, as they were only let down by a couple of poor individual moments. With a few further tweaks and a couple players back in the lineup, the ‘Caps should be set to improve come matchday down in San Jose. We’ll just have to see if that’s enough to earn some hard-fought road points.

Alright, those were my reflections on the season opener. Let me know yours in the comments!