By Alexandre-Gangue-Ruzic and Samuel Rowan.

Saturday afternoon at BC Place, the Vancouver Whitecaps let a first half lead slip away against Real Salt Lake, falling by a final score of 2-1.

It was a second disappointing home showing for Vancouver to start the season, as they let a solid first half erode in the second, handing the visitors too many chances to get themselves back in the match.

While Vancouver took the lead through Damir Kreilach thanks to a wonderful pass from Brian White in transition, it would be flattering to say that Vancouver was a dynamic offensive unit. As has been a theme with Kreilach in the lineup, Vancouver has struggled to create space with the front three, and as a result, they also struggled to get their wide players involved. Although they have scored in every match so far this season, this has been a Whitecaps attack that’s been near the bottom of the league in many underlying attacking metrics.

Up until this match, Vancouver’s defensive play had been a pleasant surprise, certainly in comparison to last season’s struggles. Unfortunately, the second half against RSL looked like a bit of a regression for the home side. Initially, despite the fact that Salt Lake was threatening, Vancouver did a good job containing the visitors to low quality chances.

That all changed in the 70th minute, however, as Ranko Veselinovic dropped far too deep in his positioning, keeping the play onside, opening an avenue for Anderson Julio to get his team back in the match. It was the first moment this season that the Whitecaps were caught out from open play, and as it happened, it was not a moment the Whitecaps could afford. Alexandros Katranis doubled the scoring for RSL on what was either a brilliant shot or a misplaced pass at the edge of the area. Ether way, it was a comeuppance for the Whitecaps, who left too little margin after missing out on a number of transition chances.

At the end of the day, this is a match that Vancouver had every opportunity to see over the line, but they lost their discipline as the second half went on and squandered what should have been at least a single point. Overall, the Whitecaps’ two road wins have buoyed a solid start, but Vancouver will need to play with more confidence at home as the season goes on if they want to reach their lofty aspirations.

Here are three thoughts on today’s game, as we saw it from inside BC Place. 

Whitecaps see good and bad of new “bend, don’t break” defensive philosophy: 

Heading into this new season, a big focus for this Whitecaps team was going to be to tidy things up at the back. They weren’t bad defensively in 2023, sitting in the middle of the pack with their 48 goals against, but there was room for improvement, especially in terms of how they defended crosses and absorbed pressure.

So far in 2024, that’s changed, as after this game, the ‘Caps have conceded just four goals, good for fifth-best in MLS.

But that’s a credit to some of the tweaks that the team has made heading into this season.

To begin, they’ve mostly addressed the issue that dogged them last year, their defence on set-pieces and crosses, doing a good job of limiting the high-danger chances they surrender from that avenue. Thanks to a tweak in their zonal defence, as well as how they mark set-pieces, they’ve avoided the sort of breakdowns that sunk them in 2023.

Then, from there, they’ve done well to spend portions of the game sitting back and defending, doing well to avoid giving up any high quality looks. They showed that in this game, eating up waves of pressure from RSL in both halves, yet not letting any of them be of the dangerous variety.

That’s a big change, as it felt like the ‘Caps would always struggle in games where they were forced to sit back and absorb pressure, whereas now they look more comfortable in doing that, allowing them to control more of the game on and off the ball.

Unfortunately, however, there are still warts to clean up – part of the trouble of defending in a strict zonal system is that little breakdowns can often end up in the back of your net, as the Whitecaps learned in the lone goal they conceded last week against Dallas, or on the first goal that they conceded in this one, which saw RSL’s Anderson Julio pounce on a scrambled ‘Caps backline.

Yet, despite that, there’s still a lot to like for this ‘Caps defence, even if they conceded two goals in this game. Considering that they faced 21 shots, yet only had 1.2 xG against, that shows that they kept most of RSL’s looks to low-danger areas, which is exactly what you want.

At the end of the day, if you’re dropping points because someone like Alexandros Katranis is scoring the goal he potted on RSL’s second of the game, you can only applaud that goal and move on – Alex. 

Slow start to season continues for Whitecaps offence

A big reason for the Whitecaps improvement last year? Their offence, as they were a top 10 team in goals for, and a top five team in xG for, which allowed them to push into the playoffs after missing out in 2022.

Plus, given that they were actually underperforming their xG, too, that was even more encouraging, as it felt like there was room for improvement within what they showed.

Because of that, it’s been a big surprise to see the Whitecaps take a big step back offensively to start the year.

They’ve actually been decent in terms of actual goals for, to be fair – they’ve scored in all four games, for a total of seven goals on the year, but they’ve struggled to generate chances at the high level they were last year.

That was reflected in the numbers heading into this game, too – before this weekend, their 0.87 xG for per game was fourth-last in the league.

Because of that, it was a big worry to see the ‘Caps struggle offensively once again in this one, as they generated just 1 xG off seven shots.

For a team with the options that Vancouver has in the attack, and was playing at home, one would expect a more lavish attacking display than what they showed.

Instead, they were quite stagnant in possession, struggling to break down RSL’s defence. From a lack of movement to a dearth of creativity, it just felt like the ‘Caps could’ve played 90 more minutes and struggled to score another goal.

And that’s something to monitor going forward. There’s enough individual quality in the attack to score goals, as the Whitecaps showed on their lone goal, but it feels like the team hasn’t quite clicked offensively as a group.

For what it’s worth, there have proven to be some solutions to those problems – Ali Ahmed’s cameos off the bench have offered optimism, so him being able to start games again as he returns to full fitness will be an injection of life, while Fafà Picault has been a key asset as he showed with his one goal and one assist performance last week, making his absence this week (due to a call-up to Haiti) a big one.

But even if a solution is to install both in the lineup on a more permanent basis, it will be a small fix, with the bigger question being how they can get back to their free-flowing offensive ways from 2024. – Alex. 

Is Ali Ahmed the only hope on the wing?

Four matches into the season, I think it’s time to start wondering if wingback is going to be a problem for Vancouver. With Sam Adekugbe struggling to stay fit, the Whitecaps don’t have a lot of options in wide areas at the moment.

Ryan Raposo and Javain Brown have upside, for sure, but you only see the most out of them on a team that’s really clicking, not one that needs a spark. Ali Ahmed, obviously, provides that spark, but that means he’s not an option in the midfield, and on days where the Whitecaps are missing Andres Cubas, that extra dynamic player in the centre of the park is really missed.

Overall, it looks like the Whitecaps are one piece short of where they need to be in terms of squad depth given Adekugbe’s issues, and it’s having a knock-on effect throughout the squad.

One player I wonder about is Levonte Johnson. If Vanni Sartini can find a bigger role for the young Canadian, it might provide the flexibility to drop Fafà Picault into a wing role, or if you like Picault up front, perhaps Levonte could pair with Ahmed for a pacey Canadian duo in those wide areas. No matter where Vancouver goes with it, I think it’s clear that Vancouver has to be more imaginative with their midfield four if they want to draw teams out of their defensive stance.

Ali Ahmed can’t do it all on his own. – Sam. 

This post was done in collaboration with Canadian Soccer Daily, who cover all things Canadian Soccer at https://canadiansoccerdaily.com/.