The Vancouver Whitecaps defeated the Seattle Sounders 2-0 to recapture the top spot in the Western Conference. It was a game that almost defies analysis because of how much Seattle’s two red cards affected the outcome. But I will do my best.
Before the First Red Card
Before the first Red Card, the game was very boring. This, in my view, is a good thing. Despite their low position in the standings, Seattle’s underlying data is as good as ever this season, and playing them away from home still represented a significant challenge. Seattle had the slightly better looks but never really broke Vancouver down and the Whitecaps didn’t look incapable of creating something themselves. For me, that’s fine. We saw a bit of a stress test of the “just play two fast guys and everything will be fine” theorem with Sam Adekugbe pressed into service as an attacking winger. It obviously wasn’t the most natural fit but I still think the way the ‘Caps formation is supposed to work shone through (of course Adekugbe would eventually pick up a goal contribution but more on that later).
The First Red Card
In the 43rd minute, the game changed significantly when Jackson Ragen was shown a straight red, after a length VAR review, for a tackle on Ryan Gauld. Now, was this call a bit harsh? In my view, yes. However, I have a hard time feeling bad for Ragen or the Sounders because, at the end of the day, he did go through Gauld’s back, catch him with his studs, and get absolutely nowhere near the ball. If you play stupid games, you may win a stupid prize.
Seattle attempted to shell up, subbing on a centreback (Xavier Arreaga) for a striker (Raul Ruidiaz). I think Vancouver handled this very well. The commentary team (and many people on my Twitter timeline) stated that Vancouver was keeping possession but not doing much to penetrate Seattle’s backline. While this was true, the sense I got was that this was more down to Vancouver being patient rather than having a lack of ideas (this is, of course, the sort of thing that is very easy to say in hindsight). I think having two wide centre-backs who were comfortable with the ball at their feet in Utvik and Blackmon was extremely helpful when up a man. This allowed Vancouver to recycle the possession but still have the ball in possession of players with the ability to break lines, and thus they had the capacity to get back on the attack quickly. Eventually, Vancouver would find a pair of goals, both the result of errors by Seattle while trying to play out of the back. First Yeimar passed the ball directly to Andres Cubas who then found Adekugbe on the wing. Adekugbe cut the ball back to Ryan Gauld to make no mistake and put Vancouver up 1-0. Then Xavier Arreaga was taken off guard by the blistering pace of Damir Kreilach, forcing him to turn straight into Brian White who stripped Arreaga of the ball and slotted home. The goal made White Vancouver’s top scorer in the MLS era.
The Second Red Card
Shortly after the second goal Alex Roldan was also sent off. There was absolutely no question that this one was deserved, with Roldan catching Ali Ahmed with his studs and getting nowhere near the ball. This gave Vancouver a solid 15 minutes to pass the ball around and essentially play with their food. The game was a bit farcical at this point so you would not want to draw too many strong conclusions. That said though, Kreilach’s strength and off-the-ball movement continued to be very useful against a team that had shelled up. We also saw a debut for Jay Herdman. I thought it was interesting that Vancouver switched to a midfield three at this point, and allowed Herdman to be deployed in the attacking #8 role that initially got me excited about him as a Whitecaps prospect. Herdman has struggled a little bit in a wide role, where I don’t think his strengths are maximized, with WFC2 this season. Again, you wouldn’t want to draw too many conclusions from 10 minutes against a team down to 9 men, but he looked fine. A couple of decent touches in the centre of the park and a long-range shot which will mean he shoots to the top of the list when you sort by “per 96” on American Soccer Analysis.
I would also be remiss if I did not point out that Yohei Takaoka pulled off a marvellous save in the dying moments of the match. After flagging late last season Takaoka has been back to his best to start this year. Vanni Sartini has mentioned he feels Takaoka played too many games last year and that certainly seemed to be the case from the outside. As the commentary team noted, we are 100 days away from leagues cup! (the crowd goes mild). So, my question is, when do we see Isaac Boehmer? Will it only be in the Canadian Championship? Do they trust him enough to give him a mid-week MLS game? Something to watch out for over the next month or so.
(Image Credit: Vancouver Whitecaps FC)
On other issues, does Caleb have any insights on Bovalina? How does Adelaide soccer and MLS compare?
I will never get used to boring play. Soccer is already slow and tedious. Could be the greatest game in the world. However, rule changes tweaks etc are needed. Passing ratio to shots in goal is something like 225 to 1.
Try baseball LOL
It’s not unreasonable to call what Raven did two yellows in quick succession: he pushed Gauld from behind when Gauld was already halfway to the ground, and then made contact with the back of his leg. Both clearly reckless, and basically I think the VAR guy was reading Law 12-1 verbatim over the headphones, which describes the incident perfectly. It’s only harsh if your basis is what we’ve seen, by the book it is clearly spelled out.
interesting take, but…wrong. It was Serious Foul Play. Correct Call. No grey area. Black and white
Colsmith I’m pretty sure you’re in agreement with anonymous above, he’s also saying it was the correct call, that they made the correct call by the books
Basically, the problem is that we all think we know what the LOTG say from experience watching, and few actually read the book version to version: watching, I went to the book and it spelled out what we saw. The Sounders supporters on r/mls were at one point arguing that pushing an opponent (there in black and white) is not even an infraction.
blistering pace of Damir Kreilach- HUH!! surely you jest- but if he is able to knick the team 4-5 goals this season, then he has some value in the last 25 minutes
1. Schopf has once again proven that his legs have been reborn- never would have guessed this, but his impact on the field makes him a starter
2. Adekugbe– looked out of it in the first half and then Vanni made a wise decision to move he and Ahmed to opposite sides– his pace has flagged by 1-2 steps in the past 2 years, but his experience is valuable
3. anytime a player goes in studs up and contacts the opponent, its a clear red card- seattle deserved both and i think- HOPE- that Alex Rodan gets a 2-3 game suspension for his cringy, studs up, on Ahmed’s calf
4. Utvik is a smarter, better defender than Laborda
5. Cubas can sometimes be stupid with his yellow card fouls- now he sits out vs RBNY- berhalter is nowhere near Cubas’ level… or maybe Vanni goes with Schopf as the DMF
6. Congrats to Brian White who has grown into a significant scorer in MLS- and his work rate is amazing- with Picault coming back, the 3some of Gauld, White and Fafa will provide us with a lot of entertainment for 2024
7. Pedro Vite is a mystery player and something is missing from his soccer DNA for him to make the progress to go to a higher level
8. Takaoka- can he sustain his solid play ? Vanni has to start the back-up – its a long season
9. CONGRATS to the Caps Team for rebounding from a so-so game vs LAG
after thought- seattle looks lost, Diaz legs have gone and head coach, brian schmetzer, is bewildered and frustrated- the Sounders need an infusion of 2-3 players
I missed the lineup and the first five minutes so it took me awhile to figure out what position Sam was playing. Just the shock of seeing him on the right had me stunned. I wonder if it had him stunned, too, or at least a little hesitant.
Noted from last week’s podcast: Sam has been in the lineup for BOTH of the last two wins in Seattle, lol. That’s how long it’s been!
Love your take on the Caps this year. Kreilach is going to cause some problems for a tired defence for sure. Definitely a 20-30 minute player. 1. Schopf has a good 5-7 1st steps but he drives forward well and often makes a positive pass to keep the attack going. Agree with the rest of your points. Maybe Cubas was taking a premeditated yellow because he was going to miss the game anyway? He needs a game or 2 off anyway. So prior to the red card the Sounders were out chancing us 6 to 1 and with the Caps playing this seemingly new system the outcome could have ended 3 different ways. Right from the get go I was thinking wtf. And we looked somewhat disjointed. I still question whether Sartini is the right coach to take us to the next level. We got really good players and depth. Is Sartini going to get it done or screw it up just over thinking things….
Still impossible to know exactly how strong or weak this team is, but after 8 games, in first place and scoring two goals per game I guess we table that discussion for another week.
Very glad to see Sam upping his minutes and looking every bit of a player I want to see for 90. Also rapidly becoming a Schöpfaholic. Utvik strolls into the lineup, Kreilach’s astonishing press produces a goal. Blackmon plays an error free, fairly contained game and the whole team manages the match to a shutout.
Like you, I thought the first half was defensive but considered. Vanni is very focussed on defensive shape above all apparently, so maybe we get used to stretches of fairly boring play. It wasn’t long ago we had boring stretches of parking the bus and hoofing long balls. This is better.