By Alexandre Gangue-Ruzic and Samuel Rowan.

For the third time this season, the Vancouver Whitecaps have won back-to-back games, as they defeated the Colorado Rapids 2-1 thanks to a late Damir Kreilach winner. 

After a gutsy 2-1 win over Sporting KC in midweek, ending a six-game winless run in MLS play, the Whitecaps were able to build off it with a much-needed home win in this one, snapping a three-game winless streak at home in MLS play.

Big goal and win for #VWFC, as Damir Kreilach slotted home in added time to secure all 3 points vs Colorado

That gives them back-to-back wins heading into the international break, helping put their May slump behind them

Much needed from them right nowpic.twitter.com/zkQgexQslL

— Alexandre Gangué-Ruzic (@AlexGangueRuzic) June 2, 2024

Yet, it was exactly the sort of win the Whitecaps needed. They might not have put in their most complete performance, but they were opportunistic when they needed to be, putting away their chances offensively, and finding a way to survive defensively. 

They did need a bit of luck to get them over the line, but they made sure to earn that luck, something they hadn’t been able to do much over the month of May. 

With that, they put themselves in a good position heading into an international break, now back up to fifth in the Western Conference, putting them within one win of third place again, showing the value of these back-to-back victories. 

Returning to the match, Colorado nearly capitalized on a strange sequence early on, as Mathiás Laborda appeared to get fouled in the middle of the park, but the whistle wasn’t blown, leaving Colorado to march toward Vancouver’s box relatively unopposed. 

From there, Kevin Cabral did well to find Djordje Mihailovic with a nice cross, but Mihailovic sent a backheel attempt wide of the goal from close range. 

At the other end, Brian White had a glorious chance for the Whitecaps in the 17th minute, as he got in behind the Rapids defence, but his shot attempt trickled just wide of the goal. 

Then, Colorado nearly won a penalty in the 36th minute, as Cabral initially earned a spot kick after tumbling past Laborda, but the call was quickly overturned after a VAR review, with it being determined that Laborda made minimal contact with Cabral on the play. 

Soon after, White had another big chance in the 38th minute, as Luis Martins found him with a perfect cross into the box, but he sent his header right at Zack Steffan in the Colorado goal. 

From there, that led to another glorious Whitecaps chance in the 42nd minute, as Ali Ahmed found Pedro Vite at the edge of the box for a shot, leading Vite to nearly curl one into the net, as his strike hit the crossbar and stayed out. 

Continuing their strong end to the half, the Whitecaps had a great chance on a free kick at the edge of Colorado’s box in added time, but Sebastian Berhalter curled his shot into the wall. 

That nearly led to a goal from Colorado immediately after, as they pushed forward in transition, leading to a glorious chance from Cabral, who was robbed by a fantastic save from Yohei Takaoka in the Whitecaps goal. 

On the other side of half time, both teams came out strongly, eager to increase the energy in this game after a relatively quiet first stanza. 

As a result, it led to an explosion of early chances from both teams. 

First, the Whitecaps opened the scoring in the 46th minute, as Ryan Gauld found a wide-open Berhalter at the back post on a cross, and he made no mistake from close range to make it 1-0. 

Then, Colorado responded to that goal nearly immediately, as Omir Fernandez found Mihailovic with a perfect pass into the box, and Mihailovic did well to slot home with a tidy first-touch finish. 

Maintaining the back-and-forth start to the half, the ‘Caps almost regained their lead just minutes later, as the ball fell to second-half substitute Fafà Picault, but his shot sliced just past the post. Keeping up the pressure, White had a glorious chance in the 62nd minute, as Ahmed found him with a perfect cross, but he sent his shot well over the mark. 

Soon after, Gauld had a great look in the 64th minute, as Steffan turned the ball over in midfield, but despite having a look at an empty net from 30 yards, Gauld’s strike went just wide as he tried to dodge the Colorado defenders with his attempt. 

Continuing their great half, the Whitecaps nearly scored another strange goal right after, as a failed Colorado clearance from Keegan Rosenberry almost led to a comical own goal from Cole Bassett, but luckily for Bassett, the ball sailed just over the goal after hitting him. 

At the other end, Colorado started to wake up in the chase of a late winner. As a result, they started to flash a few dangerous shots from distance, although none of them tested the Whitecaps goal. 

Then, Fernandez finally did test Takaoka in the Whitecaps goal, curling a shot off the post, with his rebound nearly finding his way into the ‘Caps net after hitting the ‘Caps goalkeeper, forcing a goal-line clearance from Giuseppe Bovalina. 

Soon after, Moïse Bombito had a nice chance on the second phase of a corner, as Fernandez found the Rapids defender with a perfect cross, but Takaoka would easily save his shot. 

Having survived that flurry of chances, however, that set up a dramatic conclusion from the Whitecaps. 

After a long throw into the box from Javian Brown, the ball fell to Gauld, who found Damir Kreilach in the box, and he’d make no mistake with his finish, jamming it past Steffan. 

With that, his goal seemed to provide a cathartic release for his team, as they all converged together near their bench to celebrate, showing how much the win meant to them. After a tough month, it was the exact sort of moment they needed, showing the importance of this win. 

god I love me a smash & stay at home #VANvCOL

— The Third Sub (@The3rdSub) June 2, 2024

Now, they’ll look to build off this, but not without some much-needed rest, as they try and use the international break to recover after playing nine games since May 4th, which gave them an average of a game nearly every three days. 

Luckily, they can now rest knowing that they entered this break on a high note, which didn’t always seem likely with how things were looking just a week prior, but that’s a credit to how they were able to bounce back after a tough stretch. 

Here are three thoughts from this game, as we saw it from inside BC Place. 

Kreilach marks dramatic return from injury with late winner:

When signed this offseason, Damir Kreilach’s arrival offered some interesting lineup questions for the Whitecaps to answer – how big of a role was he expected to play, where was his best spot in the lineup, and how much could he still bring to the table?

No doubt, he’s a talented player, as he proved at Real Salt Lake, where he was a dominant force for them over the last half-decade. Yet, as someone who turned 35 in April, it also wasn’t sure how much of that same value he could provide to the Whitecaps. 

Early in the season, it appeared that he’d be a great fit, however. A goal on his competitive debut against Tigres was positive, and then he added a goal against his former team in March. 

Despite his goals, though, he felt like an odd man out, as he wasn’t quite fitting in the system. Often tasked with playing alongside Brian White and Ryan Gauld, the three didn’t seem to mesh quite as well, with White and Gauld often occupying the same spots in possession.

As a result, Kreilach lost his spot in favour of Fafà Picault, who fit much better alongside the pair of White and Gauld, which led to a strong stretch of play for Picault. Then, Kreilach picked up an injury at the end of April, which put him out of thought for the last few weeks, as many didn’t seem to notice his absence. 

After a game like this, though, it shows how much the Whitecaps had missed him. With Brian White struggling in this game, Vanni Sartini made the rare move to bring off White for Kreilach straight up in the 83rd minute, which was a bold decision given the game was tied at 1-1. 

In a moment where you’d like White on the pitch, Sartini made the sacrifice of taking him off as he was struggling, and that move ended up paying dividends with Kreilach’s late goal. 

Damir Kreilach gives the @WhitecapsFC a late lead! 👀 pic.twitter.com/435TocuUA7

— Major League Soccer (@MLS) June 2, 2024

Yet, this shows exactly the sort of value that Kreilach can bring to the table. Perhaps starting him regularly alongside White and Gauld wasn’t going to work long-term, but he’s put in some good performances since being relegated to a super-sub role, thriving as someone who can bring chaos to a game late on. 

And, unfortunately, he was denied the chance to fill a key role with his injury, which is to give the Whitecaps an option to rest White, who accumulated some heavy minutes in May despite looking banged up for portions of it, as Sartini had a lack of natural #9s to turn to when he was off the pitch. Naturally, White’s play has suffered because of those minutes, as he’s scoreless in six straight in MLS play (and in eight in all competitions), which coincided with Kreilach’s injury and the start of a condensed May schedule. 

With Kreilach back, however, he can now be an option to give White rest, allowing him to play as the lone striker, which seems to be the role that best suits him in this Whitecaps system. 

Because of that, one can wonder if this goal will be the start of a big summer for Kreilach.

Having now found the right role for the veteran striker, he could very well be one of the internal solutions the team needs to lean on to find more goals, along with getting more out of Pedro Vite offensively and playing Ali Ahmed more centrally, showing that they have solutions to their offensive problems in their ranks.

–Alex

Centreback Controversy?

Vancouver has seldom finished a match over the last couple of years without Ranko Veselinovic or Tristan Blackmon on the pitch, but they did so on Saturday night against Colorado.

With Bjorn Inge Utvik, Javain Brown, and Luis Martins playing more prominent roles recently, one might begin to wonder if these two once-steady characters of Vancouver’s backline might have some long-term competition to worry about.

After ill-advisedly vacating his space to contest a header near the end of the first half, which almost led to a costly goal against, Blackmon was promptly subbed off to start the second half, which was a big move from Sartini. 

It was swift justice for something that Blackmon has done far too often this season, dismissing his tactical assignment in Sartini’s zonal system, defending the way he wants to rather than the way he’s supposed to. 

While Ranko Veselinovic has had fewer of those moments throughout the season, he’s also not exactly stamped his authority on the position in the middle of the back three either, sometimes prone to reverting to old habits. 

Utvik and Laborda have both shown that they can play in the middle of a back three, as Laborda did Saturday, and if Brown or Martins can play consistently as wide centre backs, it opens more options for who might best feature in the middle. 

Another thing we wondered about on Saturday night at the match is if Vancouver might look to move on from one of these defenders in the summer as a consequence of these developments. 

Djordje Mihailovic with the instant response to bring Colorado level. 👌 pic.twitter.com/CZYafyoEgS

— Major League Soccer (@MLS) June 2, 2024

Both Veselinovic and Blackmon have had more than long enough now to grasp Vanni Sartini’s system, and if the Whitecaps think they can find better performances elsewhere in the team, then perhaps they should also look to change some of the faces on the defensive line in the next window, especially if they can extract positive value in return.

“We have a lot of depth, and we have a lot of people who are trying to get into the team,” Sartini said. “They are pushing the other players to do well. Last year it probably would have been unthinkable to finish the game and there was no Ranko [Veselinovic] nor Tristan [Blackmon], they would play every game, they were uncontested. This year we have the possibility to rotate them and to play with other people too.”

– Sam

Learning with the 3-5-2:

Since tweaking the tactics after a run of poor form, the Whitecaps have been able to rattle off two straight victories heading into the break.

Despite their success in these matches, that’s not to say that the new look has come without growing pains, however. While Vancouver was far and away the better team midweek in Kansas, this match was evenly contested and really could have gone either way.

It’s clear that the Whitecaps still have things to figure out in this new system. I thought this was especially apparent in Vancouver’s second-half substitutions, as they struggled to be on the same page for any sustained period.

Although Vancouver was able to find two second-half goals, there were long stretches where the Whitecaps didn’t play their best football, and the team suggested as much in their post-match commentary.

“It’s important to be able to do that,” Gauld said. “You’re not going to be able to be on top of your game every week, and to be able to just kind of grind it out. It wasn’t the most beautiful last 20-25 minutes but to be able to grind it out and all be there for each other was a huge boost for the team.”

Ryan Gauld drops a dime for Sebastian Berhalter and Vancouver take the lead. 👊

📺 #MLSSeasonPass: https://t.co/eXCKogZQqk pic.twitter.com/RBPpHg4qee

— Major League Soccer (@MLS) June 2, 2024

Fafa Picault came on after 45, and although he was energetic, I’m not sure that he and White ever found the chemistry they were looking for up front. White continues to be snake-bitten in front of goal, and they’ll have to get him going after the break – he can probably use the upcoming week of rest as much as anyone on this Whitecaps squad.

What this team needs more than anything is a couple of weeks of positive training to dial in some of the finer points of how they want to play going forward, which seems like it might be this 3-5-2.

There are real signs of the potential this formation holds for Vancouver: getting a lot more out of Pedro Vite, making Andres Cubas’ responsibilities more manageable, and rekindling the Gauld and White magic. Yet at the same time, the match against Colorado showed that it is still very much a work in progress. So, we’ll see how it looks in a couple of weeks with some more training under their belt.

-Sam

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