The Vancouver Whitecaps defeated St. Louis City in predictable though not entirely convincing fashion. Let’s get into the individual performances.

Yohei Takaoka: 6.0

3 goals on 4 shots on target. I don’t think any of them were particularly save-able. There was one important save with the score 2-1 that prevented a momentum shift. He was a little bit weak on the cross for the first goal but that’s just the Yohei Takaoka experience.

Javain Brown: 6.0

It was an inauspicious start with a bad clearance, a giveaway and a handball (the last of which was by far the least of his sins in my opinion). All that said, I thought Brown recovered quite well, he had a lot of physical duels to contend with and he was generally coming out on top.

Mathias Laborda: 7.5

I thought he, like Brown, was really good at winning the physical battles. SLC also pressed him quite aggressively and I thought he dealt with that quite well.

Björn Utvik: 5.0

A little on the shaky side. Was out-jumped a few times (though none resulted in goals). Overall not as sturdy as we have come to expect from him.

Ryan Raposo: 8.0

Pretty much the ideal Ryan Raposo game. Lead the team in key passes (tied with Gauld), dribbles, and picked up an assist. Also did reasonably well tracking back.

Sebastian Berhalter: 7.0

He’s not Andres Cubas but he did what he had to do. Led the team in tackles and was an effective disrupter.

Pedro Vite: 6.5

He didn’t necessarily wow me but he did a good job of pushing the ball forward and not giving it away in bad areas. There was some defensive contribution as well.

Luis Martins: 7.5

This was also pretty much the ideal Luis Martins game. He got an assist on what turned out to be the game winning goal. But the main reason to be pleased with his performance was how assured he was in possession.

Levonte Johnson: 8.0

“He’s just pace and power, he missed so many chances, why do you like him!?!?”

Now, look, I understand that Levonte Johnson is fundamentally kind of a goofy looking player. His first touch is legitimately very bad, he’s constantly sliding all over the place, and in this game he missed two pretty good chances. If you fancy yourself a connoisseur of beautiful football this was the sort of performance you would turn your nose up at.

However, I choose to look at it from a different angle. Johnson might have missed two really good chances but the important thing is that he got into a position to have those chances in the first place. If he does that consistently, I don’t care how many comical first touches he has or how many times he falls flat on his ass, he is going to score MLS goals. Do I want him starting every game? No. But his role in the squad is to be a rotation option who runs really fast and generates scoring chances. He did that in this game so he gets a good grade from me.

Ryan Gauld: 8.0

Unlucky to not get on the score sheet but did a lot of dirty running and was tied for the team lead in key passes.

Brian White: 10

Having just made the case for a more detached, less results oriented analysis of player performance, I am going to do an about face and give White a 10. I mean, c’mon, he scored a hat-trick and one of the goals was a scorpion flick. He also held the ball up quite well and did all of the good things Brian White normally does.

Alright, those were my thoughts from a wild match against St. Louis.

Let us know yours in the comments as always.