The Vancouver Whitecaps drew 1-1 with CF Montreal. I’m never going to be to mad with a road draw in a game where the Whitecaps out xG their opponent, but it was impossible to not notice a turning point in this game that revealed a major problem for the team.
The first half looked extremely good for the Whitecaps. There were several matchups that were favourable for them. Raheem Edwards was totally unable to handle Ryan Raposo down the right, Victor Wanyama was drowning trying to contain Ryan Gauld or progress the ball against Andres Cubas, and George Campbell was eating Fafa Picault’s dust. Vancouver was rewarded for their good play with a Brian White goal, Montreal’s defence failing to track the most obvious front post run of all time. Conversely, Montreal did very little to trouble Vancouver the other way.
At half time though, Montreal made a key adjustment. They subbed on Sanusi Ibrahim. If you’re not familiar, Ibrahim is a young Nigerian striker who Montreal have had on the books for four years. His /90 stats are god tier but for some reason Montreal has always seemed reticent to give him more time. Well, he certainly created some problems for the Whitecaps with his pace, off-the-ball movement, and passing ability. On 61 minutes they also withdrew the floundering Wanyama for the more mobile Bryce Duke. Around the same time, the Whitecaps subbed off Ryan Gauld for Mathias Laborda. Now, look, Gauld has played a ton of minutes this season and we are once again headed for fixture congestion so it’s understandable you might want to rest him a bit. It’s also understandable that there is not a like for like replacement on the bench in a salary cap league. But the Whitecaps don’t have anybody who even approximates what Gauld brings so subbing him off is basically giving up on score another goal in the game.
You could see Montreal were immediately emboldened when this sub happened, throwing players forward with impunity. Ibrahim and the newly introduced wing-back Ruan were particularly effective. Montreal eventually equalized on a goal that Yohei Takaoka will certainly want back. But it was clear for some time that a goal was coming one way or another. The Whitecaps introduced Levonte Johnson and Nicolas Fleuriau Chateau but it was too late. I have to say, I would have liked to see them earlier. If you know you’re going to park the bus and invite pressure, why not get a couple of fast guys on up front so you can pump the ball into the channels and provide a threat on the counter?
So, in conclusion, not a bad game overall. Every point on the road in MLS is valuable and the Whitecaps did play some very good soccer for about 60 of the 90 minutes. But the lack of squad depth hurt the ‘Caps ability to come away with all three points. Next up is a Canadian Championship game against Pacific. The Whitecaps will be looking to redeem themselves after a less than convincing outing in the previous round against Cavalry.
Sartini has no clue
gotta be pretty clueless to get 7/9 points in a week, i agree
it wasnt so much taking Picault, Schopf and White off… its who Vanni decided to replace them at the 80th minute with :
1. Johnson- is speedy, but really has little control over it and just lacks soccer sense- its like his legs are moving too fast for his brain
2. Priso- moves with heavy legs, looking and moving much slower than his age- and i am not sure he has the conditioning to last very long or is MLS-quality
3. the new rookie, Fleuriau Chateau, elevated from WC 2- looks like he is a deer caught in the headlights
so IMO, Vanni brought in 3 weak players and took out 3 better players- Montreal took over the game and i think we were lucky to get a tie- even if gauld, schopf, picault and white were tired- Gauld had exited at the 64th minute and laborda came in
Vanni also should have adjusted the Team in order to shut down where Montreal were successfully attacking us– our left defence- doesnt he watch the game and come up with a way to fix it ?? he has shown this weakness before and i think he gets too wrapped up in the game – he could have gone with a 4 man defence and sat Raposo (he was gassed anyways as he had too much space to cover) (or martins as a sub) back as a LB
having said all of this, 7/9 points on road games is really good and we took 3 vs St Lou– netting 10/12 points is a very good stretch
and suddenly Brian White has been resurrected- when he went dry for 7 games, he wasnt anywhere near the ball opportunities; now he is and he could easily had a brace tonight
the looming question is- how does Gauld retain his energy for the second half of the season?? and hopefully Axel Schuster has some answers in 3-4 weeks (its interesting he was at the game in Montreal)
You do know that Johnson has barely played 500 minutes of MLS soccer, right? You do know that this was Fleuriau Chateau’s debut with the first team, right? The expectations that they are fully rounded into complete players is ridiculous at this point in their careers. There is something definitely there with Johnson and playing time should help develop it. I’d much rather see Vanni playing the young players than seeing repeats of Bair, Colyn, Bustos, etc.
I think we should let Brian White sit out all games against Portland LOL. Dudes been on a roll since he came back.
Gauld needed a break. He works hard and looked somewhat tired. Like you said if you are taking him off just take off all 3 forwards and put in some subs for speed and counter.