Saturday night at Stade Saputo, the Vancouver Whitecaps earned themselves a single point with a 1-1 draw against CF Montreal.

With the result, the Whitecaps maintained their streak of not having won or lost three games consecutively all the way back to 2022. After 60 minutes, it felt like this was the time Vancouver was finally going to get over the hump, but tired legs and some questionable match management, in addition to an error from Yohei Takaoka, turned the possibility of another road win into a solid but slightly disappointing draw.

Ok, on to the individual grades we go.

Yohei Takaoka – 5.0

This was a bit of a match to forget for Takaoka. He was caught out in the 48th minute by a Lassi Lappalainen shot that went by him at the near post, and obviously, the Matías Cóccaro goal is one he will want back, as it hits him right in the hands and he was in perfect position to make the save.

Bjorn Utvik – 6.5

Montreal was most productive in the second half attacking down Utvik’s side of the pitch, but for the most part, he dealt well with that pressure. With Schopf tucking into the midfield and Raposo’s legs in trouble near the end of the match, Utvik was asked to handle a lot of pressure, and kept Montreal’s looks reasonably low quality.

Ranko Veselinovic – 6.0

I would say this was another reasonably typical Ranko performance. The one slight oddity was his long passing, which was a step off his usual quality, as he completed just 1 of 5 long balls, and was only at 80% passing overall.

Javain Brown – 6.5

After a couple of challenging matches in a row, this felt like a good bounce back for Brown. He did not concede much down his side of the pitch defensively, won a few good headers, and was decent in the buildup as well.

Ryan Raposo – 6.5

The biggest thing that stood out for the Canadian was the gut-busting run he made to track back on Ruan in the 70th minute. He was not perfect defensively, as there were some spaces left exposed as he pushed forward, but Raposo was also a big part of Vancouver’s positive buildup play in the first 60ish minutes.

Sebastian Berhalter – 8.0

The young American is a man in form at the moment. Especially in the first half, he and Cubas completely dominated the midfield battle, and their ability to regain possession led to most of Vancouver’s good chances. He had 3 key passes, won 6 of 9 ground duels, and also logged 6 tackles – great stuff.

Andres Cubas – 7.5

Man, it was so good to see Vancouver’s star midfielder back in the squad, as they desperately missed his presence while he was away. Cubas picked back up right where you would expect, eating up contested balls and frustrating Montreal’s attackers. The one area where perhaps his game did not look quite as sharp was on the ball, but I think that will come back quickly as he settles back into this Whitecaps squad.

Alessandro Schopf – 7.0

I really liked what I saw from the Austrian in a wide role again, it’s clearly where he looks best in this system. Behind Berhalter, Schopf was Vancouver’s best midfield creator, as he logged 2 key passes and was unlucky not to score when his effort was cleared off the goal line at the last second. Schopf also won 3 of his 4 ground duels and had 2 successful dribbles.

Fafa Picault – 6.5

There are certainly moments where you notice Picault’s technical ability and instincts in comparison to Levonte Johnson, but not so much that there shouldn’t be a legitimate discussion as to who plays up front with White and Gauld right now. Picault played a good part in Vancouver’s goal, launching Gauld into space down the left flank. He also had a good look at a ball that bounced right in front of him from a Vancouver corner, but couldn’t react quickly enough, though I won’t really count that against him.

Brian White – 7.0

The man is back to his scoring ways. Not only did White do a great job delaying his run on Vancouver’s goal, but his glancing touch with the outside of his foot as he ran away from goal was also excellent.

Ryan Gauld – 7.5

It was a great driven ball by Gauld that found White at the near post. Otherwise, Gauld was very involved, winning a number of fouls and doing a lot of pressing and off-ball work. It was a shame he couldn’t go longer than 65 minutes, because Vancouver lost their attacking identity when he departed the match. Without someone to link with the midfield, things became very disconnected.

Substitutes – 6.0

Not the greatest showings off the bench, if I’m being honest. Bovalina and Priso effectively replacing Gauld and Schopf led to a huge drop off in Vancouver’s success on the ball, and it made life much more difficult against a Montreal team that was desperately pressing for a result at home. I didn’t really have a problem with the performances of Levonte and NFC, though I think their best attributes are not really displayed when you are just trying to hold on inside the last 10 minutes.

Vanni Sartini – 6.0

The Italian manager had to work around some tired legs, which is never fun at the tail-end of a very busy week. That said, I don’t think the second half was managed very well, even with the limited tools at his disposal. Why did Raposo play a full 90 minutes when he was clearly gassed? Why didn’t Levonte or NFC come on sooner while Vancouver could still threaten Montreal with runs in behind their defenders? Overall, I think a single point is a perfectly acceptable result, but it’s frustrating that Vancouver could not get three out of this one, because it felt like it was right there for them.

Alright, that’s it for me. Let me know your thoughts in the comments, as always.