A while back I was working on an article about potential U-22 wing-back signings for the Whitecaps. I figured, good use of one of their U-22 slots would be a pre-emptive replacement for Ali Ahmed, who was and is rumoured to be drawing European interest. It seemed to me that it made a lot of sense to get somebody who you could gradually bed in this season and then promote to a bigger role when Ahmed departs. So I put some parameters into Wyscout and made a list. I had even started on the article. But, in my real life, I’ve been undertaking some vocational training this year and haven’t been able to pump articles out like I used to. So, before I could publish, the Whitecaps signed Giuseppe Bovalina. “oh well” I thought, and binned the article. Well, didn’t I feel stupid when a player who was on that list suddenly popped up as a rumoured Whitecaps target?

Career Summary:

Edier Ocampo is a 20-year-old fullback/winger who plays for Atletico Nacional in the Colombian top flight. He will turn 21 in October (you might say he’s nearer 21 than he is 20). Ocampo has played further forwards more recently but, for reasons we will discuss later, he almost certainly profiles as a wing-back in the Whitecaps context. Ocampo signed for Atletico Nacional in 2023 and has 75 top-flight appearances (5269 minutes or 58 90s) registering 3 goals and 7 assists. He has played for Colombia at U-19, U20, and U-23 level. These included playing at the U-20 South American Championships and the U-20 World Cup.

Data:

When we look at the data, we can see pretty clearly why Ocampo popped up in my search for the next Ali Ahmed. He is clearly an extremely strong ball carrier. He’s in the 97th percentile for dribbles and the 99th percentile for progressive runs amongst fullbacks and wingbacks in the Colombian league. He’s also in the 71st percentile for xG and the 95th percentile indicating some final 3rd juice. However, I would pump the breaks very slightly on his offensive outputs and remind people of two important pieces of context. Firstly, we must remember that Ocampo has been played further forward in recent months, and therefore has had more opportunity to rack up xG and xA. We should also consider that Atletico Nacional is one of the bigger clubs in Colombia and therefore it is easier to score when you’re playing for them. On the other hand, the video seems to indicate Ocampo’s role is to come deep to get the ball and provide width in attack. So his wing-back role with the Whitecaps probably wouldn’t be too different.

Now, you might be wondering why I see Ocampo as clearly being a wing-back for the Whitecaps. This makes a lot more sense when we look at the actual raw data. Ocampo, over the last year, has averaged 0.16 xA/90 and 0.06 xG. For a wing-back that’s pretty good, it would easily put him in the top 10% of MLS wing-backs. But for a pure attacking player that’s not nearly enough juice. Atletico Nacional plays a 4-2-3-1, so it’s easier for them to have one player in the front four with a specialist role that doesn’t provide a ton of individual end product. But the Whitecaps play with a front three so they really need all three guys to be putting up numbers.

But what about the “back” part of being a wing-back? Well, judging defence with stats is notoriously tricky. But Ocampo’s data suggests he is, at the very least, not a total liability. He wins about 66% of defensive duels, which is slightly above, good for a very nice 69th percentile in the Colombian league. He’s also reasonably high in total defensive actions, ranking in the 72nd percentile. This suggests a fairly aggressive defender who is successful at winning the ball back slightly more often than not. That’s pretty much the amount of defending required of the wing-backs in the Whitecaps system.

If there’s one area that stands out as a weakness in the data for Ocampo it’s definitely passing. Ocampo scores poorly in progressive passes, long ball %, crossing %, and through balls. Keep in mind, this is comparing him to other players in his position/role, one which usually doesn’t have very big passing demands.

Highlights:

Sadly, I’m not able to watch full games of Ocampo. But prolific YouTube compilation maker Brazil Scout has a pretty good video on Ocampo (obviously if we were a real scouting department we’d go a lot more in-depth than this).

From the video, we can see that Ocampo is a quick dribbly player, mostly operating in wide areas. He also seems pretty good at using that speed to harass players off the ball. It’s hard to pick out weaknesses from a “best of” compilation but I would note that some of his cross and shot selection is less than ideal. In terms of development, I would guess that learning to use his pace and dribbling to leverage better shots for himself and others will be a major focus.

Conclusions:

At the current moment, I think Whitecaps signings need to be evaluated on two levels. Those levels are “are they a good signing” and “do they help the team win now.” On the first level, I think it’s pretty obvious that Ocampo is a good signing. He’s one of the top players at the stuff he’s being signed to do, at a young age, in a league that has consistently produced MLS-level and higher talent. This is exactly the sort of player those U-22 initiative slots are for. 

The second level is not as clear cut, but I’m more convinced having looked at the data. You may remember me identifying four goals for the Whitecaps in this transfer window in an earlier article. Those were:

• A player who can provide cover for Ryan Gauld
• A player who can provide cover for Brian White
• A player who can provide significant chance creation from the middle of the park
• A player who can provide some ball progression from deeper areas of the field

Obviously, on points one through three, Ocampo does basically nothing. He isn’t a striker or attacking midfielder and he operates in wide areas of the field. But his ball-carrying ability could help with the fourth point. If you think about the current makeup of the Whitecaps’ midfield; Ali Ahmed and Pedro Vite are the best ball progressors on the team in terms of carrying and passing respectively so upgrading them would see limited overall improvement and Andres Cubas’ importance to the defensive side of things make him undroppable. So the only place to extract more progression, really, was going to be another wing-back. So, does Ocampo turn this team into a contender alone? No. But it’s certainly possible he could push things in the right direction in the short term as well as the long term. 

(Image Credit: W Radio)