Eighty Six Forever, Post Match, Vancouver Whitecaps FC

Post Match: Another point gained in Texas

The Vancouver Whitecaps continue to pick up points on the road in MLS play this season, as they drew the Houston Dynamo 1-1 at Shell Energy Stadium on Wednesday. 

With that, they continued to quietly climb the Western Conference standings, now up to sixth place after amassing a record of 6W-3D-1L (21 PTS) in their last 10 games in MLS play, setting themselves up quite nicely for the last six games of their regular season campaign. 

Ezequiel Ponce opened the scoring for the Houston Dynamo in first-half stoppage time of this game, as he stepped up to take a penalty won by Amine Bassi following a clumsy challenge from Vancouver’s Pedro Vite, and he made no mistake in dispatching his spot-kick to make it 1-0. 

Vancouver found their response in the 73rd minute, however, as Fafà Picault set up Brian White, who was making his return from a concussion, with a perfect low cross for White’s 13th goal of the MLS season.  

From there, both teams struggled to muster up much late, as both teams had no other shots after White’s tally despite the game opening up with both in hot pursuit of a winner, leading both to have to settle for a draw, one the Whitecaps will be the happier side to earn for many reasons. 

Here are three thoughts on this one. 

Whitecaps continue road success in crucial draw vs. Dynamo:

While it wasn’t a must-win for the Whitecaps, this one certainly felt like one where they couldn’t lose, at least in terms of what it meant for their pursuit of their short-term goals. 

Sitting very much in the race for a top-four spot in the Western Conference, and within touching distance of the top five in all of MLS, the Whitecaps couldn’t afford to give up ground to the Dynamo, who entered this game just one point back of the Whitecaps. 

You add in that they were missing some key pieces, as Ali Ahmed and Stuart Armstrong were left in Vancouver for precautionary reasons, and that Brian White only had 30 minutes to give off the bench as he returned from his injury, and the Whitecaps knew that a point could be worth a lot for them. 

Especially with a trip to LA looming this weekend, where a matchup against the Western Conference-leading LA Galaxy awaits, it appeared that the Whitecaps were setting their focus on having as much firepower available for that game as possible. Given that Ahmed and Armstrong are set to join the team in LA, that sentiment was at least backed up by those decisions, as well as a few others in the match, such as how they took Andrés Cubas off just 45 minutes into the game after he picked up a knock, and that Ryan Gauld didn’t go the full game even as they pushed for a late winner. 

In the end, however, their approach paid off, as they earned a hard-fought 1-1 draw, one that they were full value for, and will even feel they could’ve done better if not for the penalty they gave up. 

With that, they continued to be quite the road warriors, as they’ve now picked up 25 points from 15 road games this season in MLS play, sitting with a record of 7W-4D-4L. For context, that point total is the fourth-best road tally in the league – only FC Cincinnati, Inter Miami and the Columbus Crew have more. 

And that’s been huge, both given how poor the Whitecaps have been in recent years on the road (they had 28 road points across the last two seasons combined), as well as for their aspirations as a team that can push up the MLS table. 

Now, it’s given them a key opportunity to finish off the season on a high note – after their clash against the Galaxy this weekend, they’ll play four of their last five games at home, which will give them a key edge over the rest of the teams in the Western Conference playoff race. 

Seeing that all of their six remaining matches are against those in the playoff picture (LA Galaxy, RSL, LAFC, Seattle Sounders, Portland Timbers and Minnesota United), they can look at those games as an opportunity to make a statement in a tight race. 

Without their road record, they might be looking at those games far differently, which shows how important that road form has been for them. 

No doubt, their home form now remains a key area of focus – they sit with 21 points from 13 home games, good for 19th in MLS, but given that they’ve also got a record of 4W-1D-1L (13 PTS) in their last six home games in MLS play, they’ll feel they’re trending upwards in that area, too. 

Houston’s width causes problems for Whitecaps back line

It takes a lot to get Vanni Sartini to switch up his defensive line. 

For the Dynamo, it only took about half an hour in this game to get the Whitecaps manager to tweak things at the back, however, as they were causing all sorts of problems for their visitors in wide areas. 

As a result, Sartini switched from his usual back three to more of a traditional back four, as Vancouver decided to use a 4-4-2 the rest of the game after using a 3-5-2 to start. 

To the Whitecaps credit, the tactical shift paid off in a big way – not only did they allow just one goal, coming from a clumsy foul on the penalty, but they finished the game extremely strongly, putting together a strong second-half performance. 

That’s reflected in the statistical split between both halves – in the first half, Houston outshot the Whitecaps 7-2, with four of those shots coming by the 32nd minute, winning the xG battle 1.05-0.11 (to be fair, they only had 0.26 non-penalty xG, but had looked to be the much more dangerous team). Up 1-0, it felt like the Dynamo were in a good position to add to their lead in the second half, too, a sentiment the broadcast shared as their famed ‘Win Probability’ metre swung wildly in the Dynamo’s favour despite it being a one-goal game.

In the second half, however, the Whitecaps dominated statistically, outshooting the Dynamo 7-2 and winning the xG battle 0.96-0.15. Thanks to that, they ended up winning the non-penalty xG battle 1.07 to 0.41, which backs up their sentiment that they did well to control both boxes other than the spot kick they conceded, even if they struggled to control the areas between the boxes before their tactical shift. 

Having managed to shut down the Dynamo wide threat thanks to the tweak to the 4-4-2, which allowed the Whitecaps to double down with two players on each flank, that allowed them to absorb more pressure and then hit the Dynamo on the break, as they actually held less possession in the second half than they did in the first (they had 33% in the first half, 31% in the second). 

Yet, that’s a credit to the tactical shift, as they made a move they rarely made, but were rewarded for it. At the same time, that’s a byproduct of their tactical ethos – they’re a team based on an identity, but are willing to be flexible tactically, as they have multiple different defensive and offensive formations based on their personnel and opponents. 

In this game, they had to use more of a rare system to find a result, but this flexibility isn’t anything new for them, which is perhaps why they’ve been such a good road team, as they’ve used that adaptability to their advantage away from home this season. 

Brian White marks his return in style: 

There’s no doubting Brian White’s importance to this Whitecaps attack, and the last stretch has highlighted that, as he’d missed the last three games with his concussion. 

Given that the Whitecaps only scored three times across those games, leaving several goals on the table as they put in strong performances against Austin FC, FC Dallas and the San Jose Earthquakes, his return couldn’t have come at a better time. 

As the Whitecaps showed across those three games, they continued to find goals from different sources, with Fafà Picault remaining a revelation offensively, while goals from Pedro Vite and Stuart Armstrong were also welcome sights. 

At the same time, it’s also worth noting that as has been the case for most of this year, Ryan Gauld played a key role on all of those markers, assisting all three of them. While that’s not usually an issue given how consistent he’s been as of late, it did hurt the Whitecaps against Dallas, which Gauld missed due to international duty, as they drew that game 0-0 without their Scottish talisman. 

A game where they could’ve scored several, that’s where White could’ve been key, as his presence in the box was missed. 

Making his return in this game, however, as he was called upon in the 60th minute with his team down 1-0, it didn’t take long for him to find the net. 

On a rare quiet night from Gauld, who had just 20 touches total as the Dynamo did well to limit space for him between the lines, the Whitecaps needed another source of offence, and White’s insertion to the game provided a different threat for the Dynamo to deal with. 

He showed that on his goal, as Picault, who was a lively presence all night, was able to get in behind and flash a ball across goal, and White did what he did best with a tidy one-touch finish after a great run into the box to make it 1-1. 

His 13th goal of the MLS season, which is tied for 12th in the league as of writing, it was a perfect way for him to mark his return, as he continues to put together another strong season. 

Now, it’ll be intriguing to see what he can do as he gets back up to speed in a team that has improved its ability to create chances with the addition of Stuart Armstrong and some key tactical tweaks, as there’s no reason why he can’t finish the year strongly in this set-up. 

After scoring seven goals in his last six MLS games before his injury, he’s clearly started to find his groove, so the Whitecaps will be pleased to see him pick up where he left off, knowing that he fills a key need for this team up front when healthy. 

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

5 thoughts on “Post Match: Another point gained in Texas”

  1. Look at the 41 second mark of the video. We have 5 vs 8 and we carved them up. Fafa to Gauld to Fafa to White. Basic give and go with a great one touch cross that made it through double coverage. This is the type of footy I love to watch.

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  2. Just want to compliment the journalist who put together this instant reaction–a clear and incisive piece of football journalism the unpacked the “why” of this result.

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  3. I don’t understand the idea of saving people for the weekend match against LA… If anything, Houston is the team who is closer in the standings and so any chance to take points away from them should be taken… Also, there’s the Canadian championship match next week which is also more important than the match against LA. IMO they should’ve gone all in on this match, and then who cares about the result about LA on the weekend, just try and grind anything out while resting people for next week Thursday.

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    1. Evening temp in Houston is 30+ and humid as it gets. It’s late in the season and it’s not so much saving them for the next game as it is keeping from exhaustion down the stretch. 7 games to go. 6 MLS & 1 V’s Cup

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    2. At 1st thought, you make a good point. Get the result from what’s in front of you and worry about the next game after. On 2nd thought though, that was a strong lineup. Maybe not quite our strongest but the players on the bench and back in Vancouver were there for good reason IMO. So I’m respectfully disagreeing with on this one. Anyway, the 1st half was pretty scary but the 2nd half was a fine example of will and determination. We’ll never know whether this was the result of Sartini’s coaching or that the players took it upon themselves to be better

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