Eighty Six Forever, Post Match, Vancouver Whitecaps FC

Post Match: Stumped

By: Alexandre Gangue-Ruzic and Samuel Rowan

Saturday night at BC Place, the Vancouver Whitecaps played to an unsatisfying 1-1 draw with the visiting Portland Timbers.

The match was off to a dream start for the home side after just three minutes of play, as the Whitecaps were on the front foot right off the hop, taking the initiative in the Cascadia clash with an early goal.

Tristan Blackmon played a great ball across the midfield to Sebastian Berhalter, and the American made a darting run down the right wing. Berhalter then played an incisive ball into the area, while both Levonte Johnson and Brian White made good runs inside the box. Although Johnson initially looked as though he might shoot, he played a great dummy on the ball, leaving White wide open in front of goal for an easy finish.

From there, the Whitecaps were full value for their lead in the first thirty minutes, with a series of good chances in front of goal, including a wide-open Fafa Picault header at the far post which he failed to place on target.

As it turned out, the Whitecaps would end up rueing the fact they were not able to add to their advantage in the opening phase of the match, as Portland was able to find a response in the ten minutes before the half.

The Timbers had two dangerous moments in a short sequence of play, each after long balls to the far post which bypassed Whitecaps defender Bjorn Inge Utivk. Jonathan Rodríguez was the danger man for Portland on both occasions. He placed his shot confidently past Yohei Takaoka in the first instance, but the goal was called back after a narrow offside decision.

Then, on the second occasion, the Whitecaps were far less fortunate. Rodríguez’s shot was headed well wide of the target, but Utvik, reeling in defence, caught a piece of the Uruguayan’s effort before the shot deflected past a hopeless Yohei Takaoka. The 44th-minute goal sent the two sides to the half level at 1-1.

From there, Vancouver was once again on the front foot in the second half, but without the same incisive nature they seemed to possess inside the first thirty minutes. Frankly, the second half of this match had a lot of sloppy moments from both sides, and it was clear that fatigue started to impact the Whitecaps, while the reinforcements that entered the match were not as sharp as Vanni Sartini would have liked.

With Seattle getting the better of Houston on Saturday night, this result lines up a huge clash Wednesday night at BC Place between the Whitecaps and Sounders.

Here are three thoughts on this game as we saw it from inside the stadium.

Fatigue catches up to the Whitecaps:

It can be easy to forget, especially in the wake of the break they got off the back of their Round of 32 elimination from the Leagues Cup, but the Whitecaps workload has reached a peak lately.

With this match, their fifth game in 14 days, they’ve hit 40 on the season, dating back to February, with 30 of those matches coming in MLS, five in the Canadian Championship, two in the Concacaf Champions Cup and three in Leagues Cup.

It might not seem as much, as they’ve played an average of a game every 5.85 days since February 7th, but their bigger issue with the schedule is that a large portion of those games have come in clumps like this one, where they still have to play two more games across the next seven days to make it 7 games across 21 days.

That can quickly catch up with a team, as it leaves little time to recover between matches, while also limiting the the opportunities they have to work tactically in training.

To be fair, the Whitecaps won’t mind how busy their schedule has been, as some of it has come off the back of their own success – they only played midweek due to their qualification to the Canadian Championship final, and their earlier start to the season came due to their qualification to the Champions Cup after their 2023 Canadian Championship triumph.

Ideally, top clubs want to play in those extra matches, as it’s a sign of their success, and the Whitecaps can live with that.

The trade-off is that it can push the physical limitations of their group, however, and that was on full display over this last week, in which they lost to the LA Galaxy on the road in MLS action, beat Toronto FC on penalties in that Canadian Championship final, and then had this game.

Three games where they were far from their best in terms of execution at both ends, one can wonder what they could’ve done in each of those matches had they carried fresher legs.

Yet, this is the nature of the MLS season. Thanks to Leagues Cup, and an extended playoff calendar, the schedule often yields stretches like this one, where it becomes survival of the fittest.

To the Whitecaps’ credit, they’ve done well to navigate their busy schedule to put them exactly where they want to be at this stage of the season – they’re Canadian Championship winners, and have clinched a spot in the MLS Cup playoffs, but one can wonder if they could be higher up in the MLS standings with a more spread out schedule. – Alex

Lack of star power felt for both teams: 

On paper, this matchup was exciting for several reasons – two longtime rivals both sitting next to each other in the Western Conference picture, meeting with MLS Cup playoff and Cascadia Cup implications on the line – there was lots to like about what this game could yield.

As a result, the Whitecaps ended up pulling in a strong crowd to BC Place, one just short of 26 000 people, which was a big boost after much was made on how they had an attendance figure in the low 10 000s for their Canadian Championship final.

But despite that strong crowd and a game played at a playoff-like intensity, it was missing one thing – both teams’ 2024 MVPs, Ryan Gauld for the Whitecaps, and Evander for the Timbers.

Coming due to bad luck, as Gauld had a knee issue after the Canadian Championship final, and Evander was suspended due to yellow card accumulation, it robbed onlookers of a battle between two of the best players in MLS this season, with both sitting in the top 10 across MLS in goal contributions.

Naturally, any time you’re missing someone who has 15 goals and 17 assists (all competitions) in Evander, and another with 11 goals and 14 assists (all competitions) in Gauld, that had a big impact on the match, in different ways.

For Portland, the absence was felt heavily. There’s a reason why Evander leads MLS in goal contributions with 29, as he’s essential to everything the Timbers to in the attack, as he’s got a lethal final pass, and an ability to score from everywhere.

That’s what makes him so tough to defend, as sitting off him opens up the possibility for him to hurt you from distance (which is why he has 15 goals on just 9.31 xG), but he’s also dangerous enough to find open teammates with through balls and crosses if you get too tight on him and forget his colleagues.

Yet, that’s why the Timbers are second in MLS with 64 goals, and have multiple players in the double digits in goal contributions, including Jonathan Rodríguez (15 goals, 6 assists), Felipe Mora (14 goals, 5 assists), Santiago Moreno (7 goals, 8 assists) and Antony (6 goals, 5 assists).

Without Evander, however, Portland looked far from that high-flying offensive team in this game – they generated just 0.53 xG from 12 shots, with none of those chances being worth more than 0.06 xG, and their goal coming off a heavy deflection. Other than that goal, who ended up being credited to Rodríguez despite looking like an own goal, and a header from Mora that rattled the post, the Timbers didn’t put the Whitecaps under much defensive pressure at all in this game.

Had Evander been healthy, he could’ve potentially found the target from one of the six shots Portland attempted from outside of the box (if not created a few more dangerous short and long-range looks of his own), while also setting up his teammates for more dangerous chances.

Then, as for Gauld’s absence, it just felt like the Whitecaps were missing someone to put a finishing touch on things, as they had the chances Portland lacked, but were missing a finishing touch.

To the Whitecaps’ credit, they’ve proven to be adept at filling in for Gauld in his rare absences this season, and this game showed that once again – they still had 1.39 xG on 11 shots, created four big chances and hit the woodwork twice – but one can wonder if Gauld could’ve finished one of those big chances or created a few more to help find a winner.

But that’s the nature of playing without DPs in MLS, especially those as good as Gauld and White – you can lose that extra bit of quality when they’re not in the lineup.

Unfortunately for the fans at BC Place on Saturday – an this goes for both those supporting the home and away sides – they missed out on seeing two players who could’ve very well delivered a massive result for either team, instead of witnessing this frustrating match that never quite reached its climax. – Alex. 

Midfield Monsters

As Alex mentioned, the Portland Timbers were not able to create much in this match in spite of their dynamic attacking weapons, even acknowledging the absence of Evander. There were two big reasons for that, and their names were Andrés Cubas and Sebastian Berhalter.

Vancouver’s midfield leaders really took it to Portland’s double pivot, which is not easy, given the quality of the ageless Diego Chara, and Cristhian Paredes. Cubas, doing trademark Cubas things, won all 5 of his duels, and also completed 10 of 11 long balls, consistently switching play in possession, and often finding Berhalter and Ryan Raposo in wide channels.

Berhalter, not to be outdone, recorded the early assist as one of his 2 key passes, hit in 9 crosses, and was dogged with his work off the ball to frustrate Portland when they wanted to get going in transition. Berhalter’s importance to this side has grown and grown as the season has gone on, and his quality service both from open play and set pieces is a real value, especially when Ryan Gauld is absent from the lineup.

Something that I think will be interesting in the final stages of this season is where Berhalter finds a permanent role when Vancouver is at full strength. It seems likely that Pedro Vite and Seb Berhalter could be in a showdown to play alongside Cubas, at least as long as Stuart Armstrong is not fully ready to be a day in day out starter. That said, Berhalter has also shown his versatility in terms of playing out wide and being very reliable in a challenging defensive role.

One way or another, if Vancouver is able to rely on quality showings like this from Cubas and Berhalter the rest of the season, it should make the game a whole lot easier for the rest of the squad around them. – Sam

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

6 thoughts on “Post Match: Stumped”

  1. good match report / sometimes I am too harsh on the team I know but II want them to improve but just don’t see it!….they are a ONE MAN BAND! …………….White need help ASAP! $$$$$$’s spend properly could improve crowd to 30,000-35,000

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  2. In the back of my mind I think we’re a little weaker defensively with J.Brown gone. He was doing ok as a right wingback. He’s a tough player to play against. The cohesion just isn’t there yet with Campos and Armstrong and this is a bit worrisome with just 4 games to go. It’s time to focus in on the starting 11 and for me neither Campos or Armstrong makes the starting 11. Not even sure they’re first off the bench. I thought Halbouni would play in this match. I think he’s the reason Brown was expendable. Debatable who’s the better player

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  3. Cubas was the Caps best player- he was back to his old self- a dynamo and destroyer

    Armstrong must begin to integrate more into the Team to really get a feel of what he can accomplish heading for the playoffs – i think it could be substantial and we need to find out asap

    the biggest shock of the game ?? Johnson actually having the soccer intelligence and awareness to dummy the ball on White’s goal- Levonte isnt the brightest bulb and has leaned heavily on some quickness (not as much as what first appears) to make it to MLS- but- at best- he will be an average substitute

    Vanni made a tactical mistake and never corrected it- having Utvik as an outside defender as he just doesnt have the necessary quickness and it showed last night- he is a central defender- PERIOD !!!!

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  4. Made the playoffs with 4 games left in the season. That’s a good start now lets see how far up the table we can finish. Going to be tough as our opponents are Seattle, Minnesota, LAFC & RSL.

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