Post Match, Vancouver Whitecaps FC

Post Match: Slapped up by the Sounders

By: Alexandre Gangue-Ruzic and Samuel Rowan

The Vancouver Whitecaps late-season slump in MLS play continued, as they fell 3-0 to the Seattle Sounders at BC Place on Wednesday. 

Now amid a four-game winless streak (0W-2D-2L), the Whitecaps have fallen to 7th place in the Western Conference table, just one point ahead of 8th place and two points ahead of 9th place. 

After pushing towards the top four in the conference just weeks ago, it’s been a stark turnaround to begin fall, as they’ve seemed to run out of gas after a strong stretch to end the summer. 

As for the match itself, it didn’t take long for the Sounders to get going in this one, as they pounced on an early set-piece to grab a 1-0 lead. 

After a perfect corner from Albert Rusnak, Jordan Morris did well to flick the ball on at the near post, finding a wide-open Georgi Minoungou at the back post for an easy finish. 

From there, Seattle did well to set up shop and absorb Whitecaps’ pressure, showing why they entered this game as the team with the top xG against in all of MLS. 

Instead of pushing forward and risking giving up their one-goal lead in search of the sweet pay-off of a second goal, they held firm and waited for their next opportunity, knowing that as long as they didn’t give up any cheap goals, that chance would eventually come. 

To their credit, they mostly did that, as other than a Sam Adekugbe shot at the back post in the 25th minute and a Pedro Vite chance in the 58th minute that came off a Stefan Frei blunder, the Sounders gave up relatively little else defensively.

From there, that allowed them to make it 2-0 in the 65th minute as Albert Rusnak converted a penalty won by Paul Rothrock, before Rothrock himself made it 3-0 with a tidy finish in the 67th minute to eliminate any possibility of this one becoming a contest. 

Here are three thoughts on this one from inside BC Place. 

Seattle’s flawless tactical plan exposes Whitecaps limitations: 

Interestingly, the Whitecaps’ two previous meetings with the Sounders created some fascinating tactical matchups – in their first meeting, the Whitecaps surprised the Sounders by pressing aggressively on the road en route to a 2-0 victory in April, before the Sounders responded with a more aggressive performance in a 1-1 draw in May. 

Yet, given what these teams are good at, which is defending and hitting in transition, it creates an intriguing matchup, as both teams are forced to figure out which team wants to play on the front foot. 

In this game, the Whitecaps were content with letting Seattle be that team. Having deployed a 4-4-2 defensively to start, they sat back a little deeper than usual, staying away from the press they used in the April victory. 

Naturally, it made sense given the Sounders’ strengths – a team with good skill in wide areas, the Whitecaps would’ve risked letting the Sounders hit them in transition if they went with a 3-5-2 or a 3-4-3. By playing more defensively, they could draw the Sounders up the pitch, allowing them to open up space to hit them on the counter. 

Unfortunately for the Whitecaps, however, their plan didn’t end up yielding its desired results – for all of the solidity they found in open play by using a 4-4-2 ended up being undone by the early set-piece goal, and that proved to be fatal. 

Thanks to that goal, it played right into the Sounders’ hands, as they were set up to keep the ball, having started with a 4-2-3-1. 

As soon as they got the lead, they ensured that the Whitecaps wouldn’t see much of the ball, as they started to slow down the game in possession. Then, when they did lose it, they didn’t have to worry about the transition game either, as they ensured to keep at least four to five players behind the ball at all times, instead of committing numbers forward wildly. 

And that ended up proving to be the perfect plan. Due to the Whitecaps’ use of the 4-4-2, they were unable to press anywhere close to their usual level, which allowed the Sounders to keep the ball and slowly kill out the game. 

Given that they finished with 59% possession (a number that doesn’t look as impressive because they stopped keeping the ball after the third goal in the 67th minute), that’s reflected statistically, too. 

The Whitecaps tried to adjust, but their moves came too late, as they made the switch to a 3-4-3 in the 59th minute, a move that they didn’t see the effects of because of the 65th-minute penalty they gave up just moments after that switch. 

So overall, it made for a tough showing for the Whitecaps tactically. It was a rough night for them in terms of defensive luck, too, as they actually only gave up 0.91 non-penalty xG, but they were unable to adjust to the Sounders game plan, and never got a hold on this game as a result. 

Against a team as good as the Sounders, who have quietly hit their stride as of late after a slow start, a result like this is the price you pay for losing that sort of tactical battle. – Alex

Is the Whitecaps defending actually an issue?

Alright, strap in. I know this might seem like a hot take after the performance we just witnessed against the Sounders, but I don’t think the Whitecaps defense, nor the back three, is the root of Vancouver’s recent struggles.

Defending is a tricky thing to evaluate, because you usually only notice the mistakes, and when a goal winds up in the back of the net, the easiest thing to do is look for a scapegoat. Even with their struggles, Vancouver still had the better of Seattle in terms of expected goals from open play in this match, 0.90 to 0.55, as well as 1.08 to 0.91 on non-penalty expected goals.

Overall, whether it has looked like it or not at times, Vancouver has been a very good defensive team this season, and they were ranked 5th overall across MLS in xGa going into this match. That’s not an accident, and much of that ranking is a credit to the defensive structure Vancouver has built during 2024 – their structure is not the problem.

Yet, the thing we have seen happen to the Whitecaps this season is when they get away from their principles and start chasing the game, that’s when bad things happen. To me, that’s a mentality issue rather than the quality of the defenders or the effectiveness of the system. They’ve been great on the road when they know discipline is an absolute must, or when they score early and can sit in their structure with the confidence of an advantage.

For whatever reason, Vancouver has hit a real roadblock playing at home, especially if they concede the first goal. It’s hard to explain exactly why it looked this way, but as soon as Vancouver conceded inside the first 20 minutes, you just got the sense from the touchline that they knew it was going to be a long uphill battle. 

Vancouver has the attacking quality to score two or three, even against a good Sounders team, but they don’t seem to trust it enough. When they don’t trust their quality, it leads to risks and unforced errors. That’s not bad defensive play, that’s just poor match management. -Sam

Big week catches up to the Whitecaps

This was a massive week for Vancouver in many ways, playing TFC, Portland, and Seattle, all in the span of 7 days at BC Place. After a middling 1-1 result on the weekend against the Timbers, Vancouver left a lot riding on this match against Seattle, and boy did they pick a bad time to lay an egg. 

For me, the lead-up to this match felt the same as the week the Whitecaps had against FC Dallas and San Jose. In that case, the Whitecaps were able to validate a 0-0 draw against Dallas with a big 2-0 win over the Quakes. On the flip side, losing to Seattle 3-0 at home makes the recent 1-1 draw against Portland look worse in retrospect. Coming away from two matches at home against rivals with just one point is extremely frustrating. 

Vancouver has been flirting with the top four spots in the West all season, and now they’ve allowed their Cascadian rivals jump to third in the West. Meanwhile, the Whitecaps have dropped to seventh position, just one point clear of the play-in match. 

Sure, Vancouver still has that lauded match in hand on those around them, but the odds of playing a team like LAFC or RSL in the opening round of the playoffs has increased dramatically, and the mission to win a playoff round could look much more difficult as a result.

To add insult to injury, Vancouver is now on the outside looking in when it comes to the Cascadia Cup, as Seattle can secure the cup with a win or tie against Portland in the regular season finale. Not ideal. – Sam

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

10 thoughts on “Post Match: Slapped up by the Sounders”

  1. A pretty lame effort. I turned it off after the 2nd having no hope that anything good would come of this match. One play early in the 1st half epitomizes how poor the caps are at home, especially in the 1st half: Adekugbe, out on touch line and about 10-13 yards inside the Seattle half, receives a nice crisp pass and there’s no defender closer than 15 yards. Adekugbe receives the pass nicely, takes a couple of nonchalant steps forward and then plays the ball diagonally back to Schopf or Cubas. WTF. Drive to the goal line to get the defenders a little bit out of their comfort zone. Get a cross in. Maybe a shot on goal if he could beat the fullback. That lack of sttacking drive is so frustrating. What happened to the Adekugbe of a few years ago. Why are the caps playing so conservatively, especially at home.

    Reply

    1. The team plays in the manner the coach wants it to. Sartini is a defence-first coach, by his own admission, does not favour players that take risks and wants the team to play a quite rigid “system” over allowing for flow and creativity.

      He prefers a slow, simple game where a cross and a headed goal (to then defend and take a 1-0 win) is the ideal. Hence a plethora of square balls, passes backwards around the backline and to the keeper, and ‘safe’ play other than getting out on the counter. The wingback play is often a symptom of this.

      Reply

  2. The Seattle roster has no surprise, impact, high priced newcomers. It’s Morris, the Roldans, the aging ex-RSL talisman Rusnak, homegrown Vargas, the steady back line and a former TFC keeper, plus a former TFC 2 third round draft pick on the left wing and some raw speedy unknown Next Pro guy who made Adekugbe his bitch. That’s who bossed the Caps, those guys, not one bank breaking payroll guy.

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  3. 2/9 points at home tells us all we need to know about this Team- really good record on the road- over 50% points) and weak at home (under 50%) – thats not the right way – HOME GAMES SHOULD BE YOUR STRENGTH- since we do make the playoffs, its better that all playoff games are on the road- LOL

    for whatever reason, the Caps are a fragile Team at home – we were all hoping that Stuart Armstrong would help solidify/strengthen the character of this Team, but his conditioning, and maybe a leg injury for playing on the the turf, will offer us little hope

    i long ago predicted a #7-11 placing, so i am partially right – with 3 games left and all tough games vs Minnesota, LAFC and RSL- and 2 are at home- we could end up in 9th place- but the good news would be, we are on the road

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  4. That match felt like a disasterclass performance. The players looked slow and their decision-making was poor. The tactics were obviously not working from early in the game that its crazy Vanni just sat there and watched it unfold. No changes at the half, then he brings on Levonte who has the first touch of a sledgehammer and I wouldn’t trust to spark dry wood let alone a floundering team.

    Just a massive, draining, disappointment. The southside completely gave up after the third goal. One of the only times I’ve ever seen the whole area just go silent. There was absolutely nothing in that performance worth cheering for, though Fafa did get an applause when he came off.

    Reply

    1. Picault didn’t earn that applause. A player sent off for what is clearly an incorrect refereeing decision, fair play to applaud them. But what was clearly a brain-dead play by Picault, that should not be shown appreciation. Silence is appropriate imo.

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      1. You’re not wrong about that. It was absolutely a terrible play and as soon as he did it I said well he’s gone. I’m not sure if it was because he at least seemed like he was trying or what. But yeah, you’re right.

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  5. An all around failure. The players seemed determined to give the ball away at every opportunity through poor touches or bad passes. Vite and White stood out as being average, everyone else had their worst or near-worst performance of the season.

    Tactically, you pack 5 players into the midfield and then rely on long balls that completely bypass the area of pitch where you have the greatest numbers advantage?

    I had a hard time accepting that there were no subs at half time, and then when the sub finally came in it was Johnson instead of Caicedo + Ocampo. That sub was when I accepted that it was going to be a big loss. Picault getting the red card when he should have been the one subbed off instead of White was the cherry on the cake.

    I get that the drop in quality between Gauld and the rest of the squad is massive, but it’s like each individual player’s quality drops significantly when he’s not on the pitch to lead them. The team mentality was horrendous last night.

    Reply

    1. The last sub used at the point it was for White left only the option realistically for him or Picault, which I thought was the error rather than which one came off. White’s legs were gone by the third Seattle goal, that was the time to make the sub for either of them (and I thought it should have been White regardless). Picault’s decision-making was atrocious last night in terms of his discipline, he was at Penso from the first few minutes and the foul to take the second caution was selfish and devoid of any veteran leadership. He was left on the pitch, better was expected of him than he delivered. That’s not on Sartini, though I think it does reflect on his leadership somewhat.

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      1. I have deleted Whitecaps from my calender. This team has no heart, no spirit, no daring-do. I have watched high-school soccer teams with more heart and creativity than this bunch. This type of performance in front of the home crowd is cheating fans. Been going on too long.

        Reply

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