The Vancouver Whitecaps season lives! (at least it does at the time I’m writing this). But the WFC2 season has ended. So, it’s time to look at the prospects of the prospects. As always, I have put the players into categories rather than attempting any kind of ranking system. My assessment of players is more based on how good they are relative to their age rather than how good they are at winning you a game next week since the point of MLS Next Pro is to graduate players to the first team.
Each profile comes with a line graph comparing the player to other players in the league who played at least 500 minutes at their position using the American Soccer Analysis’ G+ model. The analysis is based on a combination of that data and qualitative observation.
This article doesn’t include Jeevan Badwal or Nicolas Fleuriau Chateau. You can read the article I wrote at the time they were signed to first-team deals if you want to know more about them.
Tier 1: Mixed Signals
I could see each of these players playing a first-team role next year and I can also see them being cut loose. I know that sounds like a massive cop-out but I will explain their situations and hopefully, that will make my confusion a bit more understandable.
Finn Linder/CB/20
Finn Linder had a huge 2023 but his season was shortened by injury and international call ups so I wanted to see how well that would hold up over a bigger sample size. The answer is not quite as good as I had hoped!
Linder played more on the outside of a back-three this season and that exposed some pretty significant weaknesses. Linder is not the most agile and had some tough outings against speedy wingers. His marking of players also left a bit to be desired. Still, he’s huge, great in the air, domestic, and at least somewhat good on the ball. Surely you can turn that into something. But this would be his 3rd MLSNP season and the Whitecaps haven’t shown a ton of patience for players taking that long to put it together.
Last season saw Kam Habibullah, Elage Bah, and Matteo Campagna let go in a similar place to where Linder is now. Linder definitely improved over the course of the season, to the point I’d probably be comfortable with him being, like, the 6th-choice centre-back and still mostly playing with WFC2 most of the time.
But are the Whitecaps going to let him take that long? Hell, does he want to keep slumming it in MLSNP now that there are two professional teams operating in New Zealand? I don’t know. I remain a believer in Linder’s long-term potential and I’d like to see that potential be realized with the Whitecaps but I’m not 100% sure it will be.
Eliot Goldthrop/WB/23
Eliot Goldthorp was pretty good this season. He’s a winger/wing-back tweener who put up a pretty impressive amount of offence for a player in that role, registering 8 goals and 6 assists. He was a huge threat from set pieces and incredibly dangerous from wide areas. He’s not the greatest defender and his touch can be a little heavy but his dynamism in attack more than makes up for that.
If he was from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan I wouldn’t hesitate to slot him into the first team as wing-back depth. But, unfortunately, Goldthorp is English. He’s also 23 so there isn’t much room for him to develop in MLS. Is a 23-year-old who’s probably good enough to be a rotational option if everything goes right really what you want to use one of those precious international slots on? I’m not sure it is.
I am pretty confident that Goldthorp has the ability to be a rotational option in MLS and that he will have a solid professional career. Sadly, I don’t think the circumstances are right for him to do that with the Whitecaps.
Jay Herdman/20/AM
I don’t think G+ captures what Jay Herdman does very well because most of what makes him interesting doesn’t happen on the ball. Herdman began the season as a sort of wide forward, where he was not very effective, and then got played in more of a shadow striker role that played to his strengths. We love to talk about “destroy and progress” midfielders here at The Third Sub but Herdman is more of a “destroy and receive” midfielder. He is not a dribbler and he can’t do anything very complicated with his passing. But he can pop up in dangerous areas by making late runs into the box.
When he was out wide there were not as many opportunities for him to do that but when he played underneath a central striker you could start to see what has made the Whitecaps interested in him. Herdman has been loaned out to Cavalry F.C. where at the time of writing he has a goal and an assist in 259 minutes (both of which came in a game against Pacific F.C. after Emil Gazdov was sent off).
Typically a CPL loan has been where the Whitecaps send the MLSNP players they don’t plan to bring back. I can see why they might look at Herdman’s extremely limited profile and decide it isn’t going to happen. But, man, he’s so good at those late runs!
Like Linder, Herdman is a New Zealand youth international and might be tempted by an A-League move now that there are two New Zealand-based teams in the league. I would say I am still a Herdman believer but it might be a situation where the Whitecaps aren’t the right place for his potential to be realized.
J.C Ngando/24/CM/USL Loan
Yeah, I bet you forgot about him! J.C Ngando spent 2024 on loan to USL Championship side Las Vegas Lights. As you can see from the chart above, he was pretty good. I look at that data, and those specific skill distributions and I ask myself “Could you slot Ngando into the team for Alessandro Schopf and get basically the same thing for $800,000 less?” I kind of think you could!
But, as with Goldthorp, Ngando’s age and nationality work against him. His taking up an international slot probably had a lot more to do with him getting loaned out than his ability to play MLS minutes did. The Whitecaps might once again decide that a mid-20s guy who profiles as a pretty good backup isn’t what they want to spend their international slots on.
Tier 2: Hot Prospects
These players are young, generally performed well, though not quite to the level to be considered for the first team yet.
Max Anchor/20/GK:
2024 was a major step forward for Anchor. He looks to have developed quite a bit physically. He was a major plus in his ability to handle crosses and stop shots. Obviously, his ability to play the ball with his feet needs to improve a little bit.
He didn’t quite hit the “wow, get this guy into MLS” level but he was comfortably one of the better goalkeepers in the league. He’s also well ahead of where most of the currently relevant Canadian goalkeepers were at this point in their careers. I don’t think he’s a dark horse to challenge Boehmer and Takaoka just yet but he gave us lots of reasons to be excited in 2024.
Mihail Gherasimencov/19/FB
I can’t lie, I was hoping for a bit of a bigger step for Gherasimencov but he still had quite a solid season of growth. There were definitely some growing pains associated with playing in more of a wing-back role and being correctly positioned when deployed there. But he grew as the season went on. G+ puts him comfortably above average compared to his peers and being comfortably above average in your age 19 season does portend well (the average age in MLSNP is 21). I think 2026 is the season to watch out for Gherasimncov.
Tier 3: Long Term Projects
These players were, frankly, not that good. But they are all super young so getting on the field as much as they did was a win.
Liam Mackenzie/17/Midfielder
I think when you look at that chart you can see the shape of the very exciting attacking #8 that Mackenzie has the potential to be. But the formation of that player is still quite a way down the track. Mackenzie had his flashes but struggled quite a bit with the speed of play in MLSNP. Still, he’s 17, so I am pretty high on his long-term potential.
Immanuel Mathe/18/CB/FB
Mathe rose from what was, on paper, a murderer’s row of centre-back prospects and nailed down a starting spot. He profiles as exactly the kind of wide centre-back/defensive fullback that the current iteration of the Whitecaps loves. He’s an aggressive defender who is reasonably strong in duels. But, as you can see from the chart, he’s pretty rough around the edges when it comes to on-the-ball stuff. It will be a while before Mathe is considered for first-team action but this season was an impressive first step on that path.
Alexander Milosevic/18/GK
I don’t think the Whitecaps were planning to play Milosevic at all but an injury to Max Anchor thrust him into a number of games down the stretch. All things considered, that really isn’t too bad. This data looks pretty similar to Anchor’s age 19 season and way better than Boehmer’s age 21 season. Way too early to say if he has a long-term future in Vancouver (he might opt to go NCAA with the young Canadian goalkeeper scene being pretty crowded at the moment) but there’s clearly something happening here. Plus, he’s really tall which is always nice for a keeper.
Tier 4: Show me Something
This tier is for players who are on thin ice. They need to have a huge 2025 to have a future with the club. Historically, more players I have put in this category have been let go than retained.
Cyprian Kachwele/19/ST
Kachwele got off to an exciting start with 3 goals in his first 90 minutes of MLSNP action. He finished the season with…4 goals. Kachwele also made a couple of first-team appearances thanks to Vancouver’s terrible striker depth.
As an international player, Kachwele has to be turning in dominant performances and what he did this season just isn’t going to cut it. Still, I can’t imagine moving from Tanzania to Vancouver as a 19-year-old is easy and WFC2 was terrible at creating chances for their striker in 2024 so I’m willing to give him another year. Kachwele is a speedy, get-in-behind type of guy with intelligent movement. He’s not saying much on-the-ball but he has the tools to be an effective goal-poacher if everything goes right.
Dembo Saidykhan/20/CB
At the time of Saidykhan’s signing, there were quotes floating around from scouts (from other clubs competing for his signature) calling him “the best U-20 defender in the world.” I would like to present the chart above as exhibit A in the case that those scouts were a tad over-excited.
Still, Saidykhan had to deal with injuries and no doubt a difficult cultural adaptation process moving from the Gambia to Vancouver. So I think it’s worth giving him another shot to live up to his potential. When Saidykhan did get on the field you could see what those scouts were so enamoured with. He looks super confident on the ball, is very athletic, and looks a lot more solid than that “interrupting” stat would suggest (I think the model is penalizing him for one bad moment, I don’t think that stat is representative of his defensive ability).
Joshue Ndakala/20/CB
Ndakala had a solid end to 2023 so I was pretty interested to see how he would get on in 2024. But injuries delayed his start to the season and when he got in there, well…meh. His interrupting obviously popped on G+ but he didn’t play that many minutes so I’m not sure that would hold up in the long run. Ndakala is another wide-centre-back with some speed and willingness to carry the ball. Still, his Candian-ness means the bar is lower for him than it would be for a foreign player so I’m willing to give him another go.
Myles Morgan/19/ST
I was reasonably excited for Morgan. He scored a ton of goals on tiny Caribbean islands in CONCACAF U-20 Qualifying and he was poached from Toronto F.C. (who doesn’t love getting one over on Canadian rivals?). But, man, he did not look good. I think even the unimpressive chart above is flattering compared to the eye test.
Morgan is not a super-athlete, being undersized and not particularly fast. His technical levels were not high enough to make up for that. That said, there are some redeeming qualities. His goals (there were two of them) both very much came from the high-danger areas that are an elite striker’s bread and butter. He also has decent link-up play, registering 0.12 expected assists per 90 in addition to popping in the passing category of G+. This plus his age and Canadian-ness just make him worth another shot for me, but I’d need to see swift and significant improvement.
Tier 5: I’m Sorry, Sir, It’s Time For You to Leave
These are players I would cut. Last year this tier was called “it’s over” but that felt a little harsh for this year’s crop who are mostly being cut for having no clear path to MLS rather than being bad.
Buster Sjoberg/25/CB
Buster Sjoberg was pretty good this season but not good enough to overcome being 25 and Swedish. He could definitely have a professional career elsewhere but isn’t even close to being worth an MLS international slot.
Darko Ilic/20/FB
Darko Ilic was also pretty good this season when he got on the field (which was not very often). He was pretty clearly second choice to Goldthorp and Gherasmincov. He turns 21 on January 1st and I think if he was ever going to convince the Whitecaps to use an international slot on him he would have to be a lot more established by now.
Malek Mehri/21/CM
Of the three Africans WFC2 signed in late 2023, my expectations for Mehri were the highest. This was because he had already racked up some minutes in the Tunisian first tier, a serious league which plays players real money to play in it. But, wow, he looked off the pace when the season started. He certainly improved as the season went on, even nailing down a fairly regular starting spot. but for a 21-year-old international I think I’ve seen enough.
Malcolm Simmons/21/DM
Simmons is a decent ball-winner but not nearly good enough to make up for the fact that he is just dreadful in possession. At 21 he needs to have shown a lot more to have a realistic shot of making it to MLS.
Other Interesting Players who Played Less Than 500 Minutes:
Antoine Coupland missed almost the whole season with injuries. When he did get in he looked decent but hadn’t made enough development on his end product to move the needle in a serious way. Obviously talented but he basically missed a whole year of development and is soon to be 21. No idea what the plan is for him.
16-year-old Luca Chen fell just short of the minutes cutoff but was decidedly not terrible splitting minutes between wing-back and centre-mid. A player to look out for next season.
17-year-old striker Rayan Elloumi managed to score a goal in the very small number of minutes he got on the pitch.
Another 16-year-old, Johnny Selemani only got on the pitch for about 100 minutes but those 100 minutes were promising.
Born in March of 2008, Selemani is the youngest player WFC2 have ever fielded in MLSNP (though still older than Alphonso Davies was when he debuted for the USL version of the team). Very excited to see if he can build on that moment.
A good review, thank you.
These guys are all place holder players. They will age out and then go elsewhere in their playing careers or move on to their life’s work outside of the game.