One more for the road.
The Vancouver Whitecaps season is over after a 1-0 loss to Los Angeles FC. With that, we take a look at the individuals performances from the crucial elimination game.
Yohei Takaoka: 6.0
There was one dangerous shot on target and it went in. I don’t think there was very much he could do to stop it. Distribution was pretty good.
Sebastian Berhalter: 6.5
Had the unenviable task of dealing with Bouanga. I though he was basically fine in that role. Some but limited offensive contributions.
Ranko Veselinovic: 5.5
He got turned several times. LAFC isolated him in open space on a couple of occasions, which is not where you want Veselinovic to be.
Tristan Blackmon: 7.0
Won a lot of aerial duels, didn’t really get in trouble defensively, scored the most offside goal of all time.
Sam Adekugbe: 6.0
His passing was not on in this match. Playing more like a wide centre-back, he was fairly solid defensively, but seemed a bit of a liability in build up.
Stuart Armstrong: 6.0
Armstrong was not able to have quite the same level of impact he has had in previous games in the playoffs. His link up passing was still good and he bodied Bouanga at one point which was nice to see.
Andres Cubas: 7.0
He was really unfortunate to play a role in the goal against. Other than that, I thought he was really good at disrupting in the midfield.
Pedro Vite: 6.0
Kept things ticking over in the midfield but struggled to produce anything particularly magical.
Fafa Picault: 5.0
Not really at the races in this match. Whoscored credits him with two key passes, but I’m struggling to remember either and he certainly wasn’t involved in any dangerous chances.
Ryan Gauld: 8.0
The Whitecaps had 12 shots in this game and 7 of them directly involved Gauld in some way. Definitely the team’s best creator.
Brian White: 7.0
Just wasn’t quite meant to be. But that shouldn’t take away from what was a solid performance with a lot of defensive running and 4 shots.
Substitutes: 6.0
Ahmed wasn’t really able to provide the spark Vancouver needed, while Schopf coming on for Armstrong was the beginning of the end for the Whitecaps. This is a match where some depth scoring options could have been valuable.
Vanni Sartini: 6.0
After pulling one over on Cherundolo at BC Place, this match was far more even tactically. The Whitecaps forced some initial adjustments, but it was really what LAFC did at the half that made an impact, with the extra body in the midfield. Ultimately, it looked like LAFC’s depth played a big role in the second half, and Sartini could not find the tactical edge he needed.
Alright, those were our thoughts from the final match of the season, let us know yours in the comments, as always!
I was at the game in LA. The Caps were the
better team in the first half and I thought Armstrong played his best half of soccer as a Whitecap during that half. As soon as he ran out of gas and was subbed off, you knew the game was over. Just not enough depth to match LAFC…
It’s hard to fault Cubas, as he’s consistently excellent, but the game likely would have gone to shootout if not for that one mistake. It’s still very much a David vs Goliath matchup though, as LAFC just has so much depth.
Schopf leaving frees up some money to sign a depth striker – White is asked to carry too much load. Time to say goodbye to Caicedo and Johnson, but they likely will re-sign Raposo. It will be interesting to see the moves that Axel Schuster makes to strengthen this team, their so close to being a top team in MLS.
I should have added that this three game format sucks! They should scrap the play-in round and instead give the top team in each conference a bye. Teams 2 through 9 should play a 2 game home and away with aggregate scoring. The Caps had to play far too many games to end the season.
Look who Cherundolo could bring on as subs. Holy shit. Vanni could only bring on fresh legs for running. It was basically over when they couldn’t find a goal in the first half but credit to them.
MLS keeps incrementally improving. Let’s hope Axel can sign upgrades all around the edges of this core so they can fight for the full 90 against top tier clubs before this Gaulden hour passes.
I concur with this. They had some killer options and I was looking at the bench and the only one I could see was Ahmed for some pace to disrupt things a little. You knew the second half would see Fafa and Armstrong and probably Berhalter slowing down after going full out. Definitely, need a few options. I guess they could have thrown Kreilach in there so they had more height in front of goal with White to try some long crosses. Our opening 11 were great but LA weathered that with the switch up front. Maybe even planned on bringing Giroud on in the second all along after wearing out our players.
I really enjoyed the Caps though the last few games so hopefully it continues next year.
Ocampo is he going to be amazing or ??