The Vancouver Whitecaps defeated the Portland Timbers 4-1 thanks to 4 goal contributions from Jayden Nelson. I am going to keep it real with you, even in my wildest fantasies I would never have predicted that.

Now, we should be honest, a lot of stuff went right for the Whitecaps in this game that you can’t count on in the future. Portland being reduced to 10 men early on being the most obvious example. But I think perhaps the bigger impact was that Portland seemed to have no idea how to respond to this. Even 20 minutes after the red card Phil Neville and his coaching staff were still calling players over to the sidelines for new tactical instructions and they didn’t make a sub until they were already two goals down. Other teams will surely offer stiffer resistance. Maxime Crepeau mishitting a pass and Pedro Vite picking the top corner at just the right time to strike demoralizing blows also played into the Whitecaps hands.

But even taking the good fortune into account, the Whitecaps absolutely mugged the Timbers. The MLS website has the Whitecaps winning the xG battle 3.6-0.7. Unless something crazy happens in the Galaxy/San Diego game that’s the biggest beat down of the weekend by a lot. My biggest concern when Jesper Sørensen came in and announced a more possession based system was that we would see a lot of passing around the back but limited penetration. That certainly wasn’t a problem today! MLS has very strong home field tilt. The vast majority of teams have a negative expected goal differential on the road over the course of a season and even bad teams tend to be much tougher at home. So going on the road and delivering a spanking like that is a serious shot across the bow for the Western Conference, even with the good fortune involved. It’s one game, so we will need to see how this progresses, but it is an insanely good start to the season.

How legit is Jayden Nelson? I would say that his first two assists, while smart plays, were not necessarily the result of penetrative attacking play. But his 3rd assist and his goal absolutely were and there were a few other times he created good chances as well. Setting aside for a moment that Nelson eclipsed his TFC goal contribution total in one appearance for Vancouver, things become even more impressive if we look at how many shots he generated. In his time with TFC Nelson averaged 2.24 shot contributions (shots by him and times when he passed the ball to someone who then shot). In his 60 minutes of action today he had 8. All the caveats about the weirdness of the game apply but those promising pre-season appearances are looking a lot less like a fluke after this one.

Pedro Vite seems to be really vibing in his new role. I think he caught a lot of unfair criticism last season when his goal contributions dried up after he was played in a deeper position. But being back in the attacking #8 spot seems to be giving Vite the scope to shine.

Lastly I really liked the play of both Jeevan Badwal and Nicolas Fleuriau Chateau in their cameo appearances. Badwal had some defensive interventions and a few incisive passes. Chateau showed some good hustle and had a good chance thanks to some nice off-the-ball movement. I don’t expect super-star level play from either of those guys this season but if they can play some minutes here and there and be net-positive contributors then that helps Vancouver’s depth situation significantly.