Following Friday’s frustrating 4th of July defeat to LA Galaxy, the Vancouver Whitecaps look to recover from that setback as they host Valour FC in the second leg of their Canadian Championship quarter-final tie.
The first leg back in May saw the Whitecaps need a late goal from Ali Ahmed to snatch a 2-2 draw at Princess Auto Stadium, with that, the tie is still finely poised heading into Wednesday’s game.
Starting with the Whitecaps, and their disappointing form continued as they lost 3-0 at an LA Galaxy side who sit rock bottom of the Supporters’ Shield standings.
Whilst this is by no means catastrophic as they are still only 1 point off the top of the Western Conference with a game in hand, their run of 3 defeats in their last 4 matches is a cause for concern, and they will be desperate to arrest that form heading into some crucial games over the summer.
With the Whitecaps facing a tricky game against Colorado Rapids on Saturday, Jesper Sørensen may opt to rotate his side slightly in order to maintain his players fitness.
He will be boosted with rotation options by the return of Sebastian Berhalter and Brian White following the USMNT’s defeat in the Gold Cup final. Although they may not start to be allowed some rest, Berhalter’s set pieces and White’s goal-scoring prowess have been dearly missed by the Whitecaps, and they will be pivotal weapons to have off the bench should this tie start to go pear shaped.
In terms of other team news, Jayden Nelson will probably start as he is unavailable for the Colorado game after his red card in LA, whilst Ralph Priso looks set to return after his suspension saw his miss out over the weekend. New signing Nelson Pierre also looked bright up front when he came on, and he may have done enough to earn more minutes in this match.
Turning over to the visitors, and Valour FC have suffered a torrid campaign in the Canadian Premier League. They sit 7th in the table with 8 points from 12 matches, and have scored the fewest goals and have conceded the most of any side in the league this season.
However, they put in an impressive display in the first leg against the Whitecaps, and as they may be buoyed by that performance heading into this match, it would be perilous to underestimate them.
In terms of players to watch out for, Portuguese midfielder Bruno Figueiredo tops his teams assisting tally, and given he scored the goal which put his side in front he is a key player for the Whitecaps to be wary of, while centre-back Kelsey Egwu is his sides top scorer this season and will be a dangerous threat from set pieces.
Although Valour will be a challenging opponent, the Whitecaps should win this game and advance to the semi-finals of the Canadian Championship. I predict that they will do exactly that, and they’ll regather some of the form that they showed at the start of the season to build some crucial momentum going into a tricky run of fixtures.
Those are my thoughts, but as always please leave yours down in the comments below.
I agree with the overall analysis but I really hope Berhalter doesn’t play in this game, whether they think they need him or not. He just racked up a lot of high-intensity minutes and they have some huge league games coming up where they’ll need him hopefully at his best
If a Priso-Badwal-Ngando midfield can’t beat the worst CPL team at home then, welp, so be it
White needs a 90 after being given a three-week holiday. Berhalter should play some to evaluate his fitness level but he played mega-minutes at the Gold Cup. Sørenson should be looking at this game this way: we have two games in the next five days: if we lose to Valour FC, that will be a disaster; if we lose to Colorado, that will merely be unfortunate. The CCL game is the must win game and given recent summer trips to the Denver area there is a good chance the Colorado game may again be postponed to some likely inopportune time down the road due to weather. The top lineup should be in Wednesday night. No rotation unless it is clear that Berhalter’s heavy use requires rest. This game MUST be won, and underestimating the opposition, or the chance of the bargain basement officiating crew that will likely be assigned making some ridiculous un-VAR-able decision that costs a goal or a red card, cannot be downplayed by skimping on team strength.
Would it kill the CPL to humbly ask that their teams include the metropolitan area they draw fans from in their team names? Four of eight do not (Cavalry, Forge, Pacific, Valour: ask a friend who doesn’t follow the league if they know where these teams play and you will get random answers) and two of the remaining four are only vaguely guessable (York United, HFX Wanderers).
Totally agree with Anon….Re “Would it kill the CPL to humbly ask that their teams include the metropolitan area they draw fans from in their team names?
…
League requires a marketing guy for sure!…Attempting to attract viewers / fans to follow a “National League”… the simplest well proven way is to identify with cities! Worry about two teams in same market in about 20 years!
Thankfully the Whitecaps are flying to Valour? not driving! so where ever you land hopefully you are in the correct Province or even in Canada! PLEASE WIN AND COME HOME!
Thanks, but let us hope that the Caps do not attempt a flight to Valour since as I understand it this is a home game. 🙂 The implied picture of YVR’s domestic departure section with CPL names instead of cities on the signs was pretty funny though. “Now in the final stages of boarding, Air Canada flight CPL6 to Valour, with a stop in Cavalry and connections to United and HFX….”
Well these team names are confusing….lets hope Valour don’t end up on Grouse!