The Vancouver Whitecaps got a much needed win, punishing Houston Dynamo to the tune of a 3-0 road victory in the first match of the post Pedro Vite era.
Tactical tweaks from Jesper Sørensen helped unlock the wide play from Edier Ocampo and Emmanuel Sabbi, and ‘Caps got goals from Sabbi, Sebastian Berhalter, and Brian White in a match they could have won by four or five goals.
Sørensen elected to roll with a new look 5-2-3, with Ocampo and Tate Johnson at wingback, Berhalter and Ralph Priso in midfield and a Daniel Rios, Sabbi, White front three. Ocampo often bombed up the field, with Johnson finding a more reserved role.
The ‘Caps started pretty direct, with White and Rios trying to get the ball in the build up and use Ocampo and Sabbi to stretch things and provide service into the box. The extra centerback, often Laborda or Ranko Veselinovic, stepped up to fill the space and create chaos and overloads to frustrate Houston.
That industry created an early goal, with Laborda stepping up to win the ball back and cycle it over to Ocampo. He provided excellent service back to Laborda, whose header was equaled by Jonathan Bond, but the save found the path of Sabbi, who fired it into the net with aplomb.
Ocampo found oodles of space on the right hand side early on, asking a lot of questions of a Houston side that looked out of sorts. The Dynamo tried to hit back and find pockets of space on the break, giving White and Rios space to operate as well and the ‘Caps truthfully should have doubled their lead inside 15 minutes after Rios was denied 1v1 following a lovely little through ball from White.
It was another example, however, of some simple balls causing a lot of problems for Houston. Sabbi nearly bullied his way into a second goal by applying some well orchestrated pressure on Artur. Those long balls over the top kept troubling Houston, as they tried to regroup and apply more pressure on the wide players to halt the flood of crosses into the box.
Houston started to find their feet, however, asking some probing questions of both wingbacks. Ocampo in particular was struggling to deal with the pace of Lawrence Ennali, who did enough to create an equalizer, with the Vancouver’s’ defense unable to mobilize quickly enough.
The ‘Caps weathered things, however, and doubled their lead shortly before the break. White worked hard to create an excellent break but the chance seemed to have passed after he couldn’t get a shot away. He kept possession, however, and a long range shot from Berhalter deflected past a helpless Bond.
Vancouver opened the second half with two golden transition chances, as Ben Olson’s side didn’t immediately make adjustments to limit the space for the Vancouver’s wide players. The home side had to open up slightly more to chase the game but it was Vancouver’s midfield that gummed up the works to help create those transition moments.
Sabbi didn’t have a ton of involvement after his goal but he made the most of what touches he got. It was an incisive run from Sabbi who drew several defenders, with a late arriving Felipe Andrade knocking him over in the box to win a penalty that helped Vancouver put things to bed. Brian White saw his penalty saved but the rebound fell right back to him and he tapped it into the net to make it 3-0.
It was a physical affair in the boiling mid-summer heat in Houston, with Ocampo spending a lot of time on the ground from scraps with Dynamo players and a half dozen players winding up in the book. Jesper Sørensen elected to keep those booked players on (including Berhalter and White), even as he introduced Andres Cubas and Jayden Nelson.
Still, Houston could only offer hopeful crosses into the box and the ‘Caps, with some particularly forceful defending from Mathias Laborda, managed to hang on for a well-deserved clean sheet.
Stray Thoughts
- I was skeptical of Sørensen’s decision to go five at the back as a Vanni Sartini-esque flourish to try and get something going. Well, he knew exactly what he was doing — Houston never was able to adjust to shut down chaos from wide areas or counteract the simple outlet balls that took large swaths of the Dynamo players out of the picture.
- Ocampo can be frustrating — there were several times where he got beat by Ennali or didn’t play a cross in when you would’ve wanted him to — but man, he was cooking. I don’t think he gets as much space in his dreams as Houston gave him in the first half and he made them pay. In order to track Ocampo, the Dynamo had to open up more space centrally and that helped amplify the danger of White’s movement as well.
- Dude needs to spend less time rolling around on the ground, though his danger did make him the most fouled player on the pitch — theatrics or not.
- This was as inconspicuous of a goal and assist that you’ll ever see but Brian White was good value for the goal contributions, as his movement made the second goal and helped unlock lots of space for other players to run into. Good to have Brian back and firing.
- Good on the midfield for helping to strangle things and winning the ball back in the types of spots that allowed things to be unlocked for the wide players. Priso had some good last ditch defending on a couple of occasions as well.
- Vancouver pushed the envelope at times but this was a match where they really brought the kind of bite that distinguished them during the CONCACAF Champions Cup run. Maybe they should have scaled things back to avoid some needless bookings but it clearly frustrated Houston and the home side couldn’t cope with the physicality.
- The first win in Houston since 2018 and it couldn’t come at a better time. The ‘Caps will end the night back in second place, with a game in hand on Minnesota below them. They get another shot at San Diego over the weekend and you have to think they’ll relish it. No Pedro Vite will sting, but Vancouver showed they can roll with that punch too.
Man of the Match
Ocampo had some aggravating moments (blasting a shot from distance rather than playing in Brian White for one) but he was must see TV in this one and his energy and danger will give several Houston players nightmares. You could say the same thing about Sabbi as well. Laborda should also get credit for some excellent defending and dirty work to help provide the support that unlocked those dangerous runs.
i think ocampo played very good he just needs to improve his defense and his crossing
This style of play was a reminder of one of Sartini’s few successes, that is good tactics for a road game. Good defensive formation, setting up fast counter attacks, whether using the flanks or balls over the top. Our subs really solidified the win. Utvik rebounded with a strong game as did Laborda. The San Diego game will tell us a lot about this team. I think we’ll be better prepared this time round.
Every Ocampo impression of Neymar was preceded by several clear Houston fouls that the referee chose to ignore. Sometimes when push-offs, or backing into a player leaping for a header, or just going straight through the back of Vancouver players like Pete Rose on Ray Fosse all get nothing from an official, you have to do a little more to wake the referee up. Worst of all was when he was knocked down for the 20th time and Houston players were trying to pull him back up. That must always be carded, for even a player who flops once in a while might be injured.
The most MLS-typical moment in the match: Ocampo has the ball near the Houston bench and is trapped, so deftly kicks the ball into the Houston player nearest and watches it rebound into touch, not even remotely close to hitting Ocampo again on the way out. The Houston coach is standing not more than a foot away as this happens, and he immediately raises his hand to claim the throw-in that clearly should be Vancouver’s. This move seems to be ingrained into many MLS players and coaches: no matter how obvious the call, petition for the one you want, and complete the illusion by playing for the Oscar with headshakes and gestures of shocked disbelief, when the poor official decides to call what they’ve seen and not what you claim. It’s childish and apparently irreversible if it works once in twenty tries. The reality, completely lost on these poor fools, is that this means that 95% of the time the officials see that your opinion is completely untrustworthy.
we all can agree that the soccer drama is a blight on the beautiful game- how to get rid of it is the BIG QUESTION – surrounding refs on a call- especially when a PK is called- was supposed to be banned, but it is still as bad as ever and ruins the flow of the game and undermines the integrity of the ref- its why VAR is used and hopefully over time, will get better and faster as long delays dont help
FIFA has to do something heading to WC 2026 as it tries to sell the beautiful game to even more people in the USA- the black spot on the game will become the focus of anti-soccer pundits, rather than focusing on the games and the supporters passion for the sport
so what do soccer-lovers think is the solution ? more yellow and red cards? time-out penalties like 2 minutes (like in hockey)?
Salty
Now that virtually every telecast has a scorebug with a running clock, even in the highlights package it is quite clear that the average time between the point to the spot and the actual taking of the penalty is about three minutes of arguing and possibly five or so more of VAR checking. If this isn’t enough to convince FIFA that this is a spot where the clock should be stopped, the blight will remain forever. Maybe we need some fan-based initiative to compile stats to show how bad this really is. It could start with PK delays, comparing them with time added. If there is a large database of games where there were x minutes clearly lost to a PK and only an average of (x – 3) minutes added to the end of the half, that would be a first step. There is no limit to how far something like this could go. In the 1980s, Bill James and others formed a fan group to score baseball games better in order to get more advanced stats to crunch, forcing MLB to modernize.
In the end, we need four things: 1) IFAB support for the VAR room to include perhaps one or two extra bodies to track time lost and apply it to the side at fault, 2) new rules for playing out added time so that if a goal scored in added time changes the result and the team scored upon now needs the added time to recover their result, they do not benefit from time they wasted. If a team leads by a goal and has wasted eight minutes while the other side has wasted two, we have ten extra minutes. If the trailing team ties it after five minutes, that’s five from the eight wasted by the scored-on team, and they don’t get five more, they deserve only the two the other team wasted. This is a fairer solution and has the added benefit of publicly pointing out which sides are wasting time.
The third thing needed is transparency and accountability. Things taking place in the VAR/timekeeping room cannot be secret. Each game should have a data set of where time was lost and who was deemed at fault. (Some delays will be both sides at fault.) VAR decisions should include instant updates of whether a play is under review and what is being considered, not just available to the broadcasters but communicated in the stadium. We’ve heard the cacophony that is the VAR people communicating with the referee while the poor referee is yelled at by five players; much better would be to have a light over each goal and on corner and centre flagsticks: red, VAR check, do not start play; green, VAR check over, OK to restart; yellow, referee advised to check VAR screen. Another person in the VAR room relaying basic details about what is being checked to the broadcast team or the people who can put basic info on the scoreboard would be an improvement as well.
The fourth thing needed is that the referee should be allowed to stop the clock and restart it with a simple signal. Timing rules need to jump from the 19th century to the 21st. Any time there is a significant delay, stop the clock. This will reduce the added time at the end of each half, and send a signal to the time wasters that you can waste only small bits of time. 90+16 does look ridiculous in the scoresheet, and the vast majority of times it can be avoided by simply pausing the clock whenever appropriate.
Sensible improvements like this would send the message that the dark arts are not going to gain you anything or cost the opponents. They need to be given time to work. FIFA is slow at approving the obvious though; in my lifetime the only positive change I’ve seen to discourage game-killing has been the backpass rule. All other attempts have been met with resistance and disdain and failed because timewasting is “in the culture.” Look how players ignore the rules about VAR, surrounding the referee as though their complaints will be heard in the VAR room and calling for a review knowing that they will never be carded for doing so as the Laws clearly demand. Improvement will only come through good new rules and good referees who will not accept things as they are.
Tactical masterpiece by our coach, to which Houston’s coach seemingly had no answer.
Cudos to Priso, who has big shoes to fill now Vite is gone. He had a more than decent game.
Priso has been a very pleasant surprise this year- his stock has gone up in my eyes- i think Jesper’s tactics with Ralph have really helped his confidence and made Priso a positive in MF… usually
houston are bad but regardless, that’s the best overall performance from the caps in at least a month. well done!
I haven’t watched it back but I thought all along that White was offside on the run where Ocampo shot over the bar. Maybe, maaaaaybe if he’d crossed it on his first touch but thereafter Brian looked like he took himself out of the play and Ocampo had little option but to shoot.
He had no choice but to shoot or drop to the pitch and roll 7-9 times in search of a foul.
after some heavy criticism from some, Jesper was the catalyst for this win- his Team formation and selection of players (including pedro Vite who is now gone) was spot-on- the Team came out with purpose and energy
i cant understand Houston’s head coach as he was blind to the open side which gave Ocampo so much space that Edier looked like a star
berhalter was the BOSS and white got 1G, 2A- a good night
Salty