A first half blitz lifted the Vancouver Whitecaps to a 2-0 win over lowly Sporting Kansas City, clinching the best season in franchise history and gaining crucial ground in the Supporters Shield race.
The Whitecaps ran rampant in the first 45 minutes, with ample joy for the wide players and Kenji Cabrera, who commemorated his first start as a Vancouver player with a goal. The away side held on a bit tighter in the second half but did more than enough to get a crucial three points.
Jesper Sorensen went with about as strong of a lineup as he could have under the circumstances, opting to pair his only fit centerbacks, Mathias Laborda and Belal Halbouni, while sliding Tate Johnson into the side. Cabrera replaced Thomas Mueller as an attacking midfielder and Ali Ahmed and Emmanuel Sabbi joined him out wide.
The Whitecaps didn’t give Sporting Kansas City any sight of the ball in the opening minutes and drew first blood in due course. Sabbi and Edier Ocampo burst down the right hand side, taking advantage of midfield problems for SKC, and Ocampo found himself with ample space and time to pick out a near post shot that Tim Puelskamp could not stop. It was an ideal start for Vancouver.
Vancouver elected to take a bit less initiative and instead let Sporting move forward, opening up space on the counter. Every time a Whitecaps player picked up the ball in a deeper area, they would immediately pick their head up to try and find Ali Ahmed out wide, stretching SKC to the limit. Cabrera and the wide players had some good interchanges as well, creating some nice 2v1 moments to create danger in and around the box. Cabrera was centimetres away from his first MLS goal, denied only by the upright.
He had no such problems three minutes from half time. Another well-worked move found Cabrera on the edge of the box with the ball. He swept by some non-existent SKC defending and powered a shot past Puelskamp to double the Whitecaps’ advantage. While the defending and goalkeeping left something to be desired, it was a deserved goal for Cabrera and it capped off a dominant first half for Vancouver.
The second half began with Sporting KC’s most dangerous spell of play so far, the first time the home side really found any space to work in Vancouver’s box. SKC had struggles building out of the back, but the Whitecaps couldn’t quite find the final ball to capitalize on a couple of really poor turnovers.
Indeed, Vancouver lacked the same crispness as they had in the first half. They struggled to work the ball out to Ahmed in quite the same way and lost their control in the wide areas. Meanwhile, SKC were bolstered by the arrival of their creative force, Manu Garcia. They tested Takaoka for the first time and baited Vancouver into a boatload of fouls, many of which were punished with yellow cards.
Still, Sporting was forced to rely on 1v1 moments from Erik Thommy out wide, as they lacked the ability to take any risks by playing through the middle, given their lack of control in the centre of the park. The Whitecaps regained control late on, testing Puelskamp a couple of times and slowing the game down to see out a fourth straight win.
Stray Thoughts
- Man, Kenji Cabrera is the real deal. Sure, it was against a bad team but he looks like a Jesper Sorensen player, for lack of a better description. Smooth on the ball, good at reading the game and comfortable with the type of quick transition play that has been this side’s hallmark all year. His chemistry with his teammates needs some time to really grow but he looked dangerous pretty much every time he got on the ball. His goal benefited from some woeful defending but it was a fitting reward for an excellent full debut.
- Ali Ahmed moved out to the right when Jayden Nelson entered the match and both he and the Whitecaps never really looked the same after that. Sure, Vancouver regained control of things later on but they didn’t have the same free flowing manner about their play. Credit to Ali, who continued his hot run of form with an assist and was the most dangerous piece Vancouver had pretty much all night.
- So SKC are like bad bad, huh? There clearly is a half-decent attack there but they can never really fully commit because the second they do, they are left completely wide open. The midfield spent the first 45 minutes trying to hold on for dear life and the defending and goalkeeping on both goals was…not ideal. Credit to the ‘Caps for not giving a team of this quality life and both Mathias Laborda and Belal Halbouni were solid, despite a shotgun marriage as a centerback pairing.
- Andres Cubas and Edier Ocampo will miss the midweek match against Portland due to yellow card accumulation. Because we can’t have nice things.
- The result is a big one, with San Diego and Minnesota dropping points, giving the ‘Caps a lift in both the Supporters Shield race but also the push for the number one seed in the Western Conference. Coming off the midweek high and given the makeshift backline Jesper Sorensen had to cobble together, this was as good of a night as you could have asked for.
Man of the Match
Ali Ahmed and Kenji Cabrera are the clear standouts here, tormenting SKC in the first half. Ocampo put in a solid two-way shift, even though he struggled with Erik Thommy a bit in the second half. And both Laborda/Halbouni had few, if any, glaring errors in the back. But it is hard to look past Cabrera, who could have honestly had a couple of more goal contributions if things cut a bit differently. He isn’t a like-for-like version of Pedro Vite but the ‘Caps clearly have a pipeline of talented midfielders and Cabrera looks to be a guy who can contribute ASAP.
Not understanding why Nelson comes into the game on the left side.
Ali is so effective on the left side… Nelson’s strength would be to get balls down the line with his speed and be hitting hard low balls across the top of the box.
Thoughts?
On the surface it makes sense playing Nelson on the right. Remember in MLS game one Nelson was fantastic on the right. My comparison of Nelson to Ahmed: Ahmed is a SLIGHTLY better player in all categories except for out and out speed and perhaps his shooting right foot. Nelson probably would get more balls right across the face of goal playing on the right. But he causes problems when playing on the left as well as now Muller is an option to dish the ball off to when he cuts in looking to shoot. One player I’m with happy is Sabbi. He’s elevated his game. He’s scoring and creating. He’s probably jumped ahead of Nelson in the pecking order as well. So much positive attacking play from the Caps !!!!
That really was the weakest side we have seen all year in MLS – the Caps totally dominated the first half. Sorensen said that White will be back for one of the games this week and I hope Muller as well. But boy we are weak on the back line with Ocampo out. This is just the opportunity Bova has waited all year for and I hope he can rise to the occasion. We really need those Portland points. I think the Shield is out of reach because Philadelphia has an easy path but first in the West would be just fine with me!
PS Nelson just doesn’t fit the style of play of this team. It’s the same every time dribble up the field by himself and then turn the ball over just outside the box.
unfortunately, unlike Ali Ahmed, Jayden just lacks common sense and soccer intelligence– BUT somehow he has got 6 assists
Salty
Well, Jayden Nelson did get 3 assists against Portland in the opening game when we were up a player.
Soooo that will help to increase your assist contributions. Take that game out and he’s been at minimum okay in the assist department
I find Nelson very effective down the right side… He’s great at getting goal side of his defender into areas at the edge of the box and then sliding balls across into Ali or Mueller coming into box late.
That 1st half was 10 out of 10 football, except for the scoring. We should have had 3 or 4. There was one passage of play where the caps played 1 touch, give and goes , in and around SKC’s right side penalty area and the defenders were powerless to do anything to stop it. Some of the best football they’ve ever played, ever!!! I was a bit concerned in the 2nd half as we stopped playing with any possession, preferring to counter attack as quickly as possible, which while did create some good attacks, but at the same time caused some turnovers. I thought Sorensen waited too long on using his subs as it looked to me that half the team was tiring. The back 4 and Takaoka turned in a needed gritty performance to keep the clean sheet. That Cubas and Elcampo are suspended; no big deal. They start clean when they return and probably needed the rest anyway. Now Bovalina gets his chance to shine. There’s enough depth to cover Cubas, although he will be missed as he and Berhalter are so good together. Sorensen has done a fantastic job creating a positive atmosphere for the players to in….
It seems like nothing phases this team. When Gauld went down early in the season I had visions of last year’s September meltdown lasting a whole season. Instead everyone got synchronized. We are number 1 in goal diff with +25 (7 ahead of the nearest) so we are working both ends of the pitch great.
Jesper has done freaking magic this year with all the injuries. Coach of the year.
Jesper should get MLS Coach of the Year, BUT being from a Canada team, it will probably go to an American team, such as San Diego
having said that, the scouting staff and Axel Schuster have also played their part in this terrific season as they have been crucial in beefing up our bench depth so that, no matter who is injured, the replacement players perform well.. and Jesper has also used the WC 2 to great effect (i remember that these younger players had no chance under former head coaches like Robo and Vanni)
Salty
nothing seems to faze the Jesper-led team– loose a starter and the new sub becomes a potential starter- its really quite amazing to absorb this Team! and once again, we will be down another 2 starters on Wednesday, so we can see Ngando and Priso becoming starters… and doing well– might even see Bovalina get a start at RB
and hats off to Axel and the scouts who landed us with Cabrera who is impressive with his skills, trickery and passing
and i am hoping that Rayan gets a start over Rios who was almost a ghost on the field
other observations will come with the Ratings
Salty
Great recap. I don’t know how long the ‘Caps can keep that ungainly unicycle of a roster balanced up on that tightrope but it’s a compelling act.