Vancouver managed an impressive result on the road in Seattle Saturday night, as an eventful second half led to a 2-2 draw. Let’s take a look at the player ratings from this one.
Yohei Takaoka: 8.0
I thought Takaoka did quite well at marshalling his makeshift backline. He had to do a lot of work in the air, something that is usually a weakness for him, and did it ably for the most part. He also made a couple of quite important saves.
Edier Ocampo: 6.5
Ocampo was locked in a dark arts battle with Paul Rothrock for the whole night. Ocampo gave has good as he got for the most part. He wasn’t quite at his most effective on the attacking side of things.
Mathias Laborda: 7.5
Laborda scored a goal, which was nice, and generally did well as the closest thing to a real centreback the Whitecaps had. He did get out-jumped on Seattle’s first goal but Jackson Ragen is 5 inches taller than him so I think we can have some compassion for him there.
Ralph Priso: 6.5
He did well all things considered. Hopefully we never have to see that again! It was funny watching him charge up for aerial duels like the spin dash in the 2D Sonic games.
Tate Johnson: 8.0
I was quite happy with Johnson’s contributions going forward where he linked well with Ali Ahmed. Defensively I think he was quite good as well.
Andres Cubas: 7.5
I think Cubas did a good job of shielding the makeshift backline. He was also quite involved in Brian White’s goal, which was nice. He looked relatively good on the ball as well, though he’s never going to be on the level of Berhalter in that regard.
Jeevan Badwal: 5.0
His stat line has a lot of zeros on it. Badwal did win a couple of important fouls but other than that it was a bit of a nothing performance. Few truly bad moments but few moments where he distinguished himself either.
Thomas Muller: 8.0
That’s now 5 goal contributions in 4 MLS appearances for Muller (obviously somewhat boosted by penalties). Muller’s distribution was on point in this game, and he was a bit unlucky to not have more assists.
Emmanuel Sabbi: 6.5
Sabbi was pretty quiet. 1 shot and 1 assist, some decent defensive work, but didn’t quite have the final bit of quality to make something happen.
Ali Ahmed: 7.0
Ahmed was also a bit quiet in terms of shot output but he did a lot more work to progress the ball so I have given him a slightly higher grade. He connected well with Tate Johnson.
Daniel Rios: 5.0
Another player with a lot of zeros on his stat line. I am somewhat sympathetic because this was obviously a very weird game, and Rios did some reasonable hold up play and defending in his 45 minutes. But this is the nature of the report card format, I’ve got to give him a number! In this case, that number is 5.0.
Subs:
Brian White scored a goal (that’s good) and then went of injured (that’s bad). The injury didn’t seem too bad (that’s good), but it was yet another hamstring injury at a time the Whitecaps can ill afford it (can I go now?). Sebastian Berhalter was extremely active and effective in his minutes. The same can’t quite be said for Jayden Nelson, who couldn’t quite get things to click in this one. Rayan Elloumi was tantalisingly close to putting himself 1v1 with Stefan Frei in the dying embers of the game but couldn’t quite muscle past the final Seattle defender.
(Image: Vancouver Whitecaps FC)
Nice to see some common sense back in the proceedings. Yesterday’s posts were the wackiest, zaniest and unsubstantiated ever. Anyhow, I thought Sabbi was a striker when 1st signed. perhaps he should lead the line in White’s absence. That would give Nelson a chance to regain his form attacking on the right. Just a thought.
I agree about Sabbi. He has good finishing and explosiveness and has been effective when drifting and driving inside. I see no reason why we couldn’t play Sabbi up top with Muller in behind, or a front two, or even Muller up top and with Sabbi or Ngando as the 10. Any of those options would be more provide more creativity and quality than Rios or Elloumi.
That’s an interesting option. Wasn’t all that impressed with Sabbi the other night but Rios doesn’t score and it’s a bit much to put solely on Elloumi’s shoulders.
Headline rates a 9.5.
I think you’re too sympathetic to Tate and a little harsh on Ralph. Buddy’s goal line save was the equivalent to scoring a goal for me.
It’s been an incredible season, giving these kinds of marks to a bunch of teens, players playing out of position and subs against Seattle in a Cascadia clinching, late season match and feeling like there were two more points still within reach.
These ‘Caps might stumble, bruised and broken, into the playoffs but they’ll likely do it in first place in the west. What a bizarre paradox of a season.
Game Opinion:
1. Takaoka- a little shakey, mind you he had a different CB pairing… AGAIN- 6.0
2. Laborda- POTM– he is showing a lot of leadership quailty and then another set piece goal– TERRIFIC PERFORMANCE– 8.5
3. Johnson- a pretty solid game for the youngster– 7.5
4. Ocampo- he had direction from the head coach to play more conservatively so we saw few of his runs down the wing- 6.0
5. Priso- a new position and i thought he did well- 6.5
6. Cubas- pesty, as usual- he rarely makes a mistake – 7.0
7. Ahmed- he raises his game to have some improvization and creativity- 7.0
8. Sabbi and Nelson– nothing dramatic in this game- 6.0
9. Muller- always a strong presence when on the field- the players LISTEN– 7.5
10. White- lets hope it isnt a reoccurrence of his hamstring- we need his scoring flair- 8.0
11. Rios- he is what he is- tries to do something significant, but its not his game- 5.0
12. Badwal- works hard in the MF, but that is about it- 5.0- i was surprised Ngando didnt replace him in order to add some flair, but i think Jesper was settling on 1 point
13. Berhalter- seems to be sagging, probably from playing too many games- but superb set pieces gets him his 10th assist- 7.5
14. Elloumi- not much to say when the youngster is playing against men and experience- 6.0
Salty