Breaking News: One of the top teams in MLS is considerably better than the bottom team in the CPL.

The Vancouver Whitecaps defeated Vancouver FC of Langley 4-2 in the Canadian Championship final. I don’t really know what I was expecting to happen but the match was a bit anti-climactic. Is this what it feels like to follow, I don’t know, Dinamo Zagreb? Any possible tension this game could have had was gone after the first 10 minutes. There were four more goals in the match after that time period but it mostly felt like the Whitecaps were kind of playing around and waiting for the game to be over.

The odds were always going to be long for Vancouver FC but they didn’t do themselves any favours by matching up Terran Campbell and Kunle Dada-Luke, two players who could not track a runner if their life depended on it, against Ali Ahmed. Ahmed totally ran riot, scoring an early goal and winning an early penalty. I do wonder if Martin Nash could have given his side a slightly better chance if he had started Pathe Ndiaye instead of Campbell. Ndiaye would have formed a speedy triumvirate with Huge Mbongue and Thierno Bah. None of those three are necessarily offensive dynamos, they’re all hovering in the 0.3-0.4 xG+xA/90 range in CPL play, but the pace they offer might have given the ‘Caps something to think about (Campbell didn’t give them anything to think about other than “wow, this guy really needs to get on the treadmill”).

To that last point, I thought the difference in fitness between the two sides was a surprisingly big factor. Obviously having so little possession is very difficult but a lot of the VFC players looked gassed long before the final stretch of the match. There were so many times where the Whitecaps were practically playing walking football in the centre of the field.

A shoutout does have to go to Thierno Bah, who got the ball about 5 times in the match and turned that into a goal and an assist. I think of all the MLS castoffs currently in CPL he has the best chance of making his way back (I thought this before this game, so this isn’t recency bias).

This once again qualifies the Whitecaps for the CONCACAF Champions Cup, a competition they will be eager for another crack at. But there will be a significant difference this time around, the Whitecaps are now 5th in the CONCACAF club rankings, which significantly improves their chances of getting a favourable draw. Playing a club from the Dominican Republic in the first round instead of a Central American giant or a Liga MX team should give them a good chance to make another deep run.

Three Stars:

Thomas Muller:

Muller was consistently a step ahead of the VFC defenders. He was pretty unlucky to not get a goal from open play and his distribution was once again on point. I’ve been impressed by how much of a physical presence he has been since joining the ‘Caps, he is consistently putting in the dirty work for the team.

Tate Johnson:

Johnson did an excellent job of connecting with Ali Ahmed. Alex and Sam were talking about his underlapping runs on the pod this week and those were on full display (as he made the most of VFC’s difficulty tracking runs). His calmness in possession was also a major contributor to keeping VFC on the back foot.

Ali Ahmed:

It couldn’t really be anyone else. Ahmed’s goal and penalty win set the tone early, allowing the ‘Caps to cruise to victory. Ahmed always seems to find another gear in this competition and he finishes as a deserving winner of the tournament MVP.

Also Ryan Gauld came back and scored a goal, that was quite nice.