Sunday afternoon at BC Place, the Vancouver Whitecaps controlled proceedings against the visiting San Jose Earthquakes in a comprehensive 4-1 victory. With the win, the Whitecaps have kept their campaign for the top spot in the West alive, as they now have just two matches left to go in the regular season.

Alright, without further delay, over to the player ratings:

Yohei Takaoka – 7.0

You could tell he was bitterly disappointed to concede a garbage-time goal, and I don’t blame him. There was nothing Yohei could do about San Jose’s deflected effort, and beyond that, it was a pretty quiet afternoon for the keeper.

Tate Johnson – 7.0

It looks like Tate has reached another level of maturity and comfort on the ball these past five matches or so. He also deserves some credit for just how lacking any sense of a San Jose wide threat was throughout the match.

Ralph Priso – 8.0

He made a key clearance off the goal line early and otherwise was rock solid at the back. His long passing is never going to be great, but he actually really suits the Whitecaps backline when they are looking to hold a bunch of possession and be ball-dominant. There were several moments where he won a duel and simply played the ball back to Takaoka, cancelling out the Quakes’ threat and restarting possession for the home side.

Mathias Laborda – 7.0

The Uruguayan was caught in space on a couple of occasions, but had the recovery speed to get back and make up for his wandering. Overall, Laborda has been so good these past couple of weeks, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s him and Blackmon leading the way in the playoffs when everyone is fully fit (with Ranko out for the year, of course).

Edier Ocampo – 7.0

The young fullback is always energetic and positive, but his final touch or pass has been lacking a bit recently. That being said, in a match that was more vertical at times than typical Whitecaps fare, his pace is an incredibly useful tool.

Andres Cubas – 7.5

He could have, and probably should have, been booked very early on for a couple of silly fouls. After that, it was pure dominance in the midfield for Vancouver, as San Jose was nowhere to be found in the middle of the park and struggled to deliver the ball to their dangerous front three.

Sebastian Berhalter – 9.5

The way he made those two goals from distance look routine is really what did it for me. There’s probably been 10+ matches now this season where he’s been the best player on the pitch. Even as the biggest Berhalter truther back in the day, I’m not sure I saw that coming. With the amount of space San Jose allowed, it was open season for progressive passes and long shots. It looked like a training session for Seba out there, especially in the second half.

Jayden Nelson – 6.5

Nelson has matches where he gets the ball in dangerous spots and then simply runs into traffic or is dispossessed 90% of the time, and this was one of those matches. For me, he cuts inside too often with his runs. I’d like the see him attack the wide space and then look for a cutback or a cross, like we’ve seen from Ali Ahmed in recent weeks.

Ali Ahmed – 8.0

I think Ali has really found his rhythm as a winger in Jesper’s system. He can cut inside and pick out passes like a midfielder, but he can also drive wide and stretch defenses like a winger. His play vision has also taken a huge step forward, as he really finds players now rather than just hitting passes into space.

Thomas Müller – 9.0

If it wasn’t for Berhalter’s tremendous showing, I think we’d be talking about Müller a bit more in this one; this might have been his best match for the blue and white so far. With how much space there was at the edge of the box, he showed off his bag of tricks and was really sharp, with a goal and an assist. He easily could’ve had another assist with his setup for Elloumi right after the opening goal, and was only denied by the post on an early shot.

Rayan Elloumi – 7.0

He scored a nice goal on a far post run, and easily could have scored another just moments later. For a youngster, his holdup play and instincts are very good, even if there are some of the typical growing pains of a player in his first full pro season. He played just 4 next pro matches last year, so I think he’s shown tremendous maturity already.

Substitutes – 7.0

There is not a lot to say about any of the substitutes, with the match mostly in the bag. It was nice to see Ryan Gauld again, obviously, and I loved watching him track back for 30 yards to stop a Quakes’ counter-attack; that’s the Gauld we all want to see again. It was unfortunate for Giuseppe Bovalina to find himself on the wrong end of a deflection that led to the San Jose goal; he just can’t buy a break right now.

Alright, those were my thoughts from this past weekend. Let me know yours in the comments, as always.