Saturday night at BC Place, the Vancouver Whitecaps cruised past visiting Toronto FC with a 3-0 victory, their second win to start the season in MLS play and their third straight victory in all competitions.
There was very little attacking momentum for either team through the first 20 minutes, even though the home side enjoyed clear tactical superiority. That said, once Vancouver found their footing, they were absolutely dominant for the rest of the first half.
The Whitecaps really controlled this match through the middle of the park, as Sebastian Berhalter and Andrés Cubas were very effective at disrupting TFC’s possession, while Ralph Priso and Tristan Blackmon were extremely proactive with their ball movement and aggressive positioning along the back line.
Vancouver found their first breakthrough in the 24th minute, when the ball came to AZ Jackson at the edge of the box. The young American put Walker Zimmerman in a spin cycle, drawing a clear foul and earning a penalty kick. Thomas Müller converted calmly from the spot, and Vancouver had a key early edge.
The hosts followed this up with two set-piece goals as the field tilted in their favour. The first, Müller’s second of the game, was a wonderfully worked routine. Mathías Laborda made a run to the near post, flicking the ball with his head right to the foot of the German veteran at the back post, who finished first time as if it were a casual training session.
The second set-piece goal for Vancouver, right before the half, came more from a TFC error. Goalkeeper Luka Gavran completely whiffed his attempt to palm away Sebastian Berhalter’s corner kick, and the ball fell fortuitously to Brian White. Despite a less-than-stellar touch and his early-season form, he had no issue finding the empty net in front of him.
Enjoying a big margin, the Whitecaps were clearly a little less switched on in the second half. Toronto got off to a good start, including a Đorđe Mihailović goal that was called back for offside. Their first official shot on target, however, did not come until the 74th minute, when Yohei Takaoka made a great reflex save on José Cifuentes, diving across the face of his goal. Ultimately, that would wind up being TFC’s only good look of the match.
Vancouver mixed up their lineup late, bringing on Rayan Elloumi, JC Ngando, and newcomer Cheikh Sabaly. The hosts re-established control, even if their play was a bit sporadic with some new faces, and they saw out the match effectively, pushing their undefeated streak against TFC to nine straight, and continuing their dominance in the Canadian rivalry.
It is evident that Toronto still has a lot of work to do with their squad, so it would be a bit hasty to shower the Whitecaps with praise. However, it is worth noting that after looking somewhat tepid in the final third early on, they have scored five goals in their last three halves of football, and that can only be a good sign for a team that has yet to concede this season.
Following a very busy stretch, the Whitecaps will be able to take a little breather before they return to action against the Portland Timbers next weekend.
(Image: Mark Zhuang)
this was a very professional game from the Caps- no player really stood out as the POTM- but if i had to pick one, it would be Muller- i really liked the set piece goal on a back header from Laborda and a run-on from Thomas- practice pays off- Thomas is like the coach on the field and thats a bonus asset for the whole Team
and to see White finally unglue his scoring, even though it was a simple tap-in, was a BIG LOAD off his shoulders- 1 goal can unlock the missing confidence
i sure dont like Takoka’s playing around with his short kick-outs- dangerous stuff sometimes
all-in-all, a solid performance from the Caps and another shut-out says a lot about the defence, but tougher teams will come- still waiting to see Schonlau and Caicedo
Salty
That’s why he is the Raumdeuter!
Someone on the Reddit live match thread pointed out that Caps had started out 0-0, 1-0, 2-0 and 3-0, a pattern if continued that would result in an MLS Cup win by like 50-something to nil! My response: Please then let it be Miami again….
Yohei is turning into the MLS version of the Seahawks Sam Darnold, he is as good as he needs to be, behind that defense in front of him. (Yes, I know Sam’s defense is not in front of him….) Today Y.T. was especially good when needed. I seem to recall that a year ago, we were concerned about his tendency to punch the ball in some random direction when many GKs would be catching it. A year later he has definitely made serious improvement here, without compromising his many other strengths. 360 minutes of shutout ball is a great start to the season and a credit to Takaoka and the still-depleted back line. But…
…players on that same back line that has held opponents scoreless in four games are often found standing a few meters from the opponents’ goal, significantly helping the offense. Jesper was correct a week ago when he said it was better to have multiple chances but not manage to score many than to be lucky and get goals from few chances. We are now starting to see the fruits of this confidence and after some early worries I am looking forward to seeing this group face the power teams in MLS and CCC. When the injury situation eases allowing some of our best players to get into this squad, they are going to be a difficult team to beat.
Over the course of watching several MLS games yesterday on Apple “TV”, I noted some alarming trends:
–it seemed on several game broadcasts to be a talking point to swoon over Michael Bradley’s coaching abilities and to overlook the fact that the schedulers set Red Bulls up with a starting five (2-1 @ORL, 1-0 vN.E, vMTL, @TOR, @CLT) that are 0-1-8 so far with a goal difference of minus 20 in nine matches. Prediction: Bradley’s Red Bulls struggle when the tougher opponents arrive and manage to finish fifth, and the Eastern media again screws over Jesper for coach of the year.
–MLS 360 is a good option when the current slate of games has none you are particularly interested in, or more than one that you want to follow. It would be a magnitude better if it were set up so that it didn’t break when the actual games did and had maybe two or three more pundits working in shifts to keep it going. The schedule seems to start most games 1 or 2 hours after the preceding set, which means dead time in the final 15 minutes of each hour, during which 360 should try to be live to keep viewers before the next slate of games begins.
–the commentators continue to be hamstrung by the ads they need to include, which are getting more tiresome than familiar. Has anyone ever arrived at the park to see the Home Depot guys “building the benches?” as they claim every game? I thought not. Most bizarre was promoting Apple’s USA F1 rights in the Vancouver-Toronto match, when in Canada we will still have the live Sky Sports feed on TSN4 and 5, while Vancouver plays in Portland.
–replay directors on Apple “TV” have an amazing tendency to tell the guys in the booth that they have something when they actually don’t. Whether it’s an offside angle, a clear view of a missed foul or potential card, a neat play that needs another look to be believed, the booth guys always say “we have another look here at it” and the video starts three seconds late. It happened over and over in the first few weeks, as though the tech guys running the replay equipment have never seen a game in their lives and have no idea what they’re looking for. They can’t get the isolation down in less than five or so minutes, probably because they need someone in the booth who knows the game to tell them what they should be seeking. (Maybe they just can’t handle the accents a lot of the commentary teams have; one in particular sounds like a 1974 broadcast of Coronation Street…)