Saturday night in Houston, the Vancouver Whitecaps dropped their second match of the MLS season to the Houston Dynamo by a score of 1-0, following a stoppage-time winner from Guilherme Augusto.
As we entered extra-time, I was thinking about how the narrative for this match, and this column, would write itself: The Whitecaps grind out an ugly 0-0 draw in Houston at the end of a long week, as is time-honoured tradition.
This match had all of those hallmarks I’ve become well acquainted with over the years, warm temperatures, lengthy delays, sporadic and reasonably low-quality football, and for the cherry on top, a rather dubious red card decision.
Sure, the Whitecaps gave up a point late, but I don’t think what happened at the end really changes the big-picture takeaways that much. Over the course of a long season, you run into these matches every once in a while, especially on the road, and I don’t think it’s worth overanalyzing. Sometimes you just have to clear the slate and move on to the next match.
Now, as for how the match played out. The Whitecaps started brightly and were in control through the first 25 minutes, highlighted by Edier Ocampo glancing the outside of the post inside the first 30 seconds. That early control was interrupted by a prolonged stoppage after a scary moment involving Houston midfielder Diadie Samassékou, who had to be removed in an ambulance.
When play resumed, the rest of the first half settled into a fairly even back-and-forth, though Houston began to show an ability to catch Vancouver with players committed forward, leading to a handful of transition chances for the Dynamo’s talented attackers.
This theme of dangerous Houston transitions continued in the second half, much to Jesper Sørensen’s chagrin, as was made clear in his post-match comments, where he noted that limiting those moments had been a point of emphasis at halftime. Though Vancouver offered Houston a number of opportunities on the break, the Dynamo looked disorganized when they arrived in the final third, consistently wasting those chances and producing very little in terms of final product.
It was during one of those direct moments that Yohei Takaoka charged beyond the edge of his 18-yard box and slid in on Mateusz Bogusz, clattering him to the turf and drawing a rather confident and immediate red card from Ismail Elfath. Now, while I don’t debate the foul, and certainly think it’s a clear yellow card, I do question the premise that this was the denial of an obvious goal-scoring opportunity, and therefore a red.
Bogusz is outside the area running down the left flank, the path of the ball is carrying him further away from goal and into a tighter angle, and Edier Ocampo is also charging back to cover if Takaoka misses his challenge. None of those factors, to me, indicate a clear goal-scoring opportunity. I can understand the temptation to show red in real time on a challenge like that, but surely this is where VAR is supposed to provide value. Having had the opportunity to review the footage, the decision feels fairly straightforward to me.
Nonetheless, the Whitecaps played on from the 64th minute down a man, with Isaac Boehmer between the sticks. From there, it became fairly predictable one-way traffic as Houston pushed for a winner, while Vancouver punted the ball into space and played for a road point.
That approach was working reasonably well until deep into stoppage time, when Guilherme slipped past AZ Jackson in a 1v1 situation before firing a low shot that deflected off Brian White and past a handcuffed Boehmer to deliver Houston all three points.
As I mentioned earlier, this was a tough way for the Whitecaps to end the week, but it’s hardly reason for dismay. This team has still enjoyed a tremendous start and continues to show a lot of very positive signs, albeit with some areas where improvement is still needed.
One thing that was certainly notable was that Kenji Cabrera failed to make much of an impression after getting the opportunity to start, and he will continue to struggle for minutes unless he shows more initiative. He might be the rare young attacker who shows too much patience on the ball, rather than not enough. It was also a tough outing for AZ Jackson and Isaac Boehmer off the bench, as neither looked fully up to the task and both shouldered some blame for the late goal against.
On the positive side, I did think there were some nice interplay moments between Jeevan Badwal and Thomas Müller, but the team needed someone with pace on the wing to really unlock that combination play. As a parting thought, if Berhalter had been able to smash home the ball that fell to him at the top of the box near the end of the first half, we could easily be talking about a comfortable 3-1 win right now, but that’s how it goes sometimes.
With one more match before the World Cup break, the Whitecaps will travel home and rest up for a Western Conference Final rematch in San Diego next weekend. One they will have to face without Andrés Cubas, and perhaps Yohei Takaoka as well depending on any suspension appeal, so that could get interesting.
The biggest issue right now is that they’re creating no chances for White. Can’t rely on Berhalter for goals week in and will out.
The break may be coming at a good time to allow (hopefully Gauld to come back) or figure out a way to get the forwards to link up.
A better back up for White than Elloumi feels like the main priority from a squad building pov.
I agree. My take is that our attack is usually down the flanks so White isn’t really involved until in and around the penalty area. He’s getting some good chances but not converting right now. For White to get more chances he needs crosses coming in earlier and get the Muller/White combo working again. Right now it’s not. Maybe we need to trade a cb for a striker. Lot’s of talk about Ranko’s return but what about post World Cup, we’ve got Priso and Halbouni back in the mix. I always like it when Laborda and Blackmon break the line dribbling into our opponents half. This seems to open up our opponents defence. Last thought on the Dynamo game, I thought we played well with 10 men, keeping possession quite well despite very tired legs.
A few things to unpack here. 1st, the caps are showing they are vulnerable to the simple ball over the top with the high line they play. Most of the time Takaoka is able to help the D out but he got caught in no mans land twice, the 2nd time resulting in the red card. 2nd, the red card. At first I had trouble accepting this as a red card. A yellow for sure as the attacker had touched the ball past Takaoka and Takaoka fouled him. No doubt about that. But after watching the replay many times and giving it a deep thought I concluded that while the the attacker’s touch looked heavy, it wasn’t. It looked that way because the attacker was going to ground and the ball was rolling away, and away from goal as noted. But here’s what the referee and var got right. If the attacker wasn’t fouled and stayed on his feet then he would have continued his dribble and the path to the wide open goal was there for the taking. His next touch (not so likely) could have been a shot at the wide open goal. More likely is a 2 touch action, one to control and one to shoot and he still would be looking at a wide open net. Even if he took more touches taking the ball directly to goal he’d still have an open net. The photo is misleading as it shows Ocampo closing in but that’s only because the attacker has been slowed by the foul. If the attacker wasn’t fouled then the defenders wouldn’t likely have caught him, nor been able to cover the front of the goal. Side bar, i don’t think this was a Serious Foul Play sending off it was DOGSO. I’ve still got to watch MLS Instant Replay for some more in depth comments. If the last 20-25 minutes had been 11 on 11 and Sorensen had brought on the fresh legs then we could have won the game. Hoping a week off sharpens us for next week. We need Gauld !!!
Takaoka is beginning to make critical mistakes that is costing us points- a game away and a WC break might just be the tonic he needs to get his A game back- and now Isaac Boehmer gets the job vs San Diego- not playing competitive games for long stretches is never good for any player- hope Isaac has a good one
I wonder if this game cost us four points – no Taka next week, no Cubas against a San Diego team that wants revenge and is slowly working its way up. It was just so stupid by Takaoka and he seems to have made a few stupid decisions lately that have cost us points. I thought keepers were supposed to win you points over the season.
Personally I didn’t think it should be a red, yellow for sure but not a red. As you said Ocampo is there for cover. But more than that, for me Bogusz is never getting to that ball. This screenshot is actually really favourable to him. Watching in full speed, that ball is ZIPPING and bouncing then he toe pokes it, only adding more speed to it. He’s 15 yards or so away from the end line. That ball is going out ALL DAY. He has no chance to get to it.
Kenji is such a strange figure for us. Now, maybe he just needs a lot of time. It took Vite quite a while to become Pedro Vite. I think there’s been some questions about Kenji’s fitness or ability to keep up with our press. I don’t know anything about that, but he looked pretty fit in the early going of this game at least. But I just wonder if he’s the kinda player who is very talented by himself, but has a hard time combining. Like he’s playing a different style than we are. More than a few times he’s laid off passes or made moves that are totally counter to what the teammate was expecting.
Hopefully we can come up with a big result in SD, Boehmer is gonna need to be sharp. The goal tonight wasn’t his fault, it deflected pretty hard off Brian, but even the way he went for it didn’t give me a ton of confidence. We’ve only really seen him much against lower level teams, so now it’s gonna be a big test.
well, i have to say that Brian White’s touch was the best touch he had all night…only it went against us- he looks like he has rubbery legs and very little energy– and we have no player who can fill his spot- the noise around Rayan Elloumi is just that– noise- and no substance- i know he is young, but i have yet to see something that whimpers potential
i am wondering if Cabrera’s start is to see if he can take the spot that Berhalter will leave if he goes to Europe– which i suspect he will– Kenji isnt going to be able to do that- i had hope for him, but disappointment comes in the game when taking on young talent- Caps are digging around and i suspect a replacement is being talked about- Seba will be hard to replace as he plays HUGE even when he plays so-so
i agree with you- wipe the loss off and move on- Takoka’s red card might have been for his high boot with studs up
the biggest surprise of the game- Jesper bringing in the inept AZ rather than Caicedo- i thought Bruno’s pace could have got us a goal
a game of no matter- we lost a point– San Diego is calling- i expect a big game and a win
Salty
caicedo was doubtful with a bad hamstring. One point would not have been worth a more serious injury.
I swear it looks like Takaoka got the ball first. Did anyone else think so or is it just my Caps coloured glasses. I mean an actual replay that showed a slowmo replay would have been great, but with the utter gushing love the commentators showed to Houston I am not surprised we didn’t get one.
didnt know about that- now it makes sense
Honestly AZ did bring much needed pressing energy on defense, so even though the man’s offensive struggles continue, he was helpful out there and the effort was good to see!
Good points.,,,have watched training and I’
d try White and Caicedo both upfront!