In a massive blow to the Whitecaps’ fading Supporters’ Shield hopes, Vancouver dropped all three points at BC Place to lowly Austin FC.
Christian Ramirez converted the only two chances for the away team, and a well-organized Austin side mastered the dark arts to pull out a 2-1 win. The Caps will be incredibly frustrated by a match in which they once again could not put away the litany of chances they created.
Jesper Sørensen didn’t have Thomas Müller available due to injury, but otherwise rolled out a fairly strong lineup, with Ryan Gauld pulling the strings alongside Cheikh Sabaly and Bruno Caicedo in the attack. Andres Cubas and Oliver Larraz partnered in midfield, while Rui Modesto made his debut alongside the usual backline.
Early on, Austin actually had more of the ball and did a decent job playing through the Caps’ press. But when they did turn the ball over, Vancouver looked to hit back quickly with balls over the top for Caicedo or Sabaly.
The Caps didn’t overly challenge Brad Stuver, but still looked the more dangerous side. When Austin broke forward quickly off a Caps corner kick, it was out of nothing that Facundo Torres hit an inch-perfect cross to find Christian Ramirez. The striker finished his 1v1 chance to give Austin FC a lead against the run of play.
It seemed that Austin FC gifted the Caps a lifeline back into the match. Gauld was looking to corral a loose ball in the box and was absolutely mauled by Besard Sabovic, who seemed to think he was playing in an NFL game. But the Scotsman couldn’t finish the job, beating Stuver but not the upright.
Meanwhile, the wide players in the first half were virtual passengers. Caicedo lacked any bite in his 1v1 dribbling, and Sabaly continued to frustrate fans by giving the ball away in transition moments.
Halftime brought the introduction of Edier Ocampo, whose ability to track back and chemistry with the other players were much needed. His first involvement was a great ball for Sabaly, baiting Guilherme Biro into diving in and picking up a booking.
The Caps wasted no time in the second half to find an equalizer. Gauld played White in with a beautiful little slip pass, and the striker made no mistake, nabbing another goal against Austin and leveling things at 1-1.
Vancouver picked up their energy levels after the goal, with a more biting press, crisper passing, and a clearer idea of what they wanted to do in the attacking third. That’s what made the second goal from Austin even more stunning. Ramirez caught the backline sleeping and snuck in behind, with a thumping finish to put Austin back in the lead. It was an absolute back breaker when the Caps were just starting to find some more momentum.
Virtually the rest of the match before stoppage time was rendered unwatchable by sloppy play from the Caps and referee Victor Rivas falling for every dirty trick Austin FC pulled out of the bag. There was no chance to establish momentum until Biro was sent off for a second bookable offense after denying a quick restart of play on the stroke of full time.
Then the Caps locked in, with two golden chances in stoppage time to secure a point. First, Rayan Elloumi skied a perfect cross from Yadaly Diaby. Then, Mathias Laborda narrowly directed a corner kick header over in what was virtually the last play of the night for Vancouver.
Stray Thoughts
- Well, that was genetically engineered to be the most frustrating match possible. The Caps did enough to beat themselves, but the added indignity of Victor Rivas forgetting how to officiate a match and letting Austin get away with murder to see out the game was the cherry on top. And then you start adding in the penalty miss, Gauld hitting the upright immediately after the White goal, and the two defensive brain farts that gave Austin a foothold …
- The wide players just have not been good enough in the second half of the season. Bruno Caicedo is not the same player starting as he is off the bench, running at tired legs. Cheikh Sabaly is just half a step too slow in every match and currently has basically zero confidence. Yadaly Diaby had a promising cameo, but this is an area Jesper Sørensen will have to figure out, as nothing has consistently worked to date.
- I thought Rui Modesto was largely fine, and his profile seems like a clear fit for Sørensen-ball. But he had a tendency to get caught upfield and just hasn’t built up any chemistry with Sabaly, and that was a big blow in the first half.
- Anything is possible, but I think this one pretty much ends the Caps’ hopes of lifting the Supporters’ Shield. Attention now shifts to the Canadian Championship, and the Caps will need to tighten things up in a hurry, as it will basically be CF Montreal’s World Cup final. The Caps have played down to their opponents in recent weeks, most notably tonight. They can’t do that in the midweek.
Man of the Match
Setting aside the penalty miss, it is tough to look past Gauld for this. He struggled in the second half but created seven big chances and should have probably had more than one assist to show for his efforts.
That’s a brutal result for Vancouver, especially when they created enough chances to get something more from the match. Austin’s ability to stay organized and punish the Caps with so few opportunities makes the 2-1 loss even more frustrating. After a match like that, I’d unwind for a bit and browse https://4rabet-bettings.com/.
““at this point, Axel’s 4 mid-season signings are flops” LOL they’ve barely played and there’s still 2 months left in the season, what on earth are you talking about”
BUT that is exactly the point. After losing Seb, we badly needed reinforcements – but the signings made have made no contribution at all. They have barely played.
Because they were signed only a couple weeks ago!
Everyone has their favorite player, and most people have a tendency to credit wins or losses to the defense or offense, again based on personal preference.
But the stats don’t lie. I’ve said it a zillion times, if a team can’t score, nothing else matters during the 90 minutes of play.
According to the stats on fotmob this morning:
Vancouver led possession 60% to 40%, and had 20 shots (6 on target) to Austin’s 4 with 2 on target.
Vancouver had 40 touches in the opposition box opposed to Austin’s 7.
Vancouver had 6 corner opportunities to Austin’s 0.
By my observation, there are no less than two players up front who hold on to the ball too long or who want to be the hero, so to speak, and then shoot over the goal or straight into the feet of the opponent.
Blame the defense for allowing 2 goals all you want, but Vancouver didn’t lose last night because of defensive mistakes. They lost because they couldn’t hit the side of a barn from six yards away.
For those who may not have noticed, Blackmon went down again last night on his right shoulder and was slow to get up. If he has to come out, well…
To your points, which i more less agree with, Yes Blackmon must be playing with an injured shoulder and this is going to affect his overall game performance. I’m guessing he chose to play because we don’t have anyone else. The caps weren’t so good in the 1st half. Their positioning on Austin’s first goal was poor. The keeper started the play with a deadly throw to a teammate and three touches later its a goal. The caps came out strong in the second half and were rewarded with a goal provided by the dynamic duo of White and Gauld. From there the caps created numerous grade A chances but no more goals. Somewhat concerning but I think there’s time to improve on this. Caicedo continues to not impress. He does better coming on as a sub and maybe he should try playing on the right. The referee had a poor last 20 minutes not calling around 5 obvious fouls for the caps. On an Austin throw in the last 15 minutes or so the referee allowed the thrower 18 seconds to get the ball in play. I thought they were now enforcing a 5 second guideline to get the ball in play. And, if we can only score one goal at home then we’re more likely to draw or lose.
The referee, a guy who’s been around the league for a while, was making a lot of bad calls that favored Austin. There are times when a bad call does impact the final result, and I wondered about the rules involving time. I don’t remember for sure, but it seems an Austin player went down and took his sweet time getting back up. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
It seemed Austin knew that, in the last 20 minutes or so, that the referee may or may not call an obvious foul, so they took advantage of that. Even on the very last play of the game, when Ocampo was trying to launch a long ball into the Austin penalty area, he was knocked down/fouled as he hit the ball. This was an obvious foul and a caps free kick. That it would have ended up being a hail Mary, but it would have given the caps one last chance, which they deserved. This just summed up how bad the officiating was in the last 20 minutes or so. I was at the game. I rewatched it on Apple TV. I’m usually the one defending MLS officiating but I can’t do it this time. The last 20 minutes or so was the worst I ever seen with so many non calls on obvious fouls.
at this point, Axel’s 4 mid-season signings are flops- but i am still hoping that 1/4 will show us some creativity and offensive punch
we are missing Ralph Priso’s pace at CB- we are giving away too many goals on counter-attacks and he would help stem those
whether there are problems in the Team as a whole, only a fly in the dressing room would know
but we are still in first place in the West- its just frustrating to see us loose to weaker teams –
but, for months, the genie is out of the bottle of how to defeat the Caps- defend with a low block and then beat the Caps with fast counter attacks to get goals- its not rocket science- its got to be frustrating for Jesper
i was struck by Austin’s first goal from our left side- LB Johnson was on the right side of the field and CB Laborda was in Austin’s box during a corner kick and nobody was suitably covering for them
7 games upcoming on the road and our home record isnt much better with 3 upcoming games- the Team needs a group session to sort it out; and Jesper will have to re-think and adjust his playing line-up and tactics
we can recover so lets not give up the ship
Salty
“at this point, Axel’s 4 mid-season signings are flops” LOL they’ve barely played and there’s still 2 months left in the season, what on earth are you talking about
both Caicedo and Sabaly have had a lot of quality time- were you asleep during the games?
Sabbi is a so-so signing and plays so-so; still waiting to see more of Diably
Those aren’t mid-season signings you moron
The first eleven can beat anybody but there’s a big dropoff when the newer players come in. That may end up costing us first place in the west.
We can complain about the officiating as much as we want, but that does not mask the poor passing, inexplicable giveaways, lack of intensity, inability to hit the target when in close, missed penalty and general poor play from this team. Losing Berhalter or Ranko doesn’t completely explain this slide into mediocrity – Sabbi couldnt hit a cows backside with a banjo and would be better working at Space X the way he launches balls into orbit. Sabaly lacks an intensity and is not worth the money we are paying him – nice guy, but it’s that simple. It is inexcusable that Gauld would miss the penalty – don’t these guys practice this stuff? Caicedo feels lazy to me – skilled but lazy. Badwall seems more comfortable complaining to the refs when he gets pushed off a ball than focusing on his play. There is something seriously off about this team – and if anyone thinks this type of play will get us far in the playoffs, I have ocean front property in Saskatchewan I’d like to talk to you about. We should be going into games against the 14th ranked team in the league with the mentality expecting a win – instead we lack intensity and look a shambles. This is simply not good enough from the Caps – anyone expecting an MLS cup run, let alone a win is smoking far too much weed.
You may prove you don’t know much when you say there’s no excuse for missing a penalty.
Thomas Mueller has a career success rate of 82%. Gauld’s at 78%. Even Erling Haaland (80%) and Messi (77%) miss.
Must feel nice to be such a great keyboard warrior.
i agree- that was an unnecessary comment- Gauld was terrific for most of the game, but he is being asked to do too much because our group of wingers are weak
Your stats PROVE my overall point when it comes to penalties. All players miss – what I’m talking about is missing when it counts. I don’t care, and neither do you, if Muller misses a penalty when we are already 3 goals up – we are talking about scoring when it matters…..like when we are a goal down with 10 min to go against a team that is 14th in the league. Thats when he HAS to score.
What of my other comments suggest I don’t know football? Are you claiming Sabbi’s accuracy has been adequate? Is our passing crisp? Is Caciedo, aside from the odd rush, screaming non stop work ethic to you? This is the kind of crap we tolerate and excuse away from the Canucks.
My problem is not the individuals in this team – they seem like great guys, but I can assure you they are equally frustrated. We aren’t rolling over teams as easily as we once did. Whereas before we played as a team, we’ve lost something since the WC break. Meanwhile other teams have caught up and /or figured us out. What about any of this is up for debate in your mind? I love this team, but something is not working – calling it out doesn’t make me a hater of the team. If you think we can lose to the last 15 teams in the league and expect to beat the top 8 when it matters, congrats. Hope is a hell of a strategy.
you are 100% correct- never heard couldnt hit a cows backside with a banjo – thats a good one
a few months ago when there was discussion about making the Team better, it was my thought that the Caps needed a dynamic winger who can actually create chances and finish also
that hasnt happened and wont happen with the wingers we have- really disappointed with Caicedo as- i agree- he seems unmotivated and unless he does a lot of reflecting, changing and practicing, he will be another Kekuta Manneh type of player- speed with little skill and finish
Axel got the summer signings wrong and paying Sabaly $1.7 mill for the next 3 years is difficult to think of; Modesto didnt show much; and still waiting for Diably to show us his stuff (but i will wait on this one)
and i agree- the Caps are not a MLS Cup potential winner- Ryan Gauld cant do it all (and PKs are missed by even Messi, so lets not be harsh on him- his play for 65 minutes was terrific, but he is being asked/forced to try to do it all for creating goals..thats very tiring
Salty