The Vancouver Whitecaps find themselves in the unenviable position of having lost Julian Gressel. Gressel is hard to replace because he is very good and has a unique profile and the Whitecaps don’t have an open DP slot to replace his DP-level contributions (though he himself was not a DP). So I thought we might take a look at where the team might go from … Continue reading Every Crisis is an Opportunity: Life After Julian Gressel
Here are the grades from Vancouver’s 2-1 win over Austin FC. Yohei Takaoka: 6.0 The goal was a little on the iffy side, but his distribution was once again very good. He was only forced into one other save. Tristan Blackmon: 6.5 He doesn’t look as though he’s over his injury just yet. He was very close to blowing the whole thing at the end, but he … Continue reading Report Card: Lock of the Week
Man, I can’t believe they blew it. Yohei Takaoka: 7.0 I don’t think much blame could be assigned to him on the goals against. He was involved in a goal for (you know when Takaoka plays the ball long you’re going to see some wild scenes when the camera pans), and made a couple of decent saves. Mathias Labaorda: 7.0 Honestly, I thought he was pretty … Continue reading Report Card: Three Set Pieces and a Funeral
The Vancouver Whitecaps were on the wrong end of a 3-0 thrashing at the hands of Sporting Kansas City. In my opinion (some may disagree) the scoreline flattered SKC slightly but they were still very deserving winners on the whole. This will probably not be remembered, given the final score, but the Whitecaps actually started the game quite well. For the first 30 minutes or … Continue reading Post Match: Whitecaps Not That Good Against SKC
With the Whitecaps finally having an off week, we’ve had a chance to catch our breath and evaluate the team. Normally there is a 3000-word essay by me about everything that’s going wrong at this point. But this year things are going pretty well. The Whitecaps have already won a trophy, are fairly comfortably in a playoff spot, and are playing the most exciting style … Continue reading How far are the Whitecaps from being MLS Cup Contenders?
The Vancouver Whitecaps take on Eastern Conference topping F.C Cincinnati this weekend. It marks the end of a grueling series of matches in which the Whitecaps played 10 games in the space of a month. Even we at the Third Sub have felt a bit fatigued so I can only imagine how the players feel! But F.C. Cincinnati has also dealt with a lot of … Continue reading Pre-Match: Whitecaps vs. F.C Cincinnati
The Vancouver Whitecaps were able to rescue a point at B.C. place against an SKC side that was determined to take the sting out of the game. Let’s see how the individual players got on. Yohei Takaoka: 6 Hard to give a grade as he only had two shots on goal. One was a basically unstoppable header and the other was a pea-roller. Was his … Continue reading Report Card: Whitecaps Draw SKC
The Vancouver Whitecaps lost a frustrating contest, 3-1 on the road to St. Louis City. The defeat marked 1 calendar year since Vancouver won on the road. It also showed that Yohei Takaoka is kind of important. Vancouver carried the play for most of the match. The ‘Caps had over 60% possession and won the xG battle. But, unfortunately, Thomas Hasal had a nightmare performance … Continue reading Post Match: Load Bearing Wall
The MLS Next Pro season is well underway so I thought it was a good time to bring back my Stock Up/Stock Down series. This looks at the players who helped their chances of one day making it to the first team the most in recent weeks (and the ones who hurt their chances). It’s not necessarily a measure of who the best players are … Continue reading WFC2: Stock Up/Stock Down
The Vancouver Whitecaps emerged victorious in a slightly nervy affair again Minnesota United. It was a bit of a narrative buster, as the talk all week was about how Vancouver’s defence was much improved but they just couldn’t score. But in this match, Vancouver carved Minnesota open and then struggled to close out the game. These defensive struggles are certainly concerning but Vancouver was due … Continue reading Post Match: Regressing to the Mean (But in a Fun Way)