Effort isn’t enough to get goals as Whitecaps draw with RSL

by Andrew Bates
Camilo lines up for his penalty kick against RSL's Nick Rimando. Photo Andrew Bates/Little Rubber Pellets

Camilo lines up for his penalty kick against RSL’s Nick Rimando. Photo Andrew Bates/Little Rubber Pellets

Enthusiasm can get you places, but not the whole way.

Ahead of Saturday’s game against Real Salt Lake, the Whitecaps pushed hard on the notion of the advantage it has at home. That is because they want you to believe this will be like last year, when strong home performances pulled out low-percentage wins against challenging opposition, and not like 2011, where the season fell apart after a strong start and they couldn’t defend for the life of them on the road.

From the first half, it seemed to be working. Outside of Joao Plata’s goal, called off for offside, Real Salt Lake got precisely zero shots on target, despite outpossessing the Caps 59 per cent to 41 per cent. It is, to be honest, astounding that the ‘Caps did not pick something up in the first frame. But while the midfield was strong and moved with purpose, the attack seemed a bit more improvisational. The first half’s finest move came from Y.P. Lee, curving it in but just tipped over by RSL’s Nick Rimando, who played well.

The group of talented speedsters that made up the Whitecaps attack — Camilo, Corey Hertzog, Darren Mattocks — are bright at making the run, generating chances and creating. But in the box, the passes in the box weren’t crisp and Vancouver wasn’t quite fast enough at the crucial process of making decisions and then executing them. The contested play where Y.P. Lee was brought down in the penalty area with no call might have been contact, but the fact was that Lee was off-balance from pivoting two, three times looking for an option.

It seemed they were going to be punished for it on 66 minutes when Olmes Garcia pulled off the opposite: firing a beautiful, floating ball into the top corner off a Javier Morales cutback. It was the same ball Lee had been trying at all night, and mainly worked because Garcia had acres of space, and it was one of the only great things Salt Lake did all night. The Whitecaps looked deflated.

Darren Mattocks, subbed on for an impressive-and-improving Corey Hertzog minutes earlier, helped improve things. He fits into a spray-and-pray offense a lot better, and there were a couple of heartbreaking headers he just couldn’t get high enough for, including an attempt to recreate the famous Toronto goal that redirected straight down.

It’s not surprising that the workman-like approach is what ended up working. Mattocks’ penalty kick eventually came when he tried to ping it through and Nat Borchers fell on the ball with his hand. Camilo, who took the kick successfully, was rewarded with a goal for his five shots on target, but it came through working the ball towards the goal, not crisp execution.

Watching the confidence coming from outside of the area in the form of armband-sporting Nigel Reo-Coker and Y.P. Lee, it’s possible that this is what the attack misses without Miller. Not that he’s any better with improvisation, but a veteran presence could have helped Hertzog, Mattocks and Kekuta Manneh (who also served a great ball) from as much stress and guesswork.

The ‘Caps worked hard with a generous five minutes of added time to try and pull something off, and despite a late scare on the game’s last move where Joe Cannon saved the point, they held deservedly.

With the attack like it was today, an energy-based system that runs on effort and gumption, running the ball in and creating terror, is it any wonder that this works better at home? Comfortable and in front of lively fans, it’s a lot easier to pull off high energy. But they need to have some better answers and better finish to be able to turn chances into goals, and draws into wins.

Stats and quotes after the jump.

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Second chances, Nigel Reo-Coker and the Vancouver Whitecaps

by Andrew Bates
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Nigel Reo-Coker is on his way from Ipswich to Vancouver, his fourth club in four years. Photo courtesy thepfa.com

Well. The Vancouver Whitecaps have added a 28-year old English player with 200 matches of Premier League experience, ending Martin Rennie’s off-season of moving and shaking with a bang. But even as the club touts Nigel Reo-Coker’s experience as a captain and he ambitiously trumpets that he hasn’t yet hit his prime, why is everyone so nervous?

Hardly the questions you want to answer about your newest star signing. Part of the nervousness is because this story hasn’t ended well before, both in terms of Reo-Coker and the Whitecaps. Despite his star-studded CV, this is the newest Whitecap’s fourth move in four years, each to a club lower and lower in stature. If we hadn’t have taken him, he’d have gone to the English third division.

But the narrative of a bruised but brazen Reo-Coker trying to assure a new fan base that he can overcome past mistakes might apply too to the Whitecaps, when it comes to justifying their transfer decisions. Over the last two years, they’ve flipped away fan-favourites inexplicably and splashed huge cash on designated players mid-season that slink away in the summer. The Whitecaps want you to believe that this signing is more Y.P. Lee than Barry Robson, but the fact that Reo-Coker’s decline is the first thing on everyone’s mind is due to some lingering trauma over past transfer masterworks gone awry.

Part of the shock of the move is that if you follow English football, Nigel Reo-Coker is a name you know and might even be surprised had gone. Out of the Premier League for only half a season, Reo-Coker enjoyed a promising career with the England U-21s that coincided with rapid rise to the captaincy at West Ham, followed by a mostly-distinguished turn for Aston Villa that saw him acquit himself well in the UEFA Cup.

He’s also seen trouble. As Away From The Numbers notes, he was a member of West Ham’s “Baby Bentley” boys in the 2006-07 season, criticized for losing focus on the game over the money and the lifestyle and barely escaped relegation. He got into a fight with manager Martin O’Neill in Aston Villa and only avoided the sack because O’Neill got it first. He got relegated with Bolton and left for Ipswich, a club he left in three months after finding himself on the fringes. At his worst, he has been sullen and lacks commitment. But he claims despite his slips, the best is ahead of him. Can he seize a second chance in Vancouver?

He’s got something to prove. But so do the Whitecaps. With Barry Robson having quietly left over the winter, the ‘Caps have walked a way from a sizable investment in the Scot. In the second half of the season, Martin Rennie blew up the roster and brought in Robson and Kenny Miller, two players with Premier League experience. They failed to gel, and the Whitecaps almost missed the playoffs, squandering the promise of the first half of the year. It mirrors Mustapha Jarju, a complete bomb brought in for big money by Tommy Soehn in July 2011.

My main thought when Robson walked, other than seriously wondering whether it should have been Miller, is this: How the Whitecaps can absorb so many transfer misses? How many times can they afford to drop money on a player with no return? (The club has pared down its operations this off-season, cutting the women’s senior team and replacing many of their paid media staff with unpaid interns.)

That’s why people are wary of Nigel Reo-Coker. They’ve been burned too many times before. Can this work out?

The good news is that, as Reo-Coker says all the right things, the Whitecaps are doing all the right things. Reo-Coker will not be a designated player, which means he won’t carry the same expectations that Robson and Miller had. Y.P. Lee was an amazing success under these circumstances, as was Andy O’Brien. He will start the season with the ‘Caps, a positive because European players traditionally find it hard to adjust when they stroll in halfway through the season, and that certainly happened with Robson and Miller. He’s only 28, which means there is every chance of him playing a long and fulfilling career here.

There may still be some whispers about Nigel Reo-Coker because of his past and the Whitecaps’ past transfer issues. But together, it’s possible that this time player and club might not have to just stonewall the skeptics.

They might be able to prove them wrong.

Colin Miller’s first squad as interim Canadian MNT boss blows open the field

by Andrew Bates
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New Canadian men’s national team interim head coach Colin Miller has named a 22-man roster full of new faces for his January training camp. Photo canadasoccer/flickr

It truly is the first match of a new era.

What did people want when Honduras blew out the Canadian national team 8-1 in the final group stage of World Cup qualifying? Fire? Heads rolling? Exile?

The answer Colin Miller, former FC Edmonton head coach and veteran of the North American soccer scene, has provided turns away slightly from the fire and tends to the green shoots in Canada’s soccer garden.

His 22-man roster has ten new players and an average age of 25; forward Dwayne De Rosario and goalkeeper Lars Hirschfeld will remain, as will a few other famiiliar faces from the last year of the program. But only four players total on this squad (DeRo, Hirschfeld, Ricketts, Ledgerwood) played in World Cup Qualifying last year. Only three (DeRo, Hirschfeld, Dunfield) are over 30.

This isn’t exile. A lot of good players are missing, but North American training camps often omit players in Europe. (Why make Iain Hume, David Edgar, Andre Hainault or Atiba Hutchinson fly across the pond?) Some MLS players got callups, while others (Will Johnson, Ante Jazic) will start their training camps with their clubs. They’re not necessarily out of the picture.

The theme of this squad is not the end of those players, but the beginning of a new pack. The opportunity offered here is incredible: Two games in short procession, one against a Euro 2012 team (23rd ranked Denmark, last seen in a 1-0 win against Canada in 1995) and one will be the newest installation in the USA-Canada rivalry. It is stiff competition.

But with the long view, how could you plan any differently? The third round of 2018 World Cup qualifying will likely be three years from now, and the journey has to begin immediately. If Canada charges the hexagonal final round of CONCACAF’s tournament, it needs to do so with a new core of players and somewhat of a different look from the team fielded the last few years.

So bring TFC’s Matt Stinson, a 20-year-old with six appearances in 2012 and 22-year old Kyle Bekker, who has never appeared. Think about starting Russell Teibert and Ashtone Morgan and Doneil Henry and Jonathan Beaulieu-Bourgault, all with some national team experience but all young and looking for more. Take the players trawled back from clubs in Europe and South America and give them a chance to see what they can do.

Because this is the start of the great adventure for this squad. From these games to the Gold Cup this summer, not all of these players will necessarily figure all the time. But when the time comes, when they are needed, they will remember this camp, and they chance they were given.

Squad after the jump.

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No formal deal between CanWNT and the Whitecaps on UBC training centre

by Andrew Bates
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Jon Herdman and Chelsea Buckland of the Canada women’s national team look on as Ida Chong announces the Whitecaps’ National Soccer Development Centre in September. Photo Kai Jacobson/The Ubyssey

I’ve been going through the agreements between the Vancouver Whitecaps and UBC on the new Whitecaps training centre, and there’s one element conspicuous by its absence: The Canadian women’s national soccer team.

When the province unveiled plans for the National Soccer Development Centre in September, it was identified as a “west-coast base” for the Canadian women’s national team, with cabinet minister Ida Chong going back down memory lane to the Olympics and manager Jon Herdman and player Chelsea Buckland in attendance. “The national team will be here, we’ll make use of these facilities as long as we’re welcome, and this may be our little tipping point,” Herdman said at the time.

When you read the agreements for how the fields to be used, the guarantees, which promise 75-25 and 85-15 per cent access for the new turf and grass fields respectively, are solely between the Whitecaps and UBC, with the ‘Caps getting the larger share. The conference also promised community access would make up 50 per cent of the facility’s use, and that is expected to come from each side’s allocation; UBC has suggested the 50-50 split is between internal and external groups, as UBC has suggested. (UBC Board of Governors proposals list “National soccer team” as a primary user of the facility.)

With a women’s national team camp in Vancouver coming up from December 12-20 and no location yet announced, where does the program fit into these commitments?

Here’s what Whitecaps COO Rachel Lewis said about the relationship in an interview I did for the Ubyssey:

We have a very close relationship with the CSA, and obviously with the Canadian Women’s National Team being based here, and [the] 2015 World Cup coming up, we hope that we’re going to be able to be a base for the team. Obviously, Jon Herdman’s working through his plans and we’re not sure yet what his training plans are for the coming few years, but if we can support that group in any way we’re obviously going to look to do so, we want to see them be successful … We’re really closely linked with Jon and his team on the Girls Elite side as well as supporting the national team.

But the “hope to be a base” for the team is a bit of a change in terminology from what seemed to be a sealed deal at the press conference. The CSA refused comment, saying that there was no official agreement between the association and the Caps. Lewis confirmed there was no agreement.

Nothing formal, really what we’ve said to Jon and the CSA is, “We’d like to understand what your needs are and what your plans are up in the leadup to 2015 and beyond, and tell us how we can support you.” These conversations are undergoing, but it’s still quite preliminary, as we haven’t even moved out to the campus yet.

There’s nothing to say there won’t be significant partnership – a CSA spokesperson suggested that the team was currently conducting siting meetings before deciding where in Vancouver to hold the practices, so this month’s camp could still be at UBC’s existing pitches. The new fields and training facility aren’t near being completed yet, and hey, it’s not like the CSA are paying for it, so the Whitecaps don’t have to guarantee the women’s team anything.

But if you got a different impression at the press conference in September, it’s clear that for now, at least, the National Soccer Development Centre isn’t quite a home for the program.

Whitecaps playoff loss asks you to buy into the grand bargain

by Andrew Bates
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The Whitecaps’ season ending graphic.

The storyline heading into last night’s Whitecaps playoffs game tried to reference, in whispers that did not actually invoke it by name, giant-killing in the English FA Cup.

Small teams beat big teams in knockout games all the time, the argument went, using examples from MLS history but calling to mind “the magic of the Cup” used as the selling point in England.

As we know now, that did not happen. Despite a third-minute goal so good it couldn’t be real from Darren Mattocks, the LA Galaxy scored twice in four minutes and took their place in the Western Conference quarterfinal. The Whitecaps were left with the knowledge that they came close, but now only have next year to plan for, and fans now have to wonder what this means in the context of the season.

The self-doubt-defying hope that maybe the ‘Caps could get something out of the fixture was run-of-the mill. But the elation of going up early—and staying ahead ten minutes later, and at half time, and with a half hour left—was glorious. Conceding the lead was like taking a punch, but it didn’t force the same loss of hope that a rout would have done. The reality set in, but the long-term vision seemed promising: maybe we can stop this from happening next year.

That, of course, is the other reality of the FA Cup. In that competition, fortunes vary year to year. One year, you might make a deep run or topple a Champion’s League club or lose in the first game to Cheltenham. Any year you don’t win it, you live with elimination and dive into the challenge next year, feeling the dare that you have a path to the title.

This perspective can be hard for expansion teams. Each year—especially in North America—gets measured in terms of impact or progress; We proved we could make the playoffs, we proved people would come, etcetra. We proved we belonged.

But what this result asks from you is the grand bargain every sports team wants to make with its fans: to get them to stay along for the long haul, not to just come out and see a game, but stick around.

The defeat was a punch in the gut. The whole last end of the season was a punch in the gut. Come back next year, maybe we’ll make the finals, or win the Cup or miss the whole thing altogether. Sometime you’ll get your satisfaction. Come along for the ride.

The match itself was kind of dull, but okay: It’s a shame Jay DeMerit got injured, but Martin Bonjour acquitted himself fine. Darren Mattocks showed his quality. Brad Knighton saved the Whitecaps over and over, and proved the decision to start him was correct. In the climatic miss that broke the Whitecaps’ concentration for just a crucial moment, Barry Robson and Kenny Miller both intensified the scrutiny over their midseason acquisitions.

LA were firmly in command, with 69 per cent of possession and nine corners to Vancouver’s zero, but the Whitecaps didn’t get blown out; they proved both they can make the playoffs and look not too far out of place. So progress as the goal is over; now the franchise is getting into the year-on-year fight. Maybe they can get a little bit farther next year.

I’ll stick around to find out.

Stats after the jump.

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Whitecaps remind themselves how to defend on the road with point at Salt Lake

by Andrew Bates

riotinto-tedpercival

Photo tedpercival/flickr


So we’ve learned that the Whitecaps can defend in a pinch.

The big worry ahead of next week’s playoff wild-card game in Los Angeles is a matter of confidence in the Whitecaps’ road performance. Can they fight on the road? Can they pull off a result? On a national stage, will the game be more like the testy 1-1 draw in Vancouver, or the shameful 3-0 drubbing from last July?

Going by Saturday’s 0-0 draw against Real Salt Lake, we know the Whitecaps, at least, can hold on for a draw away, and even if they don’t score, a 0-0 draw in Los Angeles through 120 minutes will send them to penalties. But what we still don’t know is how they intend to score a goal if they ever fall behind.

The biggest surprise in the starting line-up Dane Richards and Darren Mattocks were swapped in on attack for Barry Robson and Kenny Miller. Whether it was a rest for the Scots or a concession to those worried that the new Designated Players aren’t clicking, it makes it clear that the real problem in the Whitecaps attack is distribution.

The ‘Caps have to find a way to get people the ball. Richards and Mattocks had an okay, but unspectacular day (though Mattocks came so close with his disallowed goal); Robson and Miller, who replaced the Jamaican duo, fared no better. So that’s the real question; can they figure it out against LA? If they concede, can they come back from that?

The good news is that the defensive game is working. The Whitecaps parked the bus, and of RSL’s 17 shots, only three hit the goal, and all were saved. Y.P. Lee continues to be good, but tired, and Jordan Harvey was not the strongest, but at the very least it worked.

And that at least solves a problem for the Whitecaps. If they play like this in California, they can keep it close, and that means there’s reason to hope, and that hope will only be stronger if they score a goal.

Stats after the jump.

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What’s at stake in final Whitecaps game of the year? A reason to believe

by Andrew Bates
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Photo rosietulips/flickr

It could be one to clear the sour taste out of the mouths of Whitecaps fans.

Last weekend was weird, wasn’t it? A bloodless, awful loss in a game everyone agreed the Whitecaps needed to win, followed by good news: despite the fact that Vancouver’s listlessness meant the Cascadia Cup slipped out of Seattle’s hands, they did the Whitecaps the favour of knocking rivals Dallas out of the playoffs.

Playoffs. The Whitecaps had become the first Canadian team to make the playoffs, which is really the best fans can ask of a team that placed last the season before. But there wasn’t elation, there was frustration at how little the team seemed to want to earn it down the stretch.

It created a feedback loop of moods: You wanted to feel incredible pessimism. 1-6-2 in the last nine games. Seemingly no ability to get away results. Lost 3-0 to playoff opponents LA Galaxy last time they played there away. But still, playoffs! Games were won! Fun was had, and there will be games after the end of the season for the Whitecaps! Maybe they can even sneak a result and ensure a home playoff game! It was impossible to be purely pessimistic or optimistic.

The big complaint was the decline from the midpoint of the season, when players were moved and the team started a dip in form. The main worry of mine in that time was this: Martin Rennie seems, at times, to be calmly seated on a boat heading towards a waterfall.

As the team saw a guaranteed home game slip away, as they lost to Dallas (twice!) in situations that would have put space between the two of them, Rennie’s mantra seemed to continue: Dallas needed this game more than us. At least we’re in a playoff position. Everything is okay. Being underdogs (because we played so badly) could be a benefit in the playoffs. You had the picture of Rennie with his arms crossed, perched on a boat heading backwards but content that he hadn’t gone over the cliff already. Davidson stays benched. Miller stays on the pitch. Everything is fine.

Surely nobody is taking this lightly behind the scenes. But the team needs to at least be seen to paddle.

That’s where tonight’s game away to Real Salt Lake (6:00, Sportsnet One) comes in. The reason why last weekend was seen as a must-win was because nobody wanted to rely on getting a win from RSL on the road. There’s basically no trust right now that the Whitecaps can perform on the road when it counts, and the Whitecaps’ next “biggest game in franchise history” in LA depends on that.

It will be a tough challenge, but all they need to do is try. Show the desire. Whitecaps fans want to believe.

Give them a reason to.

Whitecaps show nothing, get nothing in fifth straight loss

by Andrew Bates
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Photo courtesy Cooper Neill/Getty Images

The Vancouver Whitecaps played this game like they didn’t need to win, so they didn’t.

With losses in the previous four games and a week off for an international break the game was a great opportunity to tidily end a streak: against FC Dallas, the team who beat them to start the skid.

But the framing of the game, at least on TV, focused on Dallas, and their need to win the game, as opposed to the benefits of establishing a seven-point safety cushion between the Caps and Dallas for the last playoff spot. At half-time, the team was glassy-eyed on the road, grinding out a result but offensively lost. They just couldn’t hold it forever.

The teamsheet was shook up from the loss against L.A., with four players that started in that game–Dane Richards, Jun Marques Davidson, Matt Watson and Russell Teibert–moved to the bench. This was part of a hope to inspire any offense at all; the biggest offense of the four-game losing streak was that there were zero shots on goal in three of those games.

It was not particularly successful. The shuffled teamsheet had a difficulty striking up a rhythm; it’s not like players were bad on the ball, but there was no sense of shared movement that powered any offensive moves. However, the Whitecaps were lucky not to be punished for it early on.

Vancouver conceded a penalty kick on 15 minutes after Jay DeMerit rose to clear a cross by seizing the shoulders of the Dallas man next to him. But Brad Knighton, preferred to Joe Cannon for the second straight game, improbably got gloves on the ball to save it. It was the first of many strong saves from Knighton that kept the Caps in the game.

But the Whitecaps didn’t show any signs of capitalizing on that luck; between the penalty, a shot off the crossbar on 41 minutes and fingertip save on 42 minutes, the Whitecaps could have been 3-0 at the interval and offered no indication they could have dealt with the hardship if any one of the chances went in.

It’s not as though the Caps were awful. Second half substitutes Teibert and Mattocks did well to lighten the mood. The defense was solid, and there was great contributions from the midfield and the forward line; Mattocks was more solid on the defensive side of the ball than I’ve ever seen him.

But they just had no way of creating things. I cannot honestly tell you a single thing Barry Robson or Kenny Miller did. The Thorrington-Koffie-Rochat midfield was as defensive as you’d expect it, although Koffie had a go in the second half. This is the single biggest area in which the team needs to improve.

As Dallas pushed crazily for a goal in the game’s final moments, the Whitecaps looked terrified and disorganized; knowing that they had done nothing to avert a 0-0 draw and were in heavy danger of leaving Frisco with nothing. They were unable to hold Dallas out of their own penalty area and were punished at 6 minutes of injury time by a supurb strike that was patience rewarded.

And, you know, what would the Whitecaps have said if the game had ended 0-0? “Hey, we didn’t lose!” “We got shots on goal this time!” They can’t win games and, ultimately, make the playoffs that way. The home game against Colorado will be the new moment where they have to turn it around if they want to see the postseason.

Tonight, the Caps tried to hold on against Dallas, who were determined to get a result and won accordingly. There’s now only a point that separates the two teams. If the Whitecaps are complacent, they could be punished again.

Stats after the jump.

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Return to regular service

by Andrew Bates

Sorry for the service gap, I’ve been tied up in moving and first week and missing games. I’ll keep an eye on it now. The Caps’ slump isn’t forever. This team flounders without stability, so less injury and suspension rotation might help. It’s really good that Russell Teibert is getting minutes. Kenny Miller has to score for someone if he’s not going to fade away, and it’s not looking like Scotland, where the only person left that likes him is Craig Levein. CanMNT are in a great place right now, and though they’ll probably hang on for a draw tomorrow, it’d be nice to see an actual goal.

I have a lot of material on the National Soccer Development Centre, the new Whitecaps training facility, that didn’t make it into my Ubyssey feature, so you’ll see that soon. And something CanWNT I’ve been cooking up, too. Thanks for your patience.