Whitecaps earn draw with Minnesota

In a twist from three days earlier, the Vancouver Whitecaps came hard out of the gate against the NSC Minnesota Stars—and initially, they wound up worse off for their troubles. In the end, their efforts were rewarded, but not to the degree they would have hoped for as they finished with a 1-1 draw.

"It was two points lost," head coach Teitur Thordarson said. "I think we played well, especially in the first half. ... I think we still played well in the second half, but there wasn't the energy and there wasn't the intensity."

Unlike Thursday’s game against Portland where they started slow but came on late in the half and collected the match’s first goal, Vancouver controlled the play early on and created plenty of great chances. Marc Weber of The Province tweeted that it looked like a 3-0 Vancouver victory, and I concurred.

The game changed dramatically in the 28th minute on a counterattack when Johnny Meyongar sent Simone Bracalello through with a perfect long ball and Bracalello beat Jay Nolly with a tremendous strike from about 25 yards out. Energized by the goal, Minnesota began playing better defence and taking away some of Vancouver’s possession. The Whitecaps seemed somewhat stunned by the change in their fortunes and limped into the half.

The first half didn't produce the results for the Whitecaps it did against Portland, but it was a much better effort from Vancouver. Thordarson said he didn't change the pre-game approach, but his team came out a lot stronger.

"We were still focusing on having a go at them," Thordarson said. "We managed better today to keep posesssion in the open field. ... I thought we played extremely well in the first half."

The second half featured less stellar play, but it produced better results for Vancouver. Chances went back and forth, with Martin Nash narrowly missing in the 49th minute and Nolly diving to get one hand on a Bracalello long-range blast. The Whitecaps finally got on the scoreboard in the 67th minute when Marlon James, making his first appearance since May thanks to injury, set up Cornelius Stewart. Stewart fed Nash near the top of the six yard box, and Nash deked a defender, pulled it onto his left foot and beat keeper Matthew VanOekel.

Vancouver poured on the pressure after that, but the Minnesota defence held. Residency products Alex Elliott and Alex Semenets, the latter of whom was making his first-team competitive debut, gave good accounts of themselves as substitutes, but they couldn’t find the net. James narrowly missed in the 80th minute and Takashi Hirano sent a 25-yard free kick just high in the 86th minute. In addition to dominating the possession, the Whitecaps outshot Minnesota 16-7 and had nine corners to the Stars' two, but all the offence came to naught and they finished with only a single point.

Thordarson said he was impressed with his young players' performances.

"These are guys with great talents," he said.

According to Thordarson, the recent moves to trade Ricardo Sanchez and Jonny Steele and release Justin Moose were partly due to a desire to see what he had in his young players.

"Quite a bit, but it's more about trying to get together a roster we think is right to move forward with," he said.

Nash said the roster turnover has been a bit difficult to adjust to personally.

"It's tough," he said. "I've made friends with these guys over the past years."

Nash said he thinks the team has made the adjustment well on the pitch, though, despite the recent lack of results. He chalked part of that up to familiarity with many of the young players through their time in the Residency system and their occasional first-team appearances.

"They're all players who have been around us," he said.

Nash said he was comfortable working with Ethan Gage in central midfield thanks to the youngster's presence with the first team on and off over the past few years.

"Ethan's been kind of in and out for a while, but we know he can do it," Nash said.

The team may have adjusted to their new lineup, but they haven't produced the desired results yet. After a 1-1-2 record on this homestand, they head out on a five-game road trip and won't be back home until August 29. Nash said the recent results may be concerning, but the team's play isn't.

"I thought we had a great start to the game and we had a great first half," he said. "Tonight, we deserved more than a draw. We're playing well, we just have to find a way to win."

[Cross-posted to The 24th Minute]

Whitecaps - Railhawks preview: Not as one-sided as it may look

The Vancouver Whitecaps begin their title defence tonight against the Carolina RailHawks, but the Whitecaps squad that will take the pitch will be very different from the team that hoisted the USL-1 trophy last season. Gone are Alfredo Valente, Steve Kindel, Wesley Charles, Nicholas Addlery, Jason Jordan, Eduardo Sebrango, Jeff Clarke and others who were key parts of that team, and as Marc Weber of The Province wrote today, some of the team's tenaciousness may have departed with them.

Unlike last year's championship squad, which was primarily a group of talented veterans hitting their stride at the right time, this season's been dominated by a focus on youth, as I talked about in my post on their first match of the regular season. Young players like Marcus Haber, Randy Edwini-Bonsu, Ethan Gage, Wes Knight and Luca Bellisomo have all made their impact felt on the team this year. Haber in particular has impressed; many thought the team might struggle to score goals this season after the departure of Sebrango and Addlery, but that void up front was nicely filled by Haber (eight goals, four assists), Charles Gbeke (a league-high 12 goals and one assist) and Marlon James (nine goals). Haber finished seventh in league scoring with 20 points, while Gbeke tied for second with 25 points and James placed eighth with 18 points in 17 games. Meanwhile, Addlery put up 17 points in 22 USL games this year and Sebrango only recorded 10 points in 28 games in all competitions.

If the Whitecaps have improved up front, they have perhaps taken a step back in midfield and defence. The midfield's seen plenty of talented players, including Gage, Ansu Toure, Martin Nash and Vicente Arze, but injuries have made it difficult to establish a consistent lineup there. The same is even more true at the back; Knight (who tied for the league assist lead with eight and was the team's nominee for the USL Rookie of the Year award) and Takashi Hirano have been solid presences on the wings, but the centre's seen a revolving cast, much of it inexperienced. The release of Wesley Charles, the team's most experienced defender, was a good move from a team chemistry point of view after two bizarre on-field incidents (including a punch-up with Gbeke during a game), but it showed that the Caps are painfully thin at the back. The retirement of Justin Thompson didn't help matters either. Goalkeeper Jay Nolly has been solid as always, leading the USL in minutes played, finishing second in saves and recording seven shutouts, but he hasn't received a lot of defensive help this season, and that's one of the key reason why the team heads into the playoffs as the seventh seed.

This isn't a one-sided matchup, though. Carolina was very good this year, finishing with a 16-7-7 record, and Vancouver's 11-10-9 mark is much less impressive, but the Whitecaps turned it on down the stretch, going 4-1-5 to clinch a playoff spot. The team faced some of the typical struggles observed when using young players earlier in the season, but their young stars have found ways to contribute and the team has gelled down the stretch. Moreover, Vancouver may have gone 0-1-1 against Carolina this year, but the Whitecaps played well in both games. They could have won the game in Carolina, and they dominated the August 15 contest at Swangard. I'm expecting a tough physical battle tonight, and a great contest. Tune in here for the live blog at 10:30 Eastern/7:30 Pacific!

[Cross-posted to The 24th Minute]

Whitecaps: Van City Insanity

So, that was fun. The Whitecaps snapped their USL losing streak last night with a 3-2 victory [Gary Kingston, The Vancouver Sun] over Miami FC, but it may well prove to be a Pyrrhic one. The real story of the game was not the victory, but the fight between Whitecaps' teammates Charles Gbeke and Wesley Charles, perhaps the most ridiculous in-game feud between teammates since the Lee Bowyer/Keiron Dyer incident at Newcastle United (story from BBC News). Compare the videos below.





(Incident starts at 7:51 of the Whitecaps' clip).

This is not good for the Whitecaps. In fact, it's hard to think of two players whose loss might hurt the team more (except perhaps goalkeeping legend Jay Nolly). The Whitecaps are very short at central defence at the moment thanks to Jeff Parke's injury (turf toe) and Justin Thompson's sudden departure [Marc Weber, Back of the Net], so any suspension to Charles (which seems inevitable) will certainly hurt. Gbeke's almost as big of a loss; the Whitecaps don't have too many options up front, as Marlon James is still returning from injury and Marcus Haber is still rather inexperienced, and Gbeke's been their key scoring threat so far.

It's tough to predict exactly what will happen as a result. Marc Weber has some great stuff on the fiasco, and makes an excellent point about the PR dimension. The Whitecaps are a very fan-friendly organization and have quite a focus on appealing to kids and families; you can bet they won't be too thrilled with the conduct of Gbeke and Charles, and I doubt the league will be either. My guess would be that we'll see suspensions for at least one of them, possibly both, and possibly from both the league and the club. It will be an interesting situation to keep tabs on, but you can bet that the Whitecaps fans are hoping that the two can work it out, as they've been key parts of the team to date and will be hard to replace.

P.S. I'll be live-blogging the Toronto FC - New York Red Bulls game at 8 p.m. tonight. Join me then for more soccer coverage!

[Cross-posted to The 24th Minute]