Tag Archives: Football

The Elusive Road Win

The Vancouver Whitecaps have seen an impressive run of play from young Canadian forward Russell Teibert. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
The Vancouver Whitecaps have seen an impressive run of play from young Canadian forward Russell Teibert. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.

The Vancouver Whitecaps pulled a rare animal out of their hat this weekend — a road victory. After outplaying and outchancing opponents in several draws (and even a few losses) over the past few weeks, the boys in blue and white stole a 2-1 win in a contest they had no business winning.

Karma dictated the Caps had to come out on top of a decision like this sooner or later. Despite riding a four-game unbeaten streak into the match, they hadn’t received all the points they had deserved. Wednesday’s heartbreaking draw against Montreal lost the Whitecaps their first Voyageurs Cup. They had run the show for 85 minutes, hitting the woodwork twice and putting several shots just wide. By all accounts they could have scored a half-dozen against the Impact but only gave Craig MacEwan two opportunities to say “it’s in the back of the net!”

The previous game was another 2-2 draw, this time against Portland. The Caps scored two marvellous goals, but the Timbers played with twelve men — unfortunately the twelfth one carried a whistle and wore a referee’s jersey. While that may seem unfair, both goals for the visitors were contestable. The tying goal in particular was quite stinky, as Jose Valencia clearly used both arms to corral a hail-mary pass in the Vancouver box before depositing it behind Brad Knighton.

So yeah, gutting out a win when the other guys probably deserved it? Karmic payback against all those other teams that have nicked points from the Caps earlier in the year.

More, including match highlights, after the jump.

Continue reading The Elusive Road Win

Vancouver Whitecaps FC 3, LA Galaxy 1

Russell Teibert scored his first two professional goals thirteen minutes apart to help the Vancouver Whitecaps to their first-ever win over the LA Galaxy this weekend.

Coming off the bench in the 14th minute in injury relief of Daigo Kobayashi, Teibert showed great speed and good chemistry with Nigel Reo-Coker. More important for the Caps, he showed solid finish, something Vancouver has been sorely lacking over the past eight weeks of Major League Soccer action.

Canadian product Russell Tiebert (left) scored the first two goals of his promising MLS career, as the Vancouver Whitecaps defeated the LA Galaxy 3-1 on May 11. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
Canadian product Russell Teibert (left) scored the first two goals of his promising MLS career, as the Vancouver Whitecaps defeated the LA Galaxy 3-1 on May 11. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.

Continue reading Vancouver Whitecaps FC 3, LA Galaxy 1

Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2, FC Edmonton 0

The Vancouver Whitecaps delivered a convincing 2-nil win over FC Edmonton in the second leg of the Canadian Cup semi-final. With the win, the Caps move on to the final against the Montreal Impact, who embarrassed Toronto FC 6-0 in the other semi.

I’m sure Chris Withers will have more to say about the match, but here are a few shots I captured at the game.

Corey Hertzog scored a dramatic second half goal to lift Whitecaps FC to a 2-0 win over FC Edmonton on May 1, 2013. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.
Corey Hertzog scored a dramatic second half goal to lift Whitecaps FC to a 2-0 win over FC Edmonton on May 1, 2013. Photo by Jason Kurylo for Pucked in the Head.

More after the jump.

Continue reading Vancouver Whitecaps FC 2, FC Edmonton 0

Dallasing

FC Dallas, who played the Whitecaps last Saturday in Dallas, and will play them again this coming Saturday in Vancouver, put out a video yesterday introducing the world to “Vancouvering”. It’s an amusing idea, making fun of Joe Cannon’s habit of resting his head on his arms while laying on the turf after a goal against. It shows people in everyday situations reacting to disappointment in similar fashion. While I did get a laugh (before I realized the thing went on for over three minutes), the Dallas social media team really should learn not to cast stones when the team they’re employed by is renowned league-wide as the biggest bunch of diving, whining cheats in Major League Soccer. “Vancouvering,” you say? I give you Dallasing.

Whitecaps Eke Out A Semi-Final Victory

Whitecaps Wednesday
Well. That happened.

The Voyageurs’ Cup tournament kicked off on Wednesday night. Vancouver have yet to win this trophy in eleven tries. They’ve been beaten outright, they’ve secured near-certain victory only to be betrayed by another team starting a reserve side and getting pummelled, they’ve had a late lead washed out by torrential downpour, clearing the way for them to lose the replay. What they hadn’t done, since the format was changed in 2011, was lose their semi-final matchup. Oh, they’d come close. Montreal, then in division 2, forced extra time at Empire Field in 2011, and Ali Gerba was inches away from winning it for them at the death. FC Edmonton scored early at BC Place last year, making the final leg interesting until Sebastien Le Toux put the game out of reach. Tonight, the Whitecaps again struggled against a division two side, but pulled out a 3-2 win to put themselves in the driver’s seat coming home next week. Continue reading Whitecaps Eke Out A Semi-Final Victory

Whitecaps report card

Whitecaps WednesdayAfter four games, the Vancouver Whitecaps have given us two impressive wins and two unfortunate losses. While they still have less success with set pieces than elite teams (hello, LA Galaxy), in no situation have they looked out of place or flat out lost in the wilderness. This despite losing captain Jay DeMerit to a severe leg injury just minutes into the first game. With game five coming up against the San Jose Earthquakes, we at Pucked in the Head offer up our report card for Whitecaps Wednesday.

Continue reading Whitecaps report card

Whitecaps Cough Up The Cup

The soccer gods, as they often like to do during the Voyageurs Cup tournament, were having a laugh yesterday. One of them devised the following scenario:

First, make the busiest part of the Whitecaps schedule coincide with two different Cup competitions, ensuring they either have to rotate the squad (which isn’t all that deep) or play tired. Second, have Toronto FC lose over a quarter of their league games consecutively to start the year, ensuring they are out of playoff contention and have nothing else to play for. Third, have Toronto somehow squeak past Montreal to get into the finals to face Vancouver. Fourth, have the Whitecaps play uninspired soccer. OK, number four definitely wasn’t the soccer gods’ fault, but the result, a 2-1 aggregate loss to Toronto, will still seem unfair to Vancouver soccer fans. This was to be our year, and it all went wrong.

After putting in a largely uninspired second leg in the Canadian championship, Eric Hassli & the Whitecaps probably should have been forced to endure the long walk of shame back to Vancouver instead of a comfy cross-country flight.

Continue reading Whitecaps Cough Up The Cup