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.
The Whitecaps have blown a gigantic opportunity here. They had a window, with the Canucks eliminated from the NHL post-season and the BC Lions still weeks away from CFL training camp, to go on a good run, win a trophy, get some coverage and secure a ton of new fans. They got off to a great start, rattling off wins over Dallas, Columbus, Edmonton twice and San Jose. Then they started gearing up for two weeks of cup play, and it all fell apart.
The Whitecaps rested some players, played a weird lineup and got their asses handed to them by a very beatable New England Revolution squad. Then they rested some more players and were massively outplayed by the self-proclaimed “worst team in the world” at home, salvaging a draw on another Eric Hassli wonder-goal. Next, wait for it, the Whitecaps rested some players, failed to put away Seattle, and drew 2-2 at home when they could have won easily. Finally, I bet you can guess, they rested some players and were outplayed again by Toronto FC, this time dropping a 1-0 decision and coughing up the Voyageurs Cup that they should have won easily. Now, with another rivalry game against Portland looming on the weekend, it’s almost inconceivable that we’ll see the best eleven the Caps can field. The Caps didn’t put their best foot forward in any of the last four games, and it cost them in all four.
A large portion of blame has to go to head coach Martin Rennie here. Rennie has unquestionably got the respect of his players, which is a significant upgrade over his predecessor, but he’s so far proven to be a surprisingly rigid tactician. Simply put, Vancouver does not yet have the pieces to play the system Rennie wants to play night in and night out. His 4-3-3 formation simply doesn’t work when certain players are out there. We generated nothing down the left side in Toronto because Camilo, who was playing left wing, kept drifting into the middle and leaving left back Alain Rochat no option but to play back towards the centre where swarms of red jerseys were waiting. Even if the ball got through to a midfielder, the midfield was lacking all creativity because Davide Chiumiento was on the bench and we don’t have any other creative options there until Barry Robson arrives in the summer. Then Rochat got injured, Jordan Harvey replaced him, and Darren Mattocks replaced Camilo. Now we had a speedster who I don’t believe we’ve seen at left wing (certainly not against MLS opposition) playing in front of a left back whose boots have been specially designed to kick the ball anywhere and everywhere except where it needs to go.
Let’s apportion some more blame. If there’s one thing I like after a big loss, it’s apportioning blame.
Jun Marques Davidson’s best effort all night was an hilarious dive that should’ve earned him a 9.8 and a yellow card. You got slapped on the cheek, son. There was no slew foot involved, so I’m not sure how both of your feet came out from underneath you like that. You want to make sure the referee saw it. I get it. Less is more.
Eric Hassli has two modes: frustrated and useless, and frustrated and effective. I’m a huge fan of Hassli. I love that he’s bought in to this city, I love that he’s got time for the fans, I love that he scores beautiful goals and I HATE how he acts towards the officials. They suck, Eric. They all suck. There are maybe three good referees in all of CONCACAF, those three aren’t even THAT good, and we don’t see them that often. Play through it! On the day he realizes that waving his arms in the air after every perceived slight garners nothing but ill will from the ref he will become a much more useful player. Just once, I’d like to see him go through an entire match without whining at the official about a missed call.
Speaking of officiating, the referee in the second leg against TFC was Silviu Petrescu. Silviu Petrescu is not a good referee. I do not believe, as Martin Rennie intimated last night, that Petrescu is biased towards Toronto because he’s from Toronto. The optics certainly aren’t good, but I don’t think you should attribute to bias or conspiracy what can be chalked up to incompetence and cowardice. First, if you’re going to send a player off, be damned sure that you’ve got the call right. Embellishment aside, de Guzman deserved a red card for slapping an opponent in the face. Sending Le Toux off as well? Weak. Makeup call plain and simple. The only possible reason for a card, judging by the replay, would be for a perceived stomp on the foot of the TFC player. The replay shows that didn’t happen. As I said, don’t send a guy off if you’re not sure, and there’s no way you were sure.
Sebastien Le Toux, however, needs to calm down. He didn’t deserve that second yellow, but he definitely earned the first one, then put himself in the middle of a confrontation. Not smart.
To those mentioned, as well as everyone else on the pitch, you just weren’t that impressive. Kudos to Joe Cannon for sprinting into the attack to try and salvage a late goal. Jay Demerit and Alain Rochat played ok, too, but weren’t THAT impressive. Everyone else? Two words: beep test. You don’t need me to tell you this, but you let us all down yesterday. Losing sucks, but losing because your team didn’t show up to play is even worse.
The Whitecaps have a pretty bad history in the Voyageurs Cup tournament. They’ve never won it, despite deserving to on more than one occasion. This year, they were clearly the better team. 18 points to 0 in league play makes that obvious. Yet when it came time to show that, they brought absolutely nothing to the pitch. Their leaders didn’t lead, their creative players didn’t create, their scorers didn’t score and their coach didn’t put them in the best position to succeed. The upside of this loss is it leave the Whitecaps free to concentrate on becoming the first Canadian team to secure an MLS playoff spot. The downside is they’ve already made concessions in their league campaign, and now have nothing to show for it. Coming off a 5-game winning streak, the Caps faced 5 more winnable games, four of them against big-time rivals. So far they’ve lost two and drawn two more, giving up five points in the MLS table in the process. Rennie’s squad can still salvage something from this gruelling two week stretch, but anything less than a win in Portland is going to mean hard questions being asked of the coach and the team.