Caps happy with play, not result
Vancouver continues to shuffle lineup looking for winning combination
Providence Park was built in 1926 and some of the downtown stadium’s oldest tenants are feral cats that prowl beneath the grandstands but are rarely seen.
This managed colony of squatters is why it has been three decades since anyone attending a game has seen a rat, although Vancouver Whitecaps coach Carl Robinson thought he spotted a big one Saturday when Portland Timbers captain Liam Ridgewell delivered an elbow to the back of Fredy Montero’s neck early in the Cascadia rivals’ clash.
Montero is the least of Robinson’s worries.
The star striker from Colombia, who arrived in Vancouver on the eve of the Major League Soccer season, was the best Whitecap and scored on a penalty-kick rebound for his fourth goal in four games.
But that was the only goal his team scored as the Whitecaps lost 2-1 despite outshooting the MLS-leading Timbers 16-11 and outplaying them much of the final 50 minutes after Portland took advantage of giveaways and poor defending to build a 2-0 lead.
Robinson praised the performance of his team and is confident the Whitecaps will generate wins on the road this season. But like the unseen wild cats, you have to accept his word that these are there.
Vancouver won only four of 17 road games last season when they dove to the bottom of the MLS standings and they are 0-3 so far this year. At least, unlike in earlier losses in San Jose and Salt Lake City, the Whitecaps lost neither a red-carded player nor their bearings in a snowstorm.
They just couldn’t score enough to overcome early mistakes that allowed Darlington Nagbe to score on a 19-yard rocket in the 18th minute and former Whitecap Darren Mattocks to run unmarked to a low, sharp cross from Diego Valeri in the 40th.
Montero scored his goal in the 59th minute, calmly knocking a bouncing ball into the net after Timbers goalie Jeff Attinella saved his penalty, which was earned when Whitecap Christian Bolanos darted between defenders before being knocked down in the 18-yard box by Alvas Powell.
“We didn’t come here to sit back and absorb pressure; we came here to win,” Vancouver midfielder Andrew Jacobson said. “It didn’t fall for us today. (But) we’re showing an identity, and it’s something to build off for sure.”
With his team now 2-4-1 and staring at more road games the next three weeks, Jacobson added: “We need to win. But we need to do it on the right. I’d rather keep building like this than just bunkering in and trying to play for a result on the road. It’s still early enough in the season that our game needs to keep improving.”
Jacobson was a centre of attention on Saturday due to his strong effort and because Robinson put him there.
Typically a defensive midfielder, Jacobson was deployed higher up the field as a counter-measure against Valeri, Portland’s terrific playmaker. Robinson tried to clog the centre of the park with three defensive-minded midfielders: Jacobson, Tony Tchani and Matias Laba.
But this strategy had a couple of consequences: Jacobson, who has just eight goals in 203 MLS games, ran into positions for most of the Whitecaps’ best scoring chances but couldn’t finish any of them; and Bolanos, excellent recently as the attacking midfielder playing directly behind Montero, was bumped back out to the wing and in the first half was as involved in the game as any of the cats.
The Costa Rican was partly at fault on both Portland goals and was perhaps the Whitecaps’ worst player in the opening 45 minutes. In the second half, still on left wing, Bolanos was probably their best.
“I had a quiet word,” Robinson said when asked if he spoke to Bolanos at halftime.
“Bola’s a top player. Bola can play wherever, whether I play him in central or wide areas. Sometimes with wide players, they are exceptional and they have off-days. I think in the first half, he had an off-half. And the second half, he didn’t. He was on it. What’s important is when your wide players do have an offday, then someone else steps up to the plate.”
Maybe the Timbers were surprised to see Valeri outnumbered by Whitecaps who excel defensively. But Bolanos looked a little surprised, too. Probably, so was Montero, who was without the proximity of the Whitecaps’ best playmaker.
“You know, it’s not easy when you change every time,” Bolanos said. “I play two games as a No. 10 (attacking midfielder), so I feel comfortable there.
“It’s different moving now ... to the left side. It’s totally different when you’re running, when you press. Everything is different. It’s not easy when you change every game, different positions. But I try to help the team all the time.”
Robinson has used a different starting lineup in each of Vancouver’s 11 MLS and CONCACAF games this season.
Besides moving Bolanos to the wing, he took dynamic attacker Alphonso Davies out of the starting lineup. Davies played only the final 16 minutes.
“It’s a different strategy,” Montero said. “I think we did well. We need to keep believing in the process. We’re getting better every game and that’s what matters to us.”
And they need to keep believing road wins are there. The Whitecaps just haven’t seen any yet.