Robinson has to make tough choice
With two strong keepers both eager to play, who will get the call in Portland Sunday?
It’s not often you see David Ousted sporting a long face. But the look on his face as he walked to the bench as a backup before Sunday’s Major League Soccer match against San Jose said a lot.
His clear position as No. 1 goalkeeper for the Whitecaps is in doubt. And that’s not something that’s really been said out loud before.
You’re forgiven if you forgot — it does seem so long ago now — but Ousted hasn’t always been the Caps’ first choice. When he first arrived in 2013, he sat on the bench for seven games before finally seizing the starting spot from Brad Knighton.
He didn’t sit again until last October, when he made way for Paolo Tornaghi’s first MLS start.
Until Stefan Marinovic arrived in July, he only missed one other start: in March against TFC, when he was serving a one-game suspension for a red card in the previous game against San Jose.
But he has now sat on the bench four times: first in New England in August, when coach Carl Robinson said it was just about giving his veteran a break ahead of what was going to be a busy close to the regular season.
The next two times Ousted was backup — at the end of August in Orlando and in late September in Kansas City — again, it was about freshness. Both games were the third in a week. With a keeper of Marinovic’s quality, it made sense.
After Marinovic signed, Ousted called having competition “healthy” for him as a player and for the squad as a whole.
In the background, though, there was that thought: is the changing of the guard about to happen?
Ousted’s contract was up at the end of the year, after all. And in a salary cap league, finding replacements who are cheaper and (hopefully) younger is always a must.
At the time the Kiwi international signed, Ousted said he welcomed the competition.
And earlier this month, with the playoffs approaching and Marinovic having put in three top-notch performances, the questions about having competition for the first time in his career popped up again.
“I’ve had a consistently high level all season,” he said. “Stef has done fantastically ... but it’s not going to change my focus.”
He wanted to stay No. 1. No surprise there. Marinovic was similarly honest. “I think you’ll find that in most teams, there’s not a lot that happens between the keepers,” he said when asked about what chatter there might be between the two.
“You’re not going to be best buddies. It’s a professional environment and you act that way,” he added. “You just concentrate on your own thing. I expected (Ousted) to be the keeper he is, he’s a strong keeper.”
Marinovic added: “Just put my head down and did my own thing. You’ve got to get the coach thinking about you.”
The coach is pleased with his options.
“Obviously I’m in a very fortunate position,” Robinson said Wednesday after a practice held in driving rain at UBC.
Robinson picked Marinovic for Sunday’s match against San Jose because of his performance against Kansas City, a 1-0 win for the Caps that saw the New Zealand international make a series of spectacular stops.
“I thought he put in a phenomenal performance and then I lost him for international duty,” the coach said.
While Marinovic was in Japan playing for his country two weekends ago, Ousted got the start against the Red Bulls in New York.
The call for Marinovic Sunday was about who Robinson and his goalie coach Stewart Kerr thought was best suited to the moment.
“If you ever get a chance to read Alex Ferguson’s book, he says ‘sentiment goes out the window.’ You’re here to win football matches,” he said.
“I want them to be disappointed when they don’t play but I want them to be professional, respect the decision and (Ousted) did that.”
In Portland this Sunday, where the winner will finish first, Robinson faces another difficult choice.
With a laugh, he suggested he might just go with the most creative solution: “Maybe play two in goal. That might help us.”