Caps look to rebound from ugly loss
Winning more important than putting on show for fans as struggling team tries to get back on track
On Friday in Kansas City, there was little good and a whole lot of bad, and now the Vancouver Whitecaps are hoping for a little ugly — of the good kind — this week.
Anthony Blondell and Yordy Reyna showed some moments of chemistry and danger against Sporting Kansas City, and Stefan Marinovic turned aside a Sporting KC penalty just before halftime. And the defence surrendered only three goals while down two men in the second half, the same number as the full-strength squad did in the opening half of the 6-0 loss, and kept the score from being even more lopsided than it was.
That’s good, right? There’s something good one can take from the worst loss in team history, right?
“Nah, there’s no win or positive from a six-zero loss,” said fullback Sean Franklin. “We can’t take any win from that. We know we have to do better.”
He’s right. There isn’t much point to taking the positives from a blowout loss when you can learn so much more from the negatives.
Case in point, playing three at the back. This hasn’t worked out so well. The Caps have given up nine goals and had three players red-carded when playing a formation with three fullbacks this season.
Or a defence that gave up 34 shots, 14 of which were on target, while the offence has mustered an unflattering 64 shots in total this season.
Admittedly, the numbers were skewed by the Caps being short-handed, but the fact remains that this is a team that has scored once in three games and four of its last six.
The stats are staggering; the team sits last in MLS in goals per game, shots and possession, and they have the lowest offensive rating in MLS. They haven’t scored at home since their season opener, getting shut out in consecutive games at B.C. Place. On Friday they’ll host a team that beat them 2-1 in Salt Lake three weeks ago.
In the 341 minutes Kei Kamara has missed this season — and he’s questionable for Friday’s game with a groin injury — the Caps have struggled even more.
Vancouver is averaging 0.3 goals per 90 minutes with him out of the lineup, as opposed to the 1.4 goals in the 446 minutes with Kamara playing.
The numbers are ugly, but the Caps will be fine with that if they can get some ugly wins, too.
“Now, it’s not about the beautiful soccer. It’s about how much we care about this team,” said Felipe. “It’s
not about putting on a good show, it’s about winning. We can play ugly and win three points. In the end, no one will remember if you played beautiful or not.”
The Brazilian midfielder pointed to the 2016 season for some solace, when his New York Red Bulls recorded one win in their first eight games, then went on a 16-game unbeaten streak to end the season and capture the Eastern Conference title.
While you can take that with a grain of salt, as the Red Bulls were the reigning regular-season champions and coming off a deep playoff run, his point about staying evenkeel remains.
Should the Caps lose their fourth straight game, or fail to score for a third straight match when they host
Real Salt Lake on Friday, it will make for a long uphill battle to make the post-season in a Western Conference full of quality teams.
“I don’t think there’s pressure. We’re only eight games into the season. There’s no need to push the panic button,” said Franklin, who played well under tough circumstances Friday in his first minutes of the season.
“We definitely have to start getting points at home, though. There’s a stress and urgency to win … to get three points at home.”
After digging themselves a 3-0 hole through porous checking against Sporting KC, the Caps unravelled when captain Kendall Waston lost his cool on a late challenge of Roger Espinoza — he was incensed that the K.C. player went down under little or no contact — and screamed at the prone Honduran. It sparked a melee that resulted in two red cards to the Whitecaps — Yordy Reyna and Efrain Juarez were sent to the showers — and made it three players the Caps have had ejected on video assistant replay this season.
Waston’s yellow and the reds to
his teammates were both correct according to MLS rules, and highlight another issue that’s plagued the team: discipline.
Vancouver is fourth overall in total cards issued this season with 17, and tied with the winless Seattle Sounders with three reds. They were tied for third in red cards last season, led the league in 2016, and were second overall in total cards in 2015.
The passion that makes Waston such a dynamic player is also the trait that gets him into trouble, as the Costa Rican centreback leads the MLS in red card ejections since 2015.
Coach Carl Robinson and his players went to great lengths this week in training to stress their awareness of emotional discipline and its role in some of their losses.