BYE, CAPTAIN
Ownership parts ways with president known as Captain Canuck after a rocky four years at the helm
Alphonso Davies’ record signing aside, the Vancouver Whitecaps needed something positive — anything positive — to happen on the field Wednesday.
A recent poor run of form had seen them skid down the Major League Soccer standings, and a 1-0 deficit to the Montreal Impact heading into the second leg of their Canadian Championship semifinal seemed an insurmountable hole to escape, with just four goals in their last six games.
But the Caps put together their gutsiest performance of the season, beating the Impact 2-0 at B.C. Place Stadium to advance to the Canadian final.
Silverware will be on the line when they face Toronto FC — 3-0 victors over Ottawa on Wednesday — for the national title.
“I thought it was a very professional, organized, disciplined, top performance by the boys.
“When you go through periods of a little bit of inconsistency, you find out about your team,” said coach Carl Robinson.
“The one thing you can never ever do is question the character of that group. We lack certain things, yes I know, but not the character.
“I think we showed how good we could be tonight against a very good team.”
Yordy Reyna and Kei Kamara scored for the Caps, who won the two-leg series 2-1 on aggregate.
TFC booked their spot with a 4-0 triumph.
Here’s what we learned from this game ...
DODGING A BULLET
Montreal’s Saphir Taïder could have turned the game on its head in the 16th minute, when he got his foot on a cross from Jeisson Vargas, only to have Caps goalie Stefan Marinovic make a brilliant save.
The ball bounced toward the far post, and for some incomprehensible reason, Montreal striker Matteo Mancosu jumped over it instead of knocking it home.
An away goal for Montreal would have meant the Caps would have needed three goals to win.
With the stay of execution, the Caps turned on the heat and put the Impact net under siege.
Cristian Techera banged a free kick off the corner of the crossbar from 20 yards out, minutes before putting a cross in the box that just eluded both Kamara and Kendall Waston, drifting just wide of the far post. The Whitecaps outshot Montreal 9-1 in the first half, despite just a four per cent advantage in possession.
With the Caps leading 2-0 and just four minutes left in regulation, Anthony Blondell flashed a perfect cross across the post to Techera, whose powerful volley was punched away off the line in a spectacular save by Montreal’s Clement Diop, preserving a glimmer of hope for the Impact.
LET’S GET PHYSICAL
Jake Nerwinski has been rotating in and out of the right back position with Sean Franklin, as both have different strengths.
The strapping young Nerwinski has a physical element that he put on display on the Caps’ opening goal.
After outjumping former Caps trialist Daniel Lovitz to win an aerial battle with a strong header, leaving the Impact fullback crumpled on the ground, he stormed down the wing and put a perfect cross onto the penalty spot, where Reyna volleyed it home in the 19th minute.
It sparked some rough play, with Waston and Doneil Henry both picking up yellow cards in the first half.
BREK-ING THE MOULD
Much to the surprise of the supporters’ section, Southsiders’ whipping boy Brek Shea was one of the best Whitecaps in the first half, making dicing runs down the right, completing 17 of 21 passes, and almost scoring on a booming shot from 16 yards out.
He set up the Caps’ second goal, collecting the ball in the corner before waiting to put a clever flick between defenders to an onrushing Marcel De Jong, who was taken down by Shamit Shome in the box. Kamara stepped up and put a clinical PK into the right corner — his fourth successful penalty on four attempts this season — to make it 2-0 in the 60th minute.
LET’S GET IN FORMATION
Montreal stuck to the formula that has brought so many teams success against Vancouver, starting in a 5-3-2.
The Caps rolled out a 4-4-1-1, with Kamara up top above Reyna, who occasionally dropped all the way to the back line to collect the ball.
Aly Ghazal and Russell Teibert partnered well in the middle of the midfield, with Teibert dominating the passing stats and the Egyptian international being his usual disruptive self before limping off in the 75th minute for Efy Juarez.