New midfielder gives ’Caps Mutch needed boost
GAME DAY: LOS ANGELES AT VANCOUVER, 7 P.M.
VANCOUVER — It’s a new league on a different continent, but for midfielder Jordon Mutch the game stays pretty much the same.
Mutch spent a decade competing in the top levels of the English football before joining the Vancouver Whitecaps this month on a one-year loan from Crystal Palace. Major League Soccer might not have the history or prestige of the English Premier League, but Mutch says the style of play is similar.
“If I’m being honest, there’s not too much of a difference,” said the soft-spoken 26-year-old from Derby, England. “It’s a very fast game over here and very similar to the Premier League.
“It’s very much what I thought it would be like. There’s not too much difference in the standards.”
Mutch is expected to be in the lineup today when the Whitecaps (2-1-0) host the L.A. Galaxy (1-1-0) at B.C. Place Stadium. He earned his first MLS assist in his first start last week during Vancouver’s 4-1 loss to Atlanta.
“It’s nice to get my first game under my belt and I’m looking forward too many more,” said Mutch, who has scored 10 goals in the English Football League Championship and seven in the Premier League.
Something that does make MLS different is the travel. After playing in Houston and Atlanta, the Whitecaps have flown more than 16,800 kilometres. That’s farther then most English teams travel in a whole league season.
“That’s the nature of the league, you have to deal with it,” shrugged Mutch. “You just get on with it and enjoy the matches.”
At six-foot-two and 180 pounds, Mutch brings some size to the Whitecaps’ lineup. He describes himself as a “box-to-box midfielder.”
“I want to bring goals and I want to bring assists,” he said.
While the style of game might be similar, Mutch is still adapting to new teammates.
“You have to get to know the players, what they like, what they don’t like,” he said. “What foot they like to receive on, what runs they like to make. I have been here three weeks now. I’m getting used to it.”
So far Whitecaps head coach Carl Robinson has been impressed with Mutch.
“He’s a very good player, a very calm player,” Robinson said. “He’s exceptional on the ball.
“His body movement, the ball manipulation he has is excellent.”
Both striker Kei Kamara and Canadian defender Marcel de Jong are eligible to play tonight. Kamara sat out last week’s game with a groin injury while de Jong left the Houston game two weeks ago with a bruised lung.
De Jong was spitting blood and spent the night in hospital after suffering a freak injury.
“I jumped up to block a cross,” he said. “Nothing weird happened. I just got the ball on the chest. I got up and kept on playing for two minutes. All of a sudden blood was coming out.
“That was pretty scary. To see yourself spitting up blood is not something you want to experience every day. It was kind of freaky.”
The Whitecaps will be without captain Kendall Waston, who has been called up by the Costa Rican national team for international friendlies. On Friday, Major League Soccer announced that a red card given to Waston last weekend had been rescinded after an appeal by the Whitecaps.
The Galaxy opened the season with a 2-1 win at home over Portland, then lost on the road 2-1 to New York City FC.