Caps’ journey? Don’t stop believing
With final playoff spot on the line, team is confident it can overcome the odds
It’s a fanciful idea, probably too unlikely a possibility to even bring up.
So don’t do it then.
But it’s intriguing. It’s crazy hopeful. And we’re always accused of being too negative in this space.
But you’ll get laughed at.
Heck, it’s not like that hasn’t happened before. And if we can spread a little bit of pixiedust hope around a Vancouver Whitecaps club that has been assailed for failing to live up to the early-season promise of a 5-2-5 start, why not?
The 9-8-13 Caps haven’t won back-to-back Major League Soccer games since early May and have been ping- ponging in and out of the fifth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference for weeks. Stay there — they’re one point up on Portland heading into weekend play — and they’ll get a knockout-round, post-season game on the road.
But if they can beat FC Dallas today at BC Place Stadium to make it two consecutive wins, they’ll be five points behind the Texas side with three games to play. And if they could actually catch Dallas for fourth, they’d get that knockout-round game at home.
OK, it’s a long shot, one as long as the Lone Star state is wide. But don’t think it hasn’t crossed the minds of a few Caps.
“We are thinking the best things,” says centre back Kendall Waston. “We do not think only of fifth place because anything is possible.
“We have a chance here at home. We have to win and have three points. We have to. After that, we can think of getting in the fourth or third place and play the first (playoff) game here at home. It would be a nice thing for the club because it would be the first time getting (a home playoff game). We want to make history here.”
The big guy clearly dreams big when he drops his 6- 5 frame into bed at night.
The Caps would need to beat Dallas and then win at least two of their final three, while 14-10-6 Dallas lost out. Unlikely to be sure, but hey, Dallas did go 0-6-2 during one stretch this season. And Vancouver did go 3-0-1 during a four-game stretch in late May-early June.
Dallas plays host to the redhot Los Angeles Galaxy next week, goes on the road to Colorado to face the reeling Rapids, then closes out the regular season at home to Portland. The Caps are in Seattle next Friday, in San Jose the following week and close out at home to Colorado.
Young midfielder Russell Teibert, who has taken on more of a leadership role since replacing an injured Gershon Koffie in the starting lineup nine games ago, says he’d “absolutely” love to get a home playoff game.
“But it’s something you can’t look into and is certainly not what I’m looking into.
“We want to get into the playoffs,” he added. “So any way we can get to the playoffs, how we get there really doesn’t matter. And how we do that is taking it game by game.”
There’s an intriguing twist today in the battle with Portland to at least secure that final Western playoff spot. Last Saturday, the Caps knew before kickoff that the Timbers had lost in Toronto and that they could leapfrog their Cascadia rival with a win over Real Salt Lake.
Today, the Dallas-Caps’ game will be over before Portland faces the Earthquakes in San Jose. The Timbers will also go into that one minus two key players — captain Will Johnson (leg fracture) and leading scorer Diego Valeri, who is suspended because of yellow-card accumulation.
The Caps have a loss and a draw against Dallas this season. They dominated the game at BC Place on July 27, getting off 30 shots and were unlucky to have to settle for a 2-2 draw.
The key for the Caps is to start putting wins together. After a big 2-0 victory over Eastern Conference-leading Sporting Kansas City on Aug. 10, they were terrible in a scoreless draw at Chivas USA, then lost two straight, including an embarrassing 3-0 defeat at home to Portland.
After a 2-0 home win over San Jose on Sept 10, they lost 2-1 in Dallas and then were awful again in a 3-0 loss in Portland.
The message this week, after last Saturday’s 2-1 win over Real Salt Lake: “Don’t stop now,” said Teibert. “We can’t drop our levels. We set the standard and we’re certainly not going to drop it.
“People can doubt all they want, but the belief in this locker-room is never going to break. I don’t think anything can really shake us. We’ve been thought a lot this season and overcome a lot. We still have a lot to play for; everything to play for for that matter.”