THREE THEMES
MANNEH FROM HEAVEN?
A difficult season for teenager Kekuta Manneh might just have turned for the better last Saturday when he dazzled in 17 minutes off the bench. “I think we saw a glimpse of it … the Kekuta of old,” said coach Carl Robinson. The Gambian Flash had three goals in his first nine games, just three of them starts. But he went without a point in his next 15 before helping set up Pedro Morales’ winner Saturday with a darting run to the byline and a terrific cutback pass to the top of the box. The Caps haven’t had a lot of impact minutes off the bench this season. Robinson hopes Manneh can provide that the rest of the season. “Sometimes with young players, they just have confidence-level bursts and spurts. Saturday everyone saw what he can do. This week, he’s followed that up with a very good training week. If he can continue to play at those levels … he’ll be a nightmare to play against.”
DEFEND SET PIECES
High-scoring FC Dallas leads the league in set-piece goals this season, most of them engineered by brilliantly taken corners and free kicks from Brazilian-born midfielder Michel. Three weeks ago, it was his free kick into the Whitecaps’ box that eventually fell to Blaz Perez who converted for the winning goal in a 2-1 victory in Frisco, Texas. Last weekend, in Dallas’s 3-1 home win over Seattle, Perez headed a Michel corner to the far post for the insurance goal. The Caps have had trouble defending set pieces and gave up a goal off a corner in last Saturday’s 2-1 win over Real Salt Lake. “Vitally important (to defend Dallas set pieces),” said Robinson.
MORE FROM ROSALES
Argentine midfielder Mauro Rosales has shown flashes of the playmaking ability he’s known for in his seven games with the Caps since coming over in a trade from Chivas USA. But he’s generated just one assist in that time and says he’s still trying to find some chemistry with the other attacking players. “(I’m) working very hard to be on the same page,” said Morales, who has played the full 90 minutes in just one of his six starts. “Obviously, I have just a month here and it’s difficult to come into a team that already play for eight or nine months. Just trying to be on the same page is one of my objectives.”