Is cup half-full or half-empty after ties?
Is it Yanni? Is it Laurel?
“You know what? I had a disagreement with my missus the other day about it. Probably Laurel. But I changed my mind three times,” Vancouver Whitecaps head coach Carl Robinson said with a laugh about the latest internet illusion — this time auditory — to rend families and relationships apart.
Its relevance? The same can be said of the Caps’ last three games — all 2-2 ties, two coming at the death — whether they ’re points gained or points lost.
It started with a May 11 home game against the Houston Dynamo, with Kendall Waston heading home the tying goal in the 94th and final minute. Five days later against San Jose at home, Vancouver opened the scoring, conceded two straight, then tied it midway through the second half and despite sustained and dramatic pressure, couldn’t produce a winner.
A mere 72 hours later, the Caps went to one of the toughest stadiums in Major League Soccer and came away with another point, thanks to a Kei Kamara penalty kick in the 100th minute — tied for the latest goal in a regulation game in MLS history.
“I think if you look at the Houston game, it was a point gained, because we scored in the last minute. But obviously two points lost (vs. San Jose), because we were at home, and we’d like to win every game (at B.C. Place),” said Robinson. “But Dallas on Saturday, we probably gained a point, because we were down and out.
“What I take out of the four games,” he added, including a game against Minnesota that saw Vancouver lose 1-0 despite playing most of the second half a man up, “is we played very, very well. We played some very good football, we created a number of chances, which was a concern prior to that.”
So the definitive answer is: The dress is blue and white. Or gold and black. And don’t even ask the tom-may-toe/tom-ah-toe question around B.C. Place, because there’s a vocal segment of Caps fans ready to shower the team’s bench and management with said fruit.
They don’t see the resilience the team needed to battle back to tie all three games, but point to a stagnant offence and predictable tactics that have caused their club to win just once in its past eight games. Over that span the Caps — currently fifth in the West, sixth in points per game — have gone 1W-4L-3D. Only the Montreal Impact (1-7-0) have a worse record.
But there is also a great deal of parity in the league. Every team has lost at least once on the road, and only three have failed to win on the road: last-place Colorado, Real Salt Lake, and Toronto FC. The only undefeated home teams are New York City FC, which has gone 5-0 on its bumpy, tiny, crooked pitch, and Portland, which played five straight games on the road to start the season (0-3-2) before ripping off a five-game win streak, including four straight at home.
The Caps’ Saturday’s home date with the New England Revolution (5-4-2, 5th East) is the latest in a string of seemingly must-win games. Another draw may not keep the Yannis baying for management’s blood from drowning out the optimistic Laurels.
The two sides match up well, tactically. Brad Friedel’s side loves to press hard in midfield, forcing the opposition into turnovers. One way to counter that is to go vertically over the midfield morass, a segment the Caps do well; they’re second in long key passes (passes that lead to a scoring chance) in the league at 2.5 per game. The Revs also give up 75 long ball passes per game, third-highest in MLS.
As for short, possession-oriented passes, the Whitecaps’ average of 303 per game is the league’s second-lowest, but don’t call it a weakness, says midfielder Felipe.
“The most important thing (versus New England) is to be good on the ball,” said the Brazilian, who leads the team with five assists and 2.1 key passes per game.
“I think the stats don’t say what the reality is with this team. I think we are good on the ball. You guys go
on the statistics, but many games we’ve played a man down, and that’s unbalanced the (numbers). You see one perspective, we see another. You can see the good things, or you can see the bad things.
“I think we always take the bad things and learn from them, and we take the good things and keep doing it.
“I think this team is growing lots; if you look at the beginning of the season, we weren’t creating a lot of chances. And we are now, but that means we’ve been good on the ball. To create chances you have to be able to pass the ball. That’s what I’m saying; it’s about perspective.”
But it’s tough to change an entrenched point of view, like getting a #MAGA hat wearer to hug an immigrant, or refraining from dropping anyone who says po-TAH-to down a deep, dark well.
The bottom line is the Caps are fifth in the Western Conference standings, right in the mix of the playoff hunt with a third of the season gone, and this despite turning over most of the roster from last season.
Whether this recent stretch of ties will haunt or be hailed at the end of the season is a question that will have to be answered then.