Techera delivers an offensive injection
WhiteCaps’ five-foot-two playmaker nets three goals in another MLS Draw
The Vancouver Whitecaps brought in Kei Kamara because of his reputation as a target player. All they needed to do was to set the bar lower — a lot lower.
It fell to the shortest player in MLS to provide the injection of offence the team needed so badly Saturday as the five-foot-two Cristian Techera scored three times — all off crosses — to earn the Caps a 3-3 tie with the New England Revolution on Saturday at B.C. Place. The only other time Vancouver (4-5-5, sixth in the West) has posted four consecutive ties in its MLS history was in July 2014.
Techera and Kamara both had seven shots in Saturday ’s game, but El Bicho (the Bug) put six of those on net, three of them in the back of it. Kamara had a night of frustration, beginning 30 seconds into the game when he missed a sitter from four yards out and again in the second half when he misfired on another stunning chance from five yards out.
All five of the game’s goals from the run of play came in the second half — Aly Ghazal’s own goal was the only score in the opening half — continuing the trend of slow starts by the Caps.
Vancouver had a disjointed first half featuring some erratic passing, their 67 per cent completion rate close to 10 points under their season average, and only managed two shots total, one of which was Kamara’s opening-minute effort. But the Caps turned it around in the second half, taking 19 shots and getting the lion’s share of their 18 scoring opportunities after the 50th minute. Vancouver, which
has three first-half goals this year, hasn’t lead a game at the break this season. In the past 12 games, they’ve been ahead for just 100 minutes.
But their three goals, the first time they ’ve scored that many this season, came off the kind of plays the Revs had, in vain ultimately, game-planned against.
“We know that they are second in the league in average crosses into the box in each match and that was something we wanted to try to alleviate,” New England coach Brad Friedel said. “We know they have some very good players. Whether they are tall or short, they are very lively in the box and it’s something that we didn’t want to happen.”
The Whitecaps had 20 crosses on the day, just one shy of their league-leading average. On the season, more than half of their shot attempts come from inside the 18-yard box (ninth in MLS) and they’re third in shot percentage inside the six — though the latter number isn’t quite as impressive considering the company they keep. Only Seattle and the L.A. Galaxy have more percentage of shots from inside the six; the Sounders have an MLS-low seven goals for, an equally dreadful 0.7 goals-pergame average, while the Galaxy has just 16 goals on the year.
Vancouver had just four goals off crosses before Saturday. That changed Saturday and all because of Techera’s hard charges to the back post.
“We have two wide players in Fonzie (Alphonso Davies) and the Bug who can (go to the back post), but they don’t do it all the time,” said coach Carl Robinson. “And when you do it all the time, you get your rewards and the Bug got this rewards today. As they say … get at the back stick — you’ll get your reward there.”
Glossing over the circumstances of the goals they scored in the 2-2 tie with FC Dallas last week, the Whitecaps have now scored nine goals in their last four games — and conceded nine in the same span. Only the Colorado Rapids and Real Salt Lake, both below Vancouver in the standings, have conceded more goals (10) over that time. And only the Houston Dynamo, undefeated in four games (3-0-1), have scored more (11).
“I know we have to stop conceding goals because my goalkeeper’s getting mad at the moment,” said Robinson, whose team has 27 goals against with only the Montreal Impact’s 29 exceeding them.
“I’ll take a clean sheet or a onenil, even though it might dissatisfy people, all day long.”
Whether they are tall or short, they are very lively in the box and it’s something that we didn’t want to happen.