Felipe ready to shine for short-handed Whitecaps
It’s “next man up” for the Vancouver Whitecaps.
And the next man, and the next, and the next.
Say it again a couple more times, and you’ve got a handle on what’s facing the Caps as they head into next Wednesday’s Major League Soccer game against visiting Sporting Kansas City.
International duty means no Alphonso Davies, Russell Teibert, Doneil Henry, Kendall Waston, Yordy Reyna or Aly Ghazal. That’s six players from last week’s starting 11 — including both centrebacks — who won’t be available for a game crucial to keeping the heart of the Caps’ playoff hopes beating.
“It’s a tremendous opportunity for the other players who haven’t been involved in the first two games,” said interim coach Craig Dalrymple, who saw his team knock the Toronto FC Reds out of playoff contention with a 2-1 win last Saturday, his second game at the Caps’ helm.
“We’ve had to make some tough decisions in terms of leaving players out, of the 18 even … ( but) they’ve all bought into the concepts and the slightly new identity that we have.”
Teibert has been the surprise face of that new, aggressive, highpressing identity.
In the past two games as the Caps have come out in a 4-1-4-1 formation, the central midfielder has been deployed much further forward, even recording his first goal since 2013 in the win over Toronto.
Even before the coaching change that saw Carl Robinson jettisoned with five games left, Teibert had made four consecutive starts. His stretch of six straight is the most he’s had since 2014.
He’s even displaced Felipe as the team’s offensive nexus. And the past two games, the Brazilian has been forced to watch from the bench as the Niagara Falls, Ont., athlete played the role Felipe had hoped to when acquired from the New York Red Bulls at the start of the season.
“(The coaching change is) a fresh start, but let’s say I didn’t get as much forward as I wanted to (under Robinson). I didn’t get the ball close to goal as much as I wanted, and yet I still created a lot of chances for this team,” Felipe said, declining to expand on his utilization in Robinson’s squad.
Reticence is easy when the numbers paint the picture.
In 2015, his best year at New York, he had seven assists in 33 starts. His MLS career best was 10 assists in 30 starts during his first year with Montreal. In those two seasons he had 23 and 22 shots on goal, respectively.
In 23 starts with Vancouver, he has seven assists, but just five shots on goal, a product of how he’d been rolled out in the previously standard 4-4-2.
The 5-10, 150-pound agitating midfielder — he’s the most-fouled player on Vancouver, earning two free kicks per game to Davies’ 1.9, per whoscored.com — is under contract for next season, but will jump at the chance to showcase his skills.
Consider:
He leads the team in key passes per game (1.8);
He leads the team with 39 successful crosses/corners (11th in MLS), with Cristian Techera a distant second at 18;
He has 48 scoring chances created, as per Opta. Davies is second with 36, Reyna is third with 35;
He leads the team with 1,674 touches.
His frustration over the way his season has unfolded was evident, compounded by some off-field turbulence from the deaths of close family members. But with Teibert away for Canada, he’ll get his chance to jump back into the starting 11 for MLS start No. 210.
“Even when I played well, and that was many times, people don’t recognize it. They just want to criticize,” he said. “For me, it’s not a problem. Because my stats, from my years in the league, speak for themselves.”