Caps have the panic button on standby
MLS: Despite plenty of scoring chances this season, Vancouver is feeling the pressure to produce points
The Vancouver Whitecaps, like cash-strapped Lower Mainland property owners forced to defer their skyrocketing property taxes, know their bill will inevitably come due.
The Caps won their first two Major League Soccer games of the season. In the 11 games since, they’ve won two.
Their 16-point total is the lowest since they posted the same 4-5-4 mark to begin 2013 and better only than 2011’s inaugural season.
But the team has managed to stay afloat in the tough Western Conference, the butcher’s bill being deferred by three consecutive draws, although another home loss in front of a vociferously dissatisfied fan base could mean pushing the panic button.
When the New England Revolution (5-4-2) visit B.C. Place Saturday, their bump-and-grind style will be a stiff test for a Whitecaps team that has only beaten the Revs twice since 2015 (2-4-2) and dropped two straight to their Eastern foes.
While the Massachusetts musket-bearers haven’t been exactly daunting away from their Foxborough fortress — they have just four road wins since the start of 2016 — one of those victories was a 2-1 decision over the Caps at the Dome.
“This game,” said midfielder Aly Ghazal, pausing to give his words emphasis, “is very, very important.”
It’s apparent from the team’s scrappy and physical training sessions at UBC that the players feel a sense of urgency, though perhaps not as keenly as their volatile fan base. The team focuses on the positives, like leading the MLS in scoring chances before the May 19 game in Dallas.
And while the offence was non-existent against the Toros, the 2-2 result was not unimpressive considering the circumstances — a short week, taking on the league’s best home team, soaring Texas temperatures — as they scored twice past the 82nd minute with a lot of heart and a lot more luck.
The Caps are primarily focused on how they’re playing, believing wins will come.
“If it’s no win (on Saturday) with a bad performance, that’s bad, we’ll maybe push the panic button,” said Ghazal. “But if we perform well and do our jobs well and fight for the win and it comes, then we’re happy. But if (we play well and don’t), we won’t blame anyone.
“Are you going to relax because things are going bad anyways or are you going to panic? Both ways are bad. We just have to keep working a little harder from everyone and correcting the areas that we need to correct and things will go better.”
The Revs are the definition of a mid-pack team, sticking close to the mean in almost every statistical category. But they’re averaging two goals against per road game, including four in a 4-2 loss to the Montreal Impact, the only team with a worse record (1-7-0) over the past eight games.
The Caps have their own defensive issues. Too many goals have come from loose checking and plenty of time in training this week was spent on drills focusing on one-onone defending in areas close to the 18-yard box.
“For us to concede six goals in three games is not good enough. We need to get back to the drawing board on the individual detail on that,” said coach Carl Robinson. “Yes, there are some worldly goals — right backs scoring left-footers into the top corner — but we have to be better. We’ve got to make it more difficult for them.”
“It’s a lot of little things that can
easily be fixed,” added fullback Jake Nerwinski. “It’s (being) one or two steps behind … but in this league, it’s going to be a goal every time if you’re one step behind.”
Robinson seems to have settled on the 4-4-2 as the formation that best suits his personnel, rolling it out in four straight games, and while they’re generating scoring chances, it’s not happening early in games. Vancouver has three first-half goals this season and nine of their 16 goals have come after the 70-minute mark.
“It’s a good trend to have, scoring late in games, because it means you’re fit. Having said that, we’d like to score earlier on if we can,” said Robinson. “We’ve missed a number of chances earlier in games that we haven’t been able to take advantage of.”
Goals and wins are commodities Whitecaps supporters would literally pay to see.
Since the season-opening win over the Impact, the Caps have been blanked twice and had to come from behind twice to salvage a point against teams that had a combined 2-4-3 road record. The 2-0 victory over Real Salt Lake April 27 appeared headed the same way before a Cristian Techera penalty in the 75th minute put the Caps in front.
If the trends are to change, Nerwinski knows it needs to start at the Dome.
“We’re still a third of the way through the season. I think if it gets to halfway through the season and we’re not winning games still, I think that’s when we’ll have to start thinking about what we need to do differently,” said Nerwinski.
“But we need to ... start winning at home again.”