Tired-looking Whitecaps end streak
Smelling blood, Philadelphia Union pounces on sluggish Vancouver team
Carl Robinson thought something was off with his team from the first minute on Saturday. The Philadelphia Union thought something was off before the game even started.
With Marcel de Jong still not at full fitness and Brett Levis still being young, it meant both stayed at home, and Brek Shea got the start at left back for the second straight game. The Union smelled blood and pounced.
They targeted the Caps’ left side early and often during the opening stages of Saturday’s 4-0 Union victory, attacking a player who, while he has the tools and experience to play the position, is better suited as an attacking midfielder. When his former coach Jason Kreis was hired in Orlando he put a stop to Shea’s oscillation between midfield and the back line, saying: “Analyzing the games before I came here, I could see that was a big liability, and defensively, with the team where we’re at right now, we don’t have room for defensive liability.”
At best : He doesn’t have the defensive timing down for the position, yet. At worst: just remove yet.
“That’s something we talked about going into the game. Brek isn’t exactly a defender, or not used to being one sometimes, so as much as we could isolate him and work down the right side, we tried to. And luckily we got some things out of that,” said Philadelphia right back Keegan Rosenberry.
“Every game you try to find the weakness of the opponent, and today we could clearly see from the first minute that there was a lot of space on our right-hand side to create the chances,” added Philly midfielder Borek Dockal, who had two goals in the game — both Involving Shea.
“In the first 20 minutes we had two or three really good chances from that spot. We just kept going, to keep them busy on their left-hand side.”
The Caps (6-6-5) were outshot 10-0 in that opening stretch, and the Union had eight consecutive corners before Dockal uncorked his
first. Shea’s headed clearance only went as far as the corner of the box, and midfielder Alphonso Davies was gun-shy in his tackle, allowing Dockal to collect the ball and lash it home through traffic. Dockal’s second goal, in the 71st minute, came off the right as well. Alejandro Bedoya played the ball to him at the edge of the 18 where he sidestepped a fatigued swipe from Shea and another from centreback Jose Aja, then curled home the 2-0 goal.
To lay the result of the game — which ended the Caps’ sixgame unbeaten run, and twogame winning streak — at the feet of Shea alone would be unjust. It’s just one of many issues, from errant passes to mystifyingly leaden legs in the team’s first game back from the World Cup break. It would have been easy to point to jet lag for the team’s sluggishness — they’ll have flown a leaguehigh 50,071 kilometres by the time they get home Sunday — but they were also coming off a two-week break.
“It is very hard to take too many positives from a performance like that,” said Robinson. “What does concern me is ... we looked very leggy. We looked two miles off. We did not look like we were fit enough. … We looked like we were tired.”
A red card to Aja for a shoulder grab that prevented a scoring opportunity just a minute after Dockal’s second goal — and Ilsinho’s conversion of the penalty kick — sapped any life the Caps might have had. The frustration boiled over with Yordy Reyna’s ill-conceived shoulder barge into the head of Fabrice-Jean Picault in the 94th minute, earning the Peruvian midfielder his second yellow card and giving the Union another penalty kick goal.
The Caps looked nothing like the team that had generated the most chances and goals in MLS since the start of May. They didn’t manage a shot on target, getting outgunned 25-2 overall in the game.
There were only four teams ahead in MLS that had conceded more goals in the past six games than Vancouver’s 12 coming into Saturday’s action — Orlando (17), San Jose (14), D.C. United (14) and Colorado (13) — and Saturday’s result will move them up that list.
“After it was 1-0, we still had a chance to tie the game,” said Caps midfielder Felipe. “It’s the mentality. We went down and then we started to give up. We cannot do that. We have to believe in each other and trust one another. No matter what, stick to our game plan.
“I think we need to reset. Every time we lose a bad game it is back to the basics. You know, do not lose the confidence. There are still a lot of games to go.”
Goalkeeper Brian Rowe, who’s been tabbed for 16 goals since taking over for the injured Stefan Marinovic seven games ago, was blunt after Saturday’s game.
“Just disappointing. Embarrassing. We cannot put that on the field. Embarrassing is the only word,” he said. “You have to move past this game. Take tonight just to take what you can from it, look yourself in the mirror. We just need to get back after it.”
The Caps return home to host the Colorado Rapids (2-9-3) next Saturday in a game that has suddenly taken on far more importance. The Rapids haven’t won since April 21, losing eight straight games — including a 2-1 loss to the Whitecaps at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park at the beginning of June — before drawing 2-2 with Chicago before the break.
Vancouver will be without the services of both Aja and Reyna, who will be suspended for the game.