Tough season comes to merciful end
Whitecaps coach confident there are pieces to build on heading into next season
The banner in the supporters section at B.C. Place had a simple message: “We are who we are.”
For all the talk of creating a new culture coming into this Major League Soccer season, we still don’t have an answer to that question when it comes to the Vancouver Whitecaps.
A team that saw unprecedented turnover this year — 18 players out, 22 players in — will see another off-season of massive change, though likely not on the same scale.
Sunday’s 1-0 loss to Real Salt Lake was the final chapter in the team’s 2019 tale of woe, which saw them finish at the bottom of the Western Conference for the first time since their expansion season of 2011, and miss the playoffs for the second straight year. Their eight wins and 34 points were also the lowest totals since the inaugural season.
“We finished last in the West. We have to improve. One hundred per cent we want to get the right players,” said coach Marc Dos Santos. “You need to adapt a little bit as a coach. You have to take the good things. The problem with majority of the media or fans, it’s good, then after four losses, then it’s not good anymore, then there’s no identity. There are a lot of good things that you can take away.”
Here’s what we learned …
SUNDAY’S STORY
After the first five minutes, Real began to exert control, breaking through in the 28th minute when Corey Baird’s cross cleared a leaping Doneil Henry onto the head of Damir Kreilach, who powered it home past Max Crepeau from six yards out.
Salt Lake had possession 56 per cent of the time and outpassed Vancouver 578-449, recording 16 key passes to Vancouver’s 11.
Shots were 16-16, although the Whitecaps had a 5-4 edge in attempts on target, forcing RSL’s Nick Rimando into some tough saves in his final regular season MLS game, including getting his fingertips to a Michaell Chirinos blast that went off the post in the late stages of the game.
Salt Lake leapfrogged both the L.A. Galaxy and Minnesota United into third place in the West, earning a valuable home playoff date.
SQUAD GOALS
The atmosphere for the season finale was more afterthought than electric, with 18,378 fans in the house.
Even the players box, where those who didn’t make the 18 sit, was empty save for Simon Colyn and Michael Baldissimo.
The game had little meaning for jobs or places on the team next season, with Dos Santos having already made most of those decisions over the course of the season.
Now the speculation begins as to whom will return for the 2020 season.
Some decisions seem obvious, like striker Joaquin Ardaiz, who hasn’t seen the pitch in nine games, the last being a three-minute substitute appearance on Aug. 10 against Portland. His work ethic caused him to fall out of favour with Dos Santos before the season was half over, and he had just four shots on goal in 405 minutes of action this year. Both Ardiaz and winger Lass Bangoura were persona non gratae Sunday afternoon at B.C. Place.
“I feel that this is the base, this is where we need to be stronger. There’s something now to build on,” he said. “When I arrived (last November), I didn’t feel the same. There has been work done for the window much earlier, there are people that are working to make the roster better.
“There are pieces for us that are crucial and we’re working hard on them. We have to see. Maybe there’s opportunity that are going to come with players that we think, this is part of the core but we don’t know how other teams are thinking. Maybe there are players that today we think we are going to keep, then there’s something that happens in the market that makes us move because it’s the best thing for the club.
“What I want us to focus on as a club is on making the team better. Whatever it takes to make the team better.”
Even designated player Fredy Montero, under contract for next season, is expendable. His late-season scoring surge not only earned him the Dominic Mobilio Golden Boot as the Caps’ leading scorer, it also upped his value to other teams in MLS that may have an offence more suited to his abilities.
Dos Santos will hold exit interviews with the seven players leaving for international duty almost immediately, with the others being held over the course of this week, which the team is taking off from training.
NEEDS AND WANTS
Sunday’s game reinforced the continuing theme of the season; the Caps need more creators in midfield and more dangerous threats on the forward line.
Inbeom Hwang carries the burden of being the offensive bridge into the final third, but too often he is confronted by a defence compacted around him because of static movement from the other midfielders and forwards.
Theo Bair is a solid striker with a big offensive upside, but expectations were perhaps skewed by his spectacular first MLS goal against Portland. He still needs development, and Caps can’t go into the next season with him as their starter. Montero’s eight goals was the lowest MLS total of his career and, at age 32, can the team afford a salary of approaching US$1 million for a forward with that level of production?
Andy Rose and Teibert are solid, experienced depth players, but both had careerhighs in starts — 20 and 26, respectively — in the Caps midfield this season.
Teibert, the longest-serving Whitecap, hopes he’s part of the future, and not just because of his past.
“I’m very happy to be here, very happy to be playing with this team. I’ve made some very good friends within this team. I want to keep building those relationships. I truly enjoy being a Vancouver Whitecap and I want to continue to be,” he said.
“I’m not going to answer that question,” he said, when asked if this was his last game in Vancouver.
“I don’t want it to be my last game as a Whitecap. Being in Vancouver, like I’ve said many times, it’s become my home. This club has become my family. The relationships I’ve established here, it’s much more than just football. This is life.”
Dos Santos hopes to have 90 per cent of his squad assembled by January, before pre-season starts. That means having players signed in the month of December.
“We can’t do the same mistakes every year. I hope the biggest pieces, we get before Christmas,” he said. “That’s our target as a club.”