WHITECAPS: Team promises to get better after record-equalling 6-0 loss
Caps CEO sounds off after crushing loss, promises fans there are better days ahead
It wasn't that Vancouver Whitecaps sporting director and CEO Axel Schuster didn't have anything to say following Wednesday's 6-0 loss to LAFC. He just had nothing that could be said in public.
“It's a good thing that journalists aren't that close to the sporting director, like (they are) in Germany,” he said. “I was totally pissed. I was upset. I had to be careful with myself not to say the wrong things. So I didn't speak at all after the game.”
But a day later, Schuster had plenty to say as he held court with reporters via Zoom. Having your Major League Soccer club suffer the worst loss in team history — the 6-0 score line equalled the score line from an April 2018 loss at Sporting Kansas City, but not the manner of capitulation — was always going to spark some dialogue.
First thing on the agenda: learning from your mistakes and moving on.
“The result … I don't even want to think about this result. It sounds so weird (to say that),” Schuster said. “What does it mean? It's one game. We won't change our whole way, our whole road, we won't change our whole setup, we won't change our whole idea of building this club because of one game.
“I'm kicking everybody here in the ass (today). They are asked to become better every day, to do better, to find solutions and to find answers. Yesterday, there are no excuses for that. It shouldn't happen again. These mistakes that happened yesterday, shouldn't happen again.”
For Caps fans, well at least those still sticking around, it was a familiar post-game ennui. There was perhaps some surprise in seeing their team surrender the fastest five goals in MLS history, but they are somewhat inured to the manner of defeat.
Los Angeles FC put their boots on the Caps' throats a minute into the game, and kept them there right until the end, out-shooting, out-possessing, out-passing and out-classing their opponents at the Banc of California Stadium.
Echoes of the #RobboOut movement that preceded the departure of Carl Robinson in 2018 have begun to increase in volume and frequency, reverberating around coach Marc Dos Santos. But replacing the coach, who is 13-18-16 in MLS play since taking over to start 2019, isn't something that's on Schuster's mind.
“I haven't even thought about that,” he said. “This is a question that I didn't even expect, but it's a fair question, I think, after a game like yesterday. But we won three of the four games before, Would you ask me the question before (Wednesday's) game? He has a contract until the end of the next season, so it's nothing we are discussing right now, it's nothing that's on my plate.
“The right time to ask this question is in December. Because I'm a professional, I will never be a person that makes this decision only because of one game, especially after a game like that, when I'm emotional and pissed off.”
As for the fans, the scales have tipped more toward apathy than anger.
Schuster's supplanting of Mark Pannes as CEO has expanded his duties by a factor of 10. The magnitude of the job he inherited, first from Pannes but also the previous presidents, was not lost on the German.
He's determined to change the culture of the entire organization. “I think the thing I heard most from our supporters was that the club wasn't transparent, that the club hadn't the right openness, that the club hasn't been honest at every point,” he said. “We made a lot of mistakes. I think the first thing we have to change after such a game is to be transparent, to be open, to not look for excuses.
“I think if you're a supporter of a club, you're going to have hope — but you're not expecting, you hope — your club will win. And it's part of the game that you lose, and … sometimes getting a beating like yesterday. What you expect from your organization is to deal with that in the right way. And that's what we want to do today.
“I want to convince (the fans) that we're doing things different than before, that we are doing things better. And I said at the first press conference in November last year … I'm not Harry Potter, so don't expect magical things. Don't expect us to win the league next year,” he said.
“If we can convince people, we get trust from people that we are doing the right thing, step by step, I think, then that's the best thing we can do to convince them to come back.
“But, after you made so many mistakes, like this organization did in the last years, after you made so many things wrong, you first have to deliver something. And the only thing we can deliver is doing better step by step.”
There are no excuses for that . ... These mistakes that happened yesterday, shouldn't happen again.”
Axel Schuster