Coach, players know Teibert's value
Tireless midfielder just one game away from breaking Whitecaps' record for MLS appearances
There are few players on the Vancouver Whitecaps' roster as polarizing as midfielder Russell Teibert.
In this black-and-white binary world, you're either with him or against him. There is no middle ground.
Supporters gripe about his back-passing, while others praise it as part of his ability to help his team maintain possession. His passing accuracy, best on the team, hovers just below 90 per cent for his career, but that, say his detractors, can be explained by his short, non-progressive distribution.
The critics point to his lack of offensive output — no goals and no assists so far this season — while his defenders point out he's among the team leaders in interceptions, and is dispossessed at the lowest rate among midfielders.
But it's abundantly clear that his coach values his contributions, as do his current teammates.
Marc Dos Santos handed Teibert 17 starts in midfield in 2018 — trailing only Felipe and Alphonso Davies — and more than the previous two seasons combined under Carl Robinson. In 2019, the Niagara Falls, Ont., native put up a career-high 26 starts and 2,202 minutes, behind only designated players Ali Adnan and Hwang In-beom, and centre-back Erik Godoy.
This season, the 27-yearold has started every game, save a three-game stretch where he was out with injury.
Of the last eight games, when he's played 70-plus minutes, the Whitecaps are 4-0. In the three games he missed because of injury, and one where he had his minutes capped by the medical staff, the Caps are 0-4.
And there's one constant in the Caps' seven wins: he's the only player to start in all of them this season.
“Russell … for me ... any coach in the world, any team, they would love to have one player like Rusty,” said Adnan, the left-back who's interplay with Teibert on the flank the last three games has been an exhibition in symbiosis.
“(When he was hurt), we
It is an achievement that I could have never dreamed of as a 15-year-old coming to Vancouver.” Russell Teibert
missed him as a player. Now he's coming back, he brings a lot for the team. As a person, he is our captain ... He is a very tactical player, and he
helped me a lot on the left ... And I need players to understand me well on the field; that's how I can do my best.”
On Wednesday, Teibert and the Caps faced Jordan Harvey and LAFC. Harvey had been, up to that game, Vancouver's all- time leader in MLS appearances.
Teibert is now tied with him at 179, and could move into the top spot today when they travel to Los Angeles to face the Galaxy.
In the days after his 200th overall game with the organization
while the team was in Orlando, Fla., for the MLS is Back tournament, Teibert signed yet another contract extension that would keep him with the club through the 2023 season, with an option for 2024. He'd be 32 once that contract expires, nearly two decades after joining the club's residency program as a teen.
“There's still a lot of decorated professionals that have a lot more, a ton more appearances than I do at this club,” s a i d t h e 5 - f o o t - 8 ,
150-pounder. “Bobby Lenarduzzi (362) and Carl Valentine (409) have played hundreds more games than I have, so I'm not close to making that kind of history just yet, but it is an achievement that I could have never dreamed of as a 15-year-old coming to Vancouver.
“This club has given me everything I need to succeed.”
By sheer longevity, Teibert is now behind only Harvey and goalie David Ousted in the regular-season starts and minutes column, and second to Pedro Morales in MLS assists (17/22). If there was a category for work rate and endurance, he'd already be the leader there — by a country mile.
The criticism he takes from a fan base, one that is disenfranchised and generally disposed to pessimism these days, is grating for a player who has arguably done more community outreach work than any one player of the three major Vancouver pro teams.
Even a question about what role he plays to the team gets a slightly combative response.
“I think I show week in and week out who I am. I'd rather not describe myself; I'd rather let you paint the picture of who you see Russell Teibert as,” he said during Friday's Zoom presser.
When pushed to elaborate, he did expand with a deeper explanation.
“In an organization and a team, everybody has their own specific role, and I think you need to do your best at your specific role. You can't try and be someone else, you can't try and be another player, and you need all those small roles and all those different (role players) to have success as a team.
“Because it's not going to be one player, it's not going to be one moment in the game, it's all those little things put together that gives you success as a team.
“No matter what role you play, no role is more important than the other. So, do your job to the best of your abilities, and that's all I can ask for from anybody on this team.”