CONCACAF win would cast out demons
CONCACAF calling offers chance to wipe away bad taste
The Vancouver Whitecaps’ biggest game of the season may be their first one at home, and that scheduling looks absurd even to NASCAR, which just opened its motorsports marathon with its biggest race, the Daytona 500.
What NASCAR and Major League Soccer have in common is that their seasons, once started, never seem to end.
Trying to become just the fifth MLS club to advance to the Champions League semifinals, the Whitecaps play the New York Red Bulls tonight at B.C. Place Stadium — two months into 2017 — after qualifying for this particular CONCACAF championship in 2015.
You may have noticed there were couple of short MLS offseasons for the Whitecaps since then. Or not.
Yet, here they are, a win or scoreless tie away from advancing to the final four of a tournament dominated by Mexican teams since the Champions League format was introduced in 2008 by the governing body for soccer in North America, Central America and the Caribbean.
The Whitecaps don’t even play their MLS season opener until Sunday at home against the Philadelphia Union, but at least are on equal footing with the Red Bulls in terms of unpreparedness.
The Whitecaps hardly won a game that mattered in the second half of last season, but a win tonight will represent a new benchmark for a franchise that has stumbled through Major League Soccer without success to match its enthusiasm and best intentions.
And that’s why tonight’s game is especially important. About to start their seventh MLS season while still looking for their first MLS playoff victory, the Whitecaps have in this Champions League quarter-final a chance to wipe away the muck from last season.
It’s a chance to reverse course from last autumn’s feeble retreat, when the Whitecaps won once in 13 games at one stage and their unravelling was encapsulated by an October dust-up in training when goalie David Ousted questioned the professionalism of midfielder Pedro Morales, who was merely the team’s captain and best player, and then challenged him: “If you want to fight, how about fighting on a (bleeping) Saturday!”
“The frustration you saw — that Pedro-Ousted incident — honestly, that should have happened a lot more often,” veteran defender Jordan Harvey, who is the heart of the Whitecaps the way Alex Burrows was the heart of the Vancouver Canucks, said this week. “We needed to hold each other accountable a lot earlier. And not just those two guys, but across the board.
“Above all else, we let some things slip through the cracks (last season) that we’re going to hold to a higher standard this year. On any given game, there were guys who played well and guys who just weren’t at the races. Across the board, we need to make sure everybody is at the races. And if that doesn’t happen, make sure that standard is kept.”
Harvey, a 33-year-old from Mission Viejo, Calif., who is the second-longest serving Whitecap behind Canadian midfielder Russell Teibert, rejects the idea that the team’s problems over the final three months of last season were due to “chemistry.”
But Morales is gone, and so too are several under-performing players from the periphery of the team. Argentine Mauro Rosales, a respected leader who never should have been traded before last season for Blas Perez, was repatriated by the Whitecaps this week.
They also signed a loan deal for marquee Colombian striker Fredy Montero, who seems as likable as he is accomplished, and traded for American international Brek Shea. Peruvian Yordy Reyna, out with a foot injury, was signed as a potential replacement for Morales as the attacking midfielder.
“With the signings we’ve made, I’m really excited,” Harvey said. “We’ve tinkered with important positions, but they’re positions that need to produce. There are game-changers at these positions. And we’ve added good personalities.
“Last season was frustrating because, having been in the league, I understand the fine line between winning and being in the playoffs or not. I knew how good we could be, and at times you saw that last season. At other times, I saw poor decisions and big mistakes that really cost us points. It’s something you don’t forget. You definitely need to reflect on it.”
The Whitecaps appeared to break through in 2015 when, besides winning the Canadian championship to qualify for the 2016-17 Champions League, Vancouver finished second in the Western Conference at 16-13-5 and earned its first home playoff game in MLS. Then it went 10-159 in 2016 and missed the playoffs by seven points.
“The fact it was a poor second half of the season gives us the chance to kickstart this season with these two games,” Whitecaps president Bob Lenarduzzi said, referring to the two-leg
quarter-final that began last week with his team’s gritty 1-1 draw in New York. “I’ve been at this long enough to appreciate that when things don’t go well, people suggest the chemistry isn’t right. But it was the same group of players we had the year before and people were trumpeting that chemistry.
“Clearly, when things don’t go well and the group is not right, you’re going to get people finger pointing, and that’s the last thing you want to happen. But I do take comfort from last week’s performance. We did battle. From a competitive side, we were up for it.”
Harvey said: “You only get one chance to make a good first impression. When you do get these games, it’s a chance to build momentum.”
Back in the right direction.