Sporting’s spanking of Whitecaps leaves Vancouver seeing red
Friday afternoon, hours before the Vancouver Whitecaps took on Sporting Kansas City, Howard Webb was jokingly asked whether he’d pick up the phone if he saw Carl Robinson’s caller ID in the morning.
“Of course. I always answer Carl’s calls. Every. Single. Time,” Major League Soccer’s head of officiating, who has already heard from the Whitecaps’ coach several times this season, said with a chuckle.
Bet on him having another conversation this weekend.
For the second time in five road games, the Whitecaps had a player red-carded — two, in fact, Friday night at Children’s Mercy Park — as K.C. demolished the visitors 6-0 behind a hat trick from Johnny Russell, handing the Caps their worst loss of the MLS era.
Here’s what else we learned:
VAR REARS ITS HEAD AGAIN
With the Caps down 3-0, tempers were heating up when Kendall Waston appeared to take down Roger Espinoza, who crumpled after a late tackle. Replays showed he was barely touched, which is why Waston stood over the prone Espinoza, yelling at the Honduran.
Russell came charging in to defend his teammate, shoving Waston and sparking a melee that ended with Yordy Reyna and Efraín Juarez earning red cards after a VAR review.
Reyna pulled Russell down from behind and Juarez was ejected for foul language, though replays showed his hands struck Russell in the face. Russell received a yellow card for his part.
Down to nine men and the score far out of reach, the game turned into an extended skills session for K.C. and a cardio workout for the Caps.
SPACE WARS
The Whitecaps started the game looking dangerous offensively, but some loose checking on the wings led to Sporting’s three first-half goals. First, Espinoza took advantage of Alphonso Davies sitting off him on the right flank, his feed to the top of the box converted by Russell on a one-timer 10 minutes in.
Six minutes later, Juarez gave Russell too much room on the left, allowing him to cut back in
and unleash a shot that deflected off Waston and in.
The back-breaker was a 25-yard rocket from Jimmy Medranda; with no Whitecap within 10 yards, he took two dribbles toward the top right corner of the 18-yard box and put a laser over the top of Whitecaps goalkeeper Stefan Marinovic.
Too much space was given and Sporting took advantage.
FORMATION FORMULA
Robinson stayed true to his track record and shook things up again, deploying a 3-4-1-2 with Brek Shea and Anthony Blondell starting up top and Reyna slotting into the central midfield playmaker role as a No. 10, where he’s most comfortable.
Aly Ghazal got his first start of the season, playing just in front of the back line, leaving the wings to Davies and Juarez.
The lineup was meant to address some of the concerns displayed against LAFC: the lack of attacking creativity in the middle and the absence of striker Kei Kamara. Blondell might have the athletic gifts, but his strengths lie in power and speed, not the ability Kamara has shown as a target player.
Offensively, it looked promising with Reyna nearly opening the scoring off a perfect feed from Blondell and the Venezuelan nearly getting his first off a Reyna cross with his volley flashing just wide.
There was no chance to see how it developed further, however, as Blondell was subbed off after the red-card fracas, giving way to fullback Sean Franklin in the 45th minute.
CARD COUNTING
The Whitecaps came into the game fourth in total cards given with 13 yellows and one red. They’re now tied with Seattle for most red cards and sit second to New York City FC (17 yellow, one red).
The other red card was handed to Waston in the early minutes of the 4-1 loss to Atlanta on March 17.
Last year, in Vancouver’s 1-0 win in Kansas City on Sept. 30, Christian Bolanos and Sporting ’s Graham Zusi were both red-carded in injury time.
UNDER SIEGE
Marinovic stood on his head in his last visit to Kansas City, making an MLS career-high seven saves in the unexpected 1-0 victory. His stops included a couple of the point-blank variety as well as one on a penalty kick.
Friday he made a new career high of eight saves, including a penalty kick right before the end of the first half, sending the visitors to the locker-room with some semblance of pride.
He also got some help from Marcel de Jong as the veteran defender stopped a scoring chance with his chest and cleared another ball off the goal-line.
Sporting, unsurprisingly, dominated the statistics, holding 79.5 per cent of the ball and outshooting the Caps 34-5 — 14-1 on target.
WHAT’S NEXT?
The loss was the third straight for Vancouver (3-4-1), while Western Conference-leading Sporting (5-1-2) stretched its unbeaten streak to seven games. The Caps return home to host Real Salt Lake, who beat them 2-0 at Rio Tinto Stadium on April 7.