Whitecaps sinking in MLS standings after lopsided loss to D.C.
The Vancouver Whitecaps are underwater for the first time this season, and a boat anchor of games played is dragging them down to the depths of the Western Conference.
A busy early half of the season meant the Whitecaps are just one of three teams in the Western Conference who have played 20 games. But the other two — Sporting Kansas City and Real Salt Lake — are respectively third and fourth in the West, while the Caps have swooned to eighth place, two spots below the playoff red line for the first time this season.
Saturday’s 3-1 loss to D.C. United was the latest shot to hit the Caps below the waterline. Vancouver trailed the East’s last-place team by three until the final minute of injury time, when Alphonso Davies’ spectacular solo effort saved Vancouver from its seventh shutout of the season.
Only Seattle, with a league-leading nine blank sheets, has been shut
out more often than the Whitecaps this season.
“It’s still the season. It’s mid-season right now,” forward Kei Kamara said after United christened their new stadium with a dominating win. “It was just another game, it just happened to be on a special day, special event, but we just move on to the next game.”
D.C. United was debuting both Audi Field and newly acquired striker Wayne Rooney.
The Caps have just 10 points from a possible 30 over their last 10 games, and it’s an increasingly desperate situation Vancouver (7-8-5) finds itself in. Of the seven
teams ahead of them in the standings, five have at least one game in hand — four, in the case of the Portland Timbers.
It can be put like this: the Caps are in a deep, deep hole, and they have a shovel. They can either dig themselves out, or pull in the dirt on their heads and bury a season that has whipsawed between brilliant performances and bafflingly bad ones.
But 11 of their final 14 games are against Western Conference teams, and six of those are at home.
It’s time, said centreback Doneil Henry, to put up or shut up.
“We need to find something that works and stick with it,” said Henry, who had a team-high four interceptions in Saturday’s game, and was second in aerials won (3) only to the headmaster himself, Kamara (7).
“We need a run of good games, get a couple wins. It’s not a fact of if we have a good team or not, we can compete,” added Henry, voted man of the match by Caps fans.
The home games will be key, and it’s where the Caps have put in some of their most inconsistent performances, from their 5-2 demolition of Orlando to their 1-0 loss to Colorado. Remember their string of three straight home draws in May against teams with a combined three victories? Those dropped points at B.C. Place could haunt them. The teams above them
in the standings have taken care of their business at home.
The top five teams in the conference have combined for two losses in 46 games heading into Sunday’s action. The sixth-place team, the L.A. Galaxy, are 5-4-1 at home, but right below them in seventh is Houston, who are 6-2-1 at BBVA Compass Stadium. The Whitecaps have done a lot of travelling so far this season and have only two MLS fixtures remaining on the East Coast — at New York City FC on Aug. 4, and Toronto Oct. 6 — but Henry wasn’t about to use their frequent flyer status to absolve the team from blame.
“Inconsistent. We’re very inconsistent. That needs to change,” he said. “I’m not going to stand here and make excuses, but sometimes the travel and that will make you feel leggy and tired. But we need to be able to manage games.
“If we have a game plan, and we stick with it, we need everybody to be on the same page. I don’t think every game we’ve played everyone’s been on the same page. Sometimes it’s individual errors, lack of concentration … we need to cut out that kind of stuff, and have a well-rounded professional performance from the guys.”