Vancouver Whitecaps: Season 2, First Quarter Report

Hello friends and welcome back to my latest Whitecaps update which will see us in Champions League action and the the start of the new MLS season. As current MLS Cup holders my hopes are high for a good start as there hasn’t been that many changes to the team during the off season.

March 2012

We started the campaign off with a trip to Mexico for our NACL quarter-final game against Pumas. The home side were much quicker than us and despite their speed we had much of the possession but fell behind from a corner after an unlucky deflection bounced into the path of a Pumas striker for an easy tap in. Pressing their goal for much of the second half we couldn’t find a way through and got caught on the counter conceding a second goal leaving it all to do in the second leg back in British Columbia.

Returning to BC for the second leg the Pumas took the field with just one objective, to defend their two goal lead which they did up until the 83rd minute when a cracking effort from 25 yards out by midfielder Tyler Hemming finally found a way through. It was too little too late and the Pumas held on, eliminating us from the competition. We were not alone as all the other MLS teams went out of the NACL that evening.

The defence of our title began at home to Chivas USA and it was a case of third time lucky. After a sluggish opening 20 minutes we started to control the game and had two goals disallowed for offside. Finally in the 58th minute a well worked move down the right found Tardelly and the Brazilian striker hit the ball cleanly for the opening and what would prove to be the only goal of the game.

Next up was a trip to rivals Toronto where despite our 58% possession we couldn’t get the ball in the back of the net mainly thanks to some weak shots and superb keeping by Toronto’s Stephan Frie. Toronto scored two from corner kicks and handed us a late consolation own goal in what was a forgettable away game. The board and fans were not happy at this result.

April 2012

After trailing 1-0 to an early second half goal against Real Salt Lake a long throw by LB Heath Pearce found Jay DeMerit in the box and he swept the ball into the net with just two minutes remaining. We pushed forward in a frantic effort to snatch a victory…another throw by Pearce in the 92nd minute and this time it was Mitgarden on hand to score his first goal for the club as we snatched the victory!

With a 4 week injury to striker Eric Hassli it was left to Tardelly to continue with leading the line as we took on Seattle at BC Place in this Cascadia Cup encounter. However, Tardelly himself got injured early on so it was youngster Omar Salgaldo who took over as the lone striker and was beaten to the ball by AMC Jarju who gave us the lead after 33 minutes. Four minutes later a corner to Seattle and it was 1-1 as we continued to concede from set pieces. The second half was a drab affair with few chances being created at either end.

Our Cascadia Cup action continued as we travelled south to take on Portland where an inspirational pass by Edhino found MC Philippe Davies rushing through from midfield to smash the ball past the Portland keeper with a minute left on the clock. It was yet another disappointing display in front of goal even though we had so much of the ball throughout the 90 minutes.

 The month finished up at home to Columbus who we fell behind to late in the first half from a shot 25 yards out. I’d deployed two strikers up front for the first time in ages in an effort to get some mojo going up front but it took an assertive half time talk rather than an additional striker to come up with an equalizer just after the break. Draft signing Steve Kramer nabbed his first for the club with a stinging shot from just inside the penalty area. Columbus took the lead once more as we gave up the goal from a corner but an exquisite through ball by midfielder Koffie found Shea Salinas on the right who hit it first time into the roof of the net to save a point for us.

 Results Summary:

Western Conference Standings:

Eastern Conference Standings:

Fixtures:

On paper at least we start off with a couple of road games that could be three pointers for us before the visit of New York to BC Place with difficult games against in form LA and Houston to look forward to.

Wrap Up:

We started the season off very much the same as last year playing some great possession football but unable to convert this into chances or even goals. As MLS champions I thought we may have done slightly better in the NACL quarter finals though the speed of the Mexicans was our undoing.

I’d made some errors in signing youth players who I had thought I could drop into the reserves but in fact counted towards my 30 man squad and therefore ended up being waived in March. I’ll have to be more careful next time though it does make things difficult in building the team from the reserves.

We are also in the process of improving our training facilities at a cost of $4,000,000 which will be completed early next season, the youth facilities having just recently being finished.

 My first experience with international football was a forgettable one as we had to play three games in four days for Olympic Qualifying. The team was totally unfit and that showed on the field as we were hammered by Costa Rica, just about managed a draw with Cuba before getting another spanking against the US. I was more than happy to return to the safety of British Columbia after that.

That’s about it for this update so thanks a lot for reading this and I look forward to your comments.