Vancouver Whitecaps: Season 2 , Second Quarter Report

Hello everyone and welcome back to my latest Whitecaps update.

May 2012

We began the month with a trip to California where we fell behind to San Jose within the first minute of the game conceding from a free kick. In what was to be a very drab match we equalized through a free kick of our own by Edhino mid-way through the second half and was enough to earn a point.

On our return home we stopped off at Edmonton for the first leg of the Canadian Championship semi-final which we narrowly won with a goal from the penalty spot in the 89th minute by Eric Hassli. It was a terrible performance overall which we quickly righted in the second leg at BC Place with a comprehensive 3-0 win. Goals from Hassli, Tiebert and Kramer was enough to take us through to the final against Toronto

It was back to MLS action and the visit of New York and we took the lead early on as Jay DeMerit was handed the simplest of headers from a free kick that easily beat the NY keeper after just 12 minutes. A brilliant run down the right flank by Mitgarden ended in a low cross into the box for Tardelly to smash home 5 minutes later. Left back Heath Pearce who had already annoyed the New York defence with his long throw expertise finally sent one into the box that caused enough trouble for the New York keeper to turn the ball into his own net. It was a brilliant opening 30 minutes that unfortunately we were unable to build on for the next 60 though the visitors never caused us any real trouble throughout the game.

Canadian Championship Final 1st Leg:

We remained at home for the visit of Toronto FC in the first leg of the CC Final. Eleven minutes in and a brilliant one-two between Tiebert and Edhino was finished off by the Brazilian as he left Toronto defence rooted to the spot. Toronto then had much of the play and we narrowly escaped from them getting an equalizer as they hit the woodwork twice before the half time whistle. Into the second half and we doubled our lead just before the hour with a goal scored in similar fashion to the first but this time it was Salinas who finished off the move to give us a two goal lead to take into the second leg.

Our fourth home game in a row saw the visit of conference leaders LA Galaxy who we took an early lead over as a cross from the right wing found Jarju in space and his shot sailed past the Galaxy keeper to send the home fans wild. A David Beckham free kick set up the equalizer in the 23rd minute but our dominance failed to turn into goals. It was a typical Beckham pass that spilt our defence 7 minutes into the second half as LA went ahead but up stepped Canadian Tyler Hemming with a thunderous effort from 30 yards out to tie the game once more and that’s how it ended with no further scoring.

 The second leg of the Canadian Championship Final was a tough encounter on the shore of Lake Ontario with Toronto taking the lead in the 37th minute. It would be the only time they would come close to our goal as the game got bogged down in midfield. A late offensive surge finally resulted in a goal by substitute Steve Kramer to put this game to bed and thus we retained the trophy on a 3-1 aggregate and qualifed for the NACL once again.

The win added $150,000 to our allocation (transfer) funds which took the total to $467,000 and that I can use to adjust the salary cap if necessary. Here’s a look at the overall picture as of the end of May 2012. A cool $9,000,000 in the bank!

June 2012

The month began with an easy enough fitness friendly against Californian side Santa Ana which was followed by a disastrous 2 game road trip. We threw away a comfortable 2-0 goal lead in Texas as Dallas scored twice in the last ten minutes to earn a draw and then we were unable to come back from conceding an early goal in Philly. Back at BC Place Houston opened the scoring in the first two minutes with Tardelly producing the equalizer after an aggressive half time talk. With a draw looking the likely result we handed Houston two penalties in the last three minutes of the game for a moral crushing defeat.

Following the bad run of form a team talk was more than needed but failed to produce the desired outcome as we suffered our third straight defeat away to New England. We were totally run ragged by Brazilian winger Pinga who scored two thirty yard three kicks as we continued our transition from Champions to Chumpions with barely a sniff at the opposition’s goal during the match.

On the return home to Canada we stopped off at Toyota Park in Chicago where two goals from winger Michael Nanchoff gave us a comfortable lead at the break. Things were going well in the second half until a catastrophic back pass by right back John Leathers straight to Chicago forward Gil handed the home side the equalizer and continued our run of 5 games without a win.

The final game of the month was at home to Sporting Kansas City whom we had defeated in last season’s MLS Cup Final. In a game marred by poor discipline by the visiting team – picking up 6 yellow cards, we finally managed to muster a win thanks to Jay DeMerit who headed in from a corner in the first half and an own goal from a corner in the second. It was three points we desperately needed as we are losing traction on even making the play offs this season.

Western Conference Standings:

Eastern Conference Standings:

We have a few games in hand over some of the teams above us though the LA Galaxy look to be runaway conference winners in the not too distant future so the best we can hope for is a play off spot but even that is looking a bit dodgy!

Super Sevens:

After such a poor month there are not too many players who reached an average rating of 7.00 or above but here are those who did with skipper Jay DeMerit topping the chart.

Fixtures:

We start of with a Cascadia Cup game at home to Portland and by the time we get through to September we should have been involved in some Champions League games also.

 So that’s the way it is at approximately half way through the season so thanks a lot for taking the time to read this update and I look forward to your comments.