Vancouver Whitecaps FC pulled off a stunning piece of PR on Friday, inviting nearly 50 local media personalities to compete in an afternoon of friendly competition. The club set everyone up with their own stall in the dressing room, dressed them in a full team kit, then put them through pre-game warmups before three 25-minute matches on the BC Place turf.
Somehow we managed to get on the list — although Chris’s game report today may put that status in jeopardy for next year. Soccer poet Russell Arbuthnot and Yours Truly donned the blue and white to represent the mighty Pucked in the Head, both playing on a squad led by former Team Canada captain Jason Devos. We didn’t do too badly, either. Russell scored a couple of highlight goals, while I made weekend warriors look like a goaltending god on four separate occasions. (Sure, I’d like to have tiptoed around a couple of defenders and slotted a cheeky left footer under Peter Schad’s outstretched arm, but I’m mostly just happy my recent spate of exercise kept me from having to spend the afternoon wheezing and retching. It’s amazing what eight weeks of training will do for a body.)
Highlights? In the first of three games, I put a 25-yard cross onto the head of our team captain just a few feet from the goal line — may I remind you that this is the same Jason Devos who scored the game-winner to secure Canada’s only Gold Cup crown in men’s soccer history? — but the big man got submarined by some morning newspaper hack, and wasn’t able to put the ball in the back of the net.
I did score once, on a beautiful give-and-go with Whitecaps staffer Ann Nikitiuk. She gave me the ball pretty much on the goal line, so there was no chance to mess it up. Still, I’ll take it and fill out my top three moments with the time I put the ball through Martin Rennie’s legs to go round the bench boss on my way up the right flank in game #2.
But oh yeah, the Whitecaps.
One week after a convincing 3-nil road win in Montreal, the Whitecaps were looking to carry some good karma forward; the mood at BC Place Friday suggested they were doing just that. Rarely have sports media in a city been so unanimously positive as they were this day, as everyone taking part had a flipping blast. Team Sulkowski won the trophy with an undefeated record, while we on Team Devos brought home a hardfought 1-1-1 record.
Unfortunately, the positive juju didn’t last, as the club was unable to muster much against a squad of Real Salt Lake reserves. The 1-nil loss Saturday afternoon was just their third home loss of the year, but it all but guarantees Vancouver will be on the outside looking in come playoff time.
To make matters worse, during the loss, TSN ran a clip of me looking desperately out of position as a right defensive back — and that yellow pinny during game time doesn’t let me hide what’s left of my gut. I swear, I’ve lost 10 kilos and it’s still a work in progress! Jeez, you people are harsh.
More after the jump.
Most people in Vancouver gifted the Whitecaps a win after seeing the lineups. Sitting at second place in the Western Conference, Real Salt Lake went with a team of reserves in order to rest their regulars for Tuesday’s home date against DC United. Only four RSL players had been tapped for kickoff 10 or more games this year, and their starting eleven included two season ticket holders and a pizza delivery guy. Camilo, back in scoring form? His brace against Montreal was beautiful to behold — surely he’d put a ball or two past Jeff Attinella, a keeper making just his fourth MLS start?
The Whitecaps had David Ousted riding back-to-back clean sheets since Jay DeMerit’s miraculous return to the lineup. There was the tireless Russell Teibert due for a goal, and the hungry Tommy Heinemann making his first home start. What could go wrong?
Right?
Well, howzabout some familiar refrains to start: for the fourth consecutive home game, the Whitecaps conceded a goal before the clock got into double digits. Once again it was blown coverage on the back end, as Devon Sandoval positioned himself between three defenders to get his Wall of Hair on a long cross from Lovel Palmer in the eighth minute. Unfortunately, Ousted did a tentative two-step rather than charging out to take the ball. To show the scoring prowess the Caps were up against this night, the only goal of the match was just Sandoval’s third goal of the season, and Palmer’s first assist.
He would make a pair of lovely second-half saves to keep the homeside within one, but his mates only generated two decent scoring chances in 95+ minutes of play. Russell Teibert hit a wonderful left-footed volley from nine yards out in the 36th minute, but RSL keeper Jeff Attinella got his right hand on the shot to force a corner kick. The additions of Darren Mattocks and Kekuta Manneh in the 55th nearly produced a goal, as they teamed up with Teibert to will the ball into the RSL six-yard box. Alas, the visitors blocked successive shot attempts in close before clearing the ball from danger.
Now let’s be fair: there’s a reason Real Salt Lake is playing for the US Open Cup on Tuesday. Several reasons, even. They’re well-coached. They have the best goal differential in the MLS — based largely on the fact that they score more than any other team in the league, but every time the Caps came forward, there were 11 red shirts rushing to get between the ball and the goal line. Tonight, at least, RSL played crushing defense. One goal was all they needed.
Vancouver definitely missed Kenny Miller, out with a strained adductor. Unfortunately, th
ey also missed Nigel Reo-Coker, who was in the starting lineup but pretty much invisible until the 86th minute. Also missing: chemistry in the forward half. Heinemann lacked the touch to put his mates in clear when he had the chance, and Camilo just plain doesn’t pass the ball. Teibert ran his tail feathers off, but all too often delivered crosses that either sailed through the box for a goal kick or went straight into the feet of the lead defenders.
In all — and I’m sure this is what my colleague Mr Withers was trying to say in his previous post — this was not the Whitecaps best outing. Unlike previous games that were not their best outing, however, Saturday’s loss can be pinned on the fact that the opposition was, even full of reserves, a much better team.