The League leaders came, saw and conquered in Vancouver.
Kansas City were good, and showed just why they sit atop of not just the eastern standings, but the whole of Major League Soccer.
That wasn't an unbeatable KC side out there last night. It's just that the Whitecaps showed too little, far too late, and suffered from some more terrible defensive lapses.
Kansas City scored three times from two shots on goal. You're not going to see that stat very often - a 150% success rate.
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They only had eight shots on target in total during the whole match, but they took their chances clinically when they came along and controlled the pace of the game. That there is the mark of champions and separates the men from the boys.
It's obviously too early in the season to go proclaiming KC as champs or the Caps as also-rans. All I really want to draw from this game is that the Caps need to play a bit more like the 'Sportings' this season if they want to make serious in-roads in the table, and there's still a lot of time for them to find this stride.
The Caps played very well last night - for the last 15 minutes when they were already three goals down. They were certainly a much better side in the second half than the first.
Up to that point it was all a bit pedestrian. Sure they huffed and puffed, but the final balls were either poor, or when the perfect crosses did come in, the chances were either wasted or fell to the wrong players. There were also too many overhit passes and criminally overweighted through balls in to the box.
I don't want to see Jordan Harvey in the six yard box trying, badly, to get on the end of an Eric Hassli cross from the wing. That needs to be reversed.
Hassli played pretty deep at times last night. His goal drought continues, but we won't focus on that again right now.
I think his greatest achievement last night was staying on the field for the full ninety, after being booked in the sixth minute. He could have gone just before half time.
When Baldomero Toledo is pointing at his head and basically saying <i>"are you crazy?" </i> then what can you say? He kept his composure though. No leaving his foot in out of frustration like I expected.
The attack produced 18 shots on goal, seven of which where on target and three of those were from Camilo, who only came on with thirty minutes to go. The subs actually accounted for more than 50% of the shots on target.
I would have liked to have seen Camilo start. We could have done with his pace and flair longer last night. He'll clearly start on Saturday. Who will drop out is the question. Hassli? Chiumiento? Harris? All of them?
The introduction of all three subs made such a difference. I am starting to not so much worry, but certainly be frustrated, by Martin Rennie's lateness in making certain changes.
Omar Salgado looks great in that left mid role. He's shone in training, for the reserves and now in the first team in the position. Great decision to try him out there, just give him a bit longer to get into the game.
Long Tan too impressed in his brief six minutes on the park (including stoppage time). Two shots on goal, one forcing a save out of Jimmy Nielsen.
We missed that hustle and bustle for most of the game and to see us going all hell for leather in the final quarter of an hour was great to watch, but also irritating as to why it wasn't there earlier.
If we'd got that second goal, I'm pretty sure we'd have been looking at another 3-3 game at least. But then again, if my auntie had balls she'd be my uncle.
Nielsen was excellent in those closing minutes and KC sought to run out time pretty well after being stung last year at Empire.
Our midfield was very poor. Perhaps that explains so many long balls. Davide Chiumiento and Gershon Koffie have been singled out for praise in some quarters, but neither impressed me much. Davide certainly had a much better second half and did dictate the play at times, but we need to see a full ninety from him.
The defence were caught flat footed and exposed on several occasions.
It's quite scary watching a player like Graham Zusi run at a back two of Jay DeMerit and Martin Bonjour and then seeing them trail in his wake. Boy are they are slow when they're caught flat.
Both of them were at fault for the first goal and DeMerit had three chances to clear the danger.
Bonjour scored the own goal for the second, but didn't know too much about it. If DeMerit had stayed on the near post instead of chasing after Kei Kamara and being aimlessly out of position, then he'd have kept it out.
The third goal came about from Harvey being woefully out of position and letting Chance Myers have acres of room out wide to send in the cross.
I'd like to see Carlyle Mitchell get a chance for DeMerit in one of the upcoming games. He certainly adds a greater attacking threat at set pieces.
Harvey is a much better asset to us in left midfield. Coming off the bench and keeping it tight. Get him out of that left back role now. He's being burned too much and really struggles when the ball is in the air.
Give Russell Teibert his shot, or Greg Klazura, in his natural left back role. This change needs to be made for Saturday and will give us much more pace on the left.
The view from the press box gave an interesting look at how much we missed Jun Marques Davidson's coverage at the back. He has been great at falling back to plug holes left by Y-P Lee or Harvey. It was getting scary how slow we were at covering these guys last night. A pacey attack like KC could have done so much more damage than they did.
So a lot to work on and a lot of improvements needed all round.
Going in to the game I didn't expect us to get anything out of the match. I'm not too downhearted in that regard, but when you saw the problems we were giving the KC defence in those closing minutes, you were left wondering "what if" once again.
Time for our weekly Sportsnet rant now.
Did they really learn nothing from the disrespect they showed MLS last season and the abuse they got for it?
The game was scheduled to be shown on Sportsnet Pacific, but as happened several times last year, it was delayed by Toronto baseball.
I fully understand that in some markets, baseball draws a bigger audience, but you're showing an east coast team on a west coast channel when it's also on other channels. At least change to the game in the local market.
People were told to change to Sportsnet Vancouver Hockey channel if they wanted to catch the start of the game, not an option available to all, and they then joined the game at the 13.10 mark despite the baseball having had a score of 12-2.
I even started to bore myself writing this constantly last year, but why bid for the rights to show the games if you're just going to give them second class status? It's a disgrace.
Obviously I was at the game so it didn't affect me directly (apart from trying to see a replay of Hassli's booking) but Sportsnet, just let TSN have all the coverage or sort it out.
It was one of those midweek nights really. A lot to sort out, and so little time.
Disappointing game, very disappointing crowd. I still naively expect more support in this city, Canucks playoff game or not.
Dallas are visiting on Saturday. It's a vital Western Conference clash. The Whitecaps need a win. We can't afford to drop points at home to our western rivals and a morale boosting victory would steady the ship somewhat.
There is likely to be a couple of changes to the starting line-up. Martin Rennie isn't happy with some of the continuing mistakes and we must be getting close to the stage where this is the chance for some guys to come in and stamp their mark on the team and make the starting jersey their own.
These are the games that matter the most in the race for the playoffs. Now it's up to the team to show that they are truly up for a challenge in this League.
'Mon the Caps.
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<b>AFTN 3-2-1 :</b>
Perhaps a little unorthodox this week but...
3 points - CAMILO SANVEZZO (May have only been on the pitch for 30 minutes but showed more attacking danger in that time than the rest of the team had put together up to that point)
2 points - OMAR SALGADO (Again, only 11 minutes on the pitch but looked great out on the left wing and sent in a great cross that led to the goal)
1 point - YOUNG-PYO LEE (Another solid performance. Can't blame him for any of the goals conceded and was having a lot of success up the right wing)
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