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  • In The Cold Light Of Day: Whitecaps clearly moving forward under Carl Robinson


    Michael Mccoll

    Rennie used that April radio interview to blow his own trumpet for his achievements with the Whitecaps and to clearly have a not-so-veiled dig at what Robinson would have to achieve to be classed as what he felt was a successful replacement.

    "I kind of feel fine about how it ended," Rennie told Matt Sekeres in the interview. "I think that as a coach, you always think that given more time you could do more with it. The team I inherited was the worst team in MLS. It improved quite a lot in the first year and it improved again in the second year.

    "I felt that when I started we were probably about 40 points from being first in MLS and when I finished there we were nine points from being first and that's a massive, massive improvement. I'm a pretty harsh critic of myself and there's things that I'm sure I could have done better and I know that I could of, but I also think that generally there was a lot of success there and there was a solid platform now to build a good club.

    "So as long as they go on now and continue to develop, I think it was 11 wins then 13 wins, so they need to go 15, 16 wins to show that development and then you've got a solid MLS team. In Major League Soccer, it's a very, very tight league. You're not going to win every game and you're probably, even if you have a great season, lose 10 or 11 games a season, so I feel good about it."

    So let's just review what Rennie's achievements actually were and how Robinson actually stacks up with them.

    He took the worst team in MLS in 2011 and got them to the playoffs a year later. An excellent accomplishment, even though some felt that they eventually backed in. At the time, we said we held no sway with that. They didn't back in, they got in due to their early season form and the points they put up on the board.

    Rennie achieved the playoffs in his first season, so has Robinson after basically rebuilding the team. If you look at the starters for the Caps against Colorado, three were brought in by Rennie and six by Robinson (two players, Jordan Harvey and Russell Teibert, predated both).

    In 2012 under Rennie, Vancouver had an 11-13-10 record and 43 points. They made the playoffs with four points to spare, scoring 35 goals and conceding 41 along the way. They got their first MLS away win in Rennie's first road game in charge and got three for the whole season. The Caps kept 12 clean sheets over the season and eventually finished 5th in the West, 23 points behind the Supporters Shield winning San Jose Earthquakes, and were 11th overall in the MLS combined points standings.

    They failed to win a match against their Cascadian rivals, with three draws and three defeats, obviously failing to lift the Cascadia Cup. They also failed to lift the Voyageurs Cup and clinch a spot in the Champions League.

    A year later in 2013, Rennie guided the Whitecaps to their then highest ever MLS points total of 48 and their most ever number of wins, 13, but it still wasn't enough to get Vancouver into the playoffs and they fell three points short. Their overall record was 13-12-9 as they finished 7th in the West and dropped to the 13th best record overall in the MLS combined points standings.

    They scored their most ever goals in MLS with 53 but conceded their second highest total so far with 45, keeping seven clean sheets. They got their first ever win over a Cascadian rival and actually managed two that season, both over Seattle, including their first Cascadian away win. Still no joy in the Voyageurs Cup, blowing their opportunity to wrap it up at BC Place.

    So now we move to Carl Robinson's first year in charge.

    He's finished his rookie regular season with a 12-8-14 record and 50 points. That the highest points total so far, not just by the Whitecaps in MLS, but any Canadian club. Those 12 wins included three on the road and three against their Cascadian rivals (two of those being away victories).

    Rennie said in that radio interview that there would have to be 15 or 16 wins to show a continued improvement, which was of course just nonsense. Yes, the number dropped by one from last season to, which means nothing when you look at the fact that Vancouver still produced their highest ever MLS points total to finish 5th in the West and produced their highest ever finish in the Supporters' Shield standings of 9th.

    To finish the ninth best team in MLS, unbeaten against all Eastern Conference opposition and only losing three matches to those teams above them in the West (two to LA and one to Dallas), is one hell of an achievement for Robinson in his first year as a head coach. And, as we keep saying, all without an actual striker for more than half the year!

    Rennie said that even in a "great" season you'd lose 10 or 11 games. This season the Caps lost 8. The second best record in all of MLS.

    Still no Voyageurs Cup, but there is a CONCACAF Champions League spot to look forward to next year for the first time. And back to back Cascadia Cup in the bag.

    But the improvements to the Whitecaps under Robinson are measured in more than just stats, so let's move away from the numbers.

    Robinson promised to make the team younger and to develop youth. Now to many, including us, we took that to mean homegrown Residency talent of current and recent years. That was how it was looking preseason and you did feel it was going to be a major developmental year if that's how things panned out.

    They didn't and Robinson made shrewd signings to go with what was already there. Of the 28 players currently on the Caps MLS roster, 18 are 24-years-old or younger. That's one hell of a building block for future seasons and eight of those are 'homegrowns', including the latest additions of Kianz Froese and Marco Bustos.

    These players have all gained invaluable experience this season. Some will move on to pastures new in a few weeks time, but they'll be replaced by others (the likes of Mitch Piraux and Ben McKendry are waiting in the wings). Rennie talked a good game about young players but there was very little evidence of his development of them.

    There's also the harmony in the dressing room. It's certainly the best I've ever seen since covering the Caps from 2008. When you have experience players like Andy O'Brien and Pedro Morales describing it as "special", and a new addition like Mauro Rosales saying it's the best dressing room he's been a part of, the management need to get a lot of credit for building that with the addition of the right personnel.

    Back on the pitch, Robinson has brought a refreshing attacking mindset on the road, in general. Still not perfect and maybe still a bit one dimensional and easily read at times, but a major improvement in the entertainment factor. And it's brought results too.

    Things are by no means perfect. Robbo has perhaps been too loyal to some of his players this year, giving them too many chances that they simply haven't taken. He's shielded them from the flak that they perhaps needed to be hit with.

    Then there's the whole inability to land a striker, which still may ultimately cost them in the postseason, and the team has been a bit too predictable in their style of play on occasion and easily countered.

    But a rookie manager will make such mistakes and he will learn, and Robinson has done that as the season progressed.

    Martin Rennie and his team (of which Robinson was obviously a part) do deserve major kudos for turning the Whitecaps around from the worst team in MLS in a disastrous inaugural season in the league. Sometimes I don't think people gave them the proper credit or fully understood just what a big achievement that was. MLS parity rules help to some extent but the players and management still then have to get the job done.

    But give me Robinson's Whitecaps any day of the week.

    The players are more talented and exciting. The attitude throughout the squad is so much better. There is a real buzz at training and a real team spirit and that has transferred onto results on the pitch. There's been actual youth development.

    There's still a lot of work to do and the Western Conference is only going to get even tougher next year with the likely additions of Sporting KC and Houston at the expense of the clusterfuck that was Chivas USA.

    Robinson still has that difficult second album phase ahead of him that signalled the end of his predecessor. He's set the bar high with this rookie season and it's not over yet. Following it up next year is a big ask of any manager and Robinson will know that. Once you achieve success, there's no looking back and limited allowance for future failure.

    Having never won in Dallas, the Caps could realistically go one and out again in the playoffs. It would feel like such a major anti-climax after the intensity of the last five games, but whatever happens, how the Caps move on is the key now.

    And under Robinson, you can only have hopes for the future. Now the pressure really begins.



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