Whitecaps 2014 Season

[TheKottonmouthed1555362307]

Spectacular. What a a finish to the year.

 

What a difference Waston has made to the attitude of the club. He bleeds confidence. TRM mentioned he has 5 cards and 2 goals in 10 games. He just dominates the box. Him and OB have gotten a good rapport with each other, already.

 

Morales finally is seems to be getting some help around him, Rosales, Teibert, Laba and even Seba/Manneh have been bringing their form for the past 5-6 games.

 

I also cannot forget to mention Ousted who made some unreal saves to keep the clean sheet and he also led the MLS in clean sheets on the year.

 

Robbo has done his job and then some. This guy is a motivator and has brought this team of absolute diversity, whether by age, language, and style of play Robbo has gotten these guys to play for each other and the city proudly. Regardless, of how the season ends this has been a special year for the Caps and I cannot wait to see what Wednesday and beyond will bring.

[jonovision]

^ I don't quite have a dog in the MLS fight, but for whatever reason, Vancouver is the easiest of the three Canadian teams for me to get behind. And for some reason, I had been under the impression that Waston was Honduran, so I was trying hard not to like him. But that proved impossible.

[tmcmurph]

^ I don't quite have a dog in the MLS fight, but for whatever reason, Vancouver is the easiest of the three Canadian teams for me to get behind. And for some reason, I had been under the impression that Waston was Honduran, so I was trying hard not to like him. But that proved impossible.

 

Good thing he is Costa Rican then 

Leveron is the Honduran CB on the team. I prefer Waston. Just a total dominant force in the box at both ends. How he wasn't grabbed by some Euro team I don't know but I'm sure glad we have him.

[TheKottonmouthed1555362307]

Good thing he is Costa Rican then 

Leveron is the Honduran CB on the team. I prefer Waston. Just a total dominant force in the box at both ends. How he wasn't grabbed by some Euro team I don't know but I'm sure glad we have him.

 

Yeah, Waston was sure an amazing find. Robbo seems to have a knack for finding some gems: Waston, Fernandez, and Mezquida. Plus Morales and Laba who were both proven though, but Morales had that would he wourk in the MLS tag on him to start.

 

He also was instrumental in brining Leveron into the fold under Rennie. I doubt we have seen the last of Leveron pushing for a starting job. He is still only 22 and is on Honduras National team radar, he has the talent to fit at CB back or possibly at CDM. He is composed on the ball and can place some nice long crossing passes for the wings to break out. With a guy like Waston beside him his conservative and sometimes meek defense play would be covered.

[Dub Narcotic]

Fernandez has had a mediocre year and Mezquida has barely played. I wouldn't call them gems. Morales was a great signing but a very well known player, Leveron is a good but not great center back. Robinson's Latin American scouting has been a mixed bag so far, with Waston clearly looking the best of the lot.

[shermanator]

So the Whitecaps reward Teibert's solid play by benching him to start the playoff game against Dallas? More starters on the American team than the Canadian team, which is just disappointing. Is Koffee the better option considering he's played 1 game in the last 3 months? Is Sampson the better option than Adekugbe at RB? 

 

I guess if it ends with a win it doesn't really matter, but from a national team perspective it is disappointing.

[canucklefan]

So the Whitecaps reward Teibert's solid play by benching him to start the playoff game against Dallas? More starters on the American team than the Canadian team, which is just disappointing. Is Koffee the better option considering he's played 1 game in the last 3 months? Is Sampson the better option than Adekugbe at RB? 

 

I guess if it ends with a win it doesn't really matter, but from a national team perspective it is disappointing.

Guess who scored so far?

[BuzzAndSting]

What a joke... If that's how an important game is decided there's something wrong with the rule book, the lack of referee discretion and the game itself.

[aloyol]

What a joke... If that's how an important game is decided there's something wrong with the rule book, the lack of referee discretion and the game itself.

IMHO the importance of the game should not matter when a ref makes a decision. The only question should be was this a handball? It looked like it.

The problem is with the PK rule. How can a foul like that result in a 90 % chance of scoring for the other team? IMO soccer would be better serve there wasn t such disproportion with the rules regarding PK.

[shermanator]

To follow up on my earlier comment, I though Sampson played admirably, but Koffie was horrific. His yellow was unnecessary, and he was lucky to not see a second with a few mistimed tackles.

 

The handball call was horrible, and it is a shame the game was decided by the call. Geiger is a good referee but he got that call wrong IMO. Waston did not do himself any favours with his reaction as well. I'm not overly cut up over it though. A team starting a Canadian beat a team of Americans, Europeans, Africans, and South Americans who represent a Canadian city. Canada 1, Referees 1, Whitecaps 1.

 

Let's hope next season brings more great play from Teibert, with more minutes to be had for Adekugbe, Froese, and maybe even Carducci to develop them along the way.

[jonovision]

^ A team starting a dual citizen who might one day play for Canada, but probably won't

[shermanator]

Fair enough, but until Akindele suits up for the US, I will argue that he is more Canadian than any of the 14 players the Whitecaps fielded tonight.

 

To clarify, I'm simply frustrated that a Canadian who had played quite well in recent months lost his spot to someone who had barely seen the pitch in 3 months. If both Koffie and Teibert are healthy all along, it is probably Koffie's spot to lose. I will argue that Teibert earned the start tonight with his play over the last few months. That is what we want, right? The Canadian to be the best player available? 

 

Did having Koffie in over Teibert cost the Whitecaps the game? No, I think the Whitecaps were rather poor on attack and they gave the ball away needlessly time after time. In addition, their big name DP player did not show up when it counted most.

 

Or maybe Robinson just did not agree with Teibert's new haircut?  

 

This is simply the "Whitecaps hate Canada" sentiment creeping in a bit again after disappearing over the last few months. 

[nolando]

I would say this season should be considered a success. Like with Rennie, Robinson will be expected to lift the bar from here, and the opportunity to potentially do well in the CCL should provide an extra chance to show the growth of his vision and team overall.

 

I am in the camp that wouldn't mind letting Fernandez go; like Chumiento before him, he is a frustratingly incomplete player. He has flashes of brilliance and long stretches of absolutely zero impact in a position where the Caps clearly need an everyday impact player.  I also would like to see them cut Mattocks loose, hopefully for a marketable asset; heck, I would trade him one-for-one for Tesho right now, or Osorio, not to mention a host of other MLS-calibre non-Canadians.

 

There is no way that Sam or Carducci or any other young Canadian gets big minutes at this club next year; the only exception would be Teibert or the unlikely scenario where they can somehow bring in a Petrasso or someone of his stature (Larin?).

 

I like this squad and this style of play better than most other incarnations of a professional Vancouver side that I can remember since early childhood, going back to the end of the original NASL. I really believe in all the cliches of the culture that is being brought through here and the young players that are being groomed to play within it.

 

I'd like to say the Canadian issue will sort itself out, but like the top English clubs, there is just too much of a gap between the level of play of the young domestics versus the quality that you need to get out of the foreigners who you bring in to be able to reasonably sacrifice the now for the future. Excepting Teibert, I don't really think this team would have been all that much better with Alderson or Sam playing regularly this early in their careers; in fact, they might have looked more like the Impact if they had tried to throw too many of the youngsters into the mix too early.

 

I really hope the youth side (and the extra CCL matches) helps to address the development of the young Canadians coming through, but I hope I'm not just dreaming as we all have for so many years now about the impact of MLS on the MNT.

[Grizzly]

Hard to get too upset about a Canadian team losing while not playing any Canadians to an American opponent that is playing one who while a dual citizen is as shermanator says still more Canadian than anyone the Caps had on the pitch. However, I think that is a terrible call by Geiger that should clearly be called ball to hand not hand to ball. While Geiger is a FIFA ref and has reffed in the World Cup, I have seen some very poor performances from him as ref and am always surprised he has gotten to that level internationally. 

[Keegan]

If you watch the replay you can clearly see that Waston is the one that made the call for Geiger when he looked at him Geiger pointed to the spot.  Don Cherry would tell the kids at home never to look at the ref wait for the whistle. 

[shamrock]

That is BS. The ref would have blown his whistle wether he looked at him or not. But that was a bogus call if I ever saw one. What could Waston have possibly done to avoid contact with the ball? Cut his arms off? Incredibly bad call and the ref had a perfect view so there's no excuses whatsoever. If MLS judges their own refs he should be out of the play-offs. 

 

The only thing I can say is that it was probably home-advantage for Dallas. Next time Caps, make sure you play at home in the playoffs. 

[Ruffian]

To clarify, I'm simply frustrated that a Canadian who had played quite well in recent months lost his spot to someone who had barely seen the pitch in 3 months. If both Koffie and Teibert are healthy all along, it is probably Koffie's spot to lose. I will argue that Teibert earned the start tonight with his play over the last few months. That is what we want, right? The Canadian to be the best player available? 

 

But if they had lost with Teibert starting then the manager would have been crucified for not starting the best 11 by the Vancouver fans. Canadians seem to give our Canadian players so much less support than other countries players. If Doneil Henry had caused that penalty kick he would have been benched and accused of being too young and inexperienced.

[shorty]

I think two factors are being overlooked here in why the Whitecaps lost:  Pareja went with three in the midfield instead of two, and Mauro Diaz (as much as I don't like him) was all over the Caps in the first half.  I love Robbo and I hope the Caps lock him up before too long, but I think Pareja won the coaching battle here.  Robbo probably pulled Teibert thinking that he could go more offensive and try to push the game by winning the midfield 3v2 the way Portland did.  In hindsight, if he had stuck with Teibert, probably Teibert would have hassled and contained Diaz more, but on paper it would have been a more defensive setup in a game they needed to win.  Two problems with that:  a defensive setup is what got them there in the first place, and second, the more "offensive" setup was anything but in the first half.  Hindsight is 20-20 of course, but the Caps were in form coming in and barring an injury to Teibert, they weren't the team that needed to shake things up.  Pareja's choice was a winner though, also in that they gave an already tired Morales no space and time.  He was definitely thrown off.

 

Re the PK, not deliberate, so not a penalty, but I agree Waston's guilty look to Geiger did seal it unfortunately, regardless of whether it should have or not.

[mtlfan]

The Whitecaps have the CCL for next year, winning a playoff game is much less important. 

[youllneverwalkalone]

The Whitecaps have the CCL for next year, winning a playoff game is much less important. 

Given the possibility of a huge derby match in the next stage, this one hurts.

[jonovision]

Fair enough, but until Akindele suits up for the US, I will argue that he is more Canadian than any of the 14 players the Whitecaps fielded tonight.

 

To clarify, I'm simply frustrated that a Canadian who had played quite well in recent months lost his spot to someone who had barely seen the pitch in 3 months. If both Koffie and Teibert are healthy all along, it is probably Koffie's spot to lose. I will argue that Teibert earned the start tonight with his play over the last few months. That is what we want, right? The Canadian to be the best player available? 

 

Did having Koffie in over Teibert cost the Whitecaps the game? No, I think the Whitecaps were rather poor on attack and they gave the ball away needlessly time after time. In addition, their big name DP player did not show up when it counted most.

 

Or maybe Robinson just did not agree with Teibert's new haircut?  

 

This is simply the "Whitecaps hate Canada" sentiment creeping in a bit again after disappearing over the last few months. 

 

I would answer a tentative no, as Koffie wasn't the deciding factor on either of the goals against. But his passing was poor, and he was reckless early to get the yellow, and wasn't effective disrupting plays after that because he had to play tread carefully. The whole Whitecaps midfield looked disjointed, and although Morales had two poor games to end the season, having a guy in there that hasn't played in months surely didn't help. I think this is a tactical decision that Robinson got wrong. I'd argue that his Mattocks and Mezquida substitutions were also misguided: two players who haven't been effective in 2014 into the most critical moments.

[tmcmurph]

Robbo said he wanted a more physical presence so he went with Gersh over Russ. Gersh was very rusty and it showed in the first half but the whole team played poor in the first half with constant giveaways. In the second Gersh (and everyone else) got it going. Difficult call to make as I rate Gersh ahead of Russ at DM but with his rust I'd have gone with Russ.

 

The PK? Yea right. Whatever. This is MLS and the officiating is very poor. What do you expect from part time officials? Since he got back from the WC Geiger has been back to his MLS form of not very good. It is at a point where I'm expecting the home team to be given a PK in every game for no apparent reason. We've benefited from a lot of PKs this season. Still sucks to lose like that but this is MLS level officiating at its typical level of mediocrity.

 

We will have a USL team and CCL games next year so there will be a lot more playing time for the academy players and that should help a lot with their development. Sam at RB? He's never played there that I know of. Sampson did good at RB and only got beat bad once. His sliding tackles in the box made my heart stop but he got the ball and no foul.

[Barthez-Battalion]

So I'm guessing if Bustos and Froese want playing time next year they just need to declare for Chile and Cuba.

[Blackdude]

So I'm guessing if Bustos and Froese want playing time next year they just need to declare for Chile and Cuba.

 

Froese is captied for Canada.

[smartlikefox]

I'm sure if Dallas hadn't of scored the 2-1 goal, we would've seen Teibert in for Koffie before too long.  Honestly, Teibert has been good this year but he hadn't played that great lately, especially the last game.  Lots of poor passes.  I liked the idea of Koffie in for Teibert to be honest but I really would've subbed him out much earlier.

 

Sam didn't play because he is Harvey's backup.  If you put Sam in, Harvey plays out of his position hence why Sampson played instead.  Tough to say what the future holds for Sam next year.  Robinson is a big fan but Harvey has also been a good soldier for several years now.

 

Caleb Clarke is still hanging around too.  He was at the last home game of the year as a fan got a jersey of his so the Caps still must have some plans for him.

 

It's obvious Mattocks is gone.  Fernandez was inconsistent but he's still young and you have to expect that out of younger players.  I'd personally get rid of Hurtado too if you can find some more consistent scoring threats.  You can tell Hurtado just doesn't have a mind for the game as he's really never in the right position.