VANCOUVER — The Vancouver Whitecaps will have almost no time to celebrate their 1-0 victory over Los Angeles FC. On Thursday, the Caps jumped on a flight that will take them across the continent to Florida, where they will face Orlando City FC at 3 p.m. ET Saturday.
“Across the continent and all the way down,” Whitecaps left back Jake Nerwinski said with a smile on his face after the Wednesday-night victory. “We want to build off [the win], yet it is not the easiest road — two flights going across the continent, really. It is one of the tougher ones, but I think, you know, this gives us all the momentum we need to go into Orlando.”
Momentum the Caps need to improve their record of one win in the first seven games. The Whitecaps are now 1-2-4 with five points and are ninth in the Western Conference.
The victory Wednesday was fundamentally important to finally get the club off the ground and kick start the season.
For head coach Marc Dos Santos, it is not just about the wins but also about playing a more proactive style of football. One of those elements is possession soccer, but thus far his side has not delivered on that aspect and has struggled to dominate possession this season.
It was the same story against LAFC. The Caps had just 39 percent possession.
“I think the first half was good. Our possession was good. We played out of the back well. I don’t want to be the team that scores a goal and then just plays out of the back,” Dos Santos said.
The problem is that’s exactly what the Whitecaps did. LAFC pressed for the last 15 minutes, and the Whitecaps simply looked to punt the ball out of the back trying to hit Los Angeles on the counter.
“It was hard. You’re talking about a team that’s scored 21 goals. It’s a lot of goals for the amount of games played,” Dos Santos said, excusing his team’s tactics. “And then the ref gives seven [extra] minutes, it never stopped. But, again, the commitment, you felt that the team said, ‘There’s no way we’re not winning this game today.'”
As for Orlando, Dos Santos was non-committal on any roster decisions, injury updates or squad rotation.
“In this moment, in my head, I’m not thinking about the knocks. What we’ll do is, we have a group of 18 that’s going to travel, the same 18 that was here today,” Dos Santos said. “We travel, we get to Orlando — it’s a long flight, we get there Friday morning — we’ll take the decisions regarding the game. But, for sure, the physical demands of the game were very high, and we will see rotation in Orlando.”
Meanwhile, accusations by 14 women that Canada Soccer and the Vancouver Whitecaps failed to protect youth team members from abuse and inappropriate behavior by a former coach festers like an open wound.
On Wednesday, ahead of the LAFC game, the Whitecaps issued a statement following reports on the case in several local and international outlets. The Vancouver Police Department (VPD) announced in a public statement saying they are aware of the case.
https://twitter.com/martinmacmahon/status/1118569265852862465
Many fan organizations felt the response from the Whitecaps was not satisfactory and, as a result, the Southsiders and Curva Collective fan groups walked out in the 35th minute of the game and remained in the concourse until the second half.
During the match, Concacaf president Victor Montagliani, who is a Vancouver resident, gave an interview to the Canadian television station TSN on the current state of Canadian soccer, but he did not address the issue during the program. TSN also ignored the fan protest during its broadcast.
Following his interview with TSN, Montagliani did not take questions from journalists in the press box, saying, “It is my off day.” Montagliani was the president of CSA from 2012-17, after the alleged incidents took place.
The only Whitecaps player to answer a question after the match about the protest was Doneil Henry, and he said, “he was not aware of any protests.”
Failure by the Whitecaps, the CSA and Concacaf to address the issue publicly seems to be escalating tensions with fan groups and local journalists — something the club does not need while trying to focus on turning around a dismal start to the MLS season.