After going out of the Canadian Championship to Cavalry FC of the Canadian Premier League on Wednesday, the Vancouver Whitecaps have hit rock bottom. Now winless in 10 games across all competitions, they visit Minnesota United at Allianz Field Saturday at 8 p.m. ET.
“Last night was very tough,” Whitecaps head coach Marc Dos Santos said on Thursday before the club’s departure to Minnesota. “Rewatching the game, we found that the problem isn’t just last night’s result but the accumulation of all results.”
“It felt like an upper-cut, right now we are in a boxing ring, and the bell just never rings,” Dos Santos said.
“When we analyzed last night’s result we found that before the Gold Cup we just played Saturday, Saturday, Saturday,” he added. “Right now we have a lot of games, and we just don’t have the time to train. It is all about recovery.”
“It is like a nightmare that will never end,” defender Doneil Henry said last week before the Cavalry FC result.
On Saturday, Dos Santos did reject Henry’s motion of this season being a nightmare.
“The month of July has been a nightmare, but we are talking about sport, and it is not life and death,” Dos Santos said. “You have to do your best as a coach and athlete, and then results will happen.”
“For me, it is a nightmare when someone takes away my kids,” Dos Santos said at the press conference after the game on Saturday. “For me, this low point is something that might be very good for this club one day,” he added after the Cavalry game.
It is fascinating watching Dos Santos throughout this rebuild. Despite the poor results, the evident frustration and the mistakes made by the coaching staff, the 42-year-old always tries to stay positive.
That sort of positivity is essential for a team that seems to be struggling psychologically.
“[It is about] me being challenged right now as a coach to motivate a group, and we are all in this together, that hasn’t been winning and is going through a rough patch,” Dos Santos said. “I said this before, in my 12th year in a row of coaching, this has been the biggest challenge.”
“He is a fantastic coach. Some of the best coaches in the world have gone through a spell like that,” Andy Rose said. The midfielder rejected any notion that Dos Santos had lost the dressing room. “Every player needs to make sure to listen and to do what he wants us to do on the pitch,” Rose added.
Speaking to TSN on Wednesday, Dos Santos alluded that something drastic needed to happen to this group for results to turn around.
On Thursday, he offered more insight into what that could be: “Something drastic could be based on one or two results, but sometimes you also need new blood in the squad.”
Dos Santos has, therefore, reversed his decision not to become active in the transfer market this summer. But even if the Whitecaps sign someone in July, that player will not be available against a Minnesota side that has won four out of its past five games and is fourth in the Western Conference.
“They are in a good spot right now,” right back Jake Nerwinski said on Thursday. “We just need to get back to basics; it is a matter of getting it done on the field.”
Hence, Dos Santos will shake up his roster and try to turn around his fortune with the players available right now. It is a hard ask for a team that had hit rock bottom psychologically on Wednesday.