by Graham Tooke, @chelskitooke
SCCL Recap
Carl Robinson went out and tested his depth Wednesday evening seeing his fringe players earn a 1-1 draw with Seattle Sounders in the clubs first ever Scotiabank CONCACAF Champions League match. Testing the depth didn’t mean adding 2 or 3 to the core group of starters, it ended up being a completely different XI from who started in Vancouver’s 3-0 dismantling of Seattle last Saturday and it showed.
Tornaghi made a rare appearance in between the pipes for David Ousted and despite a shaky start in the opening stages grew into the game and made plenty of excellent saves. In front of him Tim Parker looked heads and shoulders above the level of Diego Rodriguez. The Uruguayan was at fault for the Sounders equalizer as he lost sight of Lamar Neagle, allowing the forward to smash into the roof of the net from close range.
Guys like Christian Dean and Tim Parker were rare bright sparks on the night.
With so many fresh faces you could forgive the likes of Ethen Sampson, Kianz Froese and Deybi Flores for having poor performances, however, Pedro Morales made a very disappointing impression on his return from injury. Sampson, Flores and Hurtado failed desperately to connect on the right side but at least tracked back and tried to win the ball back, whereas Morales continually look disinterested in getting involved.
Tim Parker has been receiving plenty of rave reviews over the past month for his performances since joining the club and he grabbed his second goal of the season, from a corner kick no less. His deft touch at the near post crept inside the far post giving Troy Perkins no chance in goal.
Even with the Whitecaps showing zero chemistry and ability to hold possession, the Sounders weren’t much better, but Lamar Neagle was gifted a simple opportunity to finish Andy Rose’s cross from the right.
A decent result considering how poor the performance was but at least the sold out BC Place crowd got a look at future prospects like Froese and Bustos, while Adekugbe finally made his return from injury.
Real Salt Lake Preview
5 wins in the last 8, the Vancouver Whitecaps are truly flying high right now. They are top of the Western Conference and playing some of the best football of their MLS existence, but now Real Salt Lake travel for their third meeting of the regular season, their second at BC Place.
The Whitecaps are in line for a trifecta of victories over RSL after a tidy 1-0 victory at Rio Tinto Stadium from Darren Mattocks’ late winner, followed up by a 2-1 win at the end of May through Techera’s quick thinking.
Real Salt Lake also played in SCCL this past week defeating CSD Municipal in Guatemala City, Tuesday night. Joao Plata scored the lone goal from Javier Morales’ free kick. Jeff Cassar put out a much stronger lineup compared to that of Vancouver, Seattle or LA. The spine of Rimando, Beckerman, Morales and Plata all featured from the get go and its uncertain if all will even travel to Vancouver even though they’re in desperate need of points.
Prior to that RSL lost a 10 goal thriller at DC United after beating Houston Dynamo and Sporting Kansas City in previous weeks. Joao Plata is showing how much the team had missed him in the opening half of the season with three goals and four assists in each of his last six MLS appearances.
Photo Credit: Jennifer Jordan-Harrell Photography
Luis Silva joined RSL in a trade with DC United for fan favourite Alvaro Saborio in recent weeks and the young playmaker saw the final 20 minutes of their 6-4 defeat at RFK Stadium. He could certainly fill a role where Luis Gil has been so prominently hyped but failed to live up to.
Vancouver also made moves of their own on trade deadline day bringing in Costa Rican full back Jordan Smith from Kendall Waston’s former club Deportivo Saprissa on loan for the season, while Erik Hurtado who played Wednesday night has been sent out on loan to Norwegian side Mjndalen IF in search of first team football.
With Pedro Morales being removed around the hour mark, Wednesday, it’s possible he’ll feature at some point as he works towards full match fitness. The likeliness that Rosales isn’t quite ready to return should see Carl Robinson stick with Nico Mezquida who has done well for himself filling in when needed over the last month.
But we’ve seen this play out before when Real Salt Lake brought a B team to BC Place and scalped the playoff chasing ‘Caps in 2013, ultimately the beginning of the end for Martin Rennie.
7 PM, TSN1 and TSN 1410
Probable Lineups
Vancouver Whitecaps: Ousted; Beitashour, Waston, Kah, Harvey; Laba, Koffie; Techera, Mezquida, Manneh; Rivero
Real Salt Lake: Attinella; Beltran, Maund, Glad, Mansally; Beckerman; Silva, Mulholland; Morales; Plata, Sandoval
