by Graham Tooke, @chelskitooke
Recap
There’s no time to think about the painful loss to the Sounders last Saturday, in which Sigi Schmid showed off his tactical prowess to blunt Vancouver’s attack and comfortably walk out of BC Place with all three points. It doesn’t hurt that Chad Barrett stepped in and scored a timely brace in the absence of Obafemi Martins.
With Vancouver chasing a goal in Edmonton Wednesday night there was no opportunity for the likes of Pedro Morales, Kendall Waston and Cristian Techera to recover if they planned to make it through to the Voyageurs Cup final with Montreal. And they did exactly that.
An early lead through Morales’ penalty kick was cancelled out in stoppage time as Tomi Ameobi levelled the aggregate score at 2-2 before substitute Matias Laba popped up in the opposition’s area to nick the winner and send the ‘Caps into a sixth final.
The elation on the faces of the Vancouver Whitecaps players was evident and should put them in a good state of mind going into Dick’s Sporting Goods Park Saturday evening.
Morales tucked away the early penalty to put Vancouver in the drivers seat.
Rapid Report
Last season the Whitecaps were up there with Chicago Fire for the title of ‘Draw City’ with 14 and 18 respectively, 2015 appears to be the year of the Rapids. The club from Denver has already racked up an improbable seven ties from their first ten. Even more head scratching is that the Western Conference’s bottom club has lost as often as top placed FC Dallas with two apiece.
Pablo Mastroeni has led his club to four straight 1-1 draws against; FC Dallas, New York Red Bulls, LA Galaxy, and San Jose Earthquakes. Prior to those fixtures they destroyed FC Dallas 4-0 away from home before dropping 3-1 at home to the Sounders.
The club is having trouble getting results at home at the moment as they are yet to win in five. The altitude at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park has usually only been an issue for the away team, but the newer members of the squad seem to be having problems acclimating.
They’ve quite clearly been more comfortable away from home but as nice as their loss column looks Pablo Mastroeni needs to start notching in the ‘W’ column if the Rapids have any hope of challenging for one of the six playoff spots.
Signing Kevin Doyle was all it took for Colorado to finally motivate Gabby Torres.
The chances of wins coming their way have been strengthened by the arrival of Republic of Ireland international Kevin Doyle from English Championship side Wolverhampton Wanderers. Minutes were hard to come by and he spent the majority of the season on loan to Premier league clubs Queens Park Rangers and Crystal Palace were he rarely featured paving his move to MLS.
At one time he was one of the most dangerous strikers in the Premier League upon Reading’s promotion. There he hit 55 goals in 157 appearances before moving to Wolves where the goals slowly began to dry up. It will be interesting to see if Doyle is still up for the challenge and can succeed in MLS like his countryman Robbie Keane.
Former Galaxy box-to-box midfielder Marcelo Sarvas won’t be playing anytime soon as he continues his rehabilitation from knee surgery. The Brazilian leaves a gaping hole in midfield but they have the veteran presence of Sam Cronin and Nick LaBrocca to take up the mantle.
While most clubs turn to big money DP’s the Rapids have been getting the most out of relative unknowns. Axel Sjoberg and Dominique Badji have been revelations at the back and up front this season. Both players were picked out of this year’s MLS SuperDraft and while Sjoberg was snapped up early Badji wasn’t considered until the fourth round (67th overall).
The forward from Senegal burst onto the scene with a beauty in the 4-0 win over FC Dallas and has been able to retain playing time with his exciting and no fear style.
Waston reliable as ever, needs a partner of the same ilk.
Vancouver have had a pair of opposites playing in central defense this with Kendall Waston superb but his partner Pa-Modou Kah having a tough time winning the fans over with his sloppiness in possession and his laziness with the offside trap.
The Whitecaps faithful will be relieved by the return of Diego Rodriguez who will suit up for WFC2 Sunday as they search for their first home win of the season at UBC against Real Monarchs SLC.
Although the emergence of Tim Parker has helped ease the loss of Rodriguez, the kid is a speed demon who looks capable of cleaning up any mistakes that may occur along the backline. It’s hard to believe that Carl Robinson would drop Kah anytime soon but if he did he’d receive plenty of applause from those watching back in Vancouver.
We could see a change in tactics similar to what was employed against Real Salt Lake in April. Many are playing big minutes right now and the Edmonton match did little to help fatigue, so maybe sitting in a diamond 4-4-2 may help the ‘Caps stave off Colorado while utilizing the speed and danger of Kekuta Manneh playing off of Octavio Rivero rather than having him stranded on the wing.
Probable Lineups
Colorado Rapids: Irwin; Riley, Moor, Sjoberg, Harrington; Pittinari, Cronin; Torres, Powers, Ramirez; Badji
Vancouver Whitecaps: Ousted; Beitashour, Kah, Waston, Harvey; Laba; Teibert, Koffie, Morales; Manneh, Rivero
6 PM, TSN1 and TSN 1410
