Carl Robinson will be delighted to see his side pick up their first win of the season.
Top 2 Bottom 2: Whitecaps put out the Fire
by Aaron Campbell (@AaCamp81)
Whitecaps Beat Writer
It was a game of chances, back and forth counter attacks and misses all over the field by both sets of players. Keeping you on the edge of your seat through the entire 90 minutes.
An 86th minute goal by newly acquired striker Octavio Rivero gave the Vancouver Whitecaps a hard fought three points on the road in Chicago.
There were plenty of bright spots for the Whitecaps but also areas of their game that Carl Robinson will need to address before heading to Florida next week to face Orlando City SC.
Let’s take a look at this weeks Top 2 Bottom 2:
Top 2:
David Ousted collected his first clean sheet of the new season.
David Ousted
Four big time saves from Ousted kept his team in the game so they could get the well earned victory. Ousted was able to challenge the Chicago Fire strikers and make himself big cutting down the shooting angles. He showed great reflexes and made nice saves with his feet to keep the Fire off the score sheet.
With the amount of chances the defense gave up through sloppy play he was my man of the match.
Let’s hope moving forward he isn’t called upon to make save after save to keep the team in the game with better defensive play in front of him. First clean sheet of the season down, here’s hoping for many more this season.
Adekugbe looks like a natural at left back in MLS.
Sam Adekugbe
I could have gone with Octavio Rivero here but I felt the young Canadian played as well as his coaches could have asked for. His speed down the left wing caused all sorts of problems for Fire right back Eric Gehrig.
Adekugbe was able to push forward and showed calmness and poise when he was challenged with the ball. He linked up well with Kekuta Manneh down the left and the pair helped push the team into dangerous positions.
The question is did he do enough to get the start over Harvey in the game against Orlando City?
Bottom 2:
Pedro Morales isn’t anywhere near the level of last season yet.
Pedro Morales
A game to forget for Pedro. Had a miss from 15 yards out that should have put the Whitecaps up very early in the game. He had time to settle the ball but rushed his shot.
The miss in injury time of the first half came from a clever through ball that Morales did well to stay onside for, but once again he rushed his strike missing the far post.
He’s beginning to play like he has put too much pressure on himself to score when last season he was coolness personified in front of goal. With the addition of Rivero he has to realize he has help and can relax and just play his game and let things come naturally.
The goals with come but it might take a few games playing with Rivero for the Chilean to find his groove.
We’re still waiting for the Beitashour of old when he clinched the Supporters’ Shield with San Jose.
Steven Beitashour
A great pass on the Rivero goal, but that aside he had a horrible defensive outing. In the first half there were at least four different errors that led to Fire chances. He was being sucked into the middle time and time again, leaving the outside wing open for a point of attack.
This poor showing combined with his forgetful performance last week against Toronto FC isn’t making him popular with the ‘Caps faithful at the moment.
One option being thrown around is having Jordan Harvey playing right-back while keeping Adekugbe in the starting left-back spot. This would give the Whitecaps the attack edge down the left from Adekugbe but improve the defensive cover from having Harvey in the right-back slot.
