By Steven Agen and Toby Dunkelberg
The Vancouver Whitecaps advanced by the New York Red Bulls with a 2-0 win on Thursday night. The result was good for a 3-1 win on aggregate; more than enough to put them through to the next round of the 2016-17 CONCACAF Champions League.
The first leg’s 1-1 scoreline hid the fact that the Red Bulls looked by far the better team on the night. Which had many Vancouver supporters wary of their chances to advance in their first trip to the knockout rounds of the Champions League. In practice Carl Robinson preached playing hard right from start of the 90. And once again Vancouver came out ready to go.
Alphonso Davies, playing in perhaps his biggest match as a professional so far, opened the scoring on 5’. The 17-year-old trapped a Marcel de Jong cross on the left corner of the six yard box and then calmly finished into the near bottom corner
While the Whitecaps began the night with their advantage of an away goal, the relief at BC Place was palpable when Davies ensured early on that they’d have a firmer foothold in the tie than that. For a quarter of an hour after the goal Vancouver controlled possession but failed to create any more chances.
Through a combination of set piece routines and a few low crosses the Red Bulls finished the half the stronger of the sides. The visitors grew into the match via Sacha Klestjan and Bradley Wright-Phillips. Although the latter couldn’t finish any of his three decent first half looks to level the tie.
Vancouver began to fashion responses to the Wright-Phillips chances after the half hour. Kekuta Manneh led a counter off of a Red Bulls corner and eventually forced Luis Robles into a sprawling top-corner save to keep the lead to one. Several minutes later Jordan Harvey would test Robles with a well struck half volley from near the left sideline.
Despite the opportunities, the halftime whistle sounded to a 1-0 scoreline. On the balance of play it could be said that a Red Bulls were more than deriving of an equalizing goal. However, without Robles’ sharp reflexes the Red Bulls would’ve easily been staring down a 4-1 aggregate goal deficit.
The Red Bulls started the second half well. They pressed hard for the equalizer, penning Vancouver deep in their own half. The ‘Caps looked outmanned in midfield and a defensive shift looked more than warranted. But Carl Robinson had other ideas. Opting instead to go all in and sub in their newly signed Designated Player, and current Sounders leading goalscorer, Freddy Montero.
After hardly touching the ball for most of his first nine minutes on the field, Montero’s first contribution to the Whitecaps attack was a special one. Following a Davies corner from the right, Montero latched onto a bouncing ball in the middle of the area and slammed goalward. Robles got a touch on it but only to divert it into the bottom right corner. The home crowd, already energized by merely the presence of their new Designated Player, lifted the roof off of BC Place. At 2-0 on the night and 3-1 overall, the Whitecaps knew they were headed to the CONCACAF Champions League Semifinals.
With the win they advance to the next leg of the tournament and face a difficult midweek matchup against Liga MX giant Tigres UANL on March 14th. As the higher seed Vancovuer will host the second leg of the home-and-home series, meaning their first matchup will be on the road. Boistered by Davies, Manneh and Montero, anything’s possible but it’ll be an uphill battle never the less.
