Photo Credit D. Laird Allan/Sportswave
All the hype this past week surrounded the win for Canada’s National soccer team in advancing to the World Cup played in Qatar for the first time since 1986 the same year as Expo 86 in Vancouver.
That was when Canada lost all three of their group stage games and didn’t score a single goal. How likely is it that Canada gives us at least one goal this time around?
Entering the match Sporting KC has a record of 2 wins, 3 losses and one tie sitting with 6 points while Vancouver 0 wins, 3 losses and 2 ties for 2 points managing only 2 goals.
For many the highlight of last season had to be the hiring of Vanni Sartini a native of Florence, Italy who guided the team to a 7W-2L-5D regular season record and 26 points over 14 MLS matches as acting head coach – the second-best record in the Western Conference over that span.
The banter in the press box was nothing less than the World Cup, but more so how the season would unfold for the Whitecaps given the hype they attracted last season.
Despite their showing they only lost 1-0 to France, but did manage to stay even until the final 11 minutes.
It is interesting to know that no team outside of Europe and South America has ever won the World Cup.
Assigning the groups is challenging because of all the rules and restrictions – each group must include one team from each of the four pots, no group can have more than two teams from Europe or more than one from South America, etc.
FIFA randomly selects teams, one at a time, and places each one in the next available group that will not violate any restrictions.
Say what you will about past play but Vancouver were focused on pulling out a win over the team that eliminated the Whitecaps November 20th by a 3-1 margin in a match played at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas.
Having 16,772 supporters on hand proved to be strong motivation for Vanni Sartini’s Vancouver Whitecaps FC (1W-3L-1D) grab their first 1-0 win over Sporting Kansas City (2W-4L-0D) at BC Place.
Whitecaps bench boss Vanni Sartini is known for changing things up and in this game he started with a 3-4-1-2 formation in the contest to get a jump on the visitors from south of the 49th.
He did make four changes from the team’s last match against Los Angeles FC that saw Ryan Raposo, Déiber Caicedo, Ryan Gauld, Brian White replace Lucas Cavallini, Marcus Godinho (24), Pedro Vite, Cristian Dájome.
With the support of the fans behind them as well as welcoming Olympic Athletes they got out to a quick jump with Ryan Gauld giving them their first solid chance in the 25th minute, but went wide.
Gauld had another chance in the opening half sending it to Déiber Caicedo who then sent it to Brian White only to have KC “Keeper” Tim Melia make the save.
The second half saw Cambridge Ontario “Keeper” Thomas Hasal come up with a save from outside the box after Dániel Sallói’s shot keeping the game scoreless.
With time winding down the Caps were “dialed in” and it was Hamilton’s Ryan Raposo get his first MLS/Whitecaps goal in the 73rd minute after getting a pass from Michael Baldisimo after he was subbed in.
With time winding down the visitors from KC continued to press only to be denied any solid scoring chances to the delight of the “Cap” supporters giving them their first three points of the season.
Vancouver’s next match is ironically their 100th meeting against the Portland Timbers April 9 at BC Place, with the kick-off at 7 pm.
MATCH DETAILS (Thanks to Vancouver Whitecaps)
VWFC GE Appliances Player of Quality: Ryan Raposo
Referee: Fotis Bazakos, Attendance: 16,772
Scoring Summary
73’ – VAN – Ryan Raposo
Statistics
Possession: VAN 47.4% – SKC 52.6%, Shots: VAN 12 – SKC 11
Shots on Goal: VAN 3 – SKC 4, Saves: VAN 4 – SKC 2
Fouls: VAN 12 – SKC 12, Offsides: VAN 1 – SKC 0
Corners: VAN 1 – SKC 3
Cautions
37’ – VAN – Russell Teibert, 45’ – VAN – Sebastian Berhalter
60’ – VAN – Lucas Cavallini, 90’ – VAN – Marcus Godinho
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