VANCOUVER, BC – After their Cascadia Cup-clinching win over first-place Seattle Sounders FC, Vancouver Whitecaps FC aren’t taking anything for granted ahead of Saturday’s match with San Jose Earthquakes (7:30 p.m. PT on TSN1).
Here are some news and notes from Tuesday’s training session:
- Canadian midfielder Russell Teibert was asked if Friday’s win over Seattle Sounders FC was the most satisfying of his career. And he wasn’t pulling any punches.
“I don’t want to be out here trying to play it down,” said Teibert, the longest serving player on the team. “That was one of the best games I’ve been a part of. It felt like the first game all over again when we beat Toronto FC at home at Empire. I remember that day like it was yesterday. Beating Seattle, odds stacked against us, you can’t beat that.”
- When Teibert was informed that the ‘Caps have yet to win a game at San Jose’s Buck Shaw Stadium, he said it’s a statistic the team isn’t thinking about.
“We’re just looking at playing our hardest and having each guy give everything they have,” Teibert said. “You saw that for yourself last weekend. Every guy put everything they had on the table. We played with heart, we played with desire, and we played to win like we needed to win. And we need to win this weekend. When you have that in the back of your mind, you’re tough to beat.”
- Whitecaps FC head coach Carl Robinson said that midfielder Gershon Koffie, who has missed 10 straight matches with a sprained foot, will be in contention Saturday at San Jose. Koffie trained in full on Tuesday and stayed behind for extra fitness work with strength and conditioning coach Jon Poli.
Koffie told reporters it hasn’t been easy sitting on the sidelines over the last few months, but he’s happy that the team has found their form in recent weeks. The win over Seattle “made his weekend,” he said.
- Midfielder Pedro Morales and winger/striker Kekuta Manneh, who was subbed off at halftime on Friday with a quad contusion, also both trained in full after picking up knocks against Seattle.
- Striker Darren Mattocks and centre back Carlyle Mitchell have both returned from international duty.
- Centre back Kendall Waston, who was named to the MLS Team of the Week after his performance in Friday’s win over Seattle, wasn’t at training on Tuesday as he returned to Costa Rica to pick up his wife and son. Waston will return to training on Thursday; however, he won’t be available on Saturday against San Jose due to caution accumulation.
“It’s going to be tough without him because he’s such a big presence, but whoever fills in for him will do a great job,” Steven Beitashour told reporters. “I just think we need to communicate over there. It’s nice because it’s a smaller field so we’ll be able to hear each other unlike at Seattle where there were 55,000 fans. We’ll be able to communicate with each other and I think that’s the main thing.”
- Saturday’s match will be Beitashour’s first in San Jose after getting traded to Whitecaps FC in the offseason. The San Jose native spent his first four seasons in MLS with the Quakes.
“We’re not expecting any favours from anyone, as you can see the past three weeks,” said Beitashour, adding that his ticket requests have reached triple figures. “We have to take care of business ourselves.”
Participate in the best sporting experience in Vancouver! 2015 Whitecaps FC Season Tickets are on sale now. In addition to Season Tickets, Whitecaps FC offer a flexible range of ticket products, including Half-Season Packs, 5-Packs, Student Half-Season Tickets, and a Youth Soccer Half-Season Ticket. For more information on 2015 Season Tickets, visit whitecapsfc.com/tickets.
