PORTLAND, OREGON – Vancouver Whitecaps FC (5W-3L-2D) played to a scoreless draw with Portland Timbers (2W-3L-4D) on Saturday night at Providence Park.
Here are three things that stood out to me.
ROAD FORM
Clearly, it wasn’t Vancouver’s night offensively, but the ‘Caps just continue to find ways to rack up points on the road. They now have 10 points from five road matches thanks to an impressive 3W-1L-1D record. Even more impressive: they’ve only conceded one goal in those five games.
Those numbers are simply astonishing.
"If you have an off day attacking wise, you don't have an off day defensively," Whitecaps FC head coach Carl Robinson told reporters after Saturday's match. "It means you roll your sleeves up, you scrap, you fight, you kick, you run, and you do what's right for the team. That group in there did that today."
MAN OF HIS WORD
Kendall Waston is a man of his word.
Heading into Vancouver Whitecaps FC’s match against Real Salt Lake on April 18, the Costa Rican centre back mentioned in a media scrum that if he goes three matches without a yellow card he’d have one expunged for good behaviour (once a player accumulates five yellow cards, he automatically receives a one-match suspension).
In response, Vancouver Sun reporter Gary Kingston jokingly said: “You can’t go three games without a yellow card, can you?”
“Yes I can!” Waston said with a laugh. “You will see.”
That we did.
The big man went his third straight match without a caution on Saturday night while helping Whitecaps FC grind out a scoreless road draw. Waston had a game-high 10 clearances.
The 6-foot-5 centre back has now started 19 matches in Major League Soccer dating back to last summer and the ‘Caps have kept a clean sheet in 10 of them (including a league-leading five shutouts this season).
Think that’s a coincidence? Not me.
TEAM DEFENCE
While Waston and goalkeeper David Ousted usually get the bulk of the credit of Vancouver’s defensive prowess (for good reason), it really is a team effort.
For example: Octavio Rivero had four headed clearances on Saturday night (including the one you see below in the 88th minute). No MLS striker has recorded more headed clearances in a single match since 2013. This is the league’s leading goalscorer we’re talking about working just as hard on the defensive end as he does offensively.
Also of note, centre back Pa-Modou Kah had a game-high three blocks. In fact, the entire back line (including Jordan Harvey and youngsters Ethen Sampson and Tim Parker, who made his first MLS appearance), put in a strong shift.
It takes more than one or two players to be this solid defensively – the defensive midfield duo of Gershon Koffie and Russell Teibert deserve a lot of credit as well for neutralizing Darlington Nagbe (one example below). On Saturday night, we certainly saw that from the Blue and White.
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