Whitecap goal drought
Not by a long shot. Or any shot. After Saturday’s 1-0 loss in Salt Lake City’s Rio Tinto Stadium the ‘Caps have now played seven MLS games in the 2016 season and managed exactly zero goals from open play. Not one.
They have scored six goals, all from set pieces, four from the boot of Pedro Morales on penalty kicks, one from Jordan Harvey off a free-kick and another from Kendall Waston from a corner kick in stoppage time.
Like Harvey’s goal, Waston’s came in a season opening 3-2 home loss to the Montreal Impact. Since that game they’ve managed four goals in six games, all on penalty kicks.
In their three games to date in April, the team that showed such great promise coming into the season hasn’t scored at all. There was a 0-0 draw against the L.A. Galaxy in a game they might have done better in had it not been for the referee’s decision to send off Matias Laba, a 4-0 loss in Washington against D.C. United and the 1-0 defeat in Utah.
Octavio Rivera has managed 10 shots (and a crossbar), both Morales, who has missed games due to injury, and Kekuta Manneh have six shots. No one else on the club has managed more than 2.
That the Whitecaps are 2-4-1 is arguably more fodder for critics who complain about the lack of scoring in soccer. How can you manage two wins and a draw in seven games without scoring a goal from play?
Well, critics would say, it’s because very often the opposing team also does not score from the run of play, leaving you needing only a goal from the penalty spot to gain a win. And truth be told, the critics would be right.
Goal scorers wanted
No question there was effort by coach Carl Robinson in Salt Lake City to find a way to create offence. Robinson threw six men up front for the final 30 or so minutes. But that actually produced less offense than his more standard 1-3-2-4 set up.
Indeed over that last stretch in Rio Tinto it looked as if the Whitecap players had collectively sighed and thought ‘we simply can’t score from play’ and gave up the ghost. They did not but it looked that way, which, come to think of it, is how it looked for most of the 4-0 loss the previous week.
Incidentally two players on the Whitecaps have recorded an assist this season in those seven game, Christian Bolaños and Morales. By comparison, Houston Dynamo and San Jose Earthquake players each collectively sport a total of 11 assists and Montreal Impact players 12.
How long can the lack of offense continue before ‘Caps fans begin to give up on the season? Before they stop going to games? The Whitecaps are hoping they don’t find out, hoping next Saturday’s home match against FC Dallas sees them score from the run of play, and often.
Dallas are, of course, leading MLS with a record of 4-1-2 so the prospects are not so good. Did someone say there weren’t enough goals in soccer? If they did, it must have been someone in Vancouver.
