Report Card: The Whitecaps Falter Again

The Vancouver Whitecaps look tired, out of answers, and nothing like a post-season club. That was made extremely apparent when on the weekend, when, with their season circling the drain, the Whitecaps were shut out once again in a 1-0 loss to the New York Red Bulls. With pressure mounting and the need for points never greater, the club folded and watched as they were once again stymied.

Their attack is toothless. They give up late goals. Their captain looks just about ready to head to a sunny beach for the winter. Their depth, heralded in the off-season, looks like a joke. For a club that had high expectations heading into the season, this is bad. Anyways, my rant is over. Here is the report card.

Pedro Morales: C

When the season is on the line, you need your Captain to be your best player. Can somebody remind Pedro of that? He's either injured or just plain uninspired, and has easily been the club's most disappointing player this season. He can't score unless it's from the penalty spot, and his distribution and creativity has become increasingly more stilted and confined as the seasons have worn on.

He mentioned this year may be his last in MLS; At this point, I'd say good riddance.

Erik Hurtado: C+

You can definitely chastise Hurtado for failing to make his chances count, but at least he actually has the ability to create chances when he gets his minutes. Hurtado ended the night with seven shots and a slew of chances, and while he failed to actually put the ball in the net, it was still a hard working night at the office.

I'm not coming down too hard on Hurtado because he's actually a pretty good depth option for the club. He just shouldn't be out there on a regular basis, and he probably wouldn't be if not due to injury and international call-ups. Hurtado is an above average player, and he had an above average night against the Red Bulls. A good bench option, nothing more.

Carl Robinson: D

Like the guy a lot as a person, but this is clearly not working out. I think you guys actually said it best in the multitude of comments about him in the post-match thread.

Robinson has never brought in a striker that works in a one striker formation

Yet, keeps doing that formation. Rivero, Manneh, Hurtado, Kudo, Barnes…. all of them are better in 2 striker formations and yet, here we are.

Eric is one of, if not the, hardest working player on the squad. While I do feel he is better suited in division 2, I also feel he would do much better in a 2 striker formation as his hard work and talent would give room and space for his partner.

And of course, not only this, he goes back to the "Pedro #10" bandwagon when it is a near guaranteed failure at this stage. -CanadianFan2015

Robbo keeps repeating the same strategy of a lone striker who is detached from the rest of the team, so that when he does have a chance, he has no option but to go for goal himself, there is no #2 striker alongside to pass it to. You need to have an option when you’re up front or else it becomes too predictable for the opposition defence. -forbrydelsen

Last 8 games I saw three points and three, count them, three goals. Yesterday, I saw a bunch of guys who looked like they had given up. Hurtado can’t score at this level, the most creative player of late, Mezquida, was on the bench, Morales was basically absent. Most relevant is that Robinson is bereft of ideas and plays the wrong players in the wrong formation – he certainly wasn’t missed when he got sent off. -Freewheeling

Where is his emotion? At least he didn’t have to watch the entire match, getting booted in the first half.

I’m pissed off and ending it there before I start to rant again. Do you have any ratings you want to hand out? I can’t imagine anything past a C+...