Post Match: Vancouver Whitecaps vs Seattle Sounders (first leg)

The Vancouver Whitecaps shocked everyone when they revealed that both Yordy Reyna and Cristian Techera had dropped to the bench for this western conference playoff clash.

The game started fairly evenly with Seattle seeming content to sit back and defend a little more. Break Shea caused some trouble down the left side while Fredy Montero and Nosa Igiebor showed some good play in the middle, but no clear cut chances were to be had early on(though in the 16th minute Marcel De Jong humorously struck Shea in the face with an attempted cross).

In the 25th minute Shea created a half chance when he bravely went into a challenge against Roman Torres, an unenviable task. The ball came loose to Montero who chiped it across the goal but Bolanos just wasn’t tall enough to get something on it.

in the 30th minute a ball in from Christian Bolanos created a mad scramble in the box but neither Montero or Shea could ‘get good wood on it’ and eventually the ball ws cleared by Torres. Shortly thereafter De Jong perpetuated the humorous act of hitting Shea in the face, this time with a throw in.

In he 35th minute Jake Nerwinski failed to track the run of Joevin Jones whose cross forced Kendall Waston to dive in and deflect the ball off his own crossbar. Whitecaps fans collectively let out a sigh of relief.

The teams went into the break with the scores tied at 0.

Early in the 2nd half Chad Marshall, who was still up the field from a corner, rose to meet a cross but his header was saved by Stefan Marinovic. This proved to be the only shot on target of the entire match.

So it was a pretty boring match and the teams and now the teams will go to Seattle on Thursday to decide who will advance. We all would have liked to see the ‘Caps go out and get a goal or two, including me. That being said, as reductive as it may sound, this isn’t the worst result ever. The ‘Caps are at their best when bunkering and getting a quick goal on the counter. Maybe denying Seattle the possibility of the away goal and hoping to get lucky south of the border was genuinely the best tactical move. Maybe, perhaps even likely, The more defensive system was thrust on the ‘Caps with Reyna and Techera carrying knocks (though mid you their introduction to the game didn’t change much).

It’s all in the past now though and the ‘Caps will have to hope they get lucky in Seattle. The big concern will be that we’ll see another collapse like the last time the ‘Caps were in Seattle. In a lot of games this year it’s seemed like the ‘caps won despite all logic dictating they should lose. We’ll just have to hope the magic lasts a little longer.

As always be sure to let us know what you think in the comments down below.