Report Card: Whitecaps vs Sporting Kansas City

In Wednesday’s match against SKC the Caps had a game plan and came out sticking to it. They played a 4-1-4-1 and kept the ball on the pitch with some nice close control soccer. For sixty-one minutes looked good doing it too. Unfortunately in the sixty-second minute they got scored on and then it was a matter of time until the wheels fell off and when they finally did it was not pretty.

Starters

Stefan Marinovic - C- Marinovic let in four goals and made four stops. He didn’t get a ton of help from his defense on the goals that went in so I can’t judge him too harshly. But I must say I miss having a commander like Ousted bossing the back line around. I would not be sad to see the Kiwi go after this season.

Jake Nerwinski - D Was having a solid game up until the 80th minute or so, when he completely gassed out. He failed to cover the runner on the third SKC goal, then kept the runner onside on the fourth SKC goal.

Jose Aja - F Got absolutely owned by Shelton on the second SKC goal. Could possibly have done more to stop the third goal, but he was also left out to dry by the other three back-line players on that one. Didn’t really have any positive moments I can think of.

Aaron Maund - D- Probably could have done more to help his D partner mop up on the second Sporting goal. Got sucked way out of position and then beat badly on the third goal.

Brett Levis - C At one point could have been in consideration for man of the match as he was having a strong game on both sides of the pitch. However he made a bad giveaway that led to the first SKC goal. He was then subbed out at the seventy-seventh minute in favor of Marcel de Jong.

Jordon Mutch - C- Did quite alright for himself for the first sixty minutes, looked stable in front of the back four. Had a bad slip on the first goal and probably should have been replaced around that time as started to tire out.

Erik Hurtado - C- Didn’t do all that much to impress me in this match. I’m not sure he’s well suited to playing on the wing as a starter but a limited line up selection will force players to where they shouldn’t be.

Nico Mezquida and Felipe - B I am grading these two together because they played as a fantastic pairing behind Kei Kamara. They were vital in keeping the Sporting on the back foot as often as they were. Felipe also scored his first as a Whitecap and it was a cracking finish. If I’m giving out a man of the match for the Caps I would give it to them as a pairing or Felipe alone.

Brek Shea - C- Had an excellent chance to open the scoring early in the match, but sent it wide of the far post. Other than that he had one key pass, no successful dribbles, no shots on net, no successful crosses, no tackles, no interceptions and as far as I can see there is no real reason he should be seeing the pitch as anything more than a sub in the MLS.

Kei Kamara - C+ I thought Kei had an OK night. He had a nice touch-on assist on Felipe’s goal, whether it was intentional or not. He needs to bear down and finish his chances though. Two attempts, nothing on target is not good enough.

Substitutes

Christian Techera - C The bug had over twenty minutes to have a positive effect on this match, he managed two attempts at the net in that time but failed to make the keeper work with either and did little else that was noteworthy.

Russel Teibert - C Came on and worked his tail off despite having gone the full ninety for Canada the day before. Was the only man on the pitch in black that looked like he still cared at the end of the match.

Marcel de Jong - C- Was on the pitch for the final three goals against. Not that he was responsible for all of them by any means, but he certainly didn’t help keep anything out of the back of the net either.