Report Card: Whitecaps vs Impact

Stefan Marinovic: 7.0

Marinovic suffered the bane of every goalkeeper’s existence; the wonder save that was actually offside. Nevertheless Marinovic recovered from a howler on the weekend and looked confident in the Vancouver goal. This was important, especially towards the end, because the Whitecaps were under the cosh at times. But Marinovic was a calming presence and prevented a repeat of Vancouver’s last gasp loss to Toronto F.C in 2016.

Jake Nerwinski: 7.5

Was very active up and down the right side on both sides of the ball. Set up Reyna’s goal and made a number of defensive plays.

Kendall Waston: 6.0

Waston was not particularly active as Vancouver, surprisingly, had the better of the play throughout most of the match. He wasn’t terribly involved defensively and his distribution was at it’s usual average. In the grand scheme of things though it’s probably a good thing if Waston has less to do (he has to be one of the busiest centre backs in the league).

Doneil Henry: 6.5

Much like Waston, Henry was not challenged all that seriously during the game. Henry however was slightly more active and had slightly better passing.

Marcel De Jong: 7.0

Like Nerwinski, De Jong was very active on both sides of the ball. He had as many defensive actions as Henry and Waston combined. He was a bit wayward in his passing at time but this can be forgiven as part of De Jong’s game is high risk, high reward, long passes.

Aly Ghazal: 9.0

Ghazal had the rare achievement of 100% passing accuracy. He was a calming presence in an area of the pitch that has been nothing but trouble for the Whitecaps this season. I don’t understand why he’s not one of the first names on the team sheet.

Russel Teibert: 7.5

Teibert was very active on both sides of the ball but was a bit hit and miss with his tackling and passing. That being said though, Teibert showed a lot of passion during a time when the commitment of the players has been questioned and that should be commended.

Cristian Techera: 6.0

Techera played with a lot of energy but was of limited effectiveness. He didn’t have any sucessful dribbles and didn’t make any key passes. He did, however, make a very smart play to slip Nerwinski into space for the first goal.

Yordy Reyna: 7.0

Reyna scored a goal and, like Techera, played with a lot of energy but often had to drop to deep to be properly effective. Reyna is best when working off the striker but the way he was deployed on the day didn’t allow him to influence the game in the way he is capable of. Still though, he scored a goal which is always welcome in Whitecaps land.

Brek Shea: 6.5

Shea was a bit invisible at times but also showed up with a shot that almost went in and a key pass. We’ve certainly seen worse performances from Shea but he wasn’t terribly dominant.

Kei Kamara: 8.0

Put away a penalty in a high pressure situation and ultimately sent the ‘caps through to the next round. A typically hard working and effective performance from the frontman.

Subs:

Efrain Juarez: 6.0

Juarez had an ok outing. He only had 2 defensive actions but if you scaled that across 90 minutes it would have been 12 (Which is pretty huge). He only completed 3 passes but the Whitecaps were mostly trying to hold the lead when he came on.

Anthony Blondell: 6.5

As he often does he looked a bit clumsy but Blondell did have some impact in his short time on the field. he set up Cristian Techera for a chance that would have been a goal 9 times out of 10 and won a header that almost put Yordy Reyna through on goal. All in all it was a much improved performance from the first leg.

Nicolas Mezquida: 6.5

Had very little time to influence the game but did manage to make a key pass in that time.