Vancouver Whitecaps Development Report (February 2019)

The title of this article keeps changing every year because the Vancouver Whitecaps keep changing their development strategy. This year we have the development team, a newly founded team that will play a series of friendlies throughout the year. Watching this team will be difficult as there don’t seem to be any plans to stream them and I don’t live in Vancouver most of the year (if anyone from the Whitecaps is reading, please play a friendly against UVic or the VISL all stars or something like that so I can actually write a proper match report). Nevertheless I will do my best to being you a monthly summary. I will also bring you the latest on Whitecaps players out on loan and i’m even looking to expand into a bit of academy coverage. Academy coverage brings the same problem as the u23s, it’s difficult to watch them. The only stats we get from the academy are goals and starts. So there might be a defensive midfielder totally killing it with 5 tackles a game and 90% passing accuracy but if he isn’t also scoring then we’re never really going to know. But I will try.

Players on loan:

Anthony Blondell played 90 minutes and scored a goal for Huachipato against O’Higgins in the Chillean first division. He did not play in Huachipato’s 3-1 loss to Palestino.

Development squad:

Whitecaps U23s 2-2 Tacoma Defiance

Goals: Conner Guilherme, Jefferson Alade

Assists: Christian Campagna

Penalty save: Sean Melvin

First half lineup

Sean Melvin*; T-boy Fayia^, Trialist+, Connor Guilherme, Christopher Lee^; Albert Kang^, Trialisti#, Chance Carter; Trialist#, Jefferson Alade^, Trialist+

Second half lineup

Sean Melvin*; Trialist#, Connor Guilherme, Cristian Campagna^, Jalen Watson^; Logan Chung^, Ali Zohar^, Vasco Fry^; T-boy Fayia^, Trialist#, Sidrit Vukaj^

Extra time lineup

Evan Ince^; Trialist#, Trialist+, Jalen Watson^, Christopher Lee^; Trialist#, Vasco Fry^, Ali Zohar^; Albert Kang^, Jefferson Alade^, Trialist+

* MLS roster ^ Current Academy player # Academy alumni + Guest player

Whitecaps U23s 2-3 VMSL All Stars

Goals: Emiliano Brienza (2)

Assists: There were very clearly assists on both goals but the match report doesn’t say who got them and the camera is to far away to be able to tell who they were. If you are a Whitecaps u23 player who played in this game, get in touch and help me out!

Penalty missed: Emiliano Brienza

Whitecaps FC U-23 lineup

13.Sean Melvin*; 19.T-boy Fayia^, Trialist+, 16.Connor Guilherme ©, 2.Jalen Watson^; 5.Ali Zohar^, 8.Damiano Pecile, 43.Emiliano Brienza; 32.Brandon Cambridge, 17.Thomas Raimbault^, 30.Kamron Habibullah

Substitutes

14.Chituru Odunze, 6.Keenan Foley^, 12.Chance Carter, 15.Albert Kang^, 25.Vasco Fry^, 94.Nicholas Fussell, Trialist+, Trialist+

* MLS roster ^ Current Academy player + Guest player

@salishsea86 Actually went to this game so we have some actual notes on the game.

No #69 is listed which means a trialist, trying to make the big break into professional football, chose #69. Whoever you are we salute you sir o7.

Anyway, moving along.

Number 8 is Damiano Pecile. Congratulations Damiano on apparently being quite good at passing.

As those of us who follow Whitecaps prospects know, Kam Habibullah is quite good. Though apparently he needs to learn to play with his teammates a bit better.

The goalkeeper in the second half was Chituru Odunze. There is a lot of hype around Odunze so it’s a little disappointing that he struggled but you have to remember, despite being 6’5, he’s only 16 and it takes a while to adapt to playing against men (especially for goalkeepers).

U19s

(12 games)

There aren’t even really match reports for the academy games so i’m just going to give you who the top scorers are:

Alade: 7

Raimbault: 3

Colyn: 3

Fry: 3

U17s

(12 games)

Massud Habibullah: 10

Brienza: 4

Cambridge: 4

de Brienne: 4

U15s

These are straight up just children so don’t take these to seriously

(12 games)

Afework: 5

Periera: 4

Budisa: 2

Ogbuke: 2

The game between the U23s and UBC that will have happened by the time this comes out won’t be covered in this piece because it happened in March.