Report Card: Vancouver Whitecaps Draw Toronto FC 1-1

The Vancouver Whitecaps finished their busy May, which featured seven matches, with a 1-1 draw against Canadian rival Toronto FC. While a draw is better than a loss, and the club didn’t really do anything to warrant a victory throughout the match, it is probably looked at as a disappointing result given that they went up 1-0 on a 84^th minute penalty kick goal from Fredy Montero. Outside of that, there were not too many highs. As a result, the grades below will reflect that. Keep in mind that a 5 to 6 is considered ‘average game’. Let’s get started.

Maxime Crepeau (7.5): Once again, Crepeau was excellent. While he was not tested much, a reason for that was his control of his six-yard-box. He has shown great hands and a desire to come out and challenge for the ball.

Erik Godoy (7.5): I will be honest. I don’t recall Godoy’s game much, but what I do recall were a couple of good blocks and knocking a few balls out with his head to break up a pass. There are discussions about who was the best signing, so far, of the MDS era. I get the arguments for Crepeau and others but for me it is Godoy.

Andy Rose (7.0): If you said to me that he should have the same grade as Godoy I wouldn’t argue with you. I just think Godoy has been slightly better. However, Rose has not looked out of position during his time at center back.

Derek Cornelius (7.0): As I noted last match, after starting the season with a few errors, Cornelius has looked strong replacing the injured Henry. Again, he is still fourth on the depth chart for me but I understand why some would put the Canadian ahead of the unknown Jasser Khmiri. Regardless of whether you put him above or behind Khmiri, the Caps have some nice depth at center back.

Scott Sutter (6.0): I was wanting Sutter to start this one but didn’t expect it. He did and he was just so-so.

Ali Adnan (5.0): In each game that Adnan has started he has been noticeable. In this one, he was no more visible than Sutter for me. Maybe it is being tired, more likely recovering from the slight injury last match. In the long run, his decision to be a bit conservative will probably pay off, as he will have time to rest the leg now. However, for this match, it meant that he was not dynamic.

Russell Teibert (6.5): I give Teibert a slight grade above average as he was the only person to have a real good opportunity on goal. In addition, he looked solid in clogging up the middle and not giving TFC an opportunity to get a goal.

Jon Erice (6.0): Like with the other players in this one, he wasn’t bad. He just didn’t really do much more than average.

Hwang In-Beom (7.0): For the second match in a row In-Beom looked better with some of his passing. We have heard numerous times over the last two weeks how exhausted he is and that he needs a break. He is supposed to head over to South Korea for two friendlies, before getting a bit of a break through the Gold Cup. However, he appeared to possibly pick up a slight injury in this match. Hopefully this leads to him sitting out the two friendlies and avoiding the unnecessary travel. Either way, he needs a break and hopefully he can get a bit of time to relax and be strong for the Caps in the second half. If the club has any hope of squeaking into the playoffs Hwang will be key to that.

Lucas Venuto (5.0): Venuto was largely invisible in this one. While it was expected that he would come off for Reyna first in this one, he made the decision easy by not providing too much going forward. He has been strong of late, minus the scoring touch, but

Fredy Montero (6.0): Some might be a bit surprised by this but outside of the penalty kick goal he didn’t do much else. Don’t get me wrong, a penalty kick is not a guarantee and there was a lot of pressure on him with the Caps playing so average to that point and a chance to take three from their Canadian rival, so the kick was difficult, but otherwise…meh.

Yordy Reyna (9.0): I don’t usually give grades to substitutes but I made an exception this match because Reyna was SO good. He drew the penalty because of his continuous running at the defense. He looked superb and what was missing this match and, quite frankly, the entire time he was out. Reyna is easily their best offensive player and he showed it this match. If the club could get some useful support for Reyna and In-Beom on the wings this could be a formidable offense at some point.

Those are our grades for the match. What did you think though? Do you agree with these grades? See it differently? Let us know below.

Now go enjoy the Gold Cup. Any predictions?