Report Card: Whitecaps Lose Against Charlotte

This result always seemed likely with the Vancouver Whitecaps missing 10 first-team players, at least 5 of which would be nailed on starters, due to a combination of injury, suspension, and Visa issues. Still, in classic Whitecaps fashion, it would have been very possible to get something out of this game if not for a few individual errors. Let’s see how individual players got on.

Max Anchor: 6.0

Look, you can’t expect that much when your 4th-choice 17-year-old keeper is thrust unexpectedly into an MLS game while nursing a quad injury. Anchor had a very rocky start, fumbling a cross and then conceding a goal he probably should have stopped. But after that, he recovered quite well. He was very alert on set pieces and made a few key saves from them. I wouldn’t want him playing regular minutes in MLS at this stage but I think he showed enough to suggest he has a good future in front of him.

Javain Brown: 8.0

I thought Brown was man of the match for Vancouver until he was subbed off in the 65th minute. He was a beast in 1v1 battles, of which there were a lot because Vancouver never had the ball. His passing was a bit hit and miss but that could be said for just about everyone on the field.

Ranko Veselinoivc: 7.0

He was really good until he wasn’t. Veselinovic’s brain fart lead directly to Charlotte’s late winner but I feel he had a pretty good match if you can look past that bad moment.

Florian Jungwirth: 7.0

Jungwirth had had a tough start to the season but I felt he performed admirably in this one. Like the rest of the defence, he was under constant siege and he couldn’t really be faulted for either goal.

Cristian Dájome: 6.5

His pressure created Vancouver’s goal but he didn’t do a great job of defending the first Charlotte goal. Beyond that, he didn’t have a ton of influence on the game.

Leonard Owusu: 5.0

Wasn’t able to bring the same energy he brought at the end of the Dallas game. A lot of 0s on his stat sheet.

Sebastian Berhalter: 7.0

There was lots of defensive work to be done and I thought Berhalter did a pretty decent job of doing it. He showed a lot of energy, at one point dribbling past about 3 players on his own, and winning quite a lot of fouls.

Marcus Godinho: 6.5

I thought he did alright. He generally did a good job of keeping the ball and I would not say he was particularly exposed defensively.

Ryan Gauld: 7.5

Quite a strong performance from Gauld. He didn’t see much of the ball but managed 4 shots and a key pass with little of it he did see. He also chipped in defensively a fair amount.

Deiber Caicedo: 7.0

Caicedo also managed to do quite well with limited time on the ball. He managed 3 shots and a key pass. His dribbling was also excellent and helped Vancouver to keep a hold of the ball a little better in their rare forays into the attacking 3rd.

Tosaint Ricketts: 7.5

Ricketts has been on an absolute tear since I cited him as an example of the team showing too much loyalty to middling players. I am not sure I have been totally disabused of that belief but I have to give him props for his performance in this one. He scored a goal and did a lot of work upfront. Whoscored credits him with winning 11 aerial duels which is kind of incredible.

Subs:

I wouldn’t say any of the subs stood out particularly positively or negatively. Russell Teibert almost scored a late screamer, which I would have enjoyed. Ryan Raposo did not look great on the game-winner but not as bad as Veselinovic.