Report Card: Bouncing Back

What a turn of events! After a depressing loss at the hands of the Galaxy, the Whitecaps picked themselves up with an inspiring win against Colorado rapids. How did the team do? Let’s check out the ratings:

Thomas Hasal: 6.5

A solid comeback performance from the Whitecaps keeper. He played well, and looks to have not missed a beat from when he injured himself. The competition with Cropper will be tough, but Hasal has proved that he can work under pressure before.

Tristan Blackmon: 6.5

Blackmon was, as usual, strong on the ball and did a fine job of keeping Colorado off of the scorebooks in the first half. The performance would have been better scored were the Whitecaps not to have conceded in the second and looked shaky in closing minutes.

Ranko Veselinovic: 6.5

Veselinovic was another improvement to the back line, and after last week’s debacle there was a nice sense of stability with the lineup chosen to defend the Whitecaps net this game. Ranko did was he does best, and that is bodying any attacker looking to break through their line and being the anchor to the rest of the defenders.

Javain Brown: 5.0

Brown played well for his time on the field but it was unfortunately cut short due to injury, so he wasn’t able to make a huge impact on play.

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Marcus Godinho: 6.5

Godinho was looking as if he was turning a better leaf in the games leading up to Gressel’s arrival, and so it became a big “what if?” since they played in the same position. Although playing on the left side on the day, Godinho lived up to that standard that looked to be set by him before the arrival of Gressel. He was effective, brought on to help defensively which he did in spades but also provided an attacking threat on the ball. In the first half, the entire team moved like a well oiled machine and Godinho was no exception.

Sebastian Berhalter: 6.5

Sebastian Berhalter statistically is amongs the Whitecaps best players, but this could be a misdirect due to his limited number of minutes throughout the season. Based on his performance yesterday you’d be inclined to believe the stats were right. A change of pace from a certain Canadian allowed for two defensive midfielders to snuff out the Colorado attack before it even became a threat, and looked confident beyond his years on the field. It helped a lot that he now has a great player to look up to in the shape of Andres Cubas, who we will get to shortly.

Andres Cubas: 7.5

Cubas, on his day, is a transformative player. How convenient for the Whitecaps is it then that his performances seem to be consistently at that level. Even his rare lulls show that he is above the average level player in the league, with his tackling and tracking being on point a majority of the time. He’s prone to getting yellows, but what CDM isn’t? I personally believe he is above the team average of midfield, and even beyond the league average of midfield. Hopefully he continues to produce like this for years to come.

Julian Gressel: 7.0

Gressel wants his goal really, really badly, and he’s getting closer to it every game. Gressel had a good game doing what he does best, crossing balls in and assisting other players. He’s one of the MLS’ best and the Whitecaps are lucky to have him. He does have the off games, where his effectiveness is limited but he put in a great performance that warranted a goal.

Ryan Gauld: 8.5

I’m not sure if this is the highest score I’ve ever given a player before but Gauld was on another level yesterday. If luck was on Gauld’s side, he would have had at least another two goals to add to his tally. If he was the star piece on a team with no hope last weekend, then this week he was the prize diamond of a team on the front foot. He was easily the best player on the field and cemented that a number 10 was necessary to set the tempo of the game.

Alessandro Schöpf: 6.0

Schopf is a man getting up to speed of playing in a league again. You can notice it in his play that he believes he can do more than he has currently put out. His dribbling got interrupted multiple times and the frustration was clear. It wasn’t his game, but bottom line, Schopf is a good player.

Lucas Cavallini: 6.0

Cavallini may now be getting a run for his money with Gauld suddenly turning on the goalscoring jets. He did what he did best and positioned himself in great areas, but his lack of agility and turn speed limited his impact on multiple plays where he could have made a difference.

Jake Nerwinski: 6.0

Jake played well. Nothing crazy and not a redeeming performance after last weekend but at least proved himself to be an option once more.

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Ryan Raposo: 6.5

Ryan Raposo came on in the second half for Alessandro Schopf and immediately got to playing his usual game. With Gressel now free to roam up and Gauld bossing the attack, Ryan was stuck in a support role, but he contributed to the plays in a big way and never looked like a liability.

Russel Teibert: 6.0

Would it be a Whitecaps game without Teibert playing minutes? Nothing much to say about his performance other than the midfield was lost after he came on the field but that’s more so a team fault rather than individual. He played well during his time on the field.

Luis Martins: 5.5

Didn’t really play for too long and the team was constantly under attack for most of his time on the field.

Tossaint Ricketts: 6.0

Ricketts is a potent late game sub and does create chances for the Whitecaps. It’s good that they’re utilizing him more now, and with performances like he’s been showing maybe we’ll see pitch in with four to five goals a season