Saturday, 6/3 5:30 PM Fox Sports SE Atlanta completes the Cascadia tour trifecta this weekend when they visit BC Place to take on the Whitecaps. The Caps are coming off a midweek trip to Montreal that saw them eliminated from the Canadian Championships. In league play they've been almost consistent in trading wins and losses, with enigmatic showings that see them beat highly rated sides like SKC and then losing to DCU at home. (Hey, that last one sounds familiar!) Like Atlanta they currently sit 7th in their conference, just outside of playoff contention. The difference, however, is that they've scored only 15 goals on the season compared to 27 for Atlanta (same # of games played), and have struggled to maintain offensive balance. Part of their issues stems from injuries, where they've lost two players to ligament tears and 4 others currently out for a spell. Only 7 field players on their roster have started more than 8 games this season, none having played in all 12. Stalwart Freddy Montero is their most potent striker, with Christian Techera and Mathias Laba piloting the ship in the midfield. Defensively they've been fair and are tied with AUFC in the number of goals allowed. For Atlanta Peterson is still out and Martinez is officially listed as questionable, but his training has been limited this week and he's yet to have a full session with the team. Given that he's also likely not needed it's safe to assume the team will try to let him rest further. Safe to say that until Martinez is back in contention the lineup is now likely fixed unless Tata sees something tactically that warrants a shift, and that's unlikely to be this week. If Atlanta can score first as usual the pressure will really go up on a home side that has only once scored more than 2 goals in a game this season. So expect the game plan to be attack, attack, attack. This guy's guess? I'm penciling it in 3-1, Atlanta. The flight will impact the team but once the whistle blows their instincts will kick in, and BC Place hasn't exactly been a fortress. The Caps will be resolute after the midweek loss to a national rival, but they also lack the weapons to get into a high scoring affair. Barring momentary lapses by AU they should have the manpower to take these 3 points.
We've had a pretty good record against Western Conference teams this season and Vancouver seems to be decimated. We should take three points from this one. Two interesting notes: We are reaching the point in the season where I'm starting to look at the playoff line and points. We're below the playoff line by two points, but we are 11 points behind first-place Toronto. It's tough to say anything now, and we do have two games in hand, but we do need to start valuing points more--especially at home. Vancouver's stadium is configured very similarly to how Mercedes-Benz will be; a large lower bowl for seating and the upper bowl will be curtained off. Obviously, they do theirs differently, but I hope our guys get a feel for how their new home will look, play and sound while in BC Place.
After trips to Vancouver, Portland, Seattle and Salt Lake I'm glad to see that this ends our major travels for the season (Cup pending). Furthest we wander following today is Kansas City. Here's to hoping we can stay focused and take care of business against a weakened opponent. Step on their throat early and don't let them up!!!
Good point about travel, which will be doubly critical given the schedule crunch in September. Imagine that run of 8 games in 3 weeks if it included a jaunt to the west coast?!
Great cross-field play for our first goal. All the way across the field twice in quick succession to back-foot the entire defense. Nice team goal. Vancouver has looked the better team for long stretches in the first half. We've given away far too many passes in the midfield and defensive third. LGP pulled across the field for no reason and left three dudes wide open on the back side for Waston's goal. No idea where Garza was. Our complete lack of tall players led to the second Whitecaps goal. Neither of the Atlanta players standing next to him even jumped. We're going to lose set pieces all year if we can't get some height. Also means we'll be taking short corners, too. Do we have any defenders coming in the summer window? A tall athletic center back to replace LGP wouldn't go amiss.
Down 2-1 at the half. They knew they'd be seeing a lot of balls lobbed into the box and yet they're completely inept in defending such. Every defender asleep on the first goal, and their man marking on corners - What, are they thinking the Caps players will give them cooties? Ugh. Need to rediscover their form from the first 20 minutes. Oh. Kann. I go and defend you all week and you produce 2 craptatsic plays. Grrrr.
As I said on another thread - Shambolic. They're worst performance this season. It seriously looks like Vancouver has an extra man on the field, that's how lost and timid Atlanta has been. What's made me worried is I don't understand the substitutions. What is Tata doing? *sigh* This is why God invented alcohol.
Vancouver deserved that one hands down. Would be curious to see how the clubhouse reacts. So exactly how many of Atlanta's goals against have come off set pieces? Like, 3/4 of them, isn't it? Sure seems like it. We suck at corners, taking or defending.
That was the most timid I've seen a team play in some time. We had no rhythm on offense and no synergy on defense. But we lost this game because of set pieces. Plain horrible. Zero organization defending corners or other crosses and no real urgency to clear them. I was nervous for every set piece they had.
Watched the game while on vacation, so I didn't take the opportunity to vent properly. I've settled down now but just have to say that I've seen better positioning on set pieces from my kid's U9 team......literally on Waston's first goal. Putrid for any professional team.