Report and Reaction: Explosive second half performance sees Whitecaps blow away Tijuana to win Leagues Cup group

Report and Reaction: Explosive second half performance sees Whitecaps blow away Tijuana to win Leagues Cup group

Posted on August 3, 2024 by in LEAGUES CUP, VANCOUVER WHITECAPS with 0 Comments

An explosive three-goal second half performance saw Vancouver Whitecaps secure their first ever victory over Mexican opposition and top their Leagues Cup group at BC Place on Saturday evening.

Trailing to an early Kevin Castañeda goal after an even first half, the Whitecaps came out all guns blazing after the restart and when Fafa Picault tied things up for Vancouver in the 49th minute, there was no looking back for the MLS side. Levonte Johnson fired the ‘Caps into the lead in the 77th minute, before Pedro Vite blasted home the securer against a Xolos side that had just gone down to 10 men.

The 3-1 victory saw Vancouver top West Group 7 and set up a Round of 32 showdown against further Liga MX opposition, Pumas UNAM, at BC Place on Wednesday or Thursday evening next week.

With Vanni Sartini suspended after his red card in the penalty shoot-out win at LAFC on Tuesday, assistant coach Michael D’Agostino was the main man in the dugout for the Whitecaps and they made five changes from the starting line-up from midweek. Perhaps the biggest surprise was the return of Yohei Takaoka in goal for Isaac Boehmer, who had a fantastic outing in the win over LAFC.

While Vancouver needed just a draw over the 90 minutes to advance to the knockout stages, Tijuana needed to win in regulation and they opened the scoring eight minutes in when Diego Barbosa nudged the ball inside to Castaneda, who brought it down and fired past Takaoka.

The ‘Caps had their first chance of the game in the 14th minute when Sebastian Berhalter sent in a corner which was met superbly by Brian White, but his header was equally superbly turned away by Antonio Rodriguez in the Tijuana goal.

Tijuana had a great chance to double their lead in the 20th minute when the ball came to Jesus Vega in acres of room at the back of the box, but he flashed at his shot and pulled it wide left.

The game went back and forth without any clear cut chances. The best the Whitecaps mustered to go in level came in 36th minute when Picault sent the ball across goal but a Xolos defender took it away from White as he slid in to meet it.

The ‘Caps came out rejuvenated for the second half, with a couple of changes to boot, and it took them only four minutes to get back on level terms when one of those subs, Johnston, played in Picault, who ran in on goal and finished with aplomb.

The Whitecaps were now in the ascendency and Johnson almost put them in the lead three minutes later when the ball came to him in front of goal.

Tijuana keeper Rodriguez came up with a point blank save from the striker’s fierce shot. Unfortunately for him and the Xolos, the save came via his face and the full-on force of the shot seemed to knock the keeper out and after a lengthy stoppage of around 10 minutes for treatment, the stopper left the field on a medical cart and sub keeper Jesús Corona came on.

It was all Vancouver now and Berhalter had a long range effort saved by Corona in the 69th minute, before White curled one narrowly past the right post six minutes later.

The ‘Caps kept pressing and they got their reward in the 77th minute. Andres Cubas expertly won the ball in the middle of the Mexican’s half. Johnson took a touch, before drilling a low one past Corona and into the bottom right corner, and Vancouver had their first lead of the evening and one foot into the knockout round.

Tijuana’s night went from bad to worse when Aaron Mejia was sent off for a DOGSO challenge on Picault in the 81st minute, when the Haitian was running in on goal.

Two minutes later, Picault had a big part to play in the clinching goal for the ‘Caps, pouncing on another giveaway and cutting the ball back. It ran through to Vite, who made no mistake from the edge of the box.

That was it for the scoring and the Whitecaps comfortably saw out the rest of the match and the 10 minutes of stoppage time, although the Xolos did have a couple of late forays forward.

It was a well deserved win and with Pumas defeating Monterrey on penalties, it gave the ‘Caps another chance to have a crack at a Mexican giant at BC Place.

With a pretty favourable draw, this could see the ‘Caps make a strong run for the Cup. It may be a much-maligned tournament in some quarters, and with many of it with just cause, but there’s something magical about cup competitions and the Whitecaps want to be in this one for as long as they can.

FINAL SCORE: Vancouver Whitecaps 3 – 1 Club Tijuana

ATT: 18,896

SCORING SUMMARY:
8’ – TIJ – Kevin Castañeda (Daniel Barbosa)
49’ – VAN – Fafa Picault (Levonte Johnson)
77’ – VAN – Levonte Johnson (Andrés Cubas)
83’ – VAN – Pedro Vite (Fafa Picault)

STATS:
Possession: VAN 43.3% – TIJ 56.7%
Shots: VAN 13 – TIJ 14
Shots on Goal: VAN 7 – TIJ 4
Saves: VAN 3 – TIJ 4
Fouls: VAN 10 – TIJ 13
Offsides: VAN 2 – TIJ 1
Corners: VAN 5 – TIJ 5

BOOKINGS:
25’ – TIJ – Kevin Casteñeda
75’ – TIJ – Jesús Gómez

SENDING OFF:
81’ – TIJ – Aaron Mejía

VANCOUVER: Yohei Takaoka; Mathías Laborda, Belal Halbouni (Finn Linder 90’+5), Bjørn Inge Utvik; Sebastian Berhalter, Ralph Priso (Levonte Johnson 45’), Andrés Cubas, Alessandro Schöpf (Pedro Vite 45’); Fafa Picault (Giuseppe Bovalina 89’), Brian White (Damir Kreilach 89’), Ryan Raposo (Eliot Goldthorp 90’+8) [Substitutes not used:  Joe Bendik, Isaac Boehmer, Ranko Veselinović, Ali Ahmed]

TIJUANA: Antonio Rodríguez (Jesús Corona 62’); Diego Barbosa, Unai Bilbao, Jesús Gómez (Francisco Contreras 87’), Nicolas Díaz; Joe Corona, Aaron Mejía; Efrain Álvarez, Kevin Castañeda (Rafael Fernández 50’), Jesus Vega (Jaime Alvarez 61’); Carlos González (Ivan Tona 87’) [Substitutes not used: Fernando Madrigal, Eduardo Armenta, Fernando Monárrez, Jesús Hernández, José Zuniga, Domingo Blanco, Geonathan Barrera]

REACTION:

VANCOUVER WHITECAPS

ASSISTANT COACH MICHAEL D’AGOSTINO

Overall thoughts on the game:

“I think we gave them a little bit too much in the first half. This team [Tijuana] is a very good team with the ball, and we learned that the hard way in the first 20 minutes of the game. It was kind of a game of two halves. In the second half, we were a little bit more aggressive, we pushed guys a little bit higher on the press. We were able to win the ball back and we recognized that they were a little bit vulnerable in transition. We were able to hit them with the first goal from Fafà, and then from there, the game changes a little bit. I thought the boys did well to stick with what we wanted them to do in the second half and really utilize the gameplan.”

On a first win versus Liga MX, and now playing Pumas:

“It’s great to get an international win, and representing Canada in this competition. It’s never easy to play against Mexican teams, they’re always very good, very skillful. We were watching the Monterrey-Pumas shootout at the end, and when we saw Pumas win we were obviously happy because we want to give our fans another game at home.”

Playing without Ryan Gauld:

“It shows a lot of character from the guys, and the fact that they’re putting importance on the tactics… It’s never going to be easy when you’re missing your captain – arguably your best player – but the guys have stepped up and I think Gauldy would be the happiest guy in the room to see us doing well without him, cause he’s just that kind of guy. It’s very difficult without him, but at the end of the day, we’ve proven that we can play and we’ve got the depth, and that guys can step up when they need to.”

On Fafà Picault’s play:

“It was really, really good. The fact that Levonte [Johnson] and Brian [White] were able to occupy their two centre backs just gave so much more space for Fafà, just gave so much more space for [Ryan] Raposo. And, obviously, we had our three in the midfield that were able to able to dictate the play a little bit, but you know really, really good to see Fafà be dynamic on the left side, he comes alive. He takes guys on and he does his little tricks and things like that. But he’s done it in a way to be effective.”

CENTRE BACK BELAL HALBOUNI

On the first half:

“The locker room talk at halftime was just, we’re better than this. We knew we could persevere through the 1-0 deficit. At the end of the day, that’s exactly what we did. We fought together as a team. At the end of the day we got the job done.”

On playing in a cup competition:

“The cup games are what brings team camaraderie together. It’s something that we all as a team want to strive for, to win that cup – nonetheless, win the league – but the cup is always something special, to hold the trophy at the end of the tournament. And that’s our goal.”

On getting his opportunity:

“I’ll tell you something first and foremost, my religion teaches me to be patient. And when my opportunity comes I just have to be ready. I feel like with the Wrexham game, with the LAFC game, and this game as well, the opportunity came and I ran with it. The most important thing is to be ready when your chance comes.”

FORWARD LEVONTE JOHNSON

On getting a goal after a near miss at LAFC:

“I think every player goes through ups and downs in their career. Recently, it hasn’t been going well. But this goal tonight definitely helped, it definitely gives me the boost of the confidence that I needed. Hopefully that carries over to the rest of the games in the season and we finish out strong.”

On cup competitions:

“Playing different competition is very different to playing MLS, it’s a different style of play, and it [was] a very exciting match to play for us. It just brings a new experience and atmosphere and hopefully that helps us when we get back to MLS in league [play].”

On the second half turnaround:

“It was a group effort. The first half we didn’t do as well as we could have. The second half we came out with a lot more energy, a lot more drive, a lot more passion. We pressed them a lot and forced a lot of mistakes for our goals. At the end, it kind of overwhelmed them with our press and our finishing.”

      
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Authored by: Michael McColl

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