Report and Reaction: Whitecaps fall short in Spokane in Champions Cup exit to Sounders

[Photo Courtesy: Concacaf.com]

It was always going to be a tall order for Vancouver Whitecaps to turn around a three-goal deficit on the road to Seattle Sounders in Spokane. But if there’s one thing that we’ve learned about this side in the last year, it’s never write them off, especially in the Champions Cup.

Jeevan Badwal’s 24th minute banger gave the Whitecaps hope that an epic comeback was maybe on the cards and they pushed hard to find the crucial second to really put the pressure on the Sounders. Seattle defended resolutely though and Vancouver just couldn’t find a way through. As the clock ticked down, they were forced to open up more and they were caught by two late goals from Danny Musovski and Paul Rothrock, going down to a 2-1 defeat on the night and a 5-1 loss on aggregate, ending their CONCACAF Champions Cup dreams earlier than anyone had hoped or expected.

Jesper Sorensen made five changes from the team that started last week’s heavy loss in the first leg of the tie, welcoming back Andres Cubas to bolster the midfield, while Tristan Blackmon missed out through injury. Brian White led the line, with Thomas Müller in behind, while AZ Jackson and Badwal got the starts on the wing.

The first goal in this game felt massive. Another for Seattle and the tie would surely be put to bed, a first for Vancouver and the nerves may just start to creep in for a Sounders side playing a home game, albeit in unfamiliar surroundings.

Seattle should have grabbed that key goal just 42 seconds in when the ball was played inside to a wide open Albert Rusnak, but he pulled his shot well wide with the goal gaping.

A huge let-off for the ‘Caps, who had a shaky first five minutes that also saw Mathias Laborda booked for preventing an Osaze De Rosario breakaway. Tough to take a card so early, but it was a necessary one.

The nerves felt like they were in the Vancouver camp to start this one, but they soon settled and took over the game and pressured Seattle’s makeshift defence.

Jackson was booked in the 15th minute after going down in the box. The referee deemed embellishment, but replays showed there was contact, albeit possibly instigated by AZ.

Unfazed, AZ fired a curler over five minutes later, before Stefan Frei saved a White header on the line after the striker got onto a Müller cross.

Moments later though, the Whitecaps got their breakthrough. Vancouver broke quickly and Müller played the ball to Badwal, who drilled home from the edge of the box to reduce the deficit in the tie to two goals and give the ‘Caps some real hope.

Vancouver were dominating the play, with Seattle unable to muster much going forward. The Sounders were holding firm though and their hopes of seeing out the tie received a boost when Cubas went down off the ball and had to be subbed off in the 38th minute. A devastating blow for Vancouver and hopefully it’s nothing too serious for the Paraguayan, who is so key to this team’s success.

Seattle started to find their attacking chops again as the half came to an end and both teams will feel fairly happy with how the first 45 minutes went.

AZ was replaced at half time by Kenji Carbrera and Vancouver started the second half strongly, forcing a couple of early corners.

De Rosario fired over for Seattle in the 58th minute, as the game started to flow a bit more from end to end. The minutes were quickly ticking down and despite their pressure, Vancouver just couldn’t find their second and time was starting to run out.

Seattle were doing a tremendous job at not allowing Vancouver any clear cut opportunities in front of goal and after withstanding a lot of Vancouver pressure, the Sounders levelled tied the game up on the night in the 79th minute on a quickly taken throw in.

Rothrock sent the cross into the box and Musovski rose well to head home the goal the Sounders needed to give them a less nervy last 10 minutes.

Heartbreak for the Whitecaps, but they were made to rue not turning their dominance and pressure into any more goals.

The Whitecaps just had to go for it now and with numbers committed forward, they were caught exposed at the back four minutes later.

This time it was Rothrock that got his name on the scoresheet after finding himself wide open on a cross through the box, and after composing himself, he fired past Takaoka and the tie was now definitely put to bed.

Seattle comfortably saw out the remainder of the match and now advance for a quarter-final match-up with either FC Cincinnati or Tigres.

For Vancouver, focus will now turn to the league for the next few weeks before the World Cup break. Next up is San Jose at BC Place on Saturday. let’s hope they take out their disappointment on them.

FINAL SCORE: Seattle Sounders 2 – 1 Vancouver Whitecaps [Seattle win 5-1 on aggregate]

ATT: 5,126

SEATTLE: 24.Stefan Frei; 85.Kalani Kossa-Rienzi, 16.Alexander Roldan, 25.Jackson Ragen, 5.Nouhou Tolo; 7.Cristian Roldan, 37.Snyder Brunell; 9.Jesús Ferreira (45.Peter Kingston 66′), 11.Albert Rusnák (44.Nikola Petković 81′) 17.Paul Arriola (14.Paul Rothrock 65′); 95.Osaze De Rosario (19.Daniel Musovski 66′) [Substitutes not used: 26.Andrew Thomas, 50.Max Anchor, 33.Cody Baker, 35.Antino Lopez, 90.Sebastián Gómez, 93.Georgi Minoungou]

VANCOUVER: 1.Yohei Takaoka; 18.Édier Ocampo, 2.Mathías Laborda, 6.Ralph Priso, 28.Tate Johnson; 16.Sebastian Berhalter (26.J.C. Ngando 86′), 20.Andrés Cubas (11.Emmanuel Sabbi 38′); 59.Jeevan Badwal (8.Oliver Larraz 75′), 13.Thomas Müller ©, 22.AZ (17.Kenji Cabrera HT); 24.Brian White (19.Rayan Elloumi 84′) [Substitutes not used: 30.Adrían Zendejas, 32.Isaac Boehmer, 14.Bruno Caicedo, 15.Sebastian Schonlau, 29.Mihail Gherasimencov, 41.Nikola Djordjevic]

SCORING SUMMARY:
24′ – VAN – Jeevan Badwal (Brian White)
79′ – SEA – Daniel Musovski (Peter Kingston)
83′ – SEA – Paul Rothrock (Peter Kingston)

STATS:
Possession: SEA 40% – VAN 60%
Shots: SEA 11 – VAN 14
Shots on Goal: SEA 4 – VAN 5
Saves: SEA 4 – VAN 2
Fouls: SEA 7 – VAN 15
Offsides: SEA 0 – VAN 0
Corners: SEA 2 – VAN 5

CAUTIONS:
5′ – VAN – Mathías Laborda
15′ – VAN – AZ
77′ – VAN – Ralph Priso
80′ – VAN – Sebastian Berhalter
89′ – SEA – Stefan Frei

[Photo Courtesy: Concacaf.com]

REACTION:

VANCOUVER WHITECAPS

JESPER SORENSEN

On the performance:

“In general, I was very happy with the performance from the players. I think that we got what we wanted, a 1-0 lead, and I think the players in general played with the right quality, with the right attitude, with the right mentality, and also with the right effort. So in general, I think that was a good game from our side. Of course, we had to chase all through the game. I think we made it too difficult for ourselves a week ago, but we had a strong belief that we can do it and when you are 3-0 down, you simply have no room for mistakes or errors, and you have to play almost perfectly, and we were not able to. They were defending very well for large parts of the game, and it was not necessary for them to open up, even though we are in front 1-0, and that’s just how it is. And I want to congratulate Seattle moving on in this tournament, and wish them the best for the for the reminder of this tournament. Over two games they beat us, and it was fair and square.”

On what worked in the first half:

“I think the first half was good. The second half was even better, when you think about controlling the game. I think we had good control over our build-up. I think we played a lot of the passes that we want. We got to the areas we want. We had a couple of moments we maybe could have profited from, especially from our left side. AZ did well and posed a threat, but we could also see that the referee, you know, was not happy with what he saw in the situation, so it was difficult for him to get something. I took him out also because he had a yellow card. But in general, I think we played with the right force, with the right pace. I think that we played at a pace that gave us the control over the game, but again, we didn’t play up against a team that had to open up. They were pretty comfortable standing in the low block and even though we scored the goal it was that we still had to push and push and push, and we just needed the opening for the second goal, and that’s where we have to be also realistic and honest. The last passes, especially in the second half, where we played up through them and we played very close to their goal, we didn’t have the quality and we didn’t have the quality and the finishing in those moments, because everything leading up to that, I think was really good.”

On Andres Cubas injury:

“He felt something in his quad. We have to get an assessment of how bad it is. He felt something in his quad and we had to take him out.”