Report and Reaction: Comeback ‘Caps stun Real Salt Lake with late winner after digging themselves out of early hole

There are certain games every season that you can look back on as being major turning points in a club’s fortunes come season end. Vancouver Whitecaps’ come-from-behind 3-2 victory in Utah against Real Salt Lake may very well be one of those games.

Trailing 2-0 just four minutes in after goals from Zavier Gozo and Diego Luna, the ‘Caps looked like they had a mountain to climb in the altitude of Sandy. But this is not your old fashioned Whitecaps, as once again they showed their battling spirit, skill, and resolve to come storming back and level things up by the 25th minute after a Brian White brace, the second of them from the penalty spot.

They had to wait until the last minute to complete the comeback, but Pedro Vite’s 20 yard stunner was certainly worth the wait and the ‘Caps kept their unbeaten record on the road intact and in some style.

The magnitude of this win can not be underplayed. Not only did it end a three game run of draws, it gave them some much-needed confidence as they prepare for next Sunday’s CONCACAF Champions Cup final in Mexico City against Cruz Azul. On the domestic level though, it increased Vancouver’s lead at the top of the Western Conference, put them back atop the race for the Supporters Shield, and gave them a little bit of wiggle room ahead of their match-up with third placed Minnesota United on Wednesday and a killer spell in June into July where they will be missing numerous players to international duty.

All in all, this was an absolutely massive, and well-earned, three points.

Jesper Sorensen made four changes from the team that started last week’s scoreless draw in Austin and seven from the midweek draw against Valour in the Canadian Championship. The biggest loss for the ‘Caps was the suspended Andres Cubas for yellow card accumulation, but at least that got the influential Paraguayan some rest before next week’s Champions Cup final.

After three straight draws across all competitions, the questions were starting to come as to whether the Whitecaps’ bubble had burst. Had teams figured out how to play against them? Have the amount of games and travel started to catch up with them? Were we seeing a return to the mean? These next two MLS matches felt huge.

But Vancouver got off to the worst possible start and found themselves two down only four minutes in.

RSL got off and running with just 50 seconds on the clock when Luna threaded the ball through to Gozo and the young homegrown left Bjorn Inge Utvik in his wake before burying the ball past Yohei Takaoka, and just like that it was 1-0 to the home side.

Worse was quickly to come for the Whitecaps.

RSL kept up their early pressure and Luna doubled their advantage three minutes later.

Dominik Marczuk fired in a shot which Takaoka was only able to parry away right in front of him. Luna was in the perfect spot to tuck it away and the Utah crowd were in dreamland and the Whitecaps had it all to do.

The next goal was absolutely massive and it had to go Vancouver’s way or the game would basically be done and dusted. They came back from early adversity against LAFC two weeks ago, but this felt like a Whitecaps side lacking some zip and they were struggling to get anything going offensively.

But football is a funny old game, as the legendary Jimmy Greaves used to say, and the ‘Caps came storming back from what felt like nowhere and were all tied up by the 25th minute!

It was set pieces that were RSL’s downfall once again.

Earning a corner on the right, Sebastian Berhalter whipped in another one of his trademark pinpoint deliveries, right onto the head of White, who once again rose unchallenged to powerfully head home past Rafael Cabral and the ‘Caps had a pulse.

That pulse became a fully live body just moments later.

Winning another corner, Berhalter whipped in another great ball. This time it was met by Sam Adekugbe and his header came off the outstretched arm of Willie Agada.

The Whitecaps players immediately appealed for a penalty, but the decision wasn’t initially given on the field. Replays showed this would soon be remedied and indeed it was after a quick video review. Up stepped White, with the short run up, and coolly slotted it past Cabral for his and the Whitecaps’ second of the game and from nowhere we were all tied up again 25 minutes in.

It was an incredible start to the match, one that highlighted what the ‘Caps can do so well and also do so badly, but now it was very much game on. What was also incredible was that despite all of his goals, that was White’s first spot kick in MLS play.

Agada had a great chance to score in the 32nd minute, forcing a point blank save from Takaoka before putting the rebound wide, but the flag subsequently went up for offside in any case.

Cabral came up with a big save to deny Berhalter in the 38th minute, after the newly called up American international was left wide open in the box to get onto an Ali Ahmed cross.

Pedro Vite had a look on goal for the ‘Caps deep into first half stoppage time, but the teams headed into the break level and Vancouver were undoubtedly the happier of the two sides for that, while also disappointed that they put themselves into such a big hole early on.

RSL came out on the front foot to start the second half, forcing a string of corners and having a couple of half chances, but they couldn’t find another breakthrough.

The second half action flowed end to end, with both teams moving the ball quickly.

Berhalter sent a dangerous ball into the back post in the 56th minute that got through the RSL defence, but a stretching Utvik just couldn’t get onto the end of it.

An Adekugbe giveaway just before the hour mark gave RSL a chance to head to goal, but it ended with Takaoka making a near post save on Gozo, as RSL appealed for a handball on Utvik in the box.

White then had a couple of great opportunities to give Vancouver the lead and grab his own hat-trick, but he was denied on both occasions by Cabral.

The first chance came in the 63rd minute when Vite played a brilliant through ball to play in White. Cabral was quickly off his line and made himself big to deny the striker, with Nelson blasting the rebound over.

Two minutes later and White had an even better opportunity. Nelson tore forward into the box, giving the ball to Ahmed to his right. He b brilliantly threaded the ball through to a wide open White, but he had to take a touch and that allowed Cabral to regroup and come up with the big save.

As both teams made changes, the action dipped as they struggled to find the rhythm again with the new personnel.

Vancouver were looking the more likely to go on and grab the winner and they got it in the 90th minute.

Vite brought the ball forward, touching it outside to Emmanuel Sabbi, before getting the return pass, cutting inside, and blasting home a 20 yard curler from outside the box that gave Cabral no chance. Another beauty from the Ecuadorian and a superb way to wrap up the three points.

RSL looked shell-shocked but couldn’t find a way through to grab a late leveler and Vancouver headed home with what could prove to be three absolutely crucial points in the grand scheme of things.

A fantastic one which, as mentioned above, now gives them that little bit of breathing space at the top of the West, and with what is to come over the next six weeks, they very much need it and deserve it.

FINAL SCORE: Real Salt Lake 2 – 3 Vancouver Whitecaps

ATT: 20,034

SALT LAKE: 1.Rafael Cabral; 92.Noel Caliskan (19.Bode Hidalgo 81′), 4.Brayan Vera (26.Philip Quinton 56′), 15.Justen Glad, 98.Alexandros Katranis (29.Sam Junqua 71′); 7.Pablo Ruiz (6.Braian Ojeda 71′), 14.Emeka Eneli; 11.Dominik Marczuk, 8.Diego Luna, 72.Zavier Gozo; 9.William Agada (23.Ariath Piol 71′) [Substitutes not used: 31.Mason Stajduhar, 13.Nelson Palacio, 39.Aiden Hezarkhani, 77.Johnny Russell]

VANCOUVER: 1.Yohei Takaoka; 18.Édier Ocampo (2.Mathías Laborda 81′), 33.Tristan Blackmon, 15.Bjørn Inge Utvik, 3.Sam Adekugbe (28.Tate Johnson 68′); 45.Pedro Vite, 13.Ralph Priso (26.J.C. Ngando 85′), 16.Sebastian Berhalter; 22.Ali Ahmed (14.Daniel Ríos 85′), 24.Brian White ©, 7.Jayden Nelson (11.Emmanuel Sabbi 68′) [Substitutes not used: 32.Isaac Boehmer, 4.Ranko Veselinović, 27.Giuseppe Bovalina, 59.Jeevan Badwal]

SCORING SUMMARY:

1’ – RSL – Zavier Gozo (Diego Luna)
4’ – RSL – Diego Luna
20’ – VAN – Brian White (Sebastian Berhalter)
25’ – VAN – Brian White (penalty kick)
90’ – VAN – Pedro Vite (Emmanuel Sabbi)

STATS:
Possession: RSL 47.1% – VAN 52.9%
Shots: RSL 15 – VAN 14
Shots on Goal: RSL 6 – VAN 6
Saves: RSL 3 – VAN 4
Fouls: RSL 16 – VAN 12
Offsides: RSL 4 – VAN 2
Corners: RSL 8 – VAN 6

CARDS (ALL YELLOW):
45+4’ – RSL – William Agada
59’ – RSL – Noel Caliskan
62’ – RSL – Dominik Marczuk
65’ – RSL – Alexandros Katranis
77’ – VAN – Ali Ahmed
83’ – VAN – Ralph Priso
90+4’ – RSL – Emeka Eneli

REACTION:

VANCOUVER WHITECAPS

JESPER SORENSEN

On the start to the match and coming back to win:

“I’m not happy with the way we started and it should not be a bad habit for us to come out a little sloppy. But we kept cool, and we knew that there was a long match ahead of us and a long time to play and if you have to get down two goals, then it’s good that you have 90 minutes left, right? So that was the only positive of the beginning, but they jumped us right from the gate, and we were not really ready to respond, also physically, and we need to be ready for that. But then we fought ourselves back into the game, scored a goal, also had a penalty with the hand situation and then we’re level and then I think we created some big chances.

On the threat that Brian White offers and his penalty kick:

“Yeah, it looked as if he was very composed in that situation, so it looked very natural for him to take that penalty, but Brian is always dangerous, he’s always a threat in the box. You also saw him have two big opportunities apart from the two goals. He’s always involved. He’s also good helping us build up. He’s also good taking the duals from mid-pitch so we can maybe win a second ball, we can move the team forward. And yeah, he helps the team a lot, he’s just growing day by day, I think also with the confidence boost he gets at the moment, also selected to the national team, so I think he has a lot of confidence, and it helps him relax in the game.”

FORWARD BRIAN WHITE

On the comeback:

“Obviously, it’s not the ideal way to start a game. I think we’re really disappointed in ourselves for the way we came out and started the game. But yeah, like you said, we were able to hunker down, we came together and [said] this is not good enough. Let’s just get the ball up, let’s regroup from there and let’s start fresh. So yeah, I think we’ve [unfortunately, in a way] had to dig ourselves out of a hole a couple of times this season so we have that confidence, but there comes a point we have to stop [digging] ourselves holes and come out strong and fast to start the game.”