Report and Reaction: Whitecaps unable to find a way through in frustrating Toronto stalemate

Vancouver Whitecaps dominated possession and outshot their hosts 17-6, but were unable to find a way through a resolute Toronto FC defence as they had to settle for a point in a goalless draw at BMO Field on Saturday afternoon.

In a game where the breakthrough for the Whitecaps always felt imminent but never came, they moved the ball around well but simply didn’t create many goalscoring opportunities and those they did create were thwarted by good defensive play and Sean Johnson in the TC goal.

There will be some disappointment, some frustration, and some concern for the Whitecaps, after an apparent shoulder injury for their important midfield cog Andres Cubas, who kicked off another grueling 5 games in 15 days spell. But a road point is rarely a bad thing and it guarantees them top spot in the MLS West by the end of the weekend.

With all his players back from international duty, Jesper Sorensen made five changes to the team that started last week’s first loss of the season at home to Chicago. Robin Fraser surprisingly kept Lorenzo Insigne in his starting line-up for Toronto, who went with a mix of experience and youth as they looked to get their first win of the season on the board.

Vancouver dominated first half proceedings, controlling possession and playing their short, quick passing game that has served them so well in their campaign so far. But for all the control and dominance, they struggled to create many clear cut chances and break down a resolute home backline.

The chances they did have came early, with Sebastian Berhalter whipping in a dangerous 8th minute free kick across goal which Mathias Laborda just couldn’t direct goalwards.

Three minutes later Brian White saw a header off a Berhalter corner cleared off the line by Raoul Petretta, but that was really as good as it got for the ‘Caps.

Toronto struggled to get much going in return, with Vancouver pressing hard and winning the ball back time and time again after losing possession, as TFC failed to offer much penetration in to the visitor’s final third.

The teams headed in goalless, with the home side not even able to muster an attempt on target.

It had been a structured and patient first half by Vancouver, never veering away from their gameplan and trying to force the breakthrough. They needed to offer more in the second half if they were going to take the full three points from a game that you felt was very much there for the taking.

It was the same story, however, after the restart with the Whitecaps having the better chances but unable to find the killer punch.

Tristan Blackmon fired a shot over in the 54th minute after the ball broke to him from a corner, but the ‘Caps were dealt a big blow on the hour mark when Andres Cubas landed heaving on the hard grass and was forced off with what looked like a possible dislocated shoulder. Hopefully it’s a case of things looking worse than they are.

Emanuel Sabbi saw a fierce shot well saved by Sean Johnson at the near post in the 67th minute, after a neat move in the box that saw the sub make room for the shot.

Toronto finally threatened a goal of their own eight minutes from time when a Federico Bernardeschi free kick fell to a wide open Deybi Flore, but the former Whitecap was denied by Yohei Takaoka.

Johnson then produced a fantastic save to keep out a Ranko Veselinovic header in the 88th minute before the ‘Caps survived a nervy scramble in their box in the dying seconds of stoppage time.

So a point apiece it was and the ‘Caps will head back home to regroup, see how healthy they are, and prepare to faces Pumas in Wednesday’s CONCACAF Champions Cup quarter-final. Onwards and upwards.

FINAL SCORE: Toronto FC 0 – 0 Vancouver Whitecaps

ATT: 22,301 (no, really!)

TORONTO: Sean Johnson; Henry Wingo (Kosi Thompson 53’), Nicksoen Gomis, Sigurd Rosted, Raoul Petretta; Federico Bernardeschi, Jonathan Osorio, Lorenzo Insigne, Alonso Coello (Deybi Flores 67’); DeAndre Kerr (Ola Brynhildsen 53’), Derrick Etienne Jr. (Tyrese Spicer 67’) [Substitutes not used: Luka Gavran, Theo Corbeanu, Zane Monlouis, Kobe Franklin, Markus Cimermancic]

VANCOUVER: Yohei Takaoka; Mathías Laborda (Édier Ocampo 79’), Ranko Veselinović, Tristan Blackmon, Tate Johnson; Sebastian Berhalter, Andres Cubas (Pedro Vite 60’), J.C. Ngando (Jeevan Badwal 89’); Jayden Nelson (Emmanuel Sabbi 60’), Brian White, Ali Ahmed (Daniel Ríos 79’) [Substitutes not used: Isaac Boehmer, Belal Halbouni, Ralph Priso, Giuseppe Bovalina]

SCORING SUMMARY:
We wish!

STATS:
Possession: TOR 42.5% – VAN 57.5%
Shots: TOR 6 – VAN 17
Shots on Goal: TOR 3 – VAN 5
Saves: TOR 4 – VAN 3
Fouls: TOR 16 – VAN 14
Offsides: TOR 3 – VAN 2
Corners: TOR 3 – VAN 12

CARDS (ALL YELLOW):
65’ – TOR – Federico Bernardeschi
81’ – VAN – Édier Ocampo

TORONTO, ON – Mar 29, 2025: Major League Soccer game between Toronto FC and the Vancouver Whitecaps. (Photo by Kevin Raposo / AFTN Canada)

** Photo Gallery from Kevin Raposo HERE **

REACTION:

VANCOUVER WHITECAPS

JESPER SORENSEN

On the conditions and the result of the match:

“Of course, when you play over the course of the season, you play in different conditions and today was difficult for both teams. I don’t think it was particularly on us to fight the weather but we played a game where we have control of the game most of the time, but are not able to score, not able to create the chances that we should have, considering how we got into good positions. But then, in the end, the last 15 minutes, it could go either way. It’s normal football, when you’re not able to profit from your good periods and then it ends up being a very open and even game in the end.”

On their set pieces and areas of improvement:

“12 corners is, of course, also has a story about where the game was played. I think that we’ve done reasonably well from set pieces so far [this season], also creating the threat from these kinds of situations that we should. But 12 corners also tells the story about not being quite good enough in the final moments to instead of getting a corner, maybe playing the right pass and playing the big chance we could have gotten. We looked decent from the set pieces today. We couldn’t get it in but we looked good, and that’s a good thing.”

SEBASTIAN BERHALTER

On the result:

“I think it was a little bit of a grind, but I think regardless [of the conditions], we could have come out of there with three points. I think we kind of got away from the way we were playing and kind of fed into their hands a little bit. But yeah, like I said, regardless of conditions, I think we still could have come out with three points.”

TORONTO FC

HEAD COACH ROBIN FRASER

Not exactly a thing of beauty, but single point, a clean sheet. And you had a pretty good team under duress in the final minutes. Is this something you can build on?

Yeah, you literally just took my whole opening statement, but it’s true, it wasn’t a thing of beauty. We did grow into the game and what I think is really important, today’s resilience and this is a thing to get to where we want to go, that’s probably the number one thing is we have to be resilient. I think what we’ve seen so far this year is when things have not gone well for us. We’ve had lulls and in those lulls we’ve given up goals and that’s been kind of our achilles heel to this point today. We had to fight, we had to fight really hard at certain points in the game and it was really all hands on deck. And as you said, I think quite rightfully by the very end we were quite threatening. I thought [Tyrese] Spicer put in a couple of balls that were fantastic.

And overall, I do feel like it’s something we can build on. We talked about it. We talked about how training went this week and the resilience that we saw within training showed up in the game. And obviously we want three points. We would’ve preferred three points but given we’re playing a very good team and the fight that we showed and we get a shutout and like we said at the end we were pretty dangerous. I do think this is something that we can build on, but for us, this is about recognizing that the starting point of all of this is our willingness to fight.

Deandre [Kerr] and Henry [Wingo] looked like they picked up a little bit of serious injuries at the end of the first half. Is there any kind of update?

I’m not sure what it is with DK [Deandre Kerr]. He, I think, went down awkwardly and could be something in his ankle. I think they’ll do some tests tonight, tomorrow and try to get a definitive answer there. And then I think Henry [Wingo] had recurrence of a hamstring injury that he’s been kind of dealing with for a while. Hopefully neither too severe, but certainly you hate when you have to make subs based on injuries. But obviously it occurred and I thought both guys had really put in a good shift to that point in terms of work. So it was obviously for us, sad to see them in a situation where they may be out for a little while, but hopefully not too long. But really the guys who came in, I think real credit to the guys who didn’t start as well either because when they came in, the intensity didn’t drop. If anything they picked it up and I thought, Ola [Brynhildsen], Kosi [Thompson], [Tyrese] Spicer, they brought real energy and it really I think helped kind of keep us moving forward.

A little bit of a formation change today, a bit of a tactical tweak. I’m never quite sure how much of that is based on who’s injured and who’s available. Just what was the thinking today and what did you like about it?

The thinking was that when we have more players higher up the field and are willing to run behind than we create more dangerous opportunities. And having said that, I didn’t think for the early part of the game we were as dangerous as I would like for us to have been. As I said, they’re a good team and they make it difficult for you to get into the spots that you want to get into. And I thought early on we probably didn’t do as good a job of getting behind as we wanted to. Coming back to the question of the formation change, but I thought as the game went on, we started to find our opportunities and second off, I thought we did a better job of finding players behind and thus creating a few interesting and somewhat dangerous moments for us.

Nice to get the clean sheet after leaking goals?

Very nice to get a clean sheet. And I’ve said this, I think I said this during the week, that we’re doing a lot of things well, but we keep having moments or we had been having moments that when you look at the goals, the number of goals we’ve given up and you look at how we defended kind of over the entire five games prior to this, I would say we’re doing more things well defensively than we are poorly. But when you look at our goal record, it just doesn’t show that. And I think we’ve just made too many mistakes. We’ve had too many lapses. We talked about engagement today and I felt like the group was really engaged and as a result we didn’t have any of those moments that I think have bitten us so far. And so again, I think it’s something to build on the fact that we put in a good shift. It was a difficult game against a very good team. And we talk a lot about bending and not breaking and we felt like we saw that today.

MIDFIELDER JONATHAN OSARIO

A clean sheet against a good opposition and a draw, perhaps a spot that you can build off after a tough beginning of the season. Do you see it that way?

Yeah, I think the biggest thing that I personally take away from it was the attitude of the team and the intensity in which we played and the togetherness. But more than anything, just the intensity and the attitude I think was a big difference today. And I think when we put that and we focus on that, we give ourselves a much better chance in every game. And so I thought that was good against a really good team, a team that’s flying right now on confidence and everything. So yeah, it wasn’t an amazing performance. I’ll say football-wise, we had our times where we suffered, but I thought that we kept ourselves in the game with the way we defended as a group. And at the end, honestly, I thought we were the aggressors. We were the ones trying to take three points out of it. So saying all that, yeah, it’s something definitely to build on and then take into next week.

Every time it’s a game between two Canadian teams, it feels a little bit like this. But was today about more than just three points over 90 minutes from you?

Yeah, of course. With the way the season has started, it is been tough. And so yeah, we know kind of that these fans deserve more and they’ve been wanting more. And yeah, I just thought, and the group thought the big thing was the attitude and giving our all and the commitment to get to every ball to win duals and things like that. And we knew that that would change, that would give us an edge, change the margin, give us a bigger margin to win at least. And yeah, I think we saw that because there was times when we found the confidence to play. You could see that we could play and put a little bit of pressure. I think we are missing some that final ball or runs into the box that really puts the pressure and gets us final acts in the attack. But again, the commitment and everything is a big building block that we have to take into every game.

I know you are used to playing in different conditions, especially in Toronto, but you just spent time in California, you’re going to Florida next week, and then you got a freezing rain warning playing today. What was it like out?

Yeah, it was cold. It was actually okay in the warmups. It was fine. And then the freezing rain came and that was difficult for both teams. Football, it’s something that we have to be aware and used to here in Toronto. And so yeah, it was cold for both teams, but I thought we pushed through it and to be fair, they pushed through it as well.

You’ve seen bits and pieces from Ola [Brynhildsen] just because of his sort of fitness issues. I’m just curious to hear your take on what’s been your impression of him from what you’ve seen?

No, no. Yeah, he’s been great. I think it’s been tough for him to try and get, to get himself into a good state fitness-wise. And so that’s maybe been a little bit frustrating for him, but he’s working hard and today we saw him, we saw in the Cincinnati game the intensity that he brings and the running and the commitment to that running that he gives our team. It definitely helps. It helps a lot. And you saw today the danger that he can bring to a back-line. So even at the end, some of the crosses that we’re putting in, he’s making the commitment to run to that first post, so that makes it hard for their defenders on each of those plays. And yeah, I think yeah, the more fitness he gets, I think the more you’ll see from Ola [Brynhildsen].