Report and Reaction: Five for Whitecaps, four for White as Vancouver destroy the best defence in MLS in Austin rout

Report and Reaction: Five for Whitecaps, four for White as Vancouver destroy the best defence in MLS in Austin rout

Posted on April 12, 2025 by in MLS, VANCOUVER WHITECAPS with 0 Comments

It’s been quite the week.

Vancouver Whitecaps showed no hangover from their heroics in Mexico City on Wednesday night, with another dominant display at BC Place, destroying Austin FC 5-1 in a match that could easily have seen the ‘Caps score double that amount if not for the width of the posts, offside decisions, a missed penalty, and some top second have saves from visiting keeper Brad Stuver.

Led by four-goal Brian White, and with a goal for the second-straight week from Emmanuel Sabbi, it was a victory that saw the Whitecaps finish their weekend with a four-point lead at the top of the MLS Western Conference, leading the Supporters Shield, into the CONCACAF Champions Cup semi-finals, and with confidence oozing from every player, coach, and supporter.

It’s a great time to be a Vancouver Whitecaps fan. Let’s enjoy every minute of it.

Jesper Sorensen made two changes from the team that beat Colorado a week ago, and just three from the team that started Wednesday’s famous win against Pumas. Iron man Sebastian Berhalter finally got some rest after starting every game so far this season, featuring on the bench for this one.

For the two teams with the best defensive records in MLS, it was an end to end affair from the start, with both teams looking energized and looking for goals.

Austin had the first opportunity four minutes in when Tristan Blackmon’s misjudged header allowed Myrto Uzuni to nip in on goal, but Yohei Takaoka was quickly off his line to deal with the danger.

Guilherme Biro flashed a shot wide for the visitors in the 9th minute, which seemed to take a deflection on the way through but no corner kick was forthcoming, and the ‘Caps had their first look on goal two minutes later when White’s header bounced past the left post.

Any fears that defences would be on top and a scoreless draw was on the cards were quickly dispelled in the 13th minute when Vancouver opened the scoring.

Edier Ocampo whipped a dangerous ball in from the right, which was flicked on by Daniel Rios and White coolly tucked it away Stuver for the 1-0 lead.

Pushing for a second, Daniel Rios fired narrowly over with a fierce long range shot in the 31st minute, but seven minutes later, the ‘Caps doubled their lead and it was that man White again.

With his back to goal, Sabbi received a pass from Ralph Priso about 20 yards out, quickly turning and threading the ball through for White to fired home his second under the on-rushing Stuver.

Some sublime passing from Vancouver to end the half failed to add to their tally and it was Austin’s Brandon Vazquez who had the last chance of the first 45 minutes, firing over in stoppage time.

The ‘Caps only had two shots on target in that first half, but both ended up in the back of the net, so it’s hard to knock that efficiency. In fact Stuver’s best save came in the first 10 minutes when he saved a mouse on the pitch and took it over to the sidelines!

The ‘Caps started the second half on the attack and Sabbi forced Stuver to get down and turn his low shot around the post in the 47th minute.

But Sabbi was not to be denied and he made it three for the ‘Caps from the resultant corner.

Vite whipped in the ball from the left and it was flicked on by the head of an Austin defender straight into the path of Sabbi who made no mistake to volley it home.

The ‘Caps were running absolutely rampant and the best defence in MLS was the best defence no more. And they gave up a fourth just before the hour mark.

And it had to be White again, grabbing his third hat-trick as a Whitecap and putting the Texans to the sword.

Involved in the build-up, White’s blocked shot eventually came to to Ranko Veselinovic. The ‘Caps captain saw his shot crash of the left post, rebounding perfectly to White, who made no mistake from a few yards out.

Vancouver weren’t letting up.

Berhalter, who had come on as a substitute, showed his shooting prowess once again with a fierce low strike that Stuver had to turn around the post. Berhalter send in the subsequent corner and as White rose to meet it, he was pulled back by Nicolás Dubersarsky and referee Victor Rivas pointed to the spot.

White initially grabbed the ball, but handed it over to Rios for what was hoped to be a confidence-boosting goal. The Mexican, who had played well and linked up nicely with White, struck the ball with force down the middle, only to hit the trailing legs of a diving Stuver and the danger was cleared.

But still the Whitecaps came and White thought he had his fourth and Vancouver’s fifth in the 76th minute when he buried Giuseppe Bovalina’s header down to him in the box, but the Australian was flagged offside.

There was more anguish for White two minutes later when he did everything right, only to see his shot cannon off the outside of the left post with Stuver beaten.

He wasn’t to be denied though, and he finally got his fourth in the 83rd minute when Ali Ahmed played him in and still with a lot of work to do, he finished with aplomb to make it 5-0.

It was the first time White has scored four goals in his pro career and the first time a Whitecap has scored four goal in the MLS era.

White now matches Jason Jordan, who hit four for the ‘Caps in the USL in May 2005. Hopefully we don’t have to wait 20 more years for a similar occurrence!

The goal was White’s league-leading sixth in MLS this season and his ninth overall in all competitions. He now moves to within one goal of tying Carl Valentine’s 65 for the club, which would see him move to equal 4th in the all-time scoring charts for the Whitecaps in all of their eras and chasing down Jason Jordan (3rd with 78 goals) and John Catliff (2nd on 79) for taking second place. Beating Dominic Mobilio’s stunning 170 goals may need to see him play into his 40’s though!

The ‘Caps still wanted more and Ahmed was next to see that pesky left post deny him getting on the scoresheet with four minutes remaining.

The only real disappointment for Vancouver will be giving up the clean sheet, with Dani Pereira rocketing home a shot from the edge of the box in the 90th minute. Still, can’t complain.

It was a pretty good day at the office. In fact, it was a pretty good week. I hope Miami were watching.

FINAL SCORE: Vancouver Whitecaps 5 – 1 Austin FC

ATT: 17,931

VANCOUVER: 1.Yohei Takaoka; 18.Édier Ocampo (27.Giuseppe Bovalina 66’), 33.Tristan Blackmon, 4.Ranko Veselinović ©, 28.Tate Johnson; 20.Andrés Cubas (59.Jeevan Badwal 78’), 13.Ralph Priso (16.Sebastian Berhalter 60’), 45.Pedro Vite (26.J.C. Ngando 60’); 14.Daniel Ríos, 24.Brian White, 11.Emmanuel Sabbi (22.Ali Ahmed 66’) [Substitutes not used: 32.Isaac Boehmer, 12.Belal Halbouni, 15.Bjørn Inge Utvik, 19.Damir Kreilach]

AUSTIN: 1.Brad Stuver; 17.Joe Gallagher, 4.Brendan Hines-Hike, 18.Julio Cascante (5.Oleksandr Svatok 66’), 29.Guilherme Biro; 33.Owen Wolf (7.Jáder Obrian 66’), 8.Daniel Pereira, 14.Besard Šabović (20.Nicolas Dubersarsky 66’), 11.Osman Bukari (23.Žan Kolmanič 66’); 10.Myrto Uzuni, 9.Brandon Vázquez (19.CJ Fodrey 78’) [Substitutes not used: 30.Stefan Cleveland, 2.Riley Thomas, 38.Ervin Torres]

SCORING SUMMARY:
13’ – VAN – Brian White (Daniel Ríos, Édier Ocampo)
38’ – VAN – Brian White (Emmanuel Sabbi, Ralph Priso)
47’ – VAN – Emmanuel Sabbi (Pedro Vite)
59’ – VAN – Brian White (Ranko Veselinović)
82’ – VAN – Brian White (Ali Ahmed, J.C. Ngando)
90’+1 – ATX – Daniel Pereira (Joe Gallagher)

STATS:
Possession: VAN 52.4% – ATX 47.6%
Shots: VAN 26 – ATX 11
Shots on Goal: VAN 11 – ATX 4
Saves: VAN 3 – ATX 6
Fouls: VAN 13 – ATX 10
Offsides: VAN 1 – ATX 1
Corners: VAN 4 – ATX 5

CARDS (ALL YELLOW):
20’ – ATX – Owen Wolff
50’ – VAN – Ralph Priso
86’ – VAN – Sebastian Berhalter
90’ – VAN – Brian White
90’+2 – VAN – Tristan Blackmon

REACTION:

VANCOUVER WHITECAPS

JESPER SORENSEN

On Brian White’s four-goal haul and where it ranks:

“It was a great, great performance. You see players have breakout games and extraordinary games, and Brian [White] had such one today. You might see that occasionally, but not very often. I haven’t really thought about [where it ranks], but it will be very high.”

On the team’s form and the confidence this result can give:

“You can only hope for games like this because you know what it does to a squad and to a group of players. It builds confidence, and everybody is happy. We were talking about all the guys scoring by committee, today we only had two guys score five goals. But it’s great. Everybody is feeling good, everybody feels that they’re part of it. That’s also one thing. You have some injuries, but that also means that the squad, everybody gets close to playing and gets to play, so everybody feels like they’re part of the squad and also part of the success. And you cannot really ask for that, you can hope. And I’m just happy, especially for the players. Because these moments – football, normally, is a lot of struggle, to be honest – and the victories, they feel a lot but losses, they feel way more normally. And I think that right now, we’re so happy and fortunate that we are making good results and the players can really build confidence out of the results and also be even better connected as a group.”

STRIKER BRIAN WHITE

On climbing the scoring ranks of Whitecaps history:

“It’s special when you get to be associated with the Ring of Honour kind of names that have cemented what this club means on and off the field. And on a personal note, it means a lot, and hopefully I can continue to perform well for this club and keep pushing it up to new levels.”

On the groove that he found in the match:

“It was one of those games where you find a good rhythm. I think the team performed really well. We were able to have a lot of good combination plays, a lot of good movement on and off the ball. And I was just fortunate enough to put myself in good positions to have chances and put a couple away.”

      
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Authored by: Michael McColl

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