Report and Reaction: Whitecaps find shooting boots to destroy Dallas and head back to top of the West

Vancouver Whitecaps found their form and finish in a 5-0 destruction of FC Dallas at BC Place on Saturday evening to go back to the top of the MLS Western Conference.

Some team was always going to get a hammering once everything clicked for the ‘Caps offensively after the return from the World Cup break. It took a few matches, and a couple of stinkers attacking-wise, but FC Dallas ended up being the side that drew the short straw as Vancouver ran riot over their Texan visitors.

With a full strength attack starting a match for the first time this season, the ‘Caps were rampant from the opening kick off. A Brian White brace, on his return from a hamstring injury, and goals from Emmanuel Sabbi and Edier Ocampo, had Vancouver four goals up by half time. Bruno Caicedo added a fifth in the second half to complete the rout, as the ‘Caps looked more like the attacking juggernaut we know they can be.

Jesper Sorensen made three changes to the side that started the midweek loss to Houston, with the most dangerous looking front four the ‘Caps had put out all season, and they took the game to Dallas from the outset.

The early pressure saw the ‘Caps get the breakthrough in the 11th minute when Dallas defender Sebastian Ibeagha flicked an outswinging Ryan Gauld corner to Sabbi at the top of the box. The winger took an excellent first touch to bring the ball down before drilling it low through the crowd and into the bottom left corner.

Off and running, the confidence and quality was oozing through the home side.

A great build-up move saw White just fail to make it two in the 15th minute, before Sabbi and Andres Cubas had looks on goal.

Vancouver didn’t have to wait too long to double their lead and White got his first of the evening in the 23rd minute, sliding in to direct home a low Ocampo cross in from the right.

Very similar to Rayan Elloumi’s chopped off effort midweek, Ocampo grabbed his team-leading 8th assist of the season, after getting onto a perfectly weighted long ball from Tristan Blackmon.

The ‘Caps were only just getting started.

White was played in five minutes later, but couldn’t tuck it away. He wasn’t to be denied his brace, however, and superbly volleyed home Vancouver’s third in the 37th minute.

Another Gauld corner was flicked across the box by Oliver Larraz. Logan Farrington lazily threw a leg out towards the ball, weakly directing it to White, who smashed it home for 3-0.

It would have been easy for Dallas to let their heads drop after that, but to their credit, they dusted themselves down and took the game to Vancouver to see out the half.

Farrington nearly made amends for his poor defensive work in the 41st minute when he bore down on goal, but crashed his shot off the left post.

Sam Sarver was then played in moments later, and with Ralph Priso closing him down, looked to be brought down in the box in an awkward looking challenge. Referee Malik Badawi wasn’t impressed and waved away the fervent penalty appeals. After a video review that took way too long, the on pitch decision stood and Dallas will certainly feel hard done by.

To rub salt into that already salty wound, the Whitecaps then grabbed a fourth deep into first half stoppage time when Cubas floated a ball to the back post and Ocampo sublimely headed it over Jonathan Sirois and into the net.

Worryingly for the ‘Caps, Priso went down a couple of times towards the end of the half and was replaced for the second 45 minutes by Mathias Laborda.

Dallas made four changes at the break and started the second half livelier, with one of those subs, Bernard Kamungo, running into the box only to see his shot blocked in the 48th minute.

Sabbi played in Gauld three minutes later with a lovely pass, but the Scot could only look agonisingly on as his shot went past the far post.

With both recently back from injury, Sorensen took White and Sabbi off just past the hour mark. Sabbi’s replacement was Caicedo and the Ecuadorian wasted no time in getting his name on the scoresheet when Muller played him in with a neat pass and he tucked it away past Sirois to see the ‘Caps go nap.

The game fizzled out after that, with Vancouver’s subs huffing and puffing, but without really threatening to add to that scoreline.

Dallas somehow didn’t get a penalty for a challenge in the box with three minutes remaining, even after another lengthy video review.

The Golden Boot leading Petar Musa had surprisingly started the game on the bench for Dallas, coming on at half time, but being kept at bay with ease by the Vancouver defence. He did get a chance in stoppage time, but a full stretch Yohei Takaoka got down to turn his low shot away. That was the visitor’s only shot on goal in the match.

This was the Whitecaps of old. The team the fans have fallen in love with and the league fear. Free flowing, looking like they could score on every attack, high pressing with intensity, and defensively resolute. It was everything that’s been missing since the return to action in mid July.

Hopefully this is the Whitecaps side we will now see for the rest of the season. If it is, then we are very much looking at championship material. A lot of course depends on injuries, but this starting XI, with maybe a tweak at centre back, can cause a lot of damage in the league, as Dallas found out to their cost.

Next up is the worst team in the entire MLS, Sporting Kansas City away next Saturday. The Whitecaps must be licking their chops.

FINAL SCORE: Vancouver Whitecaps 5 – 0 FC Dallas

ATT: 25,398

VANCOUVER: 1.Yohei Takaoka; 18.Édier Ocampo, 33.Tristan Blackmon, 6.Ralph Priso (2.Mathías Laborda 46′), 28.Tate Johnson (3.Sam Adekugbe 83’); 8.Oliver Larraz, 20.Andrés Cubas; 25.Ryan Gauld (7.Cheikh Sabaly 72’), 13.Thomas Müller, 11.Emmanuel Sabbi (14.Bruno Caicedo 63’); 24.Brian White (19.Rayan Elloumi 62’) [Substitutes not used: 32.Isaac Boehmer, 26.J.C. Ngando, 29.Mihail Gherasimencov, 41.Nikola Djordjevic, 97.Liam Mackenzie]

DALLAS: 40.Jonathan Sirois; 18.Shaq Moore, 25.Sebastian Ibeagha, 5.Lalas Abubakar, 32.Nolan Norris (77.Bernard Kamungo 46′); 6.Rin Binyamin (10.Santiago Moreno 46′), 12.Christian Cappis, 17.Ramiro Benetti (55.Kaick Ferreira 73’), 24.Joshua Torquato; 28.Samuel Sarver (21.Joaquin Valente 46′), 23.Logan Farrington (9.Petar Musa 46′) [Substitutes not used: 30.Michael Collodi, 8.Patrickson Delgado, 14.Herman Johansson, 33.Clay Holstad]

SCORING SUMMARY:
11’ – VAN – Emmanuel Sabbi
23’ – VAN – Brian White (Édier Ocampo, Tristan Blackmon)
37’ – VAN – Brian White
45’+6 – VAN – Édier Ocampo (Andrés Cubas, Tate Johnson)
68’ – VAN – Bruno Caicedo (Thomas Müller)

STATS:
Possession: VAN 60.7% – DAL 39.3%
Shots: VAN 17 – DAL 7
Shots on Goal: VAN 8 – DAL 1
Saves: VAN 1 – DAL 3
Fouls: VAN 12 – DAL 9
Offsides: VAN 1 – DAL 2
Corners: VAN 9 – DAL 3

CAUTIONS:
7’ – DAL – Shaq Moore
31’ – DAL – Ran Binyamin
42’ – DAL – Joshua Torquato
59’ – DAL – Lalas Abubakar
88’ – DAL – Petar Musa
90’+3 – VAN – Mathías Laborda

REACTION:

VANCOUVER WHITECAPS

HEAD COACH JESPER SØRENSEN

On the performance:

“We had the same amount of shots this game that we had the last. This time we hit the target 10 times instead of one, which is a good start. And then you give yourself better opportunities to score goals, obviously, it was great. We came out with a lot of force, and we came out wanting to make sure that we didn’t waste time, and I think that we looked good, and fresh from the start. Of course, Dallas was also threatening the other way in a couple of counter-moments, but I think in general, it’s also a big thing getting ahead in the game, and having that lead to rely on. And I think in general we played a very good game in many ways.”

On striker Brian White’s brace:

“Of course, he’s a good striker. And he’s also chosen because of these qualities. So, I think that’s definitely Brian. We’ve talked about him many times here – and of course, he’s a great player for us. He’s been out, he was tested during the week and looked very good. And he had the feeling that he was ready to go.”

STRIKER BRIAN WHITE

On his two goals:

“I think there was stuff that we worked on in training in terms of, if we have space to get the ball in behind, Éddie [Ocampo] played a good ball in-between the gap of the goalie and the backline, and I was able to get there and tap it in. [The second] was a set-piece, and they were physically man-marking and then me and Ollie [Larraz] switched roles and I just was able to find a bit of space, and the ball came to me I was able to finish it off. So good overall performance from the boys and good to get some goals in the back of the net.”

On getting chemistry back with Ryan Gauld again:

“I’ve always said its so easy playing with Gauldy, its great to be back out there with both of us fit and getting those minutes. And then you add guys like Thomas [Müller] and [Emmanuel] Sabbi in there and, as a forward, you just want to play with good, quality players. And that’s what those guys are, even the guys that didn’t start tonight have qualities that make it easy as a forward to play. So for me, it’s a dream situation, and obviously it was a bit of fun tonight.”

FC DALLAS

HEAD COACH ERIC QUILL

On the match tonight:

“We never really regained ourselves after the first goal and that was disappointing. We usually have a resilient group that can bounce back after giving up a goal but we didn’t have that tonight and it got worse and worse. Disappointing for our fans and for the club tonight because we’re better than that.”

On the changes at halftime:

“In the second half we brought out four subs and we started to play a bit. The game was gone 4-0 at half time, but we were trying to chip away at the scoreline. We tried to find a way back into the game via small pieces. I thought we were okay in certain spells but it was a night that got away from us. We can’t let that happen again, and these performances can’t keep happening if we are going to stay committed to what we want to play.”

On Musa not starting and rotating his squad:

”We were a little concerned with his hamstring, and we’ve had three games in seven days, and so naturally we trust our guys. We trust that we can rotate and not miss a beat. Next guy up, next man up. That’s what we as coaches prepare your group for, and I have trust in all the guys. I have trust in all of them, and we got to take a hard look at what went wrong tonight and why it went wrong, and we got to make ourselves better and stare at it in the face.”