Report and Reaction: Whitecaps’ Canadian Championship fourpeat dreams still alive after masterful win over Forge

The fourpeat is on!

Vancouver Whitecaps put in a professional and assured performance against Canadian Premier League leaders Forge at BC Place on Tuesday evening, with a 4-0 victory on the night giving the defending champions a 6-2 win on aggregate in their Canadian Championship semi-final second leg, setting up a final date on October 1st against either Atletico Ottawa or Vancouver FC of Langley.

First half goals from Tristan Blackmon and J.C. Ngando set the ‘Caps on their way in a dominant performance that saw them outshoot their opponents by 22 to 8. A second half penalty from Sebastian Berhalter and a well-worked fourth from Jayden Nelson with five minutes remaining sealed the deal.

Some of the shine was taken off the triumph with a late injury to Blackmon, and while everyone of a blue and white persuasion will be hoping for the best, they will be fearing the worst after the season it’s been so far. The Whitecaps depth will once again be put to the test for the remainder of the season. On Tuesday night’s showing, they’re ready for the challenge.

Jesper Sorensen rotated his starting line-up as expected, making five changes from the side that picked Philadelphia apart on Saturday, with the heroes from the weekend, Thomas Müller and Emmanuel Sabbi, dropping to the bench for some rest and not even needing to come on.

Forge came out strong in the opening moments, hoping to grab the early advantage, and they nearly got it two minutes in when Isaac Boehmer denied Alexander Achinioti-Jonsson from point blank range.

That was to be as good as it got for the visitors as Vancouver took over and started to turn the screw.

Nelson saw an effort saved by Jassem Koleilat at his near post in the sixth minute, but the ‘Caps got their breakthrough moments later.

Berhalter sent in a corner from the left, which Koleilat flapped at. The ball ran through to Blackmon who easily headed home into the empty net and Vancouver went ahead for the first time in the tie.

The ‘Caps kept pushing and Ngando was denied by Koleilat in the 14th minute, before the Forge keeper denied Nelson from point blank range in the 27th minute.

The Whitecaps got their second two minutes later.

Ngando had looked lively all night and got his reward when he collected a pass from Ali Ahmed about 20 yards out. Taking a couple of touches to make room for the shot, the French midfielder blasted a low one in-off the left post and the ‘Caps led by two.

Vancouver dominated the rest of the first half play, with their best chance to add to their tally coming four minutes before half time when Nelson drilled one just past the far post.

Starting the second half where they left off in the first, the ‘Caps were running riot, with Nelson sending an inviting ball across goal but with no takers.

Keeping the pressure on, the ‘Caps won a corner. As the ball was played in, Belal Halbouni was pulled down in the box by Marko Jevremovic and referee Michael Venne pointed to the spot.

Up stepped Berhalter to drill home the penalty and the ‘Caps were three up.

The ‘Caps had some more chances to add to the scoreline, but just couldn’t find the finishing touch, with Daniel Rios just failing to get on the end of a couple of balls.

It was a dominant performance, but it seems that Vancouver just can’t have nice things as the injury curse may have struck again when Blackmon went down with an apparent knee injury with around 10 minutes remaining, and had to be subbed off.

Vancouver got their fourth, though, with five minutes left.

A quick transition play saw Rayan Elloumi send an inviting ball in across goal which both Koleilat and a Forge defender missed and Nelson was on hand with the neat finish to get the goal his play deserved.

It was a very comfortable win in the end. Forge just couldn’t get a foothold in the game and Vancouver’s gameplan played out to perfection. You don’t see the CPL powerhouse picked apart like that very often, but full credit to the Whitecaps’ scouting for this match as they nailed Forge’s weaknesses, especially when it comes to defending set pieces.

Forge are having a fantastic season and the CPL double is still very much on the cards. They’ve never won both the regular season and the playoffs and you certainly wouldn’t bet against them achieving that feat this time around. Tuesday just wasn’t to be their night to beat the ‘Caps.

As for Vancouver, they’ve now scored 13 unanswered goals in their last three matches and kept two straight clean sheets, with two different keepers. With four different scorers on the night and 10 in total across their last three victories, the depth of this squad is there for all to see. And defensively it might need to be if the Blackmon news turns out to be bad.

They a cup final to look forward to in two weeks time, but for now, there’s three massive league matches coming up before then, starting with Saturday’s trip to Kansas City. They keep trying to derail Vancouver’s special year, but it’s keeping on rolling along.

FINAL SCORE: Vancouver Whitecaps 4 – 0 Forge

ATT: 10,752

VANCOUVER: 32.Isaac Boehmer; 18.Édier Ocampo, 12.Belal Halbouni, 33.Tristan Blackmon (2.Mathías Laborda 83’), 28.Tate Johnson; 16.Sebastian Berhalter (6.Ralph Priso 76’), 59.Jeevan Badwal (20.Andrés Cubas 46′); 22.Ali Ahmed (17.Kenji Cabrera 63’), 26.J.C. Ngando, 7.Jayden Nelson; 14.Daniel Ríos (75.Rayan Elloumi 63’) [Substitutes not used: 1.Yohei Takaoka, 11.Emmanuel Sabbi, 13.Thomas Müller, 27.Giuseppe Bovalina]

FORGE: 1.Jassem Koleilat; 24.Rezart Rama, 3.Marko Jevremović, 10.Kyle Bekker © (8.Elimane Cissé 60’), 5.Daniel Nimick (6.Benjamin Paton 60’); 13.Alexander Achinioti-Jönsson, 18.Molham Babouli, 11.Nana Ampomah (7.David Choinière 72’); 21.Alessandro Hojabrpour, 9.Brian Wright (17.Hoce Massunda HT), 19.Tristan Borges (27.Victor Klonaridis 60’) [Substitutes not used: 36.Dino Bontis, 4.Christos Liatifis, 27.Victor Klonaridis, 28.Keito Lipovschek, 32.Zayne Bruno]

SCORING SUMMARY:
7’ – VAN – Tristan Blackmon (Sebastian Berhalter)
28’ – VAN – J.C. Ngando (Ali Ahmed)
49’ – VAN – Sebastian Berhalter (penalty kick)
85’ – VAN – Jayden Nelson (Rayan Elloumi)

STATS:
Possession: VAN 58% – FOR 42%
Shots: VAN 22 – FOR 8
Shots on Goal: VAN 9 – FOR 2
Saves: VAN 2 – FOR 5
Fouls: VAN 16 – FOR 9
Offsides: VAN 0 – FOR 3
Corners: VAN 5 – FOR 6

CARDS:
18’ – VAN – Jeevan Badwal
26’ – FOR – Rezart Rama
34’ – FOR – Alessandro Hojabrpour
48’ – FOR – Marko Jevremović
80’ – VAN – Kenji Cabrera

REACTION:

VANCOUVER WHITECAPS

JESPER SORENSEN

On the match:

“We have to be more clinical in situations. We scored four goals, and that was a good thing, but we had a ton of chances and we have to execute a little bit better because it’s been a problem for us, not last game, but the games also against St. Louis and against Houston. It’s not to disrespect at all Forge, but we had a lot of open opportunities, and we have to be a little bit more clinical in those situations. Having said that, of course it’s great that we have four different players scoring, and yeah, it was nice to see that we kept going for the next goal still when it was open, but the pitch also really opened up.”

On Sebastian Berhalter:

“I think that he played very well. I think he’s been having a good season, he looks very confident when he receives the ball, and distributes well. I think that our midfield players have it picked up as of late, and really become comfortable in the build-up phase. Also, [he’s] been able to play out, and when we get in central, been able to play the deep passes for his teammates. I think that he’s added to his game throughout the season and, he’s a player that’s a marquee player for us and he’s been doing very well… he’s becoming a player that can do a lot of things on a football pitch.”

MIDFIELDER SEBASTIAN BERHALTER

On the match:

“Something that we emphasized the whole week was that we know they know that they had nothing to lose. So, we just came out there and tried to play our game and not worry about what they’re doing – just focus on us – and in the end it worked well.”

On what playing for a fourth straight Voyageurs Cup means:

“It would be a good accomplishment. When I first got to the club, it was a priority of the club to win the [TELUS Canadian Championship] and now, going for the fourth time, is pretty cool. I think any time you’re in a final, you want to win it, so hopefully we can go out there and get it done.”

On being named captain tonight:

“To be honest, it’s a moment I’ve dreamt of, being a captain for this club. Since the day I arrived, it’s something that, I think any kid that’s young starting with the team thinks that hopefully one day they can get that in. It meant a lot, honestly, just being the captain of this team. Just because I’m wearing the armband doesn’t mean that there aren’t other guys stepping up all over the field. So, it did mean a lot and I’m just glad that we got the win.”