Report and Reaction: Vancouver Whitecaps frustrated by defence-minded Minnesota United in Champions Cup final send off

It wasn’t the result Vancouver Whitecaps would have ideally liked in their CONCACAF Champions Cup final send off at BC Place on Wednesday evening, but coming away with a point and no injuries in their 0-0 draw with Minnesota United at least offered some positives to take from a match they dominated, but were unable to find a breakthrough in.

It’s perhaps indicative of what a force the Whitecaps have been in MLS this year that Minnesota headed to Vancouver for their top of the table Western Conference clash with a very defence-minded gameplan that saw them pose little to no attacking threat to the ‘Caps over the 90 minutes. There was only one team it felt that were interested in winning that game, and even with some key starters rested ahead of Sunday’s final, it was one-way traffic for much of the match.

The Whitecaps tried, created some chances, but ultimately weren’t able to find that killer touch to come away with the deserved three points in a game that was quite unexciting for the most part and one described by Jesper Sorensen afterwards as “not a spectacular game”.

With their huge CONCACAF Champions Cup final a mere four days away, Sorensen was always going to ring the changes for this one and there was seven made to the team that started Saturday’s comeback win at Real Salt Lake.

The Whitecaps started on the front foot and their first real chance came six minutes in when Tate Johnson sent a ball in to the near post but Daniel Rios could only fire it wide under pressure.

Despite dominating the play, it took until the 22nd minute for the ‘Caps to have another look on goal, with Andres Cubas drilling a low shot wide of the left post.

Aside from a wild shot from Bongokuhle Hlongwane in the 45th minute, Minnesota offered nothing to test Vancouver in the first half and a rather uneventful affair saw the teams go in at the break scoreless.

Both teams made changes for the second half to freshen things up. For the Whitecaps it was on the defensive side, with Tristan Blackmon coming on for Bjorn Inge Utvik. Minnesota looked to add some much needed offensive spark, with Canadian international Tani Oluwaseyi and former Whitecap Julian Gressel coming on.

It was the Whitecaps who kept on the front foot to start the second half, and Rios connected with a Sebastian Berhalter corner in the 51st minute but his header was cleared from a few yards out by Minnesota.

Emmanuel Sabbi was next to try his luck in the 54th minute, but his low shot from the edge of the box lacked any real power and was easily held by Dayne St Clair.

Both teams made double substitutions on the hour mark, with the game yet to burst into life.

The ‘Caps were still looking like the team most likely to break the deadlock but were only able to conjure up half chances and St Clair wasn’t being tested. Yohei Takaoka at the other end of the park, meanwhile, was spending most of the match standing in the middle of the ‘Caps half watching the action.

The ball came to Jayden Nelson just inside the box in the 80th minute and although he struck it well, St Clair got down low to keep it out as the ‘Caps kept knocking on the Minnesota door.

Blackmon was sent tumbling in the Minnesota box with five minutes remaining. Replays looked to show contact on the ‘Caps defender but no video review was forthcoming.

That was pretty much it. A point apiece, Minnesota got the job done that they came to do, and Vancouver were left frustrated that they couldn’t find one moment of brilliance to take the full points.

Even with all of that, results elsewhere meant the Whitecaps actually increased their lead at the top of the Western Conference to five points, with a game in hand over the chasing pack, soon to be two. They extended their unbeaten run in all competitions to 15 matches in the process and came out of the match looking relatively unscathed, aside from a heavy landing on an already injured shoulder for Tate Johnson.

Now the full focus can be turned to Cruz Azul. They will be well rested, which may be a good or a bad thing. Can the Whitecaps extend their unbeaten run to 16 games on the biggest stage of them all so far? We’ll get the answer to all of those questions on Sunday.

FINAL SCORE: Vancouver Whitecaps 0 – 0 Minnesota United

ATT: 17,012

VANCOUVER: 1.Yohei Takaoka; 2.Mathías Laborda, 4.Ranko Veselinović, 15.Bjørn Inge Utvik (33.Tristan Blackmon HT), 28.Tate Johnson (3.Sam Adekugbe 83’); 16.Sebastian Berhalter (45.Pedro Vite 75’), 20.Andrés Cubas, 26.J.C. Ngando; 11.Emmanuel Sabbi (22.Ali Ahmed 60’), 14.Daniel Ríos (24.Brian White 60’), 7.Jayden Nelson [Substitutes: 32.Isaac Boehmer, 18.Édier Ocampo, 19.Damir Kreilach, 59.Jeevan Badwal]

MINNESOTA: 97.Dayne St. Clair; 21. Bongokuhle Hlongwane (24.Julian Gressel HT), 28.Jefferson Diaz (30.Owen Gene 60’), 15.Michael Boxall, 5.Nicolás Romero, 8.Joseph Rosales (13.Anthony Markanich 60’); 26.Joaquín Pereyra, 67.Carlos Harvey, 20.Wil Trapp, 17.Robin Lod (14.Tano Oluwaseyi HT); 9.Kelvin Yeboah [Substitutes not used: 1.Alec Smir, 22.Hoyeon Jung, 23.Morris Duggan, 27.DJ Taylor, 98.Alisa Randell]

SCORING SUMMARY:

Sadly none

STATS:
Possession: VAN 56.5% – MIN 43.5%
Shots: VAN 21 – MIN 4
Shots on Goal: VAN 3 – MIN 1
Saves: VAN 1 – MIN 3
Fouls: VAN 8 – MIN 12
Offsides: VAN 0 – MIN 0
Corners: VAN 8 – MIN 0

CARDS (ALL YELLOW):
73’ – VAN – Sebastian Berhalter
76’ – MIN – Nicolás Romero
90’+1 – MIN – Anthony Markanich

REACTION:

VANCOUVER WHITECAPS

JESPER SORENSEN

On his team’s dominant performance:

“It was a tricky game to play. You play up against the whole team all the time and you start over every time you lose the ball. And on the other hand, they have some fast players up front, where you also have to protect yourself a little bit for the counter movements and counter attacks. So I think that it was not a spectacular game, I would say. We couldn’t break the deadlock, but then you have to be pleased as a coach that they didn’t create anything. We know they’re good at set-pieces and we kept them to zero corners. I think that was, you know, very disciplined and well done. But maybe, in the end, we played a little bit too much back heavy. We sometimes played four against one in the last bit in the rest defence, that was probably one player too much. We could have released a little but more there but it’s always easy [to know] afterwards.”

On the team’s form going into the Concacaf Champions Cup Final:

“I’m happy we’re here now, and I’m happy that we are in the state we are in right now. Of course there’s been some heavy rotation in the last two weeks, where we’ve played four games in this last 10 days, and I think that’s also been an issue for us to manage how to get here. Now we can focus on the game in Mexico on Sunday. And I think that, everybody, we have not been talking much about that game [but] we can do that now. Everybody knows that it’s there and everybody also knows that if we haven’t talked about it, then maybe a lot of you guys [the media] have talked about it. So that’s just how it is. It is a special game, and if it’s not a special game then special games don’t exist. We are looking forward and we think we’re ready for it.”

On having to play this match four days before the Champions Cup Final:

“Today I was happy that we didn’t get any injuries. I don’t think that it’s been very helpful that we had to play today but the League wanted us and thought it was a good idea and that’s just how it is. Maybe it could distract us a little bit on the game, so we don’t have too much focus or emphasis on it too early. Now we’re finally here, I would say, because this game has been feeling like it’s been way ahead and we’ve had a lot to do in the meantime inbetween, but everybody also had their thoughts about this game. Now we’re here, I don’t want to talk about the lead into it. I think we’re ready and the players look strong.”

DEFENDER TRISTAN BLACKMON

On what 15 matches unbeaten means:

“It shows we’re a strong team, especially in this league. What we’ve been able to do thus far is really unprecedented I think. What’s even more impressive is that we still have a lot of things we can work on to get better at. It’s a really good stretch we’ve been on.”

On the mood heading into Sunday’s Concacaf Champions Cup Final:

“We want to win. Even right now after the game, obviously we wish we would have won this game, but the message is we have a big game this weekend. Now we have all focus towards that game, and we want to go out there and come back with the trophy.”

On another clean sheet:

“We’re more of a collective this year compared to years past. I think we’re working a lot better together as a unit. We have specific roles that we work on every week in training that are part of our principles. I think everybody has taken that job on really well so far and it shows in big moments how well we defend as a group.”

On dominating the match and ending with a draw:

“Obviously we want to win as many games as possible. They’ve done well for themselves in the league so far, but definitely we felt like the control we had in the game [that] we could have came out on top.”