Report and Reaction: Whitecaps wow with blistering blitz against Philadelphia as birthday boy Müller bags a hat-trick

Vancouver Whitecaps turned on the style and took apart the visiting Philadelphia Union with a blistering seven-goal blitz in a 7-0 victory at BC Place on Saturday night, as Thomas Müller hit his first hat-trick for the club.

This was already marked down as a huge game for both teams. Philadelphia came into it atop the Eastern Conference, having already qualified for the playoffs and leading the Supporters Shield standings. The ‘Caps have their own Conference-topping and Shield aspirations and grabbing a win against the Union felt not quite a must to keep those aims alive, but close to it. As things played out, Vancouver not only achieved that, booking their own postseason berth in the process, they destroyed a top title contender with a dazzling display in front of a sold out crowd.

First half goals from Mathias Laborda and Emmanuel Sabbi had the ‘Caps 2-0 up by the 24th minute. A pair of Thomas Müller penalties soon followed and Vancouver led by four at half time. Sabbi hit a stunning second just past the hour mark before new Homegrown signing Rayan Elloumi got his first MLS goal with 10 minutes remaining. Six of the best, but there was still time for Müller to grab his hat-trick and Vancouver finished the night in seventh heaven.

Both teams have huge cup semi-finals coming up on Tuesday, with Vancouver at home to Forge in the Canadian Championship and Philadelphia facing a long trip back east to Nashville in US Open Cup action. Team selections from both managers will certainly be a talking point coming out of the match, with Jesper Sorensen going for a full strength Whitecaps starting XI from the players he had at his disposal. Bradley Carnell, on the other hand, made five changes for Philadelphia, choosing to keep leading scorer Tai Baribo and leading assister Kai Wagner on the bench, while missing South African centreback Olwethu Makhanya through suspension and goalkeeper Andre Blake through injury.

It was somewhat of a makeshift Union defence and they were put to the sword by a rampant Whitecaps from the get go. The veteran Alejandro Bedoya, playing a fairly unfamiliar right back role, will be waking up throughout the night in a cold sweat and seeing shadows of Ali Ahmed running at him.

Ahmed was almost unplayable at times in the first half for the Whitecaps, and while he’ll rightly get a lot of the postmatch plaudits, some of the play, passes, and deliveries from Sebastian Berhalter were sublime, as he bagged a hat-trick of assists.

Vancouver started aggressively and they didn’t ease up.

Müller had the first shot of the game five minutes in, which was saved by Philly back-up keeper Andrew Rick. Tristan Blackmon and Daniel Rios both had chances in front of goal that they couldn’t convert, before Vancouver finally got their breakthrough in the 18th minute when Berhalter sent in a pinpoint corner which Laborda powerfully headed home.

After that there was no looking back for the ‘Caps.

They doubled their lead in the 24th minute when Ahmed blew past two Union defenders, centering the ball for Sabbi to blast home and set BC Place alight.

Four minutes later, and the Whitecaps had a chance to add to their tally when Jesus Bueno handled a Berhalter corner in the box.

Up stepped birthday boy Müller, who sent the young Philly keeper the wrong way and it was a three goal Vancouver lead before the half hour mark.

However you saw this one play out beforehand, this was likely beyond everybody’s wildest dreams.

Philadelphia simply weren’t at the races but they thought they’d got themselves back into the match when they had the ball in the net from their first shot on target five minutes before half time.

Bedoya had sent in a low cross for Mikael Uhre to tuck away past Yoheil Takaoka, but the Union joy was short lived, with Bedoya just straying offside as he collected the ball and the goal was chalked off after a video review.

Vancouver responded by adding a fourth of their own in the 45th minute after Ahmed’s fast footwork saw him brought down in the box. Up stepped Müller once again, and the German went the same way from the spot, tucking it past Rick into the bottom left corner for his second of the match.

A clearly pissed off Carnell then sent a message to his team, making a triple substitution in first half stoppage time, as they headed in trailing by four and totally outplayed.

Philadelphia came out far better to start the second half and enjoyed the best of the early going in the second half, but without really carving out any clear cut goalscoring opportunities.

Vancouver soon reasserted their dominance and they added a fifth just past the hour mark when Müller played an almost no-look pass to his right for a wide open Sabbi to curl an absolute beauty into the far corner for the goal of the night.

It was almost six minutes later when Ahmed put his effort just past the left post, but the rampant ‘Caps weren’t to be denied and they made it six of the best with 10 minutes remaining.

Jayden Nelson was played in on goal, leaving two Philadelphia defenders in his wake and on their ass as he bore down on goal, only to be denied by a good save from Rick.

The second phase of the resultant corner saw Berhalter chip in another pinpoint delivery for Elloumi to meet and head home. His first MLS goal in his first home match, just a day after signing his Homegrown deal. It was a special moment for the Academy standout.

Sabbi almost got his hat-trick minutes later, but pulled his effort wide, but Müller wasn’t to be denied his.

With two minutes remaining, the ‘Caps kept pushing for more and Jeevan Badwal had a chipped effort turned away by Rick. Keeping the pressure on, Berhalter played a cross in for Guiseppe Bovalina to head it perfectly to the back of the six yard box for Müller to run in and head home.

His first Whitecaps hat-trick on his 36th birthday and he enjoyed every minute of it.

It was an almost complete performance and it could have been more.

The win was the biggest victory in the club’s MLS history and the joint biggest in MLS history, fittingly the seventh time a team has won by a seven-goal margin.

The ‘Caps are now set to record their biggest-ever points total and the treble is still on. It’s been quite the year, with so many highlights. Saturday’s win over Philadelphia was another of those and the way this team can play, and with the confidence oozing through them right now, you can’t help but think that it certainly won’t be the last of those this year.

Next up are Forge in the Canadian Championship. The fourpeat is on.

FINAL SCORE: Vancouver Whitecaps 7 (SEVEN) – 0 Philadelphia Union

ATT: 26,031

VANCOUVER: 1.Yohei Takaoka; 18.Édier Ocampo (28.Tate Johnson 68’), 12.Belal Halbouni, 33.Tristan Blackmon (27.Giuseppe Bovalina 87’), 2.Mathías Laborda; 16.Sebastian Berhalter, 20.Andrés Cubas (59.Jeevan Badwal 81’); 11.Emmanuel Sabbi, 13.Thomas Müller ©, 22.Ali Ahmed (7.Jayden Nelson 68’); 14.Daniel Ríos (75.Rayan Elloumi 68’) [Substitutes not used: 32.Isaac Boehmer, 6.Ralph Priso, 17.Kenji Cabrera, 26.J.C. Ngando]

PHILADELPHIA: 76.Andrew Rick; 11.Alejandro Bedoya (27.Kai Wagner 45’+2), 5.Jack Glesnes, 26.Nathan Harriel, 39.Francis Westfield; 33.Quinn Sullivan, 4.Jovan Lukić, 8.Jesús Bueno (21.Danley Jean-Jacques 45’+2), 19.Indiana Vassilev (20.Bruno Damiani 62’); 7.Mikael Uhre (9.Tai Baribo 45’+2), 32.Milan Iloski (44.Neil Pierre 70’) [Substitutes not used: 31.George Marks, 6.Cavan Sullivan, 14.Jeremy Rafanello, 15.Olivier Mbaizo]

SCORING SUMMARY:
18’ – VAN – Mathías Laborda (Sebastian Berhalter)
24’ – VAN – Emmanuel Sabbi (Ali Ahmed)
29’ – VAN – Thomas Müller (penalty kick)
45’+1 – VAN – Thomas Müller (penalty kick)
61’ – VAN – Emmanuel Sabbi (Thomas Müller, Sebastian Berhalter)
80’ – VAN – Rayan Elloumi (Sebastian Berhalter, Jayden Nelson)
88’ – VAN – Thomas Müller (Giuseppe Bovalina, Jayden Nelson)

STATS:
Possession: VAN 59.3% – PHI 40.7%
Shots: VAN 20 – PHI 9
Shots on Goal: VAN 12 – PHI 2
Saves: VAN 2 – PHI 5
Fouls: VAN 15 – PHI 23
Offsides: VAN 1 – PHI 1
Corners: VAN 9 – PHI 1

CARDS:
8’ – VAN – Thomas Müller
16’ – VAN – Tristan Blackmon
68’ – PHI – Milan Iloski
74’ – VAN – Tate Johnson
75’ – PHI – Tai Baribo
87’ – PHI Jovan Lukić

REACTION:

VANCOUVER WHITECAPS

JESPER SORENSEN

On his team’s emphatic 7-0 victory tonight:

“It’s nothing like this you could have predicted beforehand, right? We haven’t played for awhile, and we wanted to come out strong. I also think that this was a great test and game for us, there was a little bit of a playoff vibe in this before coming in. Even though [it’s] Philadelphia, and I respect them a lot, and it’s difficult not getting carried away after this of course when we see 7-0. But I just think that the players came out really strong, they wanted to play with the right way, with the right mindset, keep attacking even though we got off to a good start. They also stuck throughout the game very well to the game plan. We kept our composure, we had two yellow cards early on in the game, and I think we played very well with them, both Thomas [Müller] and Tristan [Blackmon]. And I think after a game like this, it’s difficult really to say the right words, but it was great.”

On the statement made, and if they might see Philadelphia again:

“I would hope for a match-up like this in the playoffs because it can only be in the final! We would like to play an east team in the playoffs obviously. But this should give us a good confidence boost. We know what standard we can set, we know how we can play. I think we were well prepared on Philadelphia, for the game, and it’s not an easy team to play against. We’ve seen that. It’s not that you play a game and all of a sudden the world is upside down. They will be good again in a couple days when they play Nashville, so it should give us a boost and make us ready for a good finish. The most important thing for me is how we look coming into the playoffs. Congratulations to everybody in the organization, the players and everybody that we made the playoffs. I think that’s one of the main goals of the season and now that we’re there, it’s up to us now to make sure that we get in the best possible [situation] with the seeding, and that when we are in, that we are ready to go and really make ourselves [have] a great run in the playoffs.”

MIDFIELDER THOMAS MÜLLER

On this historic victory on his birthday:

“I told my parents that are here now since three days, [that] first of all, I have not a birthday but [a] matchday. That’s what I’m looking for. But I know if you have a birthday everyone is giving you good wishes, and I had a lot of messages also from Germany all day long. I had some phone calls with some friends and they all told me the same: score some goals! And that’s what we did. It was a great team effort to be honest. Philly are still top of the league, to win 7-0 against them, even though it was our home game and we were confident, that’s a very special day. I also read that that was the highest win for the Whitecaps in their history, so we can be proud for two days, and then we go again.”

On getting used to facing good opponents for the playoffs:

“We have to get used to beating good teams, and competing against really good teams. I think we have to build some confidence to trust ourselves. I have the feeling we are very strong together as a group, a hardworking group. But even in our qualities, we can trust sometimes a little bit more, be a little bit more brave in some situations, especially with the ball, but also sometimes without the ball, to get to the pressing, with a hundred percent, don’t hold back, don’t do a step back. And I think we get, step by step, closer to be even more decisive and more dangerous. But it’s easy to say after such a win, to be honest.”

FORWARD EMMANUEL SABBI

On his performance:

“I think I played well. I think I did the little things well and got into the right plays, and just dialed in and focused the whole game.”

On the entire team’s confidence level:

“I think we’ve always had the mentality of next man up. We’ve gone down with Gauldy, we’ve gone down with Brian [White] a couple times, Sam [Adekugbe], everybody that comes in knows that it’s next man up. I think that’s what we’ve done well. On the training pitch we try to give our best every day, and that also transfers to the games. Like you saw today, we executed well and played good football. It was a good day.”