Report and Reaction: Müller comes up clutch with 104th minute goal to give Whitecaps controversial win over St Louis

Sometimes, when a team goes on to win a championship, there’s a game along the way that you look back on as a pivotal moment in the season. It’s not necessarily the one that wins you the title, often it’s one that saw a fightback from adversity or a stunning victory snatched from the jaws of defeat. Whatever Vancouver Whitecaps trophy cabinet looks like come December, their dramatic late 3-2 victory over St Louis City on Saturday night will certainly be a match looked back upon in many end of season reviews.

The Whitecaps fought back twice against a determined St Louis side that didn’t have a lot of chances, but took two key ones that came along. Eduard Löwen’s 14th minute headed opener should have been a wake up call for the ‘Caps that the struggling side weren’t going to be pushovers. Brian White’s stoppage time penalty saw the teams head in level, only for João Klauss to regain the lead for the visitors in the 73rd minute, very much against the run of play after a second half dominated by Vancouver.

This was now a mark of just how good this Whitecaps team are and they passed the test. How they passed it is a whole other topic, but all that matters is that they did.

Daniel Rios headed home a free kick with 11 minutes remaining to give the ‘Caps some home and then the referee gods seemed to make amends for recent decisions with a video review in the 11th minute of second half stoppage time that saw St Louis penalized for a perceived trip on Mathias Laborda in the box. Up stepped man of the moment Thomas Müller to drill home the resultant spot kick and the Whitecaps had a 104th minute winner and the German legend had his first MLS goal.

This one will be drawing a lot of column inches and podcast minutes in the coming days.

Jesper Sorensen put out a strong line-up, with just one change from the team that started last week’s disappointing draw with Houston. That change saw Müller come in for Jeevan Badwal and wearing the captain’s armband, while Belal Halbouni got his first back-to-back starts in the centre of defence, partnering Tristan Blackmon, who was good to go after a hamstring scare last weekend.

The Whitecaps started on the front foot with Müller heading a corner wide in the 2nd minute before Edier Ocampo’s shot went inches past the left post five minutes later.

A strong start, but St Louis quickly settled and started to have the better chances.

Marcel Hartel brought a save out of Yohei Takaoka on a quick counter attack in the 11th minute, but the visitors only had to wait two more minutes to find the breakthrough.

Hartel was involved again, playing the ball outside to Conrad Wallem and his pinpoint cross in from the right was met perfectly by Lowen, who lost his markers and headed home his fourth goal of the season to give St Louis the lead. Not the German the crowd at BC Place were there to see scoring!

St Louis kept pushing and almost added a second in the 18th minute when Hartel headed wide from a good position.

Klaus almost capitalized on a bit of hesitation between Blackmon and Takaoka in the 24th minute, nipping in, but the ‘Caps keeper got a foot on the ball to play it into touch.

The Whitecaps weren’t looking too dangerous in attack, with St Louis’ low block neutralizing White and Müller. The German’s best successes in a quite first half was getting onto the end of Sebastian Berhalter corners, with the visitors giving him a lot of space in the box. He connect with another one in the 44th minute, heading just past the right post.

Then came some late drama at the end of the half. Not the last time we’d be saying that in the match.

Ocampo played in Emmanuel Sabbi in the 45th minute and a clumsy challenge in the box from Devin Padelford looked like Vancouver were going to be handed a lifeline from the spot. Referee Fotis Bazakos thought otherwise, play went on, and the ‘Caps eventually won a late corner. As Berhalter player the corner in, Padelford seemed to make another challenge in the box and this time the referee did point to the spot. Initial perceptions were that it was an arm pull on Blackmon, who certainly made the most of it on his way down. It felt harsh and you could see the decision maybe being overturned on VAR.

But then replays seemed to show that the call was for Chris Durkin falling backwards and catching the back of Blackmon’s leg, sending him crashing, albeit theatrically, to the ground. There was no VAR intervention, the call on the field stood, and the ‘Caps had a chance to level from the spot and White took it four minutes into first half stoppage time, sending Roman Burki the wrong way and hitting home his 14th league goal of the season and his 20th across all competitions.

The ‘Caps started the second half strongly with Sabbi bringing out a save from Burki a minute after the restart, before Ocampo sent a dangerous ball in across goal two minutes later with no takers.

White had a great chance to fire the Whitecaps into the lead in the 55th minute but blasted high and over from a good position.

The ‘Caps kept pushing for the go-ahead goal and a Müller cross was flicked on by White on the hour mark, but it was behind Laborda, who tried his best to spin around and knock it home but just couldn’t.

Four minutes later and Ocampo’s cross was met by substitute Ali Ahmed. His shot was saved by Burki with the rebound falling to White in the six yard box, but his goalbound effort was cleared off the line.

Ocampo hit a shot over in the 70th minute, with Sabbi seeing a low shot turned around the post by Burki a minute later.

It was all Vancouver, but very much against the run of play, St Louis retook the lead in the 73rd minute on a quick transition play that saw the ball played in to Klaus, who superbly held off attention in the box before turning and firing past Takaoka.

The Whitecaps’ night then went from bad to worse when White was forced off with another hamstring issue in the 75th minute.

But from the lows came the highs, and the man that came on to replace White then got the ‘Caps back level.

Vancouver had a free kick wide left in the 79th minute. Berhalter whipped in another great delivery and Rios rose to flick it over the two St Louis defenders and past Burki into the net.

It was now very much game back on and the ‘Caps had the chance to turn their dominance into a much-needed three points.

St Louis looked to have had the best chance to claim the victory, however, when Celio Pompeu forced a great save out of Takaoka at his near post.

The 10 minutes of second half stoppage time came and went and in what looked like the last play of the game, Laborda chased down a long ball forward and went down in the box. Intial hopes of a last gasp penalty for the ‘Caps seemed dashed however when the replays showed that the Uruguayan seemed to get tangled with his own legs and clipped himself.

Laborda ran back to his own half, Burki took the goal kick, the referee blew his whistle, and it was two big points dropped at home for Vancouver for the second week running.

But, not so fast.

Referee Bazakos had actually blown to stop the game for a video review, but no matter how many times I watched it, I just couldn’t see Mykhi Joyner definitively making contact with Laborda and instigating the clip. The officials disagreed. Bazakos was called over to the VAR monitor and agreed it was penalty and somehow, Vancouver had a chance to win it at the death.

With White off, it was up to captain Müller to step up to the spot and face off once again with his old Bundesliga foe Burki, rifling the ball into the roof of the net and giving Vancouver the victory and three massive points.

A dramatic ending to an entertaining game and one that the Whitecaps made a lot more difficult than they should have. After the way points have been dropped in the last two matches you obviously grab any victory with both hands, but there was enough to be concerned about by the Whitecaps performance to allow a lot of work to be done over the next three weeks.

Defensively they were shaky at times, with giveaways and being caught flat footed not punished as much as they could have been, and it was the more experienced players that were having the biggest issues. While it’s great to create so many chances, you have to start taking more of them. The midfield also seems to be lacking something with the formation tweak. This was not a good St Louis side. It’s a team that’s had major struggles on the road, but they caused a number of problems for Vancouver and should have had more than the two goals they got.

It was two points gained in the end that didn’t look on the cards and you take it, move on, and then put this weird three week gameless period to the best use you can. There’s seven regular season games left and Vancouver sit third in the West, four points behind leaders San Diego but with a game in hand, soon to be two. They’re five points back in the Supporters Shield race too, and they happen to be playing the leaders in that in their next game on September 13th.

This has been a special season already and it’s still shaping up to to be an even more special one with what is still left to play for. Victories like this one over St Louis are crucial for those successes. Champions find a way to win and the Whitecaps found a way on Saturday.

FINAL SCORE: Vancouver Whitecaps 3 – 2 St Louis City

ATT: 26,031

VANCOUVER: 1.Yohei Takaoka; 18.Édier Ocampo (28.Tate Johnson 86’), 12.Belal Halbouni, 33.Tristan Blackmon, 2.Mathías Laborda; 16.Sebastian Berhalter, 20.Andrés Cubas (17.Kenji Cabrera 77’); 11.Emmanuel Sabbi (6.Ralph Priso 86’), 13.Thomas Müller ©, 7.Jayden Nelson (22.Ali Ahmed 62’); 24.Brian White (14.Daniel Ríos 77’) [Substitutes not used: 32.Isaac Boehmer, 15.Sebastian Schonlau, 26.J.C. Ngando, 59.Jeevan Badwal]

ST LOUIS: 1.Roman Bürki ©; 2.Devin Padelford (91.Jaziel Orozco 65’), 5.Henry Kessler, 6.Conrad Wallem, 32.Timo Baumgarti; 7.Tomáš Ostrák (59.Mykhi Joyner 57’), 8.Chris Durkin (27.Alfredo Morales 65’), 10.Eduard Löwen; 17.Marcel Hartel, 77.Sang Bin Jeong (11.Simon Becher 83’), 9.João Klauss (12.Celio Pompeu 83’) [Substitutes not used: 39.Ben Lundt, 3.Jake-Girdwood-Reich, 14.Tomas Totland]

SCORING SUMMARY:
14’ – STL – Eduard Löwen (Conrad Wallem)
45’+4 – VAN – Brian White (penalty kick)
73’ – STL – João Klauss (Sang Bin Jeong)
79’ – VAN – Daniel Ríos (Sebastian Berhalter)
90’+14 – VAN – Thomas Müller (penalty kick)

STATS:
Possession: VAN 59.2% – STL 40.8%
Shots: VAN 22 – STL 11
Shots on Goal: VAN 8 – STL 4
Saves: VAN 2 – STL 4
Fouls: VAN 13 – STL 12
Offsides: VAN 1 – STL 1
Corners: VAN 11 – STL 1

CARDS:
69’ – VAN – Andrés Cubas

REACTION:

VANCOUVER WHITECAPS

JESPER SORENSEN

On the match:

“I think for the neutral spectator it must have been a very entertaining match. I think it was a high-paced game. We didn’t start off as well as I’d hoped, but I think overall it was a great game. In my opinion, St. Louis is way better than the points they’ve got so far this season and it’s a difficult team to play. They have some strengths, especially in the counterattacks they hit us a bit hard a couple of times. I will also say that our structure defensively was not that good in the beginning. But then we took over, and I think the last 20 minutes of the first half was very good. And then the second half we turned on the engines, and played with a force and the quality that we need, and also created the chances. Of course we should have scored and maybe got ourselves up in the game. But when it didn’t happen and we got behind, of course we couldn’t have made a better story than how it ended for ourselves.”

On what was said at halftime:

“We had a couple of video clips we showed the players of how we could change the structure in our pressing and how we could maybe have some possibilities in the build-up that could make it a little bit better. I think, in general, the last 20 minutes [of the first half] they ran a lot after the ball and that also made it easier for us in the second half to make the build-up. And then of course, the quality in the crosses, the quality in the last execution when you want to score and have to score, that was better. Of course we missed a couple of big chances that could have given us the lead in the game, and I think had we gotten that we would have maybe won more comfortably. But football is like this. It’s great, and it’s fun, and it’s sometimes a little bit too rough when you stand on the sideline, but nice outcome for us today.”

MIDFIELDER THOMAS MÜLLER

On the match:

“I think we’ve seen a lot of good things of our team, especially the way we addressed our reaction after we are down. I think in the beginning maybe we had some situations where we wanted it too much. We played a little bit too emotional sometimes with the early cross and we had too many ball losses. But I think we started to play well the last 20 to 25 minutes of the first half, we had more control, we had more corners, we sat them down more and more, and took the control of the game. It was nice for us to draw it before halftime. I have to be honest, we need too many chances to score goals, that’s what my thoughts are after these two games since I joined the team. The opponent needs maybe one or two shots for one goal – not that we’ve given it away easily – it felt very dominant. But they scored twice, so it felt a little bit awkward. We had a good effort, we had a great mentality, I think we can see that everyone is giving everything to win, and in the end it worked out in front of our fans.”

On the winning goal:

“It was an amazing moment for me, on one side, to have this pressure. Because with a pen you have a good chance to score, but what happens if you miss? You’re already writing your news ‘Thomas Müller missed a pen’. I like to have this pressure, and my teammates were cheering for me. It was a very nice feeling to score this goal in front of our fans.”

On the team:

“Since Thursday now the transfer window is closed, so now the squad is together. We have many players who have played already a very good season, we had four all-stars, or four-and-a-half. But four all-stars, that means nothing, but everything. I think these players, we want them to shine as well in the last part of the season …we can do something special, but we have to progress day-by-day, week-by-week. We have now time, three weeks [until the next match].”

STRIKER DANIEL RÍOS

On scoring off the bench:

“It’s great for any player to score on his first touch of the game. Just really happy for the team and being able to help in front of these amazing fans and to win the game.”

On getting back on the scoresheet:

“It’s a constant work during the week. I do my job with my teammates, on and off the field. Everyone knows how hard I work and how I try to help the team in every way I can.”