VANCOUVER — Andrew Jacobson readily admits he’d rather be in midfield.
“It’s my whole life,” the Major League Soccer veteran said this week. “But then again, I don’t really mind playing anywhere else.”
Jacobson, in his second season with the Vancouver Whitecaps, is a player who, as coach Carl Robinson remarked, “can play anywhere.” His versatility is essential to the team right now as Robinson continues to work with a banged-up roster.
Last week, Jacobson filled in for injured central defender Kendall Waston versus FC Dallas, and with Waston out for a few weeks still, he’ll likely take on that role again as the ’Caps take on Minnesota United on Saturday.
“The game, especially in the middle positions — kind of all the way up the spine — it’s a lot more thinking than anything else,” Jacobson said of switching roles, something he’s had to do on this team a number of times. “You definitely have to shift your mindset, but the concepts are all the same.”
The soft-spoken 32-year-old has quietly been one of the team’s best, most consistent players this season. The Whitecaps (6-6-2), currently sixth in the West, are dealing with a rash of injuries, and now more than ever they will need steady contributions from their core to get them through the next few weeks.
“We’re down to the bare bones,” Robinson said.
Along with Waston, Christian Bolanos, Erik Hurtado, Nicolas Mezquida, Brett Levis, Christian Dean, David Edgar and Yordy Reyna are all sidelined with injury. With right fullback Sheanon Williams suspended by the league, rookie defender Jake Nerwinski has taken his spot. Robinson had hoped to send out a few players on loan, but had to shelve those plans while he waits for his squad to get healthier.
Facing Minnesota (5-9-2), an expansion team playing its first season in the league, means facing the unknown. The Whitecaps expect a difficult match, though it’s also hard for them to know exactly what to expect.
“They’ve got good players,” Robinson said. “I know the coach very well. He’s a super coach.”
Robinson added that his team will need to be “a little bit tidier in the final third,” and do a better job of taking its chances.
The Whitecaps haven’t had an easy time scoring from the run of play this season. Robinson acknowledged they need to do better, but emphasized that improving their work on set pieces had been a priority this season.
“We’ve worked hard on set pieces this year, because we were very low in the last two seasons on goals that we scored off set pieces, and it’s been a big factor for us, because they do win games,” he said. “Can we tidy up other areas? Yeah, of course we can.”
Minnesota is coming off a 3–2 win at home on Wednesday, which should give the team some momentum — especially after losing three straight matches — but fatigue could play a role, too.
Nerwinski, who is set to make his first consecutive appearance in the league, acknowledged that Minnesota presents a unique challenge.
“They’re a new team,” he said. “They’re fighting to get up there in the standings and they have a lot of fire power up top. So it’s going to be tough to play in there.”
Vancouver hasn’t fared so well on the road this season — it’s currently 2-4-0. Its next match will be yet another test of depth.
“When we’ve had a settled team and a fit team, we’ve been OK,” he said, assessing his team’s performance so far this season. “Now we’re picking up more injuries and there’s more call-ups that we have to deal with, so it’s important now the next three games especially, we just keep our heads down and we try and fight and scratch for everything we can, and hopefully we can come back out of that break a little bit more healthy.”
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