Coming off a disappointing playoff exit last season to eventual MLS champion Los Angeles Galaxy, the Vancouver Whitecaps are looking to make the leap from fringe challengers to legitimate contenders in 2013.
So far, the team is off to a respectable 2-2-2 start.
Like many teams in MLS, the Whitecaps’ roster underwent some big changes in the off-season, with key additions made in midfielders Daigo Kobayashi and Nigel Reo-Coker. For Vancouver, adding such players to revamp in the centre of the park should be a sure thing. But then again, adding players with pedigrees in other countries remains a bit of a crap-shoot in MLS. For every diamond-in-the-rough such as Jairo Arrieta and Federico Higuain (both with the Columbus Crew), there are seemingly just as many high-priced failures.
Though Reo-Coker certainly comes with a lot more name recognition, Kobayashi is quickly earning some fans on the west coast, starting every game this season for the Whitecaps. Now, it’s still very early and the sample size is far too small to draw any definitive conclusions from these numbers, but a couple of elements of Kobayashi’s game stand out as we take a quick look at what he’s been able to accomplish so far:
Kobayashi has, to this point, been a good crosser of the ball – he’s found a recipient on eight of his 20 attempts through the first six games of the season. That’s good for a 40 per cent success rate, quite a good number for MLS.
Up until the last couple of weeks, Kobayashi’s impact on each game and total touches was consistent. Take a look at his passing stats: in game one, he attempted 32 passes; in game two, 34; in game three, 36; in game four, 40. Though the trend has not quite held up in the past couple of weeks (he was uncharacteristically invisible in Vancouver’s draw with Real Salt Lake last weekend), Kobayashi’s 80 per cent rate of successful passes bodes well for his future in MLS, where players with good technical ability are becoming more important part of the league as years go on.
Although the drop-off in recent weeks might be slightly worrying, coach Martin Rennie continues to tinker with different lineups and formations, so expect Kobayashi to assert his place in an attacking midfield roll as the season winds on.
Kobayashi can draw contact and fouls with his creativity, and must continue to do so to be effective in an attacking midfield role. Again, the last couple of weeks have not been as effective for Kobayashi in this regard, but he’s shown that he at least has the potential to cause headaches for defenders with this aspect of his game.
Reo-Coker, the veteran English midfielder with several years of top-flight experience under his belt, was the Whitecaps’ other big off-season addition. Here’s what we’ve learned about the 29-year-old native of South London during his limited time in Canada thus far:
He is an excellent ball winner. The Opta stats from which these observations are compiled define a recovery as “where a player wins back the ball when it has gone loose or where the ball has been played directly to him.” Using this metric, Reo-Coker is in the company of a few players considered among the elite defensive-minded ball-winning midfielders in MLS, as illustrated below:
Reo-Coker has seemingly taken to the physical style of soccer in North America, getting involved in a significant number of foul calls on both sides of the ball. He tends to be a bit reckless in terms of fouling, and is sure to commit far more fouls than he wins for the Whitecaps. This would be consistent with his performance in recent years overseas:
And again, we’ll bring in our comparable holding midfielder players to provide a look at how this stacks up in the North American context:
It’s clear that Reo-Coker is drawing contact with the best of them amongst those players who are being asked to play a similar role in the league, but you pretty much know what you’re getting with the Englishman: he’ll draw contact, but he’s always likely to give away more restarts than he draws.
The Whitecaps still seem to be a team that’s finding their identity, with Rennie seemingly willing to tinker with his squad until he gets it right. But with a decent core in place from last season, Kobayashi and Reo-Coker look, so far, to be solid additions.
If Vancouver is able to build on last season’s playoff appearance and make a deeper run towards the MLS Cup this year, expect Kobayashi and Reo-Coker to play a major role in their success.