VANCOUVER—Shortly before the start of their Friday afternoon training session, the Vancouver Whitecaps gathered in a huddle and performed a little group cheer. They were welcoming their newest member, 15-year-old winger/forward Alphonso Davies, whose signing with the team had been announced earlier in the day.
Davies, who was born in Liberia, grew up in Edmonton and joined the Whitecaps’ residency program in August 2015, is now the third-youngest player ever to sign a Major League Soccer contract, and the youngest active player in the league.
The signing is well-timed: with the deal—which is guaranteed through 2018, with options for 2019 and 2020—Davies is eligible to play on Saturday, when the Whitecaps will host Orlando City at BC Place.
“It’s an important step for us as a club,” said Whitecaps coach Carl Robinson of Davies’s arrival. “Obviously the boy deserves the next transition.”
Robinson, who has noted repeatedly the importance of not overhyping the teenage phenom, said that Davies’s introduction to MLS play would be a careful process. He’s wary of overcoaching him, saying he hoped to let Davies “play free” and reminding the group of reporters who’d arrived to watch the youngster’s first practice as an MLS player that “you’ve got to let him be a kid.”
Saturday’s match could be an opportune time to give Davies a taste of MLS action. Orlando arrived in Vancouver missing several key players, whether to injury—as is the case with Kaka (calf)—or suspension—as is the case with Brek Shea (yellow card accumulation). But Robinson knows that nothing is guaranteed.
“They’re a good team,” Robinson said. “They’ve got good players. They’ve got a couple of injuries, which we know, but I think if you go through all the rosters in MLS, all the teams, we’re all dealing with injuries.”
Robinson added that the Whitecaps, who defeated Real Salt Lake 2–0 on Wednesday, aren’t taking the game lightly. “We know it’s the next big game for us,” he said. “And if we focus on ourselves, and how well we can play, after Wednesday, then we should be OK.”
Perhaps the biggest challenge will be figuring out how to handle Canadian striker Cyle Larin, who earned MLS rookie of the year honours with Orlando in 2015, and who boasts eight goals so far in his campaign.
Larin, the first pick in the 2015 MLS SuperDraft, knows BC Place well. On Friday, he said “it feels good” to be back in Vancouver, calling it “close to home, but not too close.”
While Larin has played a pair of World Cup qualifiers at BC Place in front of a robust crowd of Canadian supporters, Saturday’s match will mark his first time playing at the stadium without the home crowd behind him. The 21-year-old Brampton, Ont., native isn’t worried about coming in as the enemy, though.
“It’s the same thing when I go to Toronto and play,” he explained. “I know a lot of the Canadian fans are there, but they’re cheering for the home team. But I think we just come here tomorrow and play our game.”
Larin also happens to be well acquainted with a few players on the Whitecaps roster, including David Edgar and Marcel de Jong, both of whom signed with the team earlier this week. All have played together on the national squad. And while Edgar is likely to sit out this match—he’s still in pre-season form, having been released from Birmingham City in May—de Jong is likely to feature in the game.
“I think it’s good for Canadians to be in this league, and it’s growing,” Larin said of their arrival with the club. “You can see more and more Canadians are coming.”
Asked for his scouting report on de Jong, who could slot in at left fullback if Robinson wants to give Jordan Harvey some rest (de Jong made an appearance on Wednesday in midfield), Larin flashed a huge grin.
“I know how he plays, so that’s the most important [part],” he said, adding: “I’ve seen him play every day in training, when we’re with the Canada team, so I’ll tell my teammates some pointers.”
While Larin is a speedy force with a nose for goal, the Whitecaps showed in their last match that they’re able to get back to basics on the defensive end, earning a clean sheet in an MLS match for the first time since April 23.
The team will need to build on Wednesday’s success. As Robinson has stated repeatedly, the Whitecaps need to be better at home if they’re going to have a shot at success as the season stretches on. They’ll be disappointed, then, if they don’t pocket three points on Saturday.
With winger/forward Kekuta Manneh out for the next eight to 10 weeks—the 21-year-old underwent surgery on Friday to repair a fractured fifth metatarsal—the team will be hoping for an offensive spark from Erik Hurtado, veteran Blas Perez, and Masato Kudo, who made his first appearance in more than two months on Wednesday after suffering a broken jaw.
In other words, there’s room for Davies to make his mark.
“It’s going to be hard work for him,” Robinson said, pointing out that Davies will need to prove himself like everyone else. “We’ve got a quality group of players here. He’s fighting for places, he’s fighting for playing time. Now he’s with the big boys.”
