VANCOUVER—Following a head-turning rookie campaign last year, Vancouver Whitecaps centre back Tim Parker concedes that he’s feeling “a little bit” of pressure to meet heightened expectations as a new Major League Soccer season gets under way.
Mostly, though, the 23-year-old insists he’s more concerned with holding himself to a higher standard. After all, that’s what he did last year—working diligently and seizing every opportunity to earn minutes and impress despite joining the club as the relatively unheralded 13th overall pick of the 2015 MLS SuperDraft.
Parker was a key part of the Whitecaps’ impressive defensive unit in 2015—with 36 goals against, Vancouver finished tied for the best overall defensive record in MLS—starting 14 regular-season games, and both legs of the team’s playoff matchup versus the Portland Timbers. He scored a ridiculous goal against the Seattle Sounders in the club’s first-ever CONCACAF Champions League match, and nabbed another one in the second leg of the Amway Canadian Championship.
In sum, over the course of the year he became a core component of the Whitecaps’ successes.
Following Vancouver’s crushing loss in the MLS conference semifinals—which included the club’s first-ever MLS home playoff match—Parker returned to his hometown of Hicksville, N.Y., taking about 10 days off from training to spend time with friends and family. Before too long, though, he was back on the pitch—“getting some games in and some kick-arounds” with a few old friends from Long Island who happen to play professional soccer for a living, too.
All of Parker’s hard work continues to pay off. In January, he earned his first call-up to the U.S. national team camp ahead of friendlies against Iceland and Canada. Although Parker didn’t see any game action, the opportunity to train with the team and observe some of the veterans up close was a nice result of his standout performance in 2015.
“It was just really cool,” he told Sportsnet. “When I was in high school I was watching some of these guys play, and you grow up and you wish that you could get to that point in your career.”
“You wouldn’t expect everyone to be as welcoming as they are,” Parker added.
“Everyone’s very welcoming, and I guess it’s because everyone’s gone through that system, everyone’s been in their first camp, everyone’s been in locker rooms where they don’t really know that many people, so I think they all really know what it’s like to be the new guy, and they all want to make sure that they’re comfortable.”
It helps that having earned the call-up means there are now open lines of communication between Parker and the national team program—playing in the Olympics is, of course, on his list of goals.
“You can reach out to them and ask them questions, and how you’re doing,” he said. “And they can obviously reach out to you and let you know how your last game was, or what they expect of you for the coming weeks.”
As he continues to develop, Parker is focused on finessing his defensive footwork, and aiming for cleaner possessions and quicker decision-making. If he’s heading into the season facing increased expectations, so is his team. After a third-place finish in the overall standings last year, the Whitecaps now have more depth thanks to a number of off-season acquisitions: strikers Masato Kudo, who arrives from the Japanese league, and Blas Perez, an MLS veteran (and longtime Whitecaps foe) traded from FC Dallas.
Coach Carl Robinson also added Costa Rican midfielder Christina Bolanos and Canadian defender Fraser Aird—and on top of all the additions, a number of young, homegrown players such as 19-year-old Kianz Froese are starting to knock on the door.
That increased depth means the fan base will be hungry for even better results this year.
“There’s going to be battles every day for spots,” Parker said. “I think it’s gonna be really important for us all, every day, to keep pushing each other.”
The squad will need to push each other as they get set to host the Montreal Impact on Sunday at BC Place for the season opener. The Impact likewise made it as far as the MLS conference semifinals last year, but they’ll be without turf-averse star Didier Drogba for this match.
Vancouver will want to set the tone with a decisive win. As expectations are raised at BC Place, where the seating capacity was increased this season thanks to the team’s growing popularity in the city, they’ll need to show they can handle the pressure—whether they’re feeling a little bit, or a lot.
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