VANCOUVER—After winning three consecutive matches in an inspired eight-day span, the Vancouver Whitecaps are feeling good—and, maybe more than ever, feeling confident.
“It’s easy to play when you win,” captain Pedro Morales said after a team practice at UBC this week, acknowledging that the mood across the club has been lifted as the team has been seeing better results of late.
The Whitecaps’ last win in particular was extremely hard-fought—the team led Toronto FC 2–0, only to see the Reds claw their way back to even the game. Vancouver kept pushing, though, and despite a nail-biter of a finish that saw them go down a man after Fraser Aird earned his second yellow of the match, they held on to win 4–3.
Morales called last weekend’s victory in Toronto “very important for the team,” noting that if they can put up that type of performance in every game, they should fare well as the season progresses.
In soccer, though—and in Major League Soccer especially—blink for a second and the narrative will have changed entirely. The Whitecaps are readying themselves for a matchup with the Portland Timbers on Sunday, the team they beat at BC Place to kick start their win streak. Vancouver will want to keep that run going with a positive result—to build momentum, especially with a busy summer schedule approaching.
The Timbers, meanwhile, are coming off three losses in a row. They’ve been on a run of bad luck, with striker Fanendo Adi, midfielder Diego Chara and former Whitecap Darren Mattocks all suffering from injuries (not to mention goalkeeper Adam Kwarasey, who has been out of action since April 16). But the expected storyline—one about an imbalanced matchup, with a surging team going up against a slumping team—crumbles when it comes to Cascadia Cup matches.
“Makes no difference,” Whitecaps coach Carl Robinson said of Portland’s recent losing record. “Derby days, everything goes out the window.”
Robinson has a tough task in selecting his starting XI after a number of players over the past three games have stepped up. But as problems go, it’s not a bad one to have. “You want to have choices at certain positions,” Robinson said.
“Everybody wants to play this game,” said Kekuta Manneh, who’s been on quite the tear himself, scoring two goals in the win over TFC. Manneh remarked that the training sessions this week were especially intense—a good sign, particularly since the team will be down a few players in the weeks to come.
The Whitecaps are already without Japanese striker Masato Kudo, who suffered a fractured jaw in his team’s win over Chicago Fire—the result of a horrific collision with goalkeeper Matt Lampson. Octavio Rivero, meanwhile, has been nursing a left ankle sprain.
The team will soon be losing central defender Kendall Waston and midfielder Christian Bolanos, who were named to Costa Rica’s squad ahead of the Copa America tournament in June. Waston said Friday that the national team was in talks with the Whitecaps to determine whether he and Bolanos would join Costa Rica’s training camp after the match in Portland, or whether they will wait until after Vancouver’s next home game, when they host the Houston Dynamo on May 28.
Losing both those players will be a blow—perhaps especially Bolanos, who has found his form recently. In the last five matches, the 32-year-old has four goals and an assist.
Blas Perez—who scored an insane, multiple-replay-worthy bicycle kick game-winner in Vancouver’s victory over Chicago—will also soon leave for international duty. He’ll be at the Copa America, representing Panama.
But Waston, Bolanos and Perez aren’t gone just yet. Right now, everyone’s focus is on the match in Portland. Waston, for one, is ready for a battle. He likened these rivalry games to a kind of war—and it’s one Vancouver is currently winning (the team leads the Cascadia Cup standings with six points).
“They’re gonna press us,” said the towering defender, explaining that the Timbers will likely come out aggressively on attack in search of a quick goal. Portland will have the home crowd on their side, too, though Waston said his team is used to that environment.
“Each game that you’re involved in can go either way. It’s fine lines,” Robinson said, recognizing how parity in the league can lead to ups and downs over an MLS campaign. “We had a positive week. We won’t get carried away.”
Robinson called Sunday’s match “a massive game,” saying it would be difficult—though the 39-year-old coach has a habit of saying that about every game. It will never be easy, even when everyone’s confidence is up, and everyone’s hoping things can stay exactly as they are.
“Everybody’s feeling really good,” Manneh said—he explained that the team spent some time together at the beach earlier in the week, and their bond was as strong as ever. “We just want to stay in that place, and not go back to the start of the season.”
Central defender Pa-Modou Kah, who’s been in this game a long time—and who used to play for Portland—agreed that, yes, the Whitecaps are a confident bunch—though he said that confidence had always been there. When asked about the Whitecaps’ rivalry with the Timbers, though, Kah was quick to point out that Vancouver’s come-from-behind win two weeks ago isn’t going to do anything for the group as they prepare for a rematch with Portland.
“That’s two games ago,” Kah said. “So it doesn’t count in football. The only game that counts is the one coming up.”
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