Go Young, Whitecaps!

The sense of panic endemic to Whitecaps fans intensified today when it came out that Toronto FC was signing half of the players in the universe. Jermain Defoe on the way, Michael Bradley allegedly close… I’m not planning to go over all this, consult a TFC blog if you like, the point is that Whitecaps fans, a nervy lot at the best of times, see a rival loading up at a time when their team is quiet and their own psyches very fragile and have been audibly concerned. Click on the Southsiders Facebook page sometime. Better, don’t.

As somebody who wants the Whitecaps to win I myself worry about last year’s non-winning team having not being upgraded. I like championships; I would enjoy see the Whitecaps getting one (it’s been five years since the last; an eternity in Whitecaps terms). It’s January, too early to panic but late enough to fidget. The defense needs work, the midfield needs creativity, and without Camilo the attack seems only adequate. Then I got to thinking: why shouldn’t the Whitecaps build from within? I watch Whitecaps Residency games whenever they’re in town and I’ve been very pleased by many of those youngsters. These are players who deserve professional contracts. A number have already distinguished themselves at the USL PDL or MLS Reserves levels. Yet there is little consideration given to letting them carry the mail: putting the future of the Whitecaps into the hands of the ostensible future of the Whitecaps.

To hell with that. Carl Robinson has a reputation for nurturing youth players; let’s put that into practice. Let’s have the Whitecaps sign no fewer than five Residency graduates this offseason: goalkeeper Marco Carducci, centre back Jackson Farmer, midfielders Marco Bustos and Kianz Froese, and winger/forward Ben Fisk. Add them to Residency alumni Sam Adekugbe, Bryce Alderson, Russell Teibert, and Caleb Clarke already on the first team, and go for it.

Madness? I don’t think so. With Nigel Reo-Coker, Kenny Miller, and Andy O’Brien, the Whitecaps have a commendable veteran spine. David Ousted, while not the goalkeeper I picked, is probably fine and has experience behind young, defensively-questionable teams. And when you look at the cream of the Whitecaps youth program, you see players who have already gotten results against grown men, who have clearly graduated beyond the youth level and who only need of that opportunity to do their best for the first team. I say, give it to them.

David Ousted veteran? Johnny Leveron Andy O’Brien Sam Adekugbe

Nigel Reo-Coker Ben Fisk Russell Teibert Marco Bustos Kenny Miller Kekuta Manneh Bench: veteran GK, Jordan Harvey, Carlyle Mitchell, Bryce Alderson, Gershon Koffie, Matt Watson, Darren Mattocks

When you actually sit down and look at it, it’s not bad. There are relatively few question marks. We’re searching for a starter at right back and, in fact, building that entire position more-or-less from scratch, but the Whitecaps will face that problem no matter what strategy they adopt. Bustos has been successful with the MLS Reserves and brings the creativity and attacking élan we haven’t seen since Davide Chiumiento left: spell him with Alderson and Koffie in situations where you need less gung-ho attack and more sober responsibility. Ben Fisk played very well with USL Pro Charleston last year when healthy, scoring two goals and three assists in fewer than 300 minutes. Adekugbe got his name on the casual fan’s radar with a great game in the MLS season finale, but nobody who watched the Residency regularly for the past couple years was surprised. Between Manneh and Bustos, your attack will never want ideas and the players will be able to express themselves. The midfield isn’t very tough but it sure is flashy, and the defenders offer an intriguing mix of styles plus whatever our mystery right back brings.

Here’s the depth chart of the full hypothetical team, in list form. Starters in italics.

Goal: David Ousted, veteran, Marco Carducci

Fullbacks: Sam Adekugbe, veteran RB, Jordan Harvey, project RB.

Central defenders: Andy O’Brien, Johnny Leveron, Carlyle Mitchell, veteran, Jackson Farmer

Central/holding midfielders: Nigel Reo-Coker, Bryce Alderson, Gershon Koffie, Kianz Froese, Aminu Abdallah

Wingers: Russell Teibert, Ben Fisk, Matt Watson, Erik Hurtado

Attacking midfielders: Marco Bustos, project

Forwards: Kenny Miller, Kekuta Manneh, Darren Mattocks, Omar Salgado, Tom Heinemann, Caleb Clarke

That’s 29 out of 30 roster spots. Leave the last empty for the allocation money or toss it to a target of opportunity; for legal reasons we might need it open anyway on the pretense Camilo belongs to us, we can’t know how that will work. I imagine Clarke would be loaned out again or stay on loan since the forward lineup is imposing if Salgado is alive. My suggestions to fill the holes we have include Brett Levis (great PDL season with Victoria, had a trial with the Whitecaps last year, could slot in as that attacking mid and play some wing/forward as needed), Antonio Rago (if the Whitecaps get a dandy RB who won’t need much support, then ex-FC Edmonton and Whitecaps Residency RB Rago is just the guy I want coming off the bench and getting minutes), Wes Knight (if the Whitecaps don’t get that dandy RB and your project rightback has to be able to start Knight’s my pick: the question mark with him is the broken foot he suffered with Edmonton last year but he looked good when healthy), and whoever in goal; you can find backup keepers in dumpsters on the street with cardboard signs that say “WILL PROVIDE REPLACEMENT-LEVEL GOALKEEPING FOR FOOD”. Pity we let Simon Thomas go; this was his hour. Fuck it, let’s bring Simon back; it’s too early for Marco, he should be playing fulltime somewhere and MLS backups can’t really do that. For the starting right back Nik Ledgerwood would be a kinky, though probably overambitious, signing.

This is also without using a single Superdraft pick, you’ll notice. I am not an NCAA guru and am reluctant to say what we should do with those picks: you’ll notice holes at right back and in goal, and fullback Eric Miller and goalkeeper Andre Blake are highly touted. I’m against taking Blake, because he’s too inexperienced to be a backup and if we’re developing a goalkeeper let’s make it Carducci, and also because goalkeepers tend to fetch less value when moved in MLS. If young Miller is as good as he’s cracked up to be I wouldn’t mind him as a platoon RB option.

Firstly, this team would be entertaining as hell. You’ve got Bustos, Fisk, Teibert, and Manneh as starters-presumptive charging into every breach. Adekugbe can be a very lively left back when he wants to be one. Plenty of individual skill, Whitecaps trying to beat their markers, going for the audacious killer pass. And of course they’d be young Canadian kids, developed right here in Vancouver, literally living the dream, a hell of a good time even in a losing cause. And you might be surprised how competitive those young players would be. Like I said, there’s real talent there, and everybody in the eighteen has at least begun to prove themselves against men.

Secondly, it would leave flexibility. Sign a bunch of kids on the cheap and you have the money to resign Reo-Coker in 2015, or keep Miller through the end of 2014 (and he is one guy this lineup would have a really hard time replacing; the same was true of the 2013 Whitecaps). If the team does as well as we hope and you need that one special player to push them over the edge, you can go get that player. Flexibility is a good thing; it means wins in the hand, it lets you cover for that crisis or fill that one last hole. If the Whitecaps wanted to be really audacious, and if I were them I would, they could move some of their SuperDraft picks for future assets like allocation or picks in later seasons, to increase their flexibility still further. Why not? You’ve got all the prospects you can handle through the Residency!

Thirdly, it gives you a nucleus you can keep together for a few seasons, which should be just what you want. Let’s see the Whitecaps embrace a long-term strategy. Vancouver fans aren’t stupid. There’s an NHL team in town, they know what rebuilding is. If the Whitecaps come out and sell this as a long-term strategy that’ll be fun as flaming cat shit to watch from day one and will lead to wins by day 400, people will understand that. (It’s trying to justify a losing season as “rebuilding” after the fact that causes problems.) It’ll be legit, too: of the players in the eighteen only Miller and O’Brien are on the wrong end of 30. Adekugbe, Manneh, Alderson, and Bustos are all ’94s or later, Fisk and Salgado are ’93s, and Teibert a very late ’92.

So would this team win games immediately? Of course not, don’t be stupid. That defense would get ripped to pieces by any team in the playoff chase. O’Brien is very good but probably won’t play 2,000 minutes, Leveron is fun to watch with the ball at his feet but gets brain farts, and we’re probably talking about two fullbacks trying to prove themselves, although the upgrade from Harvey to Adekugbe would help. Of the midfielders, Fisk and Bustos would be in for a tough education about MLS defensive responsibilities and Teibert is no great guns. There would be bad times. (But there were bad times with last year’s defense too, and that was a fun team to watch.) Offensively the team would score a few goals through Manneh and Mattocks, Miller would open up a lot of space when healthy that would help our young players generate offense, and the team would be reasonably successful. But I don’t think it adds up to a playoff berth.

Yet there is no individual where you can say “he’s not good enough”, and if you’re good enough you’re old enough. The problem is one of team inexperience and time is the sure cure. Not only would these Whitecaps be a parcel full of fireworks in their first season, but by 2015 the kids would have learned, the hard way in some cases, where their weaknesses were and made strides in improving them. We also would have seen which of these players weren’t as good as we hoped (for there always will be some, alas) and be in a position to buy veterans or sign newer recruits with confidence. The 2015 Whitecaps, in this model, would be very interesting.

The downside is that, while the 2014 season would be tremendously exciting, a sight to warm the hearts of any Vancouver soccer fan, and a return to the Whitecaps halcyon days when the team was filled with locally-developed players and Canadians and viewed trophies as their right, they probably wouldn’t make the playoffs this year. Oh well. Better than loading up with a bunch of Americans, spending the Kerfoots’ inheritance on an overhyped European designated player, and not making the playoffs anyway.