Posted by

Jake Vendramin ,

April 22, 2013 Email

Jake Vendramin



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Vancouver were back on the road on Saturday for a match against FC Dallas. The team struggled mightily and exhibited multiple things that are going to need to be remedied in order right the Whitecaps ship.



The Good

Once again, Joe Cannon is one of the only good things to pull away from a Whitecaps match. The score line could have been much higher if a keeper of lesser ability was in goal for Vancouver. Cannon was really put to the test on Saturday because his defenders gave the FC Dallas players far too much time to shoot and did not close them down quick enough. Joe was forced to make numerous saves and ultimately kept his side in the game. Joe Cannon deserves to be the most frustrated played on the team because he has been delivering all these man of the match performances and the players in front of him cannot match what he has been bringing to the proceedings. Both Dallas goals had nothing to do with the play of Cannon and everything to do with the Caps defending. So hats off to Joe for another brilliant performance.



The Bad

The Whitecaps gave away possession an uncountable amount of times in this match and it was one of their major downfalls as well. The Caps would keep possession brilliantly for a while and then all of a sudden, someone would have a mental-lapse and give it away for no reason. At the beginning of last year's season the Whitecaps were easily one of the top teams in the league in keeping possession. That may have to do with the fact Davide Chiumiento was in the squad at that time but now he's been replaced with Nigel Reo-Coker who is equally capable. The Whitecaps should be able to keep possession easily with the players they have but something is holding them back and it may be the inexperienced players in the team.



The starting lineup that Martin Rennie fielded against FC Dallas decreased the Whitecaps chances right from the beginning. I understand Darren Mattocks and Gershon Koffie needed a bit of a reality check by being benched for a while but, in all honesty, I think they've learned their lesson by now. Someone who hasn't learned his lesson yet is Coach Rennie, who has continually put out weaker and weaker lineups every match. He has been unable to figure out what the strongest starting eleven is while every Whitecaps fan can see it clearly, which makes it all the more confusing. Maybe Rennie is only trying to spread out the playing minutes but, as it stands, now is not the time. Instead of putting Watson, Heinemann and Hurtado in the lineup, we should be seeing the likes of Koffie, Mattocks and especially Camilo. Speaking for myself and many others, another player who should be a starter is Johnny Leverón, who is the captain of the Honduran national team and surely a better defender than Brad Rusin.



The Ugly

By far the ugliest thing about Saturday's match against FC Dallas was the defending. Let's begin with the first Dallas goal. The Whitecaps have been guilty of criminal defending in almost every match so far this season and what happened against Dallas on the weekend is, and always will be, the result. Four of the last seven goals the Whitecaps have conceded, going back to the Houston match, have been off crosses and set pieces. The first Dallas goal was the worst one of them all. If Brad Rusin could have done something as simple as face in the right direction then it could have been easily prevented. The first goal came from a corner and there was a reason why the Caps kept giving away so many of these set pieces. When a Dallas player had the ball in shooting range, the Whitecaps defenders would constantly give him excessive amounts of space. Because of this, they would have a free shot and the Caps defenders were forced to throw themselves at the strike to block it or deflect it, resulting in the 8 FC Dallas corner kicks.



A few of the Whitecaps players had absolute shocking performances in this match as well. These players include Tommy Heinemann, Brad Rusin and especially Erik Hurtado. Rusin had his worst performance of the season so far and he even scored an own goal to make matters worse. I will not be surprised to see Johnny Leverón taking his position over in the near future. Hurtado was the worst player on the pitch against FC Dallas in my opinion. His touch let him and the rest of the team down on numerous occasions. Often times I just find that he is far too naïve and inexperienced to be getting so much playing time this early in his career. I would prefer to see Camilo in his position starting on Wednesday against FC Edmonton.