Three Strikes: Not Out

No wins, no draws, three losses, one optimist.

Courtesy of whitecapsfc.com

As usual, my mood has been dictated by whether or not my beloved Whitecaps are winning. A win, and I’m skipping past the crowds, whistling dixie on the way to my car parked by Olympic Village. A loss? I’ll let Robert Downey Jr’s performance in Elton John’s “I Want Love” paint a picture:

Here’s a look at me arriving at my front door:

Yes, that video exists. And yes, so does that feeling after a Whitecaps loss. It always has, and always will. But this year after I’m done sulking, there’s a new feeling: optimism. While there are plenty of issues to point out in terms of how we’ve been playing, mistakes we’ve been making, calls that have gone against us etc. There’s also reason to believe that we’ll get better. Hell, we’ll probably end up being very good!

This time around, I’m going to go over the areas that will improve over time, and how we’ll accomplish that. As always, I’ll keep it positive for you folks. That means no more Robert Downey Jr Gifs. Okay one more, but that’s it. I call this one “Caps fan after our second VAR letdown in as many games”

Someone give this man a HUG.

Offense Wins games, Defense wins championships

Okay, let’s talk about our defense, as that seems to be the part that we’re panicking over. Opposing teams are getting behind us, and drawing contact (we’ll call it that for the sake of my argument please and thank you) or simply scoring. That’s all true, but so too is the fact that we haven’t had an actual left back on our roster. Let’s go on a journey for a moment: in 2013, a basketball player named Kobe Bryant ruptured his Achilles tendon and missed over 8 months of action. On his 5th game back, he injured his knee on the same leg. Dr. David Geier, an orthopaedic surgeon said that “it’s not unreasonable to think that just in general with athletes that if you’re recovering from one injury, the muscles around that joint in the rest of that lower extremity still haven’t fully recovered, and so you’re subject to another injury”. Our left back position has ruptured its proverbial Achilles, and the rest of our back line is looking a bit susceptible itself. Restore balance to that position, and suddenly teams will have to approach their attack differently. I think in the next set of games with Adnan, we’ll see far fewer runs in behind, better backtracking on runs in the box, and the turf on the left side of the field will be thankful for the reprieve.

Midfield Play

This one is fairly simple: it is imperative that our 3 in midfield play well together. Here’s an example of where we were at against Minnesota:

Hwang made a run, but that was it. Nobody came in to support and we kicked it away.

We’ve been seeing incrementally better interplay between our midfield three since that first game. Here’s an example of a few quick passes to exit our zone against RSL:

Nothing extraordinary, but it shows a bit of growth in terms of chemistry. And with a midfield that can regularly string passes together, suddenly our wingers have more space, with fewer defenders getting in their way. Look for more quick passing in midfield over the next batch of games.

Stop the Press (Kinda)

Coming into the season I think it was expected that we’d be rushing the other team with so much pressure the Prime Minister’s office would be jealous (it took me three posts to really nail a political joke. Good to be here). I covered our defensive scheme in my first blog here. It looks like it’s going to be more of an opportunistic press. We seem to be slowly closing in on the ball, waiting to pounce at the right time. Though it hasn’t been the most successful, it’s a system that relies on being on the same page. If a player isn’t in the right spot, suddenly a lane has been opened up, and we’ve been exposed. Looks for more turnovers to be created as everyone gets to know each other a little bit better.

Rapid Fire Optimism

Bangoura’s goal was a great example of him creating his own shot (humble brag for a correct prediction). Until we start clicking, that will be very important

Erice is so smooth, man.

Godoy and Henry have been awesome. I’m not feeling nervous when they have the ball, either.

Hwang is very good at soccer.

Ardaiz has so far added quite a bit when he’s been involved — I’d like to see him get a start soon

I’m starting to think Teibert will be a great addition to our midfield?

In all, it’s been a bit of a tough start to the season, but I’d say there’s plenty to look forward to. Although I am sad that our prodigal son won’t be returning to us on Sunday against French Guiana. I was really looking forward to seeing the face of Canadian soccer. That’s right, I mean this guy:

Until next time, folks.