Darren Mattocks heads a ball against Chivas USA (sporttopix.com)
I was really impressed with the way the Vancouver Whitecaps took apart the defending Supporter's Shield winners, the New York Red Bulls, last week up at BC Place. Kekuta Manneh and new signing Sebastian Fernandez has Caps fans, and me, asking "Camilo who?" Well, after last night's outing against Chivas USA, one has to wonder if that first match was a bit of a fluke since Red Bulls were missing Thierry Henry and Jamison Olave, among others.
The match began rather sluggishly at Stub Hub Center, with neither side looking as though they wanted to put out much effort or creativity in what was an unseasonably warm day in SoCal. I know this because the announcers mentioned it probably twenty thousand times in the first 10 minutes.
The first event of note came in the 13th minute, and it seemingly spelled disaster for the Goats. Augustin Pelletieri went in for a hard challenge on Vancouver's Pedro Morales. As he continued through the challenge, he came down on Morales's ankle, and the referee showed the Chivas midfielder a straight red card. I suppose by the letter of the law it was a good call, but it seemed rather harsh to me at the time. At any rate it was dumb challenge for Pelletieri to make so early in the match with absolutely nothing going on offensively for either side.
So now that the Caps had a man advantage I got excited and thought that now I was going to see that same awesome football that I saw last week in Vancouver. I was disappointed, though hey, Chivas played pretty well. You couldn't tell that they were down a man as Vancouver just refused to press the issue.
Still even the Goats couldn't manage anything but blocked shots, and Vancouver couldn't manage a shot at all in the entire first half. Then in the 45th minute, the scales tipped in favor of the Goats. Mauro Rosales threaded a ball into the area where Chivas forward Erik Torres was waiting. Torres fired off a shot, and it took a tricky deflection off of 'Caps defender Jay DeMerit and into the goal to make it 1-0 to Chivas heading into the break. DeMerit joked afterward, via Twitter, that at least his ass scored it's first goal of the season.
Things didn't look any better for the Whitecaps at the start of the second half either. The adjustments that were needed seemed clear, but didn't seem like they were taking place. Chivas stayed organized on defense and continued to outwork the listless Whitecaps on offense. In the 52nd minute Leandro Barrera shot forward on a counter and looked to have a sure fire second goal for the Goats. However, 'keeper Pat Ousted made a nice save, getting a hand to it and knocking it wide for a corner.
Finally the 'Caps made some good hay starting at the hour mark with the insertion of Manneh into the match. He immediately brought the energy that the Caps had been lacking, and started opening up the match for others as well. In the 61st minute Morales sprayed a shot just wide of goal and then in the 66th Darren Mattocks knocked the ball past Dan Kennedy, who had come out to the top of the area to claim it, and sent it rolling toward the goal line. However, he couldn't get much power on it and a Chivas defender came and poked the ball out of harm's way.
But the 'Caps kept up the pressure and finally came good in the 81st minute. Mattocks had the ball on the left side of the box, and dropped a nice centering pass to Manneh near the penalty spot. The Gambian promptly slotted the ball past Kennedy in goal to tie the match at 1-1, which was the score at the full time whistle.
You have to feel a bit for Chivas in this one. I thought they really deserved all three points. They played with a grit and spirit that hasn't always been there for a franchise that has been considered the doormat of the west. I'm not sure that's gonna happen this year, especially if they can hang onto Torres all season. They really played a solid match.
On the other hand, it's hard for me to say that the 'Caps really deserved the point that they got. Their performance was woeful for the first 60 minutes, 47 of which were played with a man advantage. The bright spot for Vancouver was definitely Manneh. He showed some real chemistry with Mattocks in the 2nd half, and that's really good news for 'Caps fans. Now they just have to pray that their club can gain some consistency to keep pace in a loaded Western Conference.
Next week the 'Caps travel to New England to take on a Revs squad that has looked miserable to open the season. Chivas USA will travel to Frisco, Texas, to take on FC Dallas.
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