Report and Reaction: Goalless and meaningless – 0-0 draw in San Jose a reflection of Vancouver Whitecaps season
What could be worse than an end of season MLS game between two clubs that have already been eliminated from the playoffs? A goalless draw in the rain of course!
When you first looked at the MLS fixtures for this year, Vancouver Whitecaps end of season run-in looked tasty. Two home Cascadia Cup clashes in the last three games, and a trip to a San Jose side that would surely be battling for a top six spot. Not sure anyone thought that the Whitecaps and Earthquakes would be meeting in a meaningless match with two games of the regular season remaining.
But that’s what we got.
And to be fair, although there weren’t any goals, there were a number of chances and the first 15 minutes of the second half were at least entertaining, but with both teams shooting like they wanted to get a higher SuperDraft pick the match ended in a stalemate, leaving Vancouver still seeking their first ever win in San Jose.
Carl Robinson rang the changes, as was expected, but he also sprung a few surprises, as Fraser Aird came in at right back and Masato Kudo started up front in a 4-4-2. The biggest surprise though came in goal, with David Ousted’s four-season spanning 113 game appearance streak coming to an end and Paolo Tornaghi getting the start.
It’s been a long wait for the Italian to get a MLS start here in Vancouver. Three long seasons, with no starts in the league and limited ones in other competitions. But after making nine MLS appearances for Chicago Fire in 2012 and 2013, he’s finally got into double digits. And with Spencer Richey waiting in the wings, he made the most of the opportunity to put himself in the shop window to other teams in the league.
Any early nerves were soon gone in the sixth minute when he produced a great stop on Simon Dawkins. Three minutes later and the Italian was called into action again, diving to turn a low curler from Cordell Cato around the post.
The Whitecaps finally started to show some attack and Cristian Techera had their first shot on target in the 18th minute, although his volley lacked power and was straight at David Bingham.
The Quakes keeper was called into action a few minutes later, getting down to a low Masato Kudo shot.
Tim Parker came close to opening the scoring in the 27th minute, but his goalbound effort was blocked a few yards out by Kudo.
Both teams huffed and puffed to close out the half, with no real efforts to show for it, although Dawkins tried to go on a 43rd minute mazy but fired into the side netting.
Vancouver game out all guns blazing to start the second half, creating chance after chance in the first ten minutes.
Techera was first to try his luck with a low grasscutter, before Masato Kudo had a trio of chances that saw two saves from Bingham and one shot crash off the bar. Even Jordan Harvey got in on the act with a fierce strike that was parried by the Quakes keeper.
And then the action pretty much stopped. There were a few half chances, but neither keeper or goal were troubled all that much and the game played out to the end that in seemed inevitable and fitting.
Ah well, only 90 minutes of this season to go. Thank your chosen deity!
FINAL SCORE: San Jose Earthquakes 0 – 0 Vancouver Whitecaps
ATT: 18,000 (sure!)
SAN JOSE David Bingham; Cordell Cato (Kofi Sarkodie 79), Marvell Wynne, Victor Bernardez, Jordan Stewart; Tommy Thompson (Shea Salinas 70), Darwin Ceren, Anibal Godoy, Simon Dawkins; Chris Wondolowski, Henok Goitom (Chad Barrett 59) [Subs Not Used: Andrew Tarbell, Andres Imperiale, Alberto Quintero, Fatai Alashe]
VANCOUVER: Paolo Tornaghi; Fraser Aird, Kendall Waston, Tim Parker, Jordan Harvey; Nicolas Mezquida (Giles Barnes 63), Matias Laba, Andrew Jacobson, Cristian Techera (Marcel de Jong 73); Masato Kudo (Marco Bustos 77), Erik Hurtado [Subs Not Used: David Ousted, Jordan Smith, David Edgar, Christian Dean]
FINAL SCORE: San Jose Earthquakes 0 – 0 Vancouver Whitecaps
ATT: 18,000 (sure!)
SAN JOSE David Bingham; Cordell Cato (Kofi Sarkodie 79), Marvell Wynne, Victor Bernardez, Jordan Stewart; Tommy Thompson (Shea Salinas 70), Darwin Ceren, Anibal Godoy, Simon Dawkins; Chris Wondolowski, Henok Goitom (Chad Barrett 59) [Subs Not Used: Andrew Tarbell, Andres Imperiale, Alberto Quintero, Fatai Alashe]
VANCOUVER: Paolo Tornaghi; Fraser Aird, Kendall Waston, Tim Parker, Jordan Harvey; Nicolas Mezquida (Giles Barnes 63), Matias Laba, Andrew Jacobson, Cristian Techera (Marcel de Jong 73); Masato Kudo (Marco Bustos 77), Erik Hurtado [Subs Not Used: David Ousted, Jordan Smith, David Edgar, Christian Dean]
REACTION:
VANCOUVER WHITECAPS
CARL ROBINSON
To follow at some point!
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES
DOMINIC KINNEAR
On the first half:
“The first 30 minutes, I thought we were excellent. We should have been good for a goal. We had some good moments, really got ourselves in good positions. Quality was lacking a little bit. I’ll give credit to them, they had one spell where I think they blocked maybe three shots in a row with some good defending, but I thought the first 30 minutes we were really good and should have been good for a goal and we weren’t. We didn’t score and that’s unfortunate.”
On the Earthquakes’ finishing throughout the season:
“You look at the stats and the stats don’t lie. We haven’t scored enough goals this year. I’m not going to hide from it. We need to score more goals. We said last year that we thought we needed goals after the opening goal to put teams away. This year we lack the first goal and a lot of times in MLS, when you look at the crazy stats, the team that scores the first goal I think wins like 70 percent of the games almost, so that first goal is crucial. It’s not that we’re not trying to score. It’s just the quality in the last little bit has escaped us today and for quite a few games this year.”
On the sentiment in the locker room going into halftime scoreless:,br>
“Just frustration, not let down. Let down would be if guys weren’t trying, so for me frustration is the point of being right there. We were getting clear looks, but like I said, we just needed a little bit better of a cross, a little bit better of a run. [Earthquakes midfielder] Simon [Dawkins] had a good chance and [Vancouver Whitecaps FC goalkeeper Paolo] Tornaghi made a couple of decent saves as well, but that’s what they’re supposed to do. But not let down because I thought the guys were visibly frustrated and the one thing we said was, ‘we don’t come here losing this game’ because I think we played well enough to win it and it’s a game of two halves. Our effort and our mentality should be the same as it was in the first.”
CHRIS WONDOLOWSKI
On the season:
“We feel that we have a very strong team and we didn’t play up to our expectations. It is a very fine line in the league between winning and losing and making the playoffs or not. There is so much parity in the league, if you are not bringing it every week then its tough.”
On the first 15 minutes against Vancouver:
“We still have a lot of pride in our soccer and we wanted to come out right from the start and I think we did. It has kind of been the theme for this season. I think we played well at times, had some chances and created a lot of things, but did not quite have that final product, that final pass or that final touch. It ended up hurting us.”
DAVID BINGHAM
On frustration of missing playoffs with talented roster:
“There’s no potential about it, we have a good enough team to make the playoffs. It’s really frustrating that we’ve kind of had the season that we’ve had, especially with these players and the quality of this locker room. I think we definitely should be in the playoffs, but that’s not the situation we’re in now. We need to keep fighting and come out with a win on Sunday.”
On the goal for the season finale:
“To win. I’m here to win. I don’t like losing. We have 14 ties this year. It’s frustrating. I don’t think anyone’s more frustrated than the players in this locker room. So we have to put our heads down and go to Kansas City and get a result.”
Read Further on AFTN.ca
What could be worse than an end of season MLS game between two clubs that have already been eliminated from the playoffs? A goalless draw in the rain of course!
When you first looked at the MLS fixtures for this year, Vancouver Whitecaps end of season run-in looked tasty. Two home Cascadia Cup clashes in the last three games, and a trip to a San Jose side that would surely be battling for a top six spot. Not sure anyone thought that the Whitecaps and Earthquakes would be meeting in a meaningless match with two games of the regular season remaining.
But that’s what we got.
And to be fair, although there weren’t any goals, there were a number of chances and the first 15 minutes of the second half were at least entertaining, but with both teams shooting like they wanted to get a higher SuperDraft pick the match ended in a stalemate, leaving Vancouver still seeking their first ever win in San Jose.
Carl Robinson rang the changes, as was expected, but he also sprung a few surprises, as Fraser Aird came in at right back and Masato Kudo started up front in a 4-4-2. The biggest surprise though came in goal, with David Ousted’s four-season spanning 113 game appearance streak coming to an end and Paolo Tornaghi getting the start.
It’s been a long wait for the Italian to get a MLS start here in Vancouver. Three long seasons, with no starts in the league and limited ones in other competitions. But after making nine MLS appearances for Chicago Fire in 2012 and 2013, he’s finally got into double digits. And with Spencer Richey waiting in the wings, he made the most of the opportunity to put himself in the shop window to other teams in the league.
Any early nerves were soon gone in the sixth minute when he produced a great stop on Simon Dawkins. Three minutes later and the Italian was called into action again, diving to turn a low curler from Cordell Cato around the post.
The Whitecaps finally started to show some attack and Cristian Techera had their first shot on target in the 18th minute, although his volley lacked power and was straight at David Bingham.
The Quakes keeper was called into action a few minutes later, getting down to a low Masato Kudo shot.
Tim Parker came close to opening the scoring in the 27th minute, but his goalbound effort was blocked a few yards out by Kudo.
Both teams huffed and puffed to close out the half, with no real efforts to show for it, although Dawkins tried to go on a 43rd minute mazy but fired into the side netting.
Vancouver game out all guns blazing to start the second half, creating chance after chance in the first ten minutes.
Techera was first to try his luck with a low grasscutter, before Masato Kudo had a trio of chances that saw two saves from Bingham and one shot crash off the bar. Even Jordan Harvey got in on the act with a fierce strike that was parried by the Quakes keeper.
And then the action pretty much stopped. There were a few half chances, but neither keeper or goal were troubled all that much and the game played out to the end that in seemed inevitable and fitting.
Ah well, only 90 minutes of this season to go. Thank your chosen deity!
FINAL SCORE: San Jose Earthquakes 0 – 0 Vancouver Whitecaps
ATT: 18,000 (sure!)
SAN JOSE David Bingham; Cordell Cato (Kofi Sarkodie 79), Marvell Wynne, Victor Bernardez, Jordan Stewart; Tommy Thompson (Shea Salinas 70), Darwin Ceren, Anibal Godoy, Simon Dawkins; Chris Wondolowski, Henok Goitom (Chad Barrett 59) [Subs Not Used: Andrew Tarbell, Andres Imperiale, Alberto Quintero, Fatai Alashe]
VANCOUVER: Paolo Tornaghi; Fraser Aird, Kendall Waston, Tim Parker, Jordan Harvey; Nicolas Mezquida (Giles Barnes 63), Matias Laba, Andrew Jacobson, Cristian Techera (Marcel de Jong 73); Masato Kudo (Marco Bustos 77), Erik Hurtado [Subs Not Used: David Ousted, Jordan Smith, David Edgar, Christian Dean]
FINAL SCORE: San Jose Earthquakes 0 – 0 Vancouver Whitecaps
ATT: 18,000 (sure!)
SAN JOSE David Bingham; Cordell Cato (Kofi Sarkodie 79), Marvell Wynne, Victor Bernardez, Jordan Stewart; Tommy Thompson (Shea Salinas 70), Darwin Ceren, Anibal Godoy, Simon Dawkins; Chris Wondolowski, Henok Goitom (Chad Barrett 59) [Subs Not Used: Andrew Tarbell, Andres Imperiale, Alberto Quintero, Fatai Alashe]
VANCOUVER: Paolo Tornaghi; Fraser Aird, Kendall Waston, Tim Parker, Jordan Harvey; Nicolas Mezquida (Giles Barnes 63), Matias Laba, Andrew Jacobson, Cristian Techera (Marcel de Jong 73); Masato Kudo (Marco Bustos 77), Erik Hurtado [Subs Not Used: David Ousted, Jordan Smith, David Edgar, Christian Dean]
REACTION:
VANCOUVER WHITECAPS
CARL ROBINSON
To follow at some point!
SAN JOSE EARTHQUAKES
DOMINIC KINNEAR
On the first half:
“The first 30 minutes, I thought we were excellent. We should have been good for a goal. We had some good moments, really got ourselves in good positions. Quality was lacking a little bit. I’ll give credit to them, they had one spell where I think they blocked maybe three shots in a row with some good defending, but I thought the first 30 minutes we were really good and should have been good for a goal and we weren’t. We didn’t score and that’s unfortunate.”
On the Earthquakes’ finishing throughout the season:
“You look at the stats and the stats don’t lie. We haven’t scored enough goals this year. I’m not going to hide from it. We need to score more goals. We said last year that we thought we needed goals after the opening goal to put teams away. This year we lack the first goal and a lot of times in MLS, when you look at the crazy stats, the team that scores the first goal I think wins like 70 percent of the games almost, so that first goal is crucial. It’s not that we’re not trying to score. It’s just the quality in the last little bit has escaped us today and for quite a few games this year.”
On the sentiment in the locker room going into halftime scoreless:,br>
“Just frustration, not let down. Let down would be if guys weren’t trying, so for me frustration is the point of being right there. We were getting clear looks, but like I said, we just needed a little bit better of a cross, a little bit better of a run. [Earthquakes midfielder] Simon [Dawkins] had a good chance and [Vancouver Whitecaps FC goalkeeper Paolo] Tornaghi made a couple of decent saves as well, but that’s what they’re supposed to do. But not let down because I thought the guys were visibly frustrated and the one thing we said was, ‘we don’t come here losing this game’ because I think we played well enough to win it and it’s a game of two halves. Our effort and our mentality should be the same as it was in the first.”
CHRIS WONDOLOWSKI
On the season:
“We feel that we have a very strong team and we didn’t play up to our expectations. It is a very fine line in the league between winning and losing and making the playoffs or not. There is so much parity in the league, if you are not bringing it every week then its tough.”
On the first 15 minutes against Vancouver:
“We still have a lot of pride in our soccer and we wanted to come out right from the start and I think we did. It has kind of been the theme for this season. I think we played well at times, had some chances and created a lot of things, but did not quite have that final product, that final pass or that final touch. It ended up hurting us.”
DAVID BINGHAM
On frustration of missing playoffs with talented roster:
“There’s no potential about it, we have a good enough team to make the playoffs. It’s really frustrating that we’ve kind of had the season that we’ve had, especially with these players and the quality of this locker room. I think we definitely should be in the playoffs, but that’s not the situation we’re in now. We need to keep fighting and come out with a win on Sunday.”
On the goal for the season finale:
“To win. I’m here to win. I don’t like losing. We have 14 ties this year. It’s frustrating. I don’t think anyone’s more frustrated than the players in this locker room. So we have to put our heads down and go to Kansas City and get a result.”
Read Further on AFTN.ca
