Whitecaps head to Sporting Kansas City looking to remedy their road fortunes

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The sacrifice of a goat, while it works in Turkey — just ask Tosaint Ricketts, if you get the chance — would likely be frowned upon in Canada. Perhaps some holy water or smudging by a First Nations elder would be a more appropriate purgation.

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However it may be conducted, the curse bewitching the Vancouver Whitecaps needs to be lifted.

Russell Teibert was added to the injury list on Wednesday after an eye injury knocked him from the Canadian Championship game against Cavalry FC in Calgary. Ryan Gauld had to leave that one early, too, with a hamstring injury. Striker Brian White still hasn’t cleared health and safety protocols, and is doubtful for Saturday’s game against Sporting Kansas City.

Neither Tristan Blackmon’s knee nor Thomas Hasal’s fingers are fit enough for game duty, and newcomer Andres Cubas won’t be in Vancouver until after his international duties with Paraguay at the soonest.

“I consider myself a very science-based person, so probably we should do a different thing,” coach Vanni Sartini said with a laugh, when asked about conducting a cleansing ceremony.

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“But if anyone has any ideas to block this kind of unluckiness…”

NEXT GAME

saturday

Vancouver Whitecaps (3-7-2, 14th West) vs. Sporting KC (3-7-4, 13th West)

6pm, Children’s Mercy Park. TV: TSN. Radio: AM 730.

The partnership of Gauld and White last year was one of the key factors in the team’s playoff run. This year, they’ve started together in just four games, going the distance only once.

“We had a lot of injuries and also we have the same players injured multiple times,” Sartini added. “The key of our success last year was the togetherness, the collective, the organization, but also Brian and Ryan. That was a big thing.”

At least the COVID outbreak that forced the Caps — short 11 players — to make an emergency signing and give a start to an untested academy goalkeeper last week has been abated, allowing Cody Cropper, Isaac Boehmer and Pedro Vite to return to the lineup.

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The Whitecaps (3-7-2) aren’t alone in their injury woes. Sporting (3-7-4) are in 13th place in the West, just ahead of the Caps, and have lost two Designated Players — Gadi Kinda and Alan Pulido — for the season. They also have a long laundry list of injured players.

“We’re fighting through it right now. It’s a mentality. We need to be tough,” centre-back Andreu Fontas told mlssoccer.com‘s Jonathan Sigal. “We know that we are suffering this season and that things are not as we expected at the beginning of the season. Don’t excuse. We have to fight through it and get results. We are going in the right direction. Everybody is fighting, everybody is giving everything that they have.”

Both clubs have turned things around since early-season struggles. The Caps went undefeated in a four-game homestand and were unlucky to lose in Charlotte. SKC was winless in April, including a 1-0 loss at BC Place Stadium, but since a 7-2 defeat to the Portland Timbers that prompted captain Johnny Russell to say “I’m embarrassed to call ourselves professionals,” Sporting has gone 2 -0-1.

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Vancouver got its first road victory of the season against Cavalry FC on Wednesday, but while it was a moral boost it didn’t reflect a change in MLS standings. The Caps are still 0-6 in league play, and have just one victory in 10 trips to Children’s Mercy Park, a 1-0 win back in September 2017.

“We want to keep momentum going,” said Caps centre-back Florian Jungwirth. “We have a chance to get three points on the road now. We want them bad, and I think that’s what keeps us going. We’re on a good path. Kansas hasn’t started the season like they want to, we haven’t (either), and we both played on Wednesday. I feel like it’s a game where whoever wants it more will get it. That’s my opinion. And I’m convinced that’s gonna be us.”

Their last visit to KC was the ill-fated playoff game that ended 3-1 for Sporting, which snuffed out the Caps’ Cinderella second half of 2021 and gave a blueprint on how to exploit their pressure.

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Sartini came into this season looking to replicate that aggressive defensive stance, but switched tactics when it became clear it wasn’t working. The Caps are last in MLS in successful pressures at 26 per cent, according to fbref.com. The decision to stand down from their full-throttle pursuit of the ball coincided with the team’s positive results.

With the Caps giving up 20 of their 25 goals away from BC Place — they’re averaging 2.5 against per road game — they need to batten down the hatches defensively.

“I would say we need to be more organized than aggressive,” Sartini said of Saturday’s game.

“I think in that playoff game, we felt the pressure too much and we wanted to overdo things. We need to be much more humble. We need to be aware that they’re home and maybe they want to come on top of us at the beginning, so we need to say be really good — especially the first 15, 20 minutes — to be organized, compact, not chasing balls , and making it very difficult for them to break our block.”

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