Whitecaps hit another ‘bump in the road’ with COVID outbreak

Several players isolated under MLS protocols on eve of key Houston game, as Vancouver tries to snap five-game winless streak in MLS play

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There are bumps in the road, and then there are just plain bumpy roads.

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The Vancouver Whitecaps have been clattering down the latter, wheels jouncing over potholes, pitfalls and pratfalls.

For the second time this season, the Caps have been waylaid by COVID-19, with several players being isolated under Major League Soccer health and safety protocols.

Because of the fluid nature of COVID testing and medical confidentiality, the team isn’t saying who is ill or a close contact, but there were at least six regulars missing from training on Thursday.

Brian White has been dealing with an injury all week, but Cristian Dajome, Florian Jungwirth, Andres Cubas, Marcus Godinho and Caio Alexandre have all be placed into the MLS HSP. Luis Martins, who is injured, is also in isolation.

And in a different category of player subtraction, the Caps announced Thursday that veteran Argentine defender Erik Godoy had cleared waivers and is no longer on the club’s roster.

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“You can’t be pissed or angry if someone is sick. Maybe it’s always something with us, but it’s a bump in the road,” head coach Vanni Sartini said of the COVID flare-up. “If I know something about this team, it’s that when they are in need, they always respond very well. When they are under pressure, they have always been like this. I’m really confident for tomorrow that we’re gonna respond to these difficulties in the best way possible.”

The Whitecaps (7-6-10) haven’t won in five MLS games, and are desperate to start making some inroads in the playoff push, sitting five points back of the seventh-place Seattle Sounders with 11 games remaining.

The Houston Dynamo (7-4-12) are one spot behind the 11th-place Caps, and visit B.C. Place Stadium on Friday for the first time this season.

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NEXT GAME

Friday

Houston Dynamo vs. Vancouver Whitecaps

7:30 p.m., B.C. Place Stadium. TV: TSN. Radio: AM 730.


It’s the perfect opportunity for the Caps to net three points, with the Dynamo coming off a 6-0 shellacking at the hands of the Eastern Conference-leading Philadelphia Union and having never won in nine previous trips to Vancouver.

At least, it was the perfect opportunity, until the cursed Caps saw their roster get COVID-depleted — again.

“I don’t believe (in curses). I think things could be going better, but things could also be going worse,” said centre back Tristan Blackmon. “I think we’re going in the right direction, especially with the new guys we’ve brought in.

“We need the points. There’s no other way to say it. You can say it’s a must-win. I think the games for the rest of the year are must wins. It would definitely help putting us into the right place going into the end of the year if we get this win.”

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Striker Simon Becher and midfielder Ali Ahmed have been elevated from the MLS Pro team with short-term MLS contracts and will be available to play on Friday.

Whitecaps super-sub Tosaint Ricketts scores against Charlotte FC in their May 22 MLS match in Charlotte, N.C., his only goal so far this season.
Whitecaps super-sub Tosaint Ricketts scores against Charlotte FC in their May 22 MLS match in Charlotte, N.C., his only goal so far this season. Photo by Nell Redmond /Associated Press files

Lucas Cavallini and Russell Teibert, two players who didn’t play last week because of injury and had been limited in practice, both trained on Thursday. But with Cavallini hobbled and White listed as out, the starting striker duties will fall to super-sub Tosaint Ricketts.

The super-sub has started once this year, but he scored just two minutes into a 90-minute stint against Charlotte back in May.

“It just seems like something our group has to deal with,” said Ricketts. “But … we’re resilient. You’ve seen in the game in the past, no matter the result, we’re fighting to the final minutes. We get late goals and we show a lot of character in these tough moments. So I’m expecting nothing different for (Friday’s) game.”

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Sartini hopes his team gets off to a quick start, unlike the slow opening 15-30 minutes that has dogged them in the past. Houston might be coming off a bad loss, but that has just made them more dangerous, said Sartini.

But he’s also confident his team has the wheels to handle all the bumps in the road thrown in front of them.

“We have a pretty deep roster,” he said. “But to be honest, I had to change something in the lineup that I was thinking. But I had to change only names, not the way that we’re going to play the system, the approach, the tactics. We have pretty interchangeable players. If someone’s missing, that someone can be replaced easily.

“Tomorrow will be the demonstration again that the team is the leader. The most important name that we have on our jersey is the one in front of the jersey — the Vancouver Whitecaps — and not the name on the back.”

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