BEHIND THE PLAY #62

This will be a short one.

NSL Standings Breakdown

There’s some interesting things to consider as the teams come close to completing the first third of the inaugural season and have all played each other at least once.

Vancouver Rise are tied for first but keep two things in mind beyond the fact that they, and fellow leaders Montreal Roses, have played more games than anyone else. They have played five of their seven games at home and their three wins have come against Halifax Tides (2) and Calgary Wild (1) - the two bottom teams in the league. They have also conceded the most goals so far though not the most on a per game basis.

No team is averaging more than one goal per game.

Montreal Roses’ three wins have come against the three teams directly below them in the standings (AFC Toronto, Rise and Ottawa Rapids) and of their seven games only three have been at home. The Roses won their first three games but have now not won in their last four.

Meanwhile, AFC Toronto, after a slow start with two losses, are undefeated since then in the four games following.

Ottawa Rapids, despite having played the fewest games (five, along with Halifax) have the best goal difference at +3 and have the most goals per game at 1.4.

Calgary have played four of their six games on the road, including two against Rise and in their home games tied Ottawa (most goals per game and second in points per game) and beat Montreal (first overall).

These five teams are clearly demonstrating parity in their games. They are all within three points of each other and if you look at their points per game, it’s even closer

• Toronto: 1.66 pts/game

• Ottawa: 1.6

• Montreal and Vancouver: 1.57

• Calgary 1.3

Halifax is the unfortunate outlier here. One point from five games (so .2 pts per game), only two goals scored compared to everyone else’s seven and the only team yet to win a game. From what I’ve seen so far they are clearly off the pace with some really poor defending, individually and as a group, and clearly lack goalscoring ability.

Whitecaps collapse in Champions Cup final

Post mortems after games are de rigeur but also really not of much help. The Caps lost 5-0 to Cruz Azul in the final in Mexico City last night and did so without registering even an attempted shot at goal never mind getting one on goal.

Everything about that game was the antithesis of what we’ve seen from them this season. Unable to play through the thirds. Nervous on the ball, especially playing out from the back. Despite having close to a thousand supporters fly in for the game, they seemed overwhelmed by the occasion and atmosphere (and that can include the thin Mexico City air as well as the boisterous Cruz Azul supporters).

The reality is that the oddsmakers saw the writing on the wall. Before kickoff you could get 6.25 to 1 on the Caps winning in 90 minutes. Seemingly this belies the fact that the team had already beaten two Mexico clubs to get to the final, including one in the very stadium the final was played in and that they are currently the best team in MLS on a points per game basis.

But the greater reality is that despite well considered roster rotations moves by head coach Jesper Sorenson, the team has been averaging a game every four days for the last 3-4 months. Factor in the extraordinary amount of travel that the team has even in a season without Champions Cup games in Mexico and Central America and this defeat was coming.

What really sealed it, for me, is something that no Whitecaps fan thought they’d be saying at the start of the season. And that would be this…

“The Whitecaps lost the CONCACAF Champions Cup final because Sebastian Berhalter was unable to play due to picking up a yellow in the semi-final.”

If you’ve been watching the team this season and paying close attention, it has been the midfield three of Berhalter, Andres Cubas and Pedro Vite that have been the heart, brain and engine of this team and in terms of consistency I’d put Berhalter as the most integral of the three. His presence was badly missed last night.

It was a great run and in conversations I had with others there was agreement that if they won the final it would be right up there alongside the Whitecaps 1979 NASL Soccer Bowl win. It wasn’t to be.