Hello!

The Whitecaps FC have beaten FC Dallas and will face LAFC in the MLS Western Conference Semi-final. Huzzah!

And if you were like me, plastered in front of the TV for an epic Saturday of sports, you also know the BC Lions defeated the Calgary Stampeders to go on to the CFL Western Conference Final. Huzzah!

But… and you know there would be a but… the Toronto Blue Jays ended up losing Game 7 of the MLB World Series in extra innings to the LA Dodgers. Boo! Hiss! Well… only if you’re supporter of the Jays I guess.

Oh… and the Vancouver Canucks lost too.

But this epic weekend of sports meant I had to pick & choose what to watch at points due to overlapping start times, so I made the decision to put the ‘Caps on the iPad and the Jays on the TV.

I know… I’m a horrible supporter.

Thankfully, friend of the newsletter Jordan offered to do me another solid by putting together The View this week to ensure you get the good stuff and not the “well I think this is what happened” stuff you’d get from me.

So take it away Jordan!

The View

I think, collectively, Whitecaps fans expected a tough match down in Frisco, TX for Game 2 of Round One of the MLS Cup playoffs. I, certainly, expected a physical, borderline dirty type of play from the home team, and I expected it to be difficult to get a result. Genuinely, I didn't expect just how far that would go. Let's break it down:

First Half

If you've been following the 'Caps this season, you'll note a disconcerting trend in the games leading into the MLS Cup Playoffs - the 'Caps have given up the first goal exceedingly often, especially for a team that was dominant when scoring first across the early parts of the year.

So, it will come to no surprise to read that the Whitecaps again gave up the first goal in this game. Off of a frustrating turnover from Sebastian Berhalter (who, to be honest, was not having a great game to this point and wouldn't get much better, more on that to come), Dallas played a Route One ball that split our CB pairing of Belal Halbouni and Ralph Priso perfectly, forcing them both to chase Petar Musa back towards goal. Priso was just slightly outpaced (mostly out-positioned), and as a result, chose not to take the DOGSO foul and red that Matias Laborda took 2 weeks ago. Musa took a good touch that induced a slightly late charge-out challenge from Yohei Takaoka in goal, and chipped him for 1-0.

Punched in the face again, we were. But like our German legend Thomas Müller has said on a couple of occasions - sometimes we have to face the adversity before we really start to play in the game.

Let's be honest - if you also watched this game, you'll note that the physicality started to get out of hand long before this half ended. 8 fouls leading to 3 yellow cards issued to FCD, and furthermore, there were a few non-calls made that could've led to some second yellows - or even a straight red at the end of the half. In a really scary (and poorly officiated) incident at the start of stoppage time in the first half, Petar Musa laid a blind-side pick on Sebastian Berhalter that resulted in shoulder-to-head contact on Seba that left him with a clear and obvious head injury that should have stopped play.

But it didn't.

Referee Tori Penso, both of her assistants, and the fourth official declined to stop play, allowing FCD to continue an attack on the Whitecaps' side of the field, long enough for Seba to try and stand up and get back in the play, only to fall over basically face-first into the box in front of the referee as the ball went out of play. In a further insult to the situation, the referee blew for halftime, rendering any chance of the play being reviewed for further disciplinary action by the VAR null and void. And it would only get worse from here.

Second Half

My halftime hopes of Jesper giving the lads a bit of a hairdryer treatment for a genuinely flat first-half performance seemingly found some of the Good Vibes around the team, as this half, we played more like the team that finished 2nd in the West and got within 3 points of winning the Supporters' Shield this year.

Matias Laborda came in at leftback for a now-injured Tate Johnson (aggravated his re-occurring shoulder issue during a first-half challenge) which seemed to give FCD just a bit of pause going forward suddenly. Chances were still not really coming, as the commentators kept pointing out that the Whitecaps were being held without a shot on target recorded, but the half-chances were piling up.

Daniel Rios went back to anonymity again this game, before being subbed out around the 57th minute mark with what seems like a foot/ankle knock after going down on a challenge awkwardly, which sent out Rayan Elloumi for another shift. Things didn't really change until Ryan Gauld and Kenji Cabrera made their cameos off the bench shortly after - interestingly, in a "we're going to go for it" decision, Gauld came on for Andres Cubas (now on a yellow) and Cabrera came on for Emmanuel Sabbi (who had been slightly more effective today than Ali Ahmed) on the wing Our final sub, still chasing the 1-0 game, was Jayden Nelson in for Ali Ahmed on the left wing.

And for those final 5 minutes, we just started sending it forward to tie the game. Matias Laborda playing the Tristan Blackmon cameo role of late CB-turned-CF positioning, fast tempo, breaks from the wingers - FCD were parking the bus trying to hang on and scrape game 3. It seemed like the soccer gods just might want another one back here in Vancouver, until the Whitecaps showed why you have to bury them to count them out of any game this season.

At the 93rd minute, Sebastian Berhalter (still in the game despite going through concussion examinations all the way through halftime) finally connects on a corner kick that Ralph Priso gets a head to, forcing a save, and then the rebound comes off his knee and bounces in to tie the game. You could hear a pin drop in Frisco at that point, and the Whitecaps smelled blood.

The final 3 minutes of stoppage time saw no fewer than 3 more chances to win the game, including a last-minute attempt from Jayden Nelson saved on the goal line by FCD keeper Michael Collodi. Which - to be honest, might have been called back as Rayan Elloumi was clearly fouled in the box on the build-up and should have been given as a last-minute PK.

But it wasn't. More on that shortly.

We're still getting a penalty attempt, rather, five of them - because that was full-time and in the MLS Cup playoffs in Round One, games are 90 minutes + PKs to decide the ultimate winners, in line with most North American sports leagues.

PENALTY SHOOTOUT

By this point, between the last-minute goal, the almost-won-it-anyway-despite-everything last minute flurry, and the complete lack of comprehension I had for the officiating in the game, a PK shootout had me fully on edge.

I was slightly relieved when Captain Müller won the coin toss, though, and chose to shoot first. Statistics show the team shooting first wins some 60+% of the time in shootouts. As expected, Thomas Müller would step up to take the first kick, and buried yet another from 12 yards out. 1-0 'Caps. Musa up first for FCD, Takaoka read it perfect, got a hand to it, but just couldn't quite keep it out, and he was mad about it. Seba up 2nd for the 'Caps, and converted no problem. This brought up Patrickson Delgado for FCD, who was brought on cold as a sub in the 95th minute for PKs. And boy was he cold - he punted his effort clean off the crossbar. 2-1 'Caps, with the advantage now. Kenji Cabrera would shoot 3rd for the boys in white, and made it 3-1. Shaq Moore for FCD sent Takaoka the wrong way to make it 3-2, bringing up... checks notes Belal Halbouni for kick #4.

Now - normally Tristan Blackmon shoots 4th in the lineup in most PK shootouts, so seeing a CB here isn't TOO CRAZY if you watch a lot of Whitecaps footy, but.. I'll be honest this one surprised me. So imagine my relief when Belal buried it to make it 4-2. This would make way for Nolan Norris of FCD, who, up to this point, had been a menace to anyone in a white jersey - the USMNT U-20 star, fresh off a performance at the U-20 World Cup, had been extracting a pound of flesh with every tackle made in this game, and stepped up with some kind of attitude for his spot kick. The kind of attitude that sends it 20 feet over the bar into the next county, taking with it FCD's entire season. It almost seemed like the game hadn't ended, either - it took a minute for everyone to realize that the miss meant the 'Caps had clinched. But they had - and were the second team through the first round gauntlet of the MLS Cup playoffs.

So let's get to the Good/Bad/Ugly of this one:

The Good:

• Ralph Priso - game-tying goal, not REALLY at fault for the goal against, again had a solid shift at CB

• The team as a whole - again, showing the fight and commitment to play to the final whistles, wrestling a result from the jaws of defeat once more this season

The Bad:

• Injuries to Daniel Rios and Tate Johnson again force us to go deeper into the depth charts, but at least coverage is there currently for these guys

• Conceding first against better teams deeper into the playoffs isn't a long-term gameplan for success.

The Ugly:

• The officiating in this game was some of the worst seen in MLS this season. I took a quick trip into the r/MLS subreddit's game thread for this match, and the one unifying sentiment among everyone watching was that this was one of the all-time bad referee performances in MLS. And while I don't like to criticize the officials too much, I felt very much like control of this game was lost early on and never regained by the officials. I'm curious to see if PRO (the referee's union) has any comments or reviews about this one (doubtful though) and I am definitely waiting for Andrew Wiebe's "Instant Replay" episode on YouTube this week to see what he thinks of some of the calls/non-calls in this one, because it was rough. You could tell the game plan for FCD was to see how far they could get fouling their way through us, and the referee this game gave them a lot of runway to do it. It's the ugly side of football that sometimes teams have to resort to those types of tactics because they don't feel like they have the on-field ability to do it otherwise. I'm just relieved that it didn't cost us a third game and more injury risk.

In closing as I hit nearly the 10,000 character mark for this: Vancouver gets it done late again, and a bit more magic dust on the magic season keeps getting sprinkled. First test of the playoffs is done, and now we get Ye Newe Enemy (LAFC, with Ye Olde Enemies being Seattle and Portland) in for a one-and-done 90+ET+PK conference semifinal match at home. While I'm unhappy to be playing LAFC, the road to MLS Cup was always likely to run through them, but at least we're at home, and historically, we're slightly better at home against LAFC than at BMO Stadium in LA. So if we have to play them, I'm glad it's at BC Place. By the sounds of it, it's already selling out, so hopefully we'll fill the place up and keep the hype train rolling! Up the 'Caps!

Chris here.

With the next match taking place in three weeks, I don’t fault the MLS at all in making the sane choice to add an extra week of break to avoid any international break shenanigans, but it sure makes one antsy waiting for the next ‘Caps match.

Yet I also appreciate the time it provides to help those with knocks get that much closer to full-match form. So it ain’t all bad.

And if you’re thinking of going to the match, but don’t yet have your tickets, I’d buy them quick. At the time of this newsletter, the ‘Caps have opened up a portion of the upper bowl in BC Place but I genuinely believe they’ll fill that space up once it is all said and done.

While it would be nice to think all the seats will be occupied by Whitecaps FC supporters (and those hopping on the bandwagon… all aboard, spots aplenty), the popularity of Son Heung-min has me thinking we might see a few too many LAFC jerseys scattered around the dome.

Just know that I’ll be jealous of all y’all there, vibing in the electric atmosphere, cheering the ‘Caps on to a thrilling victory!