VANCOUVER — Heading into just the third game of the season, Vancouver Whitecaps head coach Vanni Sartini admits that pressure is beginning to mount.
The 'Caps (0-1-1) earned their first point of the Major League Soccer campaign last week, battling New York City FC to a 0-0 draw, but the club is still looking for its first goal of the year.
“It’s not that we are with the water to our throat and we are drowning. But I would love to win (this week). So I think it’s good to feel the urgency," Sartini said Thursday. "There’s 32 games left, but we don’t like to be under the (playoff) line, so if we win, we already are over the line. It’s much better.”
After an ugly 4-0 loss to Columbus Crew to start the season, a goalless tie with the reigning MLS Cup-champions was a marked improvement.
Still, Sartini knows his side will need to generate some offence in order to come away with the full three points when they visit the Houston Dynamo (0-1-1) on Saturday. The coach liked how his team played tactically and moved against NYCFC, but he wants his players to make better choices with the ball.
“We need to always play the simple option. Because the simple option is most of the time the most rewarding one," he said.
A locked-in defence helped goalkeeper Thomas Hasal record his first clean sheet of the season and earn MLS Team of the Week honours last week. Now the back line is looking at how it can help with the attack, said centre back Ranko Veselinovic.
"We need goals and that's our main focus," he said.
“We need to be a little bit more patient with the ball, not to hurry so much. But we improved in the second game from the first game and we just need to now build it up.”
The 'Caps need to trust their tactics and formation in order to generate the offence necessary to put the ball in the back of the net, said Brian White, the American striker who led the team in scoring last season.
"The more guys you have in the box, the more guys you have bombing forward, the more chances you create," he said. "I think a big thing we need to focus on is creating chances because we haven’t scored yet and it’s important to score to win games.”
Goals could be hard to come by once again on Saturday, however. Twice last season, Vancouver and Houston played to 0-0 draws.
The Dynamo finished the 2021 campaign at the bottom of the Western Conference but made significant changes in the off-season, bringing in head coach Paulo Nagamura and inking Sebastian Ferreira to a designated player contract that made the Paraguayan forward the most expensive signing in club history.
Houston comes into this week's game in a similar situation to Vancouver, having settled for a 0-0 draw with Real Salt Lake to open the season and after dropping a 1-0 decision to Sporting Kansas City last week.
The Dynamo are a less aggressive team than those the Whitecaps have faced so far this year, Sartini said, but one that can't be underestimated.
“They’re a very structured team. I saw the first two games, they play a very elegant, I would say, 4-3-3 (formation) and different than the first two teams that we played," the coach said.
The 'Caps could get a boost this week if White can return to the lineup for a full 90 minutes.
The 26-year-old forward was sidelined for the first match after suffering a foot contusion in training and came on for Colombian forward Deiber Caicedo in the 64th minute last week.
Watching the first two outings showed White that the 'Caps have what it takes to bounce back.
“It was obvious from the first game that we weren’t up for the task. And then going into the New York game, we knew we had to raise the level and I think everyone did that," he said. "I think it was obvious that there was more intensity, I think it was just a better game overall and it was good to see that we can react like that.”
VANCOUVER WHITECAPS (0-1-1) AT HOUSTON DYNAMO (0-1-1)
PNC Stadium, Saturday
NET DEPTH: The Whitecaps have brought in veteran goalkeeper Cody Crooper as a trialist. The 29-year-old Atlanta native has spent time with the New England Revolution, Houston Dynamo and FC Cincinnati, appearing in appeared in 37 MLS games and earning 10 clean sheets. He finished the 2021 campaign with USL side Memphis 901 FC.
HISTORY BOOKS: Vancouver holds a 8-6-5 edge over Houston in all-time play but the Dynamo took the three-game series last season, going 1-0-2.
INJURY REPORT: The 'Caps will once again be without defender Erik Godoy (calf strain) and midfielder Caio Alexandre (recovering from foot surgery). The Dynamo are not expected to have any players missing due to injuries.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 11, 2022.
Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press
