The debacle against Dallas: terrible uniform, terrible play

August 16, 2012 at 9:11 pm | Posted in Whitecaps New Uniform and Logo, Whitecaps Season 2012 | 7 Comments

Last night the Whitecaps looked like crap and played like it too. We fans were subjected to the awful brown uniform again, which in my view is a disgrace to the club. Perhaps it is best the team played in a uniform that has nothing to do with the club’s tradition because it helped disguise the fact that the Vancouver Whitecaps were the team that was playing such awful football last night at BC Place.

The uniforms are so awful its best not to see them close up…

I had gone to the match in an optimistic frame of mind thinking our squad was deep enough to withstand the loss of DeMerit to injury, Koffee to suspension, and Richards and Mattocks to an international friendly. After all, Dallas were missing some players as well. How naive I was. At the end of the night, the only joy was seeing the debut of teenage striker Caleb Clarke, who looked very good indeed, especially when he replaced our ineffective designated player Kenny Miller. Let’s face it, in the time that Miller has had on the pitch in a Vancouver Whitecaps jersey (Brown or otherwise) he has shown us nothing so far. Last night was his first start for the club, and he squandered his chance to show us something special. He has yet to figure out the weird bounce the ball takes off the fieldturf at BC Place.

Our other Scottish designated player Barry Robson also needs to look at himself in the mirror. Our captain and central midfielder was played off of the pitch by David Ferreira, Dallas’ central midfielder. I have argued in my blog for some time now that we need a talented central or South American midfielder to boss our midfield, and last night proved my point yet again. Robson looked like he was playing with dutch wooden clogs instead of football boots when you compared his play with that of Ferreira.

If you were to look at the match as a match of designated players, theirs were clearly superior to ours, and it turns out that was the difference in the match, as Ferreira created two goals and Castillo scored one for Dallas. Our designated players came up with one yellow card, received by Robson for petulantly kicking the ball away late in the match.

Atiba Harris, John Thorrington, and Andy O’Brien stood in for the other absent players, and none of them did particularly well. Harris is out of shape and not sharp after a long layoff due to injury, and Thor could not fill the big hole left by the suspended Gershon Koffie. Poor Andy O’Brien played well, but two matches in four days is a lot to ask for a guy who hasn’t played regular competitive matches for a long time. He was out-sprinted and out- muscled by Ferreira on Dallas’ second goal. On Castillo’s first goal our defence was uncharacteristically caught sleeping and flat-footed. If DeMerit was on the pitch, I doubt it would have happened.

It was enough to make you curse international football, as the loss of Richards and Mattocks to a Jamaica friendly took all of the speed and urgency out of our team. The referee did not help matters as the game was slowed to a snail’s pace by his constant whistle-blowing. The Whitecaps could not settle down into a rhythm of any kind and were bereft of ideas going forward.

It was a night to forget, made all the more forgetful by the awful brown uniforms the Whitecaps wore. Perhaps the team was depressed to be playing in that dark muddy colour. Rennie should have repeated a gesture made by his countryman Alex Ferguson, who once famously changed Manchester United’s grey kit at half time and sent his boys back out in United’s real colours: United proceeded to win the match with the team’s proper uniform.

As far as I am concerned, I would be happy to see the players take their brown kit off and burn it in the centre circle.