Whitecaps in Yet Another 0-0 Draw in Portland

July 6, 2010 at 9:36 pm | Posted in Whitecaps Season 2010 | 3 Comments

This match was the seventh 0-0 draw the Whitecaps have participated in since league play started.  We have played 15 games. One thing you can definitely say with the Whitecaps is they can defend.

Last year, we could not defend and had a revolving door of central defenders pass through the team.  We couldn’t get it right, and it cost us what might well have been a second straight championship.

The Statistics do not paint a pretty picture.  We have played 15 league games, have 14 goals and have 8 goals scored against us. It all adds up to one thing:  the Whitecaps are dull to watch this year.

While we do sit atop the NASL conference of our league, we have done so through playing dull football.   Part of the problem is we are playing against better players who are better coached than in years past, and offensive skill in the league has not yet caught up with well organized defensive play.  Yet, this excuse only goes so far since Austin has scored twice as many goals as us and Carolina, who has played three less games than us, has two more goals.

Teitur Thordarson was hired to bring exciting, attacking football to Vancouver after Bob Lilley’s defence-first approach.   We have lost Martin Haber, and Marlon James, who is dynamite when he is fit, is seemingly never fit.  Our crew of strikers is young and inexperienced.   Poor Teitur must be pulling his hair out (he does have an impressive amount of hair for a man his age!)

Being of an optimistic persuasion, I feel we can still win, and winning the Championship is all about peaking at the right time.

But where on earth will the goals come from?

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