Photo; Whitecaps media
by Aaron Campbell, Vancouver (@AaCamp81)
The Vancouver Whitecaps continued their preseason play with their second match in four days and took on the SanJose Earthquakes down at the Kino Sports Complex. They managed to come back from one goal down and with a second half goal by young Kekuta Manneh to earn the 1-1 draw.
The first half was slow at best. Carl Robinson decided to dress a 4-2-3-1 (Ousted-Sampson, Waston, Rodriguez, Harvey-Laba, McKendry-Richards, Earnshaw, Alhassan-Mattocks) that saw three trailists, a new young center back and a first year homegrown defensive midfielder.
Darren Mattocks looked like he was already in mid season form. He missed the net by a mile on his few chances and when he didn’t get the calls he wanted he was slow to get back into an onside position on the pitch. Kendall Waston was his dominating self with a few crunching fouls in the first ten minutes, including a yellow card in the 34th minute.
He was lucky he only got the one yellow because the referee had a few chances to give him a second card in his 45 minutes of play in the first half. Newcomer Deigo Rodriguez had a very good first half, he was great with his headers clearing the defensive box, made some nice passes through the midfield and stayed calm well being attacked by the San Jose forwards.
The Earthquakes got on the score board first in the 28th minute with a sloppy goal by Paulo Renato with the set up from Matias Perez Garcia. The goal came on a scramble in front of the net after the Quakes’ third consecutive corner. The Whitecaps couldn’t clear the box and Renato made them pay.
If it wasn’t for David Ousted the score of 1-0 could have been way worse for the Vancouver side. He made some big stops and came out at times to break up crosses in the box. He made a great save in first half stoppage time from Tommy Thompson diving to his lower left to keep it 1-0 before the first half whistle.
One player who really struggled in the first half was ex TFC and Chicago Fire trialist Robert Earnshaw. He was playing the number 10 spot in the attacking midfield and he wasn’t able to get any offence started. He was invisible out there for most of the first half, often going long stretches on time without getting the ball and when he did he failed to link up with his wingers Dane Richards and Kalif Alhassan.
The second half saw a full line up change by Carl Robinson just like he did 4 days earlier against New England Revolution. The Welshman kept the same formation 4-2-3-1 (Tornaghi-Parker, Kah, Dean, Adekugbe-Piraux, Teibert-Rosales, Mezquida, Manneh-Rivero). This lineup saw current residency U18 player Mitch Piraux get a chance to play defensive midfield with young Canadian Russell Teibert. Nicolas Mezquida got another chance to play the attacking number 10 role with Pedro Morales back in Chile for the birth of his second child.
The start of the second half was a way better start then the first half of the game. Vancouver used the middle of the field on the offensive side of the pitch and used the wings to start an attack.
Mauro Rosales controlled this side of the field and was able to send cross after cross in the box. Octavio Rivero had a great chance for a header off a Rosales cross but wasn’t able to find the back of the net. Rosales did not look his age after making spin move after spin move to get away from the Earthquakes defenders. Kekuta Manneh showed great speed well attacking the Eartquakes defenders and midfield. He had a great 60 yard run up the left side of the pitch and if it wasn’t for Quakes keeper Bryan Meredith he would of tied the score earlier then he actually did.
In the 65th minute, Manneh was finally able to take a nice set up at the top of the box was young left back Sam Adekugbe and slotted it into the bottom right corner to tied the game 1-1.
Rivero made his presence felt with 3 quality chances in the second half that the Whitecaps dominated from start to finish. His link up play with Mezquida and Rosales was great all second half as they continued to build upon what the showed in the previous game.
The players that stood out for me in the second half were Mezquida who is looking more and more comfortable in that 10 role. He had some great buildups through the middle of the pitch. With Morales getting most of the minutes at that spot this season, Mezquida is making the case to be the player to take over that role when Morales will need to be rested.
Also new first round draft pick Tim Parker who played right back this game looked really good. He jumped up the wing on the attack when he had to and didn’t look like a rookie out there at all.
The Whitecaps finish their preseason road trip down in Tucson with a game Tuesday morning against new Western Conference opponent Houston Dynamo before heading back to Vancouver
