Photo: Vancouver Whitecaps FC
by Graham Tooke @chelskitooke
The Whitecaps fell to Jermaine Taylor’s lone tally as both sides wrapped up their time in Arizona. Three 30 minute periods were played out Tuesday evening at the Kino Sports Complex where both coaches made a raft of changes throughout as they got a look at various partnerships on the pitch.
The two sides won’t meet up again until the end of August when new Head Coach Owen Coyle takes his side to BC Place as a Western Conference rival. By that time you would imagine both managers will have their squads set, while tonight they made the most of getting a look at a mix of youth and trialists.
For the Whitecaps the only trialist left with the club is Robert Earnshaw after Dane Richards and Kalif Alhassan didn’t quite do enough to impress Robbo. Kianz Froese got his first minutes of preseason replacing Russell Teibert in the centre of midfield for the final half hour. Steven Beitashour has still yet to join up with the squad and so SuperDraft pick Tim Parker enjoyed another run out at right back. Thus far his performances have edged him ahead of Ethen Sampson.
The starting pairing at the back consisted of Waston and Kah which is a scary proposition with neither afraid to put their bodies about. On this occasion both managed to keep clear of the referee. Fortunately, the backline didn’t have to deal with a certain free scoring Mexican, Erick ‘Cubo’ Torres is still on loan with Chivas Guadalajara in Mexico, but it’s possible he gets an early release to Houston as he has struggled to break the lineup despite his feats in MLS last year.
The highlight opportunity fell to Robert Earnshaw, who attempted an ambitious bicycle kick late on. Mezquida had a pair of cracks that failed to test the Houston keeper, Tyler Deric. While ‘Super Mauro’ struck a set piece from 25 yards that Deric did well to save.
Jermaine Taylor finished off the winning goal after a scramble in the ‘Caps box after David Ousted had failed to clear his lines.
The ‘Caps now return to Vancouver to continue their preparations before making a quick trip to Vancouver Island for the annual clash with the Uvic Vikes at Centennial Stadium, Sunday.
MATCH DETAILS
Scoring Summary
52′ – HOU – Jermaine Taylor
Match Stats
Shots: Vancouver 9 - Houston 6
Shots on Goal: Vancouver 5 - Houston 5
Saves: Vancouver 4 – Houston 5
Fouls: Vancouver 11 – Houston 17
Offsides: Vancouver 2 - Houston 0
Corners: Vancouver 4 – Houston 4
Cautions
17′ – HOU – Roul Rodriguez
29′ – HOU – David Horst
Vancouver Whitecaps FC
1.David Ousted; 26.Tim Parker (27.Ethen Sampson 45′), 4.Kendall Waston (18.Diego Rodriguez 45′), 44.Pa-Modou Kah (22.Christian Dean 60′), 2.Jordan Harvey (3.Sam Adekugbe 60′); 15.Matias Laba (30.Ben McKendry 60′), 31.Russell Teibert (38.Kianz Froese 60′); 7.Mauro Rosales (19.Erik Hurtado 60′), 9.Nicolas Mezquida (8.Robert Earnshaw* 60′), 23.Kekuta Manneh (32.Marco Bustos 60′); 29.Octavio Rivero (11.Darren Mattocks 45′)
Houston Dynamo
31.Joe Willis (1.Tyler Deric 30′; 30.Michael Lisch 60′); 5.Raul Rodriguez (2.Kofi Sarkodie 47′), 18.David Horst (16.AJ Cochran 60′), 4.Jermaine Taylor (46.Oumar Ballo* 60′), 7.DaMarcus Beasley (26.Corey Ashe 30′); 33.Leonel Miranda (37.George Malki* 43′), 13.Ricardo Clark (28.Memo Rodriguez 60′), 21.Zach Steinberger (Nathan Sturgis 30′; 35.Taylor Hunter* 78′), 11.Brad Davis (15.Alex Lopez 60′), 36.Rob Lovejoy* (17.Chandler Hoffman 47′); 14.Jason Johnson (12.Will Bruin 31′)
*Trialist
