Whitecaps' hammering in CONCACAF final is, sadly, fitting for Vancouver sports
Cheering for Vancouver sports teams that aren't of the baseball variety has been pure misery for a decade now.
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The misery was generally only limited to this city's winter sports — and, yes, we mean the Canucks but there was also that brief NBA sojourn that we all know was, yes, grizzly. But the Vancouver Whitecaps seem to be stuck on this list, too. (The B.C. Lions as well, but let's just deal with one football at a time, shall we?)
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How else to explain Sunday's total embarrassment in Mexico City, a 5-0 hammering at the hands of Cruz Azul, other than to chalk it up to the reality that cheering for a sports team in Vancouver is mostly guaranteed to inflict pain in the end?
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For all the brilliance this Whitecaps season has carried with it — the drubbing of Inter Miami, knocking off other strong Mexican teams like Pumas and Monterrey, the 15-game unbeaten run, the sitting atop the MLS league table, the super-entertaining brand of play (even without talisman Ryan Gauld — the loss Sunday at the hands of one of Mexico's Los Cuatro Grandes will stand out in stark and brutal contrast.
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Sure, MLS teams have struggled in the grand final for North American football. Just three times in the 63 years there's been a CONCACAF club championship has a team from north of the Mexican border won the title. That the Whitecaps were likely going to lose, given the history, given the venue, was understandable.
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But to lose like this? Outrageous.
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We are left to consider a few things:
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• Did Jesper Sorensen get it wrong by starting a defensive back four who hadn't started together before? Did he get it wrong by starting a midfield trio who also hadn't started a game together? Sure feels like it. The number of gaffes, especially the shocking ones from the normally steady Andres Cubas, suggest as much. So was the total lack of service for Brian White, worst embodied in the Caps getting exactly zero shots on the night.
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• Was it the fact they played mid-week? Even if this is how Sorensen wanted, as he claimed, surely some rest, some time to acclimatize to the altitude would have been the better approach. Why didn't Major League Soccer simply make the call themselves and move that Wednesday game?
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Winnipeg Free Press
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