LA Galaxy visit, Beckham doesn’t, Caps release defenders

By: Brenton | July 29th, 2011

The league’s best team (that would be LA) visit the league’s worst side (that’s us) in what is sure to be a scintillating affair tomorrow. (Remember last year and the year before that when we were one of the best teams in our league?)

The Caps look to build on their exciting 2-2 draw in San Jose, after a good ten day rest period, as they continue to push for a play-off spot. No, really, the club still claim they’re making a run at the play-offs. This game, against the best team in the league, is as good a place to start as any, if you’re looking to win 8 or 9 of your next 13 games… ugh.

The media (and casual fan) storyline for tomorrow’s game is already set: Star-studded LA are without Goldenballs* himself, as he picked up a league-leading 8th yellow card in LA’s last match. Of course, this happened AFTER the Whitecaps announced they would open the entirety of Empire in the hopes of a true sell-out; not sure if they’ve promoted his absence.

LA are also without starting defender Jimmy-Floyd** Birchall, and Landycakes*** has been struggling with an injury but will likely play. DP Juan Pablo Angel will likely miss, but he hasn’t been a force this season. Chad Barrett is also questionable

Unfortunately for us, even without a few key players LA are still a top side (unlike, say, New York). They haven’t lost since early May, they have an excellent away record (5W-2L-4D), and they have the second-best defence in the league. Their midfield is strong, they have players that can score, and they like to attack.

Vancouver

The big story for us is Soehn’s team selection quandary: How do you fit five attacking players in to four slots, especially when only one (Salinas) is a true wide player? I’ve guessed at some formations we could use; what we saw in San Jose was a pretty standard 4-4-2 (or 4-4-1-1), with Jarju behind Hassli up front and Camilo and Salinas out wide.

Camilo and Salinas should be automatic starters on the wings, and Hassli up front. Soehn will want Jarju to get more time on the ball, but Chiumiento was particularly effective, sparking our offence when he came on for Jarju in the second half.

All five likely won’t start: Soehn seems to like a more solid partnership in the middle of the park, preferring Koffie, Dunfield, Brovsky and now Vagenas over a more creative player like Chiumiento. Vagenas, though, has shown a bit more passing creativity in the last two games, a nice surprise.

The Whitecaps are nearly all healed. The exception, of course, is team captain Jay DeMerit. (I don’t really count Harris and Thorrington as part of the team anymore, though Thorrington is listed as questionable.) Teen sensation Russell Teibert is probable, but I don’t expect him to make an appearance, what with our surfeit of attacking options.

The ref

Some people are making a big deal of the fact that the ref for the game will be some guy named Toledo. He oversaw our game versus Chicago, and was by many accounts very bad. But as far as I’m concerned, most refs for MLS are quite bad, so how will this be any different? Remember the missed back-pass call against Philly? C’mon, these guys are mostly shit.

Details

You can still get tickets to the game, and I’m sure there will be tons on craigslist and such, as I saw quite a few people tweeting that they won’t go after reading that Beckham won’t be here. Or watch the game on TSN or listen on Team 1410 (online at teamradio.ca). But really, you should come out to the game.

Prediction

We’re going to lose. We lost four straight before our dynamic draw in San Jose, and we’re the worst team in the league. Awesome.

Here, though, for your pleasure, is Landon Donovan looking like a tool:

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* I think his actual first name is Goldenboy. I’ll have to check the ManU fan forum.
** I think his actual first name is Ben****, but I refuse to use wikipedia for this post.
*** I think his actual name is Lantwat Donovan.
**** Turns out it’s Chris. He’s Trinidadian.
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In other news, the club has released defenders Mouloud Akloul and Blake Wagner. The Province’s Marc Weber first wrote about Akloul a month ago, but it took this long for the club to confirm it. Wagner’s time was up when we signed Jordan Harvey, but he never showed that he could compete at this level, and many fans have been calling for his release for a while.

It’s unfortunate that Soehn dropped the ball on this one and released them after the July 1 salary-hit deadline, though it doesn’t look like we’ll bring in another player anyway. It’s also unfortunate that they were treated to the most cursory of release notices.