Eighty Six Forever - All Posts

A New Home for Eighty Six Forever

2023-03-29T14:40:10-07:00

Anne-Marie Sorvin-USA TODAY Sports

We provide an update on upcoming changes to the community.

We provide an update on upcoming changes to the community.

As you probably know, SB Nation and Vox Media announced they were ending their relationship with most MLS and NHL blogs back in February. While this was a surprising and disappointing announcement at the time, it was also an opportunity.

Since I’ve been at Eighty Six Forever, the site has always been defined by the community, the writers, readers, commentators, and critics. The passion and involvement of the community is what has made the site so much fun to run, and it’s the reason all of us at Eighty Six Forever enjoy covering the Vancouver Whitecaps and Canadian soccer through all the trials and tribulations.

Since Vox’s announcement, the goal has always been to maintain and grow the community we have built, and we hope that our next step will do just that. At the beginning of April, the Eighty Six Forever site as we know it will go dark. However, over the last month or so, we’ve been working on a plan to create a new home for Eighty Six Forever content, and that the home is thethirdsub.ca.

The goal with The Third Sub is to bring together the best independent coverage of west coast Canadian soccer in one place. Not only will this include the Eighty Six Forever team, but The Third Sub will also incorporate the tremendous coverage of Alexandre Gangué-Ruzic, who I’ve been partnered with on The Third Sub Podcast for the last couple of years. While we were working on Eighty Six Forever, Alex built a community of his own covering the Whitecaps and Canadian soccer with Between the Sticks, and now felt like as good a time as any to bring those communities together. An additional aim of The Third Sub going forward is to provide an expanded scope of local soccer coverage, including more comprehensive reporting on the CPL, League 1 BC, and the grassroots level.

Now, what do all of these changes indicate for you, the reader? Hopefully, not too much of significance. We plan on delivering the same Eighty Six Forever content you’ve come to expect on the new platform. Archived content from the original Eighty Six Forever site will be synced come the beginning of April, and hopefully this will be a relatively seamless process. One change of note is that SB Nation user accounts will no longer be valid on the new site. This means that you will have to create a new user account to post comments at thethirdsub.ca. I’ve tried this myself and it’s a simple process, all you need to do is provide a name and email address. Finally, website re-directs from eightysixforever.com and btsvancity.com will be in place to help you find exactly what you are looking for.

One of the huge benefits of the new site, as I mentioned off the top, is opportunity. Unlike the SB Nation days, we are no longer restricted by platform limitations and corporate policy. So, if you have questions, comments, or suggestions for what you’d like to see on the site, we are absolutely open to that feedback.

As a final note, I just want to say a big thank you to everyone who’s supported and contributed to the Eighty Six Forever community while we were a part of the SB Nation umbrella. The support over the years has been incredible and we truly appreciate it! You’re the best. We’re looking forward to the next chapter and hope that you are as well.

Report Card: Whitecaps Vindicated by Becher’s Late-Game Heroics

2023-03-27T09:44:50-07:00

Matt Blewett-USA TODAY Sports

For a third straight match, the Vancouver Whitecaps earned a single point with a 1-1 draw in Minnesota on Saturday night. We break down the performances in the latest report card.

Saturday night in Minnesota, the Vancouver Whitecaps played out a 1-1 draw against a depleted Minnesota United side that was without seven regular starters.

While the Whitecaps controlled the tempo for most of the match and overall played some pretty attractive attacking football, some of the same looming problems with this team remained. Namely, the Whitecaps continue to struggle finishing their chances in front of goal, as well as the incredibly frustrating habit of being completely undone by their defending of crosses. Water is wet, as they say.

With that being said, let’s take a look at the individual performances:

Yohei Takaoka (6.5) - It was not a very busy night for Takaoka who only had to make two saves. Overall, it continues to be a joy to watch his confidence and command on the ball.

Mathias Laborda (7.0) - I am begging, please play this man at CB. The only criticism I could level against Laborda in this match is that he looked like he was playing out of position, because he was. Overall though, I’ve been impressed by his bull-in-a china-shop aggressiveness, and even though it’s not his best role, his passing from wide areas was notably better than the last time he played at RB.

Ranko Veselinovic (6.0) - On the whole, my confidence in the Serbian has really diminished so far this season. As always, Ranko was very good for the most part, but whenever he leads the back line there’s always a moment or two of weakness that is punished.

Tristan Blackmon (6.5) - Similar to Ranko, I don’t know if Blackmon has the traits to be a leader of the back line, especially in his own area. That being said, the American’s offensive threat and athleticism make him a very nice complimentary piece.

Ryan Raposo (6.0) - It was a bit of a scruffy match from Raposo as the whole left side of Vancouver’s formation struggled a bit. This system is very demanding on a guy who is not a natural fullback, so as expected, he looks best when he has a chance to tuck into the midfield on the ball, but less so left isolated in 1v1’s defensively.

Sebastian Berhalter (7.0) - Although his passing was not quite as sharp as what we see from Cubas, Berhalter did a great job filling the shoes of the designated player. It probably helped that the Loons were missing their two best midfielders, but Berhalter can only play the team in front of him. Overall, I think the young American is a very reliable depth piece for this team.

Alessandro Schopf (6.5) - After a series of really good matches, it felt like a bit of a quieter night from the Austrian. All in all though, it was another solid showing.

Julian Gressel (7.0) - The German-American continues to be the chance creation centre of this Whitecaps team so far in 2023. Although his success rate on crosses was rather low, overall, Gressel has really been thriving as a central mid and I’ve noticed more and more moments of him taking command of the team in possession from that position.

Ryan Gauld (6.0) - The Scotsman never really settled into the match and there were several times when he lost his footing or made a pass that just missed the mark. It was revealed after the match he was dealing with some muscle tightness, which in hindsight makes a lot of sense. Hopefully, he’s good to go against CF Montreal.

Cristian Dajome (4.0) - I’ve been hoping that Dajome could revitalize his Whitecaps career, but not like this. I feel like a broken record, but at this point, everyone can see that he does not suit the role he is playing. Almost every time the Whitecaps were building some dangerous possession, the threat came to an end when the ball was played to Dajome. Pedro Vite can’t start soon enough. I will note that I don’t think it would be a terrible idea for Dajome to play as a striker, which suits his attributes far more than this role.

Brian White (6.5) - I’ll echo exactly what Caleb is saying in this tweet below. White’s hold-up play and off-ball movement has been really really good so far this season. Is it frustrating that he has 2.3xG but is yet to score in MLS? Of course, but I think his time will come.

100% sincere take: Brian White is having a tremendous season in every regard except the ball going in the net. #vwfc
— Caleb Wilkins (@wilkins_caleb24) March 26, 2023

Substitutes (7.5) - As a whole, the guys that came off the bench played very well. Deiber Caicedo did not have much impact but it was just great to see him back in action. Ali Ahmed was very energetic down the left and JC Ngando looked pretty good, albeit still maybe a bit off the pace of MLS play. Pedro Vite really changed the threat of the Whitecaps attack when he entered in the 60th, and obviously, Simon Becher continues to be on a goal-scoring heater in very limited first-team minutes.

Vanni Sartini (6.0) - The Whitecaps dominated this match overall (1.7 to 0.6 xG) with 62% possession, so I do think the manager deserves some credit there. That being said, the lineup choices continue to confound me. Playing Laborda out of position, asking Raposo to play an incredibly demanding role as a fullback, playing Dajome as a number 10, these are all things which are easily avoidable, and yet Sartini refuses to see the light. The most hilarious part of this is that Sartini developed a formula that avoided all these problems at the end of last season, but now he refuses to use it. If someone has a cogent explanation for what is going through his head, be sure to let me know.

Ok, those were my thoughts on the match and player ratings. What did you think? Let me know in the comments as always.

Coffee with the Caps, Monday March 27

2023-03-27T09:09:00-07:00

Matt Blewett-USA TODAY Sports

Good Monday morning Caps fans, hope you all had a relaxing weekend and are getting back in the groove ahead of whatever this week has in store.

In my non-soccer life, I am also a journalist and there exists a concept of the Friday afternoon news dump. The Caps over the years have become experts at burying bad news on Friday and, well, they got another whopper in this week.

Nikos Overheul departed the Caps as head of player recruitment on Friday, a move that was apparently mutual in nature and, almost certainly, was not unrelated to the anemic start to the season in Vancouver.

Overheul came in with a much ballyhooed series of successes in Europe on the backs of his embrace of analytics and his arrival was considered a potentially watershed moment.

A look at the Caps’ recruitment before Overheul is comical to look at and underscores how big of a deal his arrival was.

I just want to remind everyone that the season before Overhuel came in the Whitecaps spent about 11 million (according to Transfermarkt). Except for Veslinovic, all of those players have since walked for free and were mostly massive anchors on the team. pic.twitter.com/hHE6khASo3
— Caleb Wilkins (@wilkins_caleb24) March 24, 2023

Aside from the fun of being reminded that David Milinkovic is a thing that happened, this is a bit painful to look at. Ranko, Raposo (which doesn’t really count as it came in the SuperDraft) and, arguably, Tos Ricketts (for the money) were successes. Everything else? Meh.

Overheul has not obviously nailed on everything but his moves have been a massive upgrade and have pointed in a clear direction of being competitive now. That hasn’t come together on the pitch but I don’t think anyone would really blame that on player recruitment.

Indeed, at a point where the Caps are increasingly behind the eight ball about what will happen with their manager, they now will be reshaping their brain trust from top to bottom. This seemingly will signal a return to the pre-Overheul recruitment strategy and/or spending less money on transfer fees.

Not that the notion of dumping more money down the drain on transfer fees is all that attractive when the club has been unable to recoup any of them, but shopping in the bargain bin without much of a concerted strategy in order to find market inefficiencies is begging for more Milinkovics.

On the pitch, things were somewhat less dire. After a match where the Caps created more chances than Minnesota United, it was talisman Simon Becher who nabbed the late, late equalizer to help escape St. Paul with a point.

Becher has looked like a legitimate, bona fide striker option in preseason and his penchant for scoring big goals is starting to exit “fluke” category. Given the well-documented (by last Friday’s column anyway) striker dilemma and that’s a good thing.

Brian White and Pedro Vite had good moments as well (I feel bad for the hate that nice guy Cristian Dajome is getting but how isn’t Vite starting?) and the midfield looked solid even without Ryan Gauld. Shoutout to Ali Ahmed, who keeps getting looks off the bench and making the most of them.

A 1-1 draw isn’t going to really move the needle much, though the Caps are at least stringing together some results. A win, however, is a must, otherwise they really will find themselves up against it. what better way to do that than against our French Canadian friends next week.

Shameless Self Promotion

Luis looks at some of the silver linings from Saturday’s draw in the post match recap.

Best of the Rest

Shoutout to the Whitecaps 2 side, who only needed one match to get their first win of the season. Antonie Coupeland and Kam Habibullah netted in the 2-1 win.

Jonathan David and Cyle Larin continued their good form, lifting Canada to a 2-0 win over Curacao in the Nations League

A peak at Vancouver FC’s kits to start their CPL existence

The ongoing FIFA window made for some, erm, interesting results in Matchday 5 of MLS

Post Match: Silver Linings in Minnesota

2023-03-26T16:52:59-07:00

Matt Blewett-USA TODAY Sports

Whitecaps Draw at the Death

FseThings are starting to look a little frustrating recently for the Vancouver Whitecaps, Champions League success aside. With no wins in the league after four games, the goodwill of Vanni Sartini is starting to run out. The tactics are stale, the play uninspiring, and there looks to be no clear direction to where the team is going. Coming into the match with Minnesota this looked to be the same case. With some players taking their time in getting going, and a DP striker now out for the foreseeable future, the situation was looking a little dire heading into the Loons’ home ground. On a night where the superstars of the Canadian national team were playing at the same time, one would be inclined to choose the team with the potential to score lots of goals.

The lineup which Sartini chose was a little rotated, with Cubas away on national duty leaving a hole in the midfield that any one on the team would be hard pressed to fill. Not an ideal place for the ‘Caps to be, but somehow they made it work.

Our vs @MNUFC

Kickoff is set for 5:39pm PT on #MLSSeasonPass on the @appletv app https://t.co/hBR92aamyQ #VWFC | #MINvVAN pic.twitter.com/oPwUnwTAgG
— Vancouver Whitecaps FC (@WhitecapsFC) March 25, 2023

With Gauld and White now moved into their natural positions, it looked like something clicked with the rest of the team. Right off the bat the Whitecaps came out striking, with White now in a more familiar position allowing him to showcase his true abilities as a number nine. Some strong shots made it interesting enough for people to guess this would not be like the typical Whitecaps affair. Somehow, everything clicked for the team in Vancouver and they played a game unlike they had before, with perfect counter attacking play and a midfield that focused more on distribution of the ball than just stopping the opponents’ attacks. Whether it be through the underestimation of the team or the Whitecaps having done their homework on Minnesota, the American team just couldn’t break down the team that took the field on Saturday.

Unfortunately the Whitecaps were let down by something that has been a recurring issue this season, as lax man marking in the box allowed for the hosts to get a goal up on Vancouver. The Whitecaps were essentially being punished as they could only muster one shot on target during the first half. The scramble to get something back after conceding led to Gauld attempting a shot that went wide but the Whitecaps were forced to go into the dressing room in a losing position.

Now, that halftime team talk must have been one of the ages, because although the Whitecaps were playing good the first half, the second was basically a commanding performance. Many of the problems which the Whitecaps have long suffered with suddenly became what they were good at, as they controlled majority of possession and got off over twice as many passes as Minnesota did. To add to this, the Whitecaps were not shy about shooting on net, probably the biggest hindrance the team has faced this season - and all of Sartini’s changes made an impact to the game. Shots from White, Dajome, and Schopf came dangerously close to tying up the game for Vancouver but Clint Irwin was up to the challenge on the day.

It appeared that although the Whitecaps had performed above everyone’s expectations, this game would be settled as a draw. That is, at least, until a certain academy prospect now scored a second important goal for the team and for his career. Simon Becher impressed in the CCL, and being put on as a sub in regular play, looked to add to his tally for the MLS. A different sort of striker than the Whitecaps are used to (Something I’ve noted in games prior), his agility and positioning is something to be lauded. At the death of the game, Becher gets on the end of a Vite cross to tie the game up for Vancouver and silence the home fans in Minnesota. Not to overstate his quality but it appears the Becher has a drive to perform and puts himself in positions to create an impact for the team. His stellar recent performances call into question whether a DP striker was necessary if they had him waiting in the wings this entire time.

Simon Becher never gave up & found the equalizer in stoppage time!!! #legionofloons 1-1 #VWFC
— Vancouver Whitecaps FC (@WhitecapsFC) March 26, 2023

Overall, the Whitecaps played a good game but struggled to put it in the back of the net (As often happens). Luckily, a player who has dug them out of this before looks to be a local answer to a much maligned problem - and hopefully this run of form becomes consistency.

Guess the Starting XI - Match 5 vs. Minnesota

2023-03-24T15:09:50-07:00

Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

The Whitecaps are in the land of a thousand lakes to take on the Loons.

Welcome back, everyone.

The Vancouver Whitecaps are out on the road this weekend taking on Minnesota United.

A big story for both teams this weekend is international call-ups, especially for the Loons, as they will be missing 7 regular starters heading into this one. For the Whitecaps, they will be without the services of Andres Cubas and Javain Brown. As an additional note, obviously Sergio Cordova is out for a while with injury, but Deiber Caicedo is back in the team and could see his first minutes of 2023 this weekend - great to see!

For everything you need to know about the matchup itself, our Caleb Wilkins has you covered here.

Ok, on to rules and standings:

Predictions will be ‘valid’ if posted HERE (or more accurately, whichever is the correct match thread) before the lineup is officially announced, usually about an hour before kickoff.
You receive 1 point for every player you correctly guess to be in the Starting XI. You receive 4 bonus points for correctly predicting all 11 starters.
You get 5 points for correctly guessing Win/Lose/Draw, this doubles to 10 if you also predict the right score-line along with the result.
All this means, if you correctly predict the Starting XI, Final Score, and Winner, you can earn 25 points!
At the end of each half, the contestant’s lowest two scores of that period will be deducted from the cumulative standings.

Coffee with the Caps, Friday March 24

2023-03-24T09:06:00-07:00

Anne-Marie Sorvin-USA TODAY Sports

Good Friday morning Caps fans, hope you all had a good week and are enjoying the fact that it is now officially springtime.

In Caps-world, it was a painful week, with confirmation that Sergio Cordova will miss the next six-to-eight weeks after coming off injured over the weekend against LA Galaxy. The striker position, already a question mark, has become even more of a problem.

I feel for Cordova, who never looked entirely fit or up to speed in his first few matches, was asked to sacrifice himself in the away leg at Real Espana in CONCACAF Champions League play and has done everything he has been asked so far.

But when the Caps elected to make him the much sought after DP striker, there were certainly lots of worries about the wisdom of the move. While there is nothing stopping Cordova for returning for the second half of the season and kicking on once fully fit, the Caps are certainly paying — for the time being — for their questionable decision.

A familiar face could be waiting in the wings to save the day: Camilo (a sentence 2013 me never thought I would write).

Yes, that guy is being linked with a move back to Vancouver and, despite initial confusion that this meant a transfer to Vancouver FC, it appears to be the Whitecaps who have been registering some interest.

I held off on broaching this rumor, as it was unclear of its legitimacy early on. But now there certainly seems to be enough smoke indicating a mutual interest in bringing the club’s most notorious Brazilian striker back to Vancouver.

We’ll set aside the obvious indictment that this move would be on the Cordova signing and instead will try to evaluate the merits of the idea. And, personally, I don’t hate it.

Even at 34 years of age, Camilo has been scoring at a decent clip for Toluca. In nine matches (only one of which he started), he has registered two goals and two assists. In the Clausura, this was six goals and an assist in 17 appearances/five starts. In the last year, he is slightly outperforming his expected goals rate.

Make no mistake, this is not the goal scoring rate of the guy who left Vancouver a decade ago. This is nothing more than a depth signing meant to compliment — not replace — Brian White. With Cordova’s absence, one imagines the talisman himself, Simon Becher, will be getting more minutes as well.

But Camilo remains a creative presence, as well as a marksman, and would seem to be a nice compliment to White, who has looked much better this season and seems like a decent bet to pop off in the league once he starts finishing off some of the really good chances he’s worked early this season.

If the signing is to happen, there will need to be some sort of public acknowledgement on the part of Camilo about the circumstances surrounding his departure and an apology to fans for the turmoil it caused.

But the club is not in a place where it can be terribly picky. Limited cap flexibility and the folly of past transfers mean that a Camilo-like guy is the best option available. Might as well go with someone one is familiar with MLS and Vancouver and has a proven record of scoring in Liga MX.

Fredy Montero would seem to be a pretty good analog for the expectations we can christen on Camilo and if he comes in and performs like Fredy did, it would seem to be a pretty helpful development. Enough to get Vancouver to the playoffs? Unlikely. But it would help bolster depth.

Best of the Rest

An interesting sit down with Julian Gressel and what he says his future might be in Vancouver

A look at how Vanni Sartini uses zonal marking and the reasons behind one of the most hotly contested parts of Sartini’s tactical arsenal

Javain Brown and Andres Cubas will be called up to their respective national teams — but MLS’ regular season marches on

Canada will resume CONCACAF Nations League play Saturday night against Curacao. A look at who to watch when that happens

Pre-Match: Whitecaps Vs Minnesota

2023-03-24T08:47:00-07:00

Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

The Vancouver Whitecaps will look to win their first game of the 2023 season away to the surprisingly hot Minnesota United. The match will be heavily impacted by international call-ups with both teams missing several key starters.

Vancouver:

Vancouver made several win-now moves in the offseason and late in 2022, bringing in players in their peak years in the hopes of boosting the team’s quality significantly. So to have 0 MLS wins so far is sub-optimal. I plan to go into things in more detail once we have a larger sample size. But to give you a quick overview of where things are at, the Whitecaps are just slightly below average across the board (so far). They give up slightly too many high-danger chances to be a defensive force and don’t generate quite enough of those chances themselves to be an offensive force. They are pretty unlucky to only have two points so far but that should not be confused with saying they are actually good. The one exception has been the goalkeeping of Yohei Takaoka who, despite an error, last week, has saved the team’s bacon numerous times.

The Whitecaps will be without Andres Cubas and Javain Brown due to international call-ups. I would imagine that Mathias Laborda and Sebastian Berhalter will slot in as their replacements.

Minnesota:

Minnesota has only played three matches so far and is off to a surprisingly strong start with two wins and a draw. Minnesota has been without star player Emanuel Reynoso who is suspended without pay for failing to report to pre-season training.

The Loons have (so far) had the season I was kind of expecting the Whitecaps to have. They generate very few chances but concede so little that they have been able to come out on top so far. But the twist is that Minnesota will be without eight players due to international call-ups. To get an idea of just how devastating this could potentially be, I had a look at American Soccer Analysis’ G+ (or goals added) statistic which looks at a player’s on-ball contributions. Minnesota will only be able to field one player who has played more than 90 minutes that the G+ model considers to be an above-average starter (Hassani Dotsan). The biggest miss might be Canadian standout Dayne St. Clair. With him absent the presumptive starter is Clint Irwin, who did not play a single MLS game in 2022.

Now, winning on the road is extremely hard in MLS. It is one of the most home-team-biased leagues in the world. But Axel Schuster said, in a preseason interview with AFTN, that the Whitecaps should be able to finish in the top-4 this year. This is the type of situation a top-4 quality team should be able to take advantage of. So, best of luck to them.

Coffee with the Caps, Monday March 20

2023-03-20T09:05:00-07:00

Gary A. Vasquez-USA TODAY Sports

Good Monday morning Caps fans, hope you all are well rested heading into Monday morning — or that some coffee at least awaits you on the burner.

It was another ho-hum result over the weekend for Vancouver. On a matchweek that was filled with drama, the Caps and their opponent for the second week in a row traded first half goals, with the added twist on Saturday that LA Galaxy had two goals ruled out that would have given them a victory.

On the surface, a 1-1 draw isn’t awful. It is the first away points the Caps have gotten in seemingly forever (or, at least, since August of last year) and the Galaxy could eventually turn a corner and be a real contender, though they too are winless through their first three matches. Everyone has struggled away in Carson in recent years, so a point is adequate.

But the Caps’ result on Saturday stood in sharp contrast to Saint Louis City SC, who won their unprecedented fourth match in a row, the first time such a feat has been achieved by an expansion side. This is a team that was hardly on people’s radars for the playoffs to start the season; you generously could have called them a rival for the final playoff spot.

And, to be sure, there remains plenty of time for the debutants to fall back to earth. It is a long season, expansion sides are known for struggling in the depth department and there are a whole hosts of unknowns about how this season in particular might play out (given Leagues Cup entering the mix this summer).

But the new arrivals are playing fun, relatively open soccer. They’ve gotten some lucky bounces but part of that is the relatively high press they play that allows them to make their own luck.

The Caps, by contrast, lack that kind of energy. There were positive moments on Saturday and they actually fortified their defense in the second half and eventually pushed for a winner. Some tweaks by Vanni Sartini (bringing Alessandro Schopf on for Christian Dajome, allowing Pedro Vite and Ryan Gauld to push forward) were good but were really nibbling around the edges of what was required.

But this is still a team that tries to play for the counter with little success on the end product. It has two strikers (one of whom might be hurt) who are sorely in need of their first goal of the season in league play. Ryan Gauld has also not tallied; two of their four goals have come from defenders and only one tally has come from the run of play.

Not all the lessons from Saturday were bad. The midfield remains stout and Andres Cubas was the man of the match once again, cementing his status as one of the elite defensive midfielders in MLS. The second half was much better defensively and, despite some communication and cross-handling struggles, Yohei Takaoka remains impressive at his shot stopping.

But you can feel a change coming, as a team with a win-now mindset that is still chasing, well, its first win doesn’t inspire much confidence. Whether that change happens before it is too late to turn things around, on the other hand, remains to be seen.

Shameless Self Promotion

More on Saturday’s draw in Carson, including a blow-by-blow (so to speak) and the broader report card takeaways.

Best of the Rest

The Galaxy are not thrilled about one of the disallowed goals against the Caps and I can’t say that I blame them

MLS will depart from recent tradition and will move back to playing a European club team in the All Star Game — this time its Arsenal

TikTok and MLS have signed a multi-year partnership, just in time for the app to be banned across the United States

Forward Janine Beckie will miss the World Cup for Canada after sustaining an ACL tear

Thiago Almada has scored an early contender for goal of the season