LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. — A young Vancouver Whitecaps side, missing key players and mourning the death of a teammate’s mother, came close to shocking the San Jose Earthquakes on Wednesday at the MLS is Back Tournament.
The depleted Whitecaps built 2-0 and 3-1 leads, resisting wave after wave of San Jose attackers as the match wore on. But Vancouver could not hold on, losing a wild game 4-3.
Goals by substitute Chris Wondolowski, in the 72nd minute, and Oswaldo Alanis, in the 81st, tied the game at 3-3 and set the stage for substitute Shea Salinas’ 98th-minute heroics.
Vancouver was reeling during the nine minutes of stoppage time before Salinas administered the coup de grace at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports complex. The former Whitecap dribbled through the Vancouver defence, got a fortunate bounce and knocked the ball past goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau.
“It’s an emotional one, for so many different reasons. Our team has gone through a lot to get to this point and the boys played their heart out tonight,” said Whitecaps captain Russell Teibert, who made his 200th first-team appearance.
“It’s one of those that’s really hard to take in right now because we put so much into the game and we deserved so much more out of it…This one hurts. We wanted to win this one for Bryan and his mom.”
Backup goalkeeper Bryan Meredith left the team Tuesday to be with his family in New Jersey after the death of his mother Beth. Whitecaps players wore black armbands with B.M. on them, with fullback Jake Nerwinski walking out holding Meredith’s jersey with Beth Meredith’s name written under the number.
Forwards Lucas Cavallini, Fredy Montero and Tosaint Ricketts, defender Andy Rose and defender/midfielder Georges Mukumbilwa did not make the trip to the Florida tournament for personal or medical reasons.
Defenders Janio Bikel (adductor strain) and Eric Godoy (quadricep strain) were injured in training Sunday.
Vancouver only managed nine players on its bench, compared to 12 for San Jose.
The Earthquakes dominated possession and had eight corners in the first 30 minutes but found themselves down 2-0 to the opportunistic Whitecaps, who led by two despite having just one shot on target.
Ali Adnan and Cristian Dajome scored for Vancouver, which also benefited from an own goal.
Andy Rios also scored for San Jose.
The Quakes outshot Vancouver 30-7 (11-2 in shots on target) on the night, set a league mark with 22 corners and had 67.8 per cent possession. The Whitecaps lived dangerously on defence but made the most of their few chances at the other end, helped by San Jose blunders.
“Very valuable and painful at the same time,” said Vancouver coach Marc Dos Santos, summing up the night. “There’s a lot of positives we’re going take from this game. We’re going to analyse the mistakes and see what we could have done better on the goals.
“But when you come out of 130 days without playing, with so many guys not being here with the team, and you play against a team that’s fully equipped…and you play toe-to-toe with them, face to face, you didn’t back off, you created, you scored. Unfortunately you give too many goals away.
“I could only be proud of the group that is here and the guys that worked here. So I’m very excited with what this team could become in the future.”
Adnan, Vancouver’s Iraqi international left back, opened the scoring in the seventh minute, curling a shot past a diving Daniel Vega from just inside the penalty box.
Vancouver made it 2-0 in the 22nd minute on an own goal when Dajome, after a San Jose corner went horribly awry, stole the ball from Brazil’s Judson and fed Yordy Reyna behind the Quakes defence. Reyna tried to slip the ball back to Dajome in the box but instead it bounced off Judson’s leg into the goal.
Rios cut the lead to 2-1 in first-half stoppage time off the Quakes’ 12th corner of the half, deflecting the ball in with a delightful flick of his foot with his back to goal.
Dajome capitalized in the 59th minute when a dreadful pass from Vega went straight to David Milinkovic, who found the Colombian alone in front for his first MLS goal.
The 37-year-old Wondolowski started the comeback, flicking in a header to cut the lead to 3-2. The goal was the 160th of his career, adding to his MLS-record regular-season total, and his 14th against Vancouver.
Alanis then rose high to score off San Jose’s 19th corner, which tied a league record, to level the score.
Vancouver was the last team to see action at the tournament, taking the field at ESPN’s Wide World of Sports complex after Orlando City and Philadelphia had already qualified for the knockout rounds.
The Whitecaps were originally slated to open July 9 against FC Dallas but the game was scrapped when Dallas withdrew due to a rash of COVID-19 positive tests.
San Jose, the first team to arrive in Orlando, opened the tournament last Friday with a 0-0 tie with the Seattle Sounders.
Vancouver plays Seattle on Sunday before facing Chicago, which replaced Dallas in Group B, on July 23.
Group games at the tournament count in the regular-season standings, leaving Vancouver at 1-2-0 and San Jose at 1-1-2.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 15, 2020.
LONDON – Canada will meet three-time champion Germany in the Davis Cup quarterfinals in Malaga, Spain this November.
Canada secured a berth in the quarterfinals — also called The Final 8 Knockout Stage — with a 2-1 win over Britain last weekend in Manchester, England.
World No. 21 Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal anchored a five-player squad that included Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., Gabriel Diallo of Montreal, Alexis Galarneau of Laval, Que., and Vasek Pospisil of Vernon, B.C.
The eight-team draw for the quarterfinals was completed Thursday at International Tennis Federation headquarters.
Defending champion Italy will play Argentina, the United States will meet Australia and Spain will take on the Netherlands. Schedule specifics have yet to be released but the Final 8 will be played Nov. 19-24.
Tim Puetz and Kevin Krawietz were unbeaten in doubles play last week to help Germany reach the quarterfinals. The country’s top singles player — second-ranked Alex Zverev — did not play.
The Canadians defeated Germany in the quarterfinals en route to their lone Davis Cup title in 2022. Germany won titles in 1988, ’89 and ’93.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Canada, fuelled by a 2-1 win over the U.S. and scoreless draw with Mexico, has jumped two places to No. 38 in the FIFA men’s world rankings released Thursday.
Of the top six CONCACAF teams, Canada was the only one to move up. Mexico was unchanged at No. 17 while the U.S. and Panama each fell two rungs to No. 18 and 37, respectively
Costa Rica slipped one spot to No. 50 and Jamaica two places to No. 61.
It marks Canada’s highest ranking under coach Jesse Marsch, who was hired in mid-May when the Canadians were ranked 50th. Since then, the team has climbed to No. 49, 48, 40 and now 38.
Canada has been as high as No. 33 in the men’s ranking, achieved in February 2022 under John Herdman with Canada, named the “Most Improved Side” in 2021 by FIFA, turning heads with an unbeaten run in CONCACAF World Cup qualifying.
The new rankings encompass 184 internationals involving teams from all six confederations including 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Asia, Oceania and South America.
The top 10 was unchanged with Argentina ahead of France, Spain, England, Brazil, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, Colombia and Italy. But the gap at the top is closing with Argentina losing 2-1 away to Colombia and 3-1 at home to Italy.
Teams 10 through 15 were also unchanged. But there was movement after that in the form of Japan (, up two), Iran (No. 19, up one) and Denmark (No. 20, up one). Egypt (No. 31), Ivory Coast (No. 33), Tunisia (No. 36) and Algeria (No. 41) all jumped five places while Greece (No. 48) climbed six spots.
The biggest movers were Brunei Darussalam (No. 183) and Samoa (No. 185), who vaulted seven spots on the back of two wins apiece.
Qatar suffered the biggest drop, tumbling 10 places to No. 44.
San Marino remains at the bottom of the rankings in 210th place despite recording its first victory in more than 20 years, San Marino defeated Liechtenstein 1-0 on Sept. 5, ending a 140-game winless run since a 1-0 decision over the same opponent in April 2004.
Liechtenstein fell four places to No. 203.
Canada’s next match is an Oct. 15 friendly against Panama at Toronto’s BMO Field. The next men’s ranking will be released Oct. 24.
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This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024
HOUSTON (AP) — Brian White scored in the second half to rally the Vancouver Whitecaps to a 1-1 draw with the Houston Dynamo on Wednesday night.
Houston (12-9-8) took a 1-0 lead into halftime after Ezequiel Ponce scored on a penalty kick in the seventh minute of stoppage time. Ponce’s third goal this season came after Amine Bassi drew a foul on Whitecaps midfielder Pedro Vite following a video review. It was Ponce’s sixth career appearance, all starts.
Vancouver (13-8-7) scored the equalizer in the 73rd minute when White, who entered in the 60th, used assists from Fafá Picault and Ryan Gauld to find the net for the 13th time this season. Picault’s assist was his fifth, matching his career high for a single season. Gauld’s assist gives him a career-best 13 on the season.
Yohei Takaoka, who had clean sheets in his last three starts, finished with one save in goal for the Whitecaps.
Steve Clark saved three shots for the Dynamo, who remain one point behind Vancouver in the Western Conference standings.
Houston, which was coming off a 4-1 victory over Real Salt Lake, has allowed just 33 goals this season.
Vancouver — 6-2-2 in its last 10 matches overall — leads the all-time series 10-9-6.
The Whitecaps remain on the road to play the Los Angeles Galaxy on Saturday. The Dynamo travel to play Austin FC on Saturday.
