Is Brian White the best striker the Whitecaps have ever had?
The relentless American is the second-leading goal scorer in team history, behind Camilo, and you could argue that his all-around game slots him ahead of the little Brazilian
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In the dozen years that the Vancouver Whitecaps have played in Major League Soccer, they have had a few strikers of note — Fredy Montero, Kei Kamara, Kenny Miller and Camilo head up a pretty solid list — but Brian White is either the best or second best.
There’s just no getting around it: the relentless American is the second-leading goal scorer in team history, behind Camilo, and you could argue that his all-around game slots him ahead of the little Brazilian, who bolted for big bucks in Mexico ahead of the 2014 season.
The Whitecaps sit seventh in the Western Conference this season, holding games in hand on every team ahead of them in the standings. Only two teams in the west have a better goal differential than the Caps’ plus-6 (Seattle has also has scored six more than they have given up) and each week the Caps’ performances have gotten a little better.
That improvement now has them in the knockout rounds of the Leagues Cup, after beating the Los Angeles Galaxy away on Sunday, White scoring an injury-time goal to secure their progression.
White’s goal on Sunday was clinical, the kind of finish Caps fans have become accustomed to since the 27-year-old Yinzer joined the Whitecaps in a 2021 trade from the New York Red Bulls.
And it was created by the best creative player the club has ever seen in Ryan Gauld. Gauld, by the way, has eight goals and 11 assists over the past two months. White himself has five goals in all competitions since May 31.
You can’t help but wonder how things might have gone for the likes of Kamara and Montero had they had a player like Gauld operating behind them.
It is no coincidence that the Whitecaps have lost just twice in regular time during this time — league losses to Sporting Kansas City and Seattle.
White’s finishing success isn’t about luck, either. He has simply been in the right place on a consistent basis — according to American Soccer Analysis, he has the second-most expected-goals total this season.
That’s a player doing good work.
He is a player who runs all day, the very ethos of what head coach Vanni Sartini wants from his team — pile pressure all game, forcing turnovers, intercepting passes, keeping play far from their own goal.
On Sunday, Sartini thought, rightly, his team was lucky to win. The Caps struggled in the first half — partly because of a last-minute lineup shuffle due to an injury during warmup for Luis Martins — but righted their ship in the second half, after a change in formation, moving four players to the back.
The Caps struggled for possession for much of the night, but defended well enough, keeping most of L.A.’s possession to the outside and defending their penalty area well enough that L.A. managed just three shots on target.
“The main takeaway, it’s like, if we don’t press with the intensity that we’re used to, it’s hard for us to win games,” Sartini said frankly.
Defending only takes you so far, of course, and the team’s finish — White’s goal came 10 minutes after a Gauld cross into the box caromed into the L.A. net off Galaxy defender Calegari — was spot on this night.
Some nights you don’t deserve to lose but you do, and some nights you don’t deserve to win but you do. Sunday was a bit of luck in a season that hasn’t seen much either way.
But it was also a statement about how things can go when you have attacking players firing on all cylinders.
Second time’s a charm?
The Whitecaps will face Liga MX giants Tigres for the second time in a knockout competition. The two teams faced off in the semi-finals of the 2017 CONCACAF Champions League.
Tigres won the first leg at home in Monterrey in convincing fashion, then wore down the Caps in the second leg at B.C. Place. Tigres lost the final to Pachuca, another Mexican club.
A handful of Tigres players remain from that two-leg encounter, Nahuel Guzmán, Javier Aquino, Guido Pizarro, André-Pierre Gignac, and Luis Quiñones.
Just one Whitecap remains from that Carl Robinson-directed side — the indestructible Russell Teibert, who remains from before the team’s inaugural MLS season in 2011.
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