The Vancouver Whitecaps will rely on their depth to get through a difficult stretch that begins Saturday on the road against the Columbus Crew.
The Whitecaps (10-1-5, 35 points) are minus standouts Sebastian Berhalter and Brian White among several players with their national teams. They also had to overcome illness among the team to defeat the Seattle Sounders 3-0 last Saturday to move atop the MLS overall standings.
Now comes the hard part with six of the next seven regular-season matches on the road.
“I think it’s great for the players to be with their national teams, of course it is, but it doesn’t help us out right now,” Whitecaps coach Jesper Sorensen said. “We have to figure how we want to approach games. It could, maybe, be a little bit different from game to game.”
Whitecaps academy graduate Jeevan Badwal may be counted on again after he scored his first career goal in his first start vs. Seattle.
“Jeevan is a lucky player because he has a coach that actually sees his talent. He just has to show it,” Sorensen said.
The Crew (7-3-7, 28 points) are struggling, especially defensively. They are 0-2-4 in the past six matches, including a 5-1 thrashing by Inter Miami on May 31.
After allowing just 14 goals through the first 14 matches, the Crew have conceded 10 in the past three as teams took advantage of their high-risk offense to score on the counter.
“I want to challenge my players to get better in this kind of moments because we attack, we attack, we attack,” Crew coach Wilfried Nancy said. “And suddenly boom, boom from nowhere. And I think that this is the improvement that we need to get better at.”
The Crew will be short-handed as well. Goalkeeper Patrick Schulte (oblique) has missed three matches, midfielder Sean Zawadzki (knee) is questionable for Saturday after sitting the past two matches and midfielder Max Arfsten is with the U.S. national team.
All eyes will be on Columbus midfielder Daniel Gazdag, acquired April 11 from Philadelphia. In nine matches with the Crew, he has not scored or had an assist.
–Field Level Media
