VANCOUVER, BC – It’s funny how things work out sometimes.
With Vancouver Whitecaps FC eliminated from playoff contention, Carl Robinson had every intention of playing some of his younger players in Vancouver’s final two matches of the MLS regular season.
“There were two or three pencilled in to play,” Robinson told reporters on Tuesday.
Now, it’s looking like that won’t happen. Not on Sunday in San Jose, at least.
WFC2 have advanced to the USL Western Conference Final and will visit Swope Park Rangers on Saturday with a berth in the USL Cup Final on the line (5:30 p.m. PT on whitecapsfc.com). That means the likes of Brett Levis, Cole Seiler, and Marco Bustos, who have been key players for WFC2 throughout the season, are likely to remain with the United Soccer League side.
The timing is a bit unfortunate, but WFC2’s playoff run is a big achievement for the club.
It’s also a testament to the club’s depth, which recently came through in CONCACAF Champions League play as well by helping Whitecaps FC advance to the quarter-finals for the first time with a perfect 4W-0L-0D record.
“Without a doubt,” said Robinson, who still plans to “rejig” his lineup to a certain extent on Sunday. “Alan [Koch] has done a great job with [assistant coaches Steve Meadley, Pa-Modou Kah and Raegyn Hall]. They deserve a lot of credit for that. I knew we had a deep squad. We’ve managed to qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League quarter-finals as well by rotating some players. What we haven’t done is taken care of business with the main group, which we should have done.”
The dynamic has changed now with the playoffs no longer a possibility, but Robinson is still hoping the ‘Caps will take care of the business in their final two matches – and so too are the players.
Andrew Jacobson referred to it as a “professional mindset.”The idea of doing things the right way in training and going out and trying to win their remaining matches not only for themselves, but also out of respect for the other teams.
David Ousted sang a similar tune.
“You might say that we have nothing to play for. I don’t view it that way,” Ousted told reporters. “Not at all. We’ve got our jobs to play for, we’ve got the fans to play for, and we’ve got ourselves as a team. I don’t want to go out with a whimper and tuck my tail between my legs. I want to go and win. And that has to be the mentality.”
