The Vancouver Whitecaps are not technically out of the playoff race yet, although it seems likely that they will be soon. Kekuta Manneh is injured, so they can’t score goals, and Kendall Waston has been more of a yellow card-machine than anything else this year, so they’ve struggled to do much defensively. It hasn’t been a banner year for Carl Robinson and co.
They had a bit of a bright spot last Saturday when they defeated the Columbus Crew 3-1 on the road, putting together possibly their best, most cohesive performance of the season. Waston was in 2015 Defender of the Year candidate form, Matias Laba was solid as a defensive midfielder, and their 4-4-2 formation with Giles Barnes and Masato Kudo up front generated enough genuine attacking chances for the goal-challenged Caps to score three times.