After a demoralizing weekend where they lost the Canadian Championship to TFC, the Whitecaps look to rebound against the Columbus Crew. They will be shorthanded when they face the Crew for the second time this season as they will be without their captain Jay DeMerit and their top playmaker Davide Chiumiento, while Eric Hassli will be a gametime decision. It is only their second home game under the Tom Soehn regime with the first being a 1-0 victory over the Philadelphia Union.
With injury concerns there will be some shuffling of the lineup as they will most likely play a 4-2-3-1 formation. If Hassli is unable to go then Salgado may start as the lone striker against the team he scored his first MLS goal. Behind him will be either Dunfield or Brovsky to start with the other partnering with Koffie as the holding midfielder.
Camilo will start at one of the wing spots with either Salinas or Teibert starting on the opposite side. Leathers will have the right back spot and Boxall should start in one of the central positions on the backline. Rochat could start in the middle, if Wagner is the fourth, or on the left side, if Janicki gets the call. Joe Cannon will get a chance to redeem his shaky performance over the weekend.
There are a lot of questions being asked after their three game road trip where they dropped all three matches. The best way to answer these questions is to get a result in their game tonight against the Crew. In their previous match up, a 2-1 loss, the Caps were dominated by the Crew’s width and will need their fullbacks and wingers to play together with the central midfielders. The team needs to start learn to grind out goals when on the attack and with all their missing players it will need to in order to get a result.
(image courtesy of Bob Frid)
