RSL vs. Vancouver Whitecaps recap: Allen, Velazco impress; RSL light on CBs?

Yesterday’s match was fun, wasn’t it?

I mean, aside from the part where you couldn’t really watch it live unless you somehow got lucky, and the part where we gave up a goal far too weakly.

Other than that, it was great, right?

Here’s my favorite part of the match. You won’t be surprised by this one.

Of course, there was more to it than that. We got a good look at some players, and that was nice. It was doubly nice to see Ricardo Velazco plowing through the attack, and our player ratings writer for the night, Andy Graff, agrees.

Velazco has a lot of energy and looks very hungry. He’s out to prove something and it’s great. He’s showing us all why he earned that promotion from Real Monarchs.

Randal Serr saw Jordan Allen as the best on the day, though — and really, with these halves set up the way they are, it’s always going to be hard to make a one-to-one comparison. Allen’s a great shout for it, no matter what.

Rusnak and Plata deserve plenty of credit for the build up to that goal, but without Allen’s finishing ability, there is no goal or tie. Allen looks like a lock to start the season in that desired spot and we’ll see if he can continue this high level play when it counts.

Reader reactions

15-2-32 is worried about our center back situation:

- Chris Schuler is wildly inconsistent when it comes to health and is really not all that great with the ball at his feet.

- David Horst is a journeyman defender. He’s not bad, but he’s far from good. IMO, he’s not a starter on a team that wants to win anything.

- Aaron Maund is a damn good third option at CB. He is not a consistent starter, though, on a really good team.

- Justen Glad has what appears to be an incredibly high ceiling, but still makes a lot of young mistakes. Partnered with the right player, he could be really good.

What say you?