RSL turned in strong defensive performance vs. Whitecaps, despite injuries to the back line

Vancouver Whitecaps midfielder Alphonso Davies raced up the left wing, but was met by RSL captain Kyle Beckerman. Unable to beat the veteran midfielder, Davies changed directions and took the ball across the middle. RSL got back in its block as Davies passed to the back line, which couldn’t make any headway up the right side either.

Finally, Whitecaps defender Kendall Waston sent a long ball to forward Kei Kamara, but he had Justen Glad on his back, fighting for the header. The ball bounced off Kamara’s chest, and Adam Henley collected the ball to begin an RSL counter attack.

With a good defensive shape and a team well prepared for Vancouver’s attack in transition, RSL was able to hold the Whitecaps to one goal in a 2-1 win at Rio Tinto Stadium on Saturday. They did so despite two injuries to the back line in the first half.

“We weren’t chasing the game,” defender Adam Henley said. “We were able to sit back a little bit more and soak up a bit of the pressure and I think all across the back four and the whole team defended really well, especially in the second half. That’s what you have to do sometimes, dig out results, and that’s what we’ve done today.”

Henley made his MLS debut 13 minutes into the match, coming on for Demar Phillips at left back. Henley, a former Blackburn fullback who signed with RSL over the offseason, had started the season as one of two players battling for a start at right back. A hamstring injury sidelined him to begin the year, and Brooks Lennon moved from winger to start three straight matches at right back.

“When Henley entered the game,” RSL coach Mike Petke said, “it was, ‘Take 5 minutes, get a touch on the ball, settle in, don’t do anything too crazy. Just let the game come to you.‘”

The match immediately gave Henley time to settle in, with a stoppage in play as trainers assessed Kamara after he and RSL defender Marcelo Silva knocked heads battling for a header.

Two minutes after play resumed, Henley received a yellow card for slide tacking Jake Nerwinski’s feet out from under him as he tried to recover a giveaway. From there, however, Henley found the rhythm of the game, making solid defensive stops while also getting up the line to send a well-placed cross to Jefferson Savarino in the 29^th minute.

Petke said the focus for the first five minutes was the same for David Horst when he replaced an injured Marcelo Silva in the 41^st minute.

“I thought that Adam and David held it pretty well, I honestly do,” Petke said. “I thought David brought a presence, with Kamara especially. Once we got into the rhythm, after 5 or 10 minutes, I thought they did very well.”

The Whitecaps’ lone goal came off a long ball from Davies. Kamara got a head on it, and Brek Shea raced ahead of RSL defender Brooks Lennon to put it away.

That was the same type of counter-attack that RSL had been able to disrupt for the majority of the game.

“How many times did they punt the ball sixty yards in the first half alone to Kamara to play off of him?” Petke said.

Shea’s goal came just four minutes after Savarino finished a cross from Corey Baird for RSL’s second goal of the night, so it made no difference on the result.