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Damir Kreilach has a very long history with Real Salt Lake, but he’s hoping to help the Vancouver Whitecaps set history on Saturday night.
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Published Mar 22, 2024 • 5 minute read
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Vancouver Whitecaps’ Damir Kreilach celebrates his goal against Tigres UANL during the first half of a CONCACAF Champions Cup soccer match, in Langford, B.C., on Wednesday, February 7, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
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NEXT GAME
Whitecaps vs. Real Salt Lake
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When/Where: Saturday, 4:30 p.m., B.C. Place
TV: Apple TV Radio: AM730
It’s OK. You can say it. You didn’t expect the Vancouver Whitecaps to be on the verge of the best start in team history. They might not have, either.
They didn’t drastically upgrade their squad in the winter or make any big moves when the European transfer window closed in February. Their head coach has been sidelined, watching the first three games from the box while serving out the suspension earned in the final game of 2023.
And then there’s the history. Whoa boy, that history.
In the past two seasons, the Whitecaps haven’t won a game until April, going a combined 0-6-4 in the first five games of 2022 and 2023.
Look back a bit further, and the overall record in the first five games since 2019 is a woeful 4-15-6.
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“We’ve been saying for the past two years now, ‘we have to have a strong start,’ and obviously, the past two years haven’t been very strong starts,” striker Brian White said with a wry smile.
“So I think everyone’s pretty excited … so far, so good, especially being on the road and getting six points. So hopefully we can continue that momentum.”
Heading into the first of four straight games at B.C. Place — Saturday night against Real Salt Lake (1-2-1, 8th West) — the Whitecaps are 2-0-1, good for second place in the conference, trailing only Minnesota (3-0-1).
Sure, it’s only three games, but it’s the best three-game start for the team in more than a decade.
For those wondering, this D-W-W matches the best three-game start to a season for #Vwfc.
They started 2012 W-W-D-D … and in 2014, started W-D-D-W.
— J.J. Adams (@TheRealJJAdams) March 17, 2024
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The 2012 Whitecaps came out of the gates with a 2-0-2 record, only losing two of their first nine games, on their way to a fifth-place finish in the West and the first playoff berth in team history. And in those first four games, the Caps didn’t concede a goal.
While it’s a small sample size — and we can be honest, a bit cherry-picked — it’s also rattling around the Whitecaps’ heads right now.
“I’ll be honest, I’d be lying if I didn’t (think about it),” said assistant coach Mike D’Agostino, who will fill in for Vanni Sartini for the final game of the head coach’s reduced suspension.
“We just need to keep our feet on the ground,” he continued. “We’ve had a good start, but it’s not about the first three games — it’s about all 34. So managing game by game and whether it goes well or it doesn’t go well, just focusing, inch by inch and game by game is the most important thing.
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“We’ve got to make sure we stay really, really confident with everything that we do and believe in the fact that we can win in the game.
“The problem (comes) when you turn confidence into arrogance, that’s when it becomes a slippery slope. So we need to be confident, believe in what we can do, believe that we can win every single game, but we also can’t have any arrogance at the end of the day.”
It would take quite the personality for one of these players or coaches to adopt an overconfident persona, since none of the players on the squad predate 2019. Ranko Veselinović and Ryan Raposo are the longest-tenured players, joining the team in 2020, and all have suffered the brutal seasons’ beginnings since then.
Last year’s season-opener against RSL is a good place to start. A game where the Whitecaps looked dynamic and deadly turned around with two goals in a three-minute span in the second half, and the Caps crashed out to a 2-1 loss.
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The man who scored the winner in that game, Damir Kreilach, has traded his cobalt and claret for the white and blue (and gold!) of the Whitecaps. He won’t celebrate if he scores against his old team on Saturday (4:30 p.m., Apple TV, AM730), but he will if they win.
“Emotions are pretty high,” said Kreilach, a club legend in his time at RSL, starting with the ‘Karate Kid’ goal that knocked LAFC out of the playoffs in 2018.
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“And I think all that’s completely normal,” he said. “It’s part of what I love to do the most, and that’s playing football. … I had an amazing six years there. I have life long friends. And now it’s something new. You turn a new page in my life, in my career.
“At the end of the day I think it’s bigger than soccer and football,” he said, adding he’ll catch up after the game with “brother for life” Marcelo Silva, the RSL defender who’s bringing his entire family up to visit the Kreilach clan.
“I’m so happy basically to see him, to see friends, his family and at the end of the day, all our friends from RSL. But for 90 minutes on the field, I will have no friends.”
Tell that to Silva.
“He’s a person that these days I call a friend. But that doesn’t change that when we’re on the pitch, we’re very competitive. He’s going to want to win and so will I,” he told KSLsports.
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“We both know that when playing, we’re both going to do everything we can to win. But it’s good to be this way. He’s defending another jersey, other colours now and he’s going to want to win just as he did here.
“He was the person I would see the most outside of training. With him I have too many memories. Our relationship extends to our families. Our families would get together for trips, dinners at my place and dinners at his place. To tell you the truth, if I had to pick just one, I would be selling it short. I will always have great memories that we’ve shared, from the second I met him to today. I will always cherish those good memories.”
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Courtesy : https://theprovince.com/sports/soccer/mls/vancouver-whitecaps/vs-real-salt-lake-bc-place-march-23