Tom Krasovic: ‘Hectic’ 11 minutes sank San Diego FC’s season

Eleven minutes of soccer under siege.

That’s the mystery San Diego FC has to solve.

“I’ll think about the first 11 minutes for a long time,” said coach Mikey Varas.

Soon after a full-house crowd of 32,500 belted out the first “S…D…F…C” chant of the Major League Soccer semifinals playoff match Saturday night, the Canadian team blitzed the home squad for steals and goals in the eighth and 11 minutes to set up a 3-1 win and reach the MLS Cup.

“It became too hectic,” explained San Diego FC captain Jeppe Tverskov, “and made it a very difficult start for us.”

“We got caught a little bit by surprise,” Varas said.

Maybe it was just Vancouver’s time to shine. “Psychology in sports is unbelievable,” said Vancouver coach Jesper Sørensen, noting his team had beaten every other Western Conference rival but SDFC during the regular season.

Regardless, SDFC must come to grips with those first 11 minutes so it can learn from them. Otherwise, it would shortchange its feat of becoming just the second first-year MLS team in 30 years to reach a conference final.

Varas said Monday he’s rewatched the game twice but still needs to “unravel” more details.

“Ultimately, it was this: we played against a very good team with very good players and a very good coach,” he said.

“The first 11 minutes, they were flying.”

Tverskov expressed similar praise. “They played the game very well,” he said of a Vancouver club that beat Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami club twice early this year and signed Thomas Müller, the brilliant German star, later in the season after having lost to and tied with SDFC.

Soccer teams that “fly” – Varas’ term – tend to have great clarity in what they’re seeing and doing.

Tverskov said the Whitecaps “surprised us a little” by running their offense through wide attacks by wingers, contrasting their over-the-top style. And he said the visitors made key steals via “clever,” “patient” and “perfect” pressure moves.

Whereas SDFC shredded Vancouver’s high press in July to win 5-3, the Whitecaps answered with better efforts in the rematch — the 1-1 draw in San Diego — and improved upon those efforts Saturday.

“Sometimes in football, it’s the split seconds and the decision that make a play,” Tverskov said. “The way we play with buildup, and building off of the ‘keeper — (while it) can be risky, it’s also where we gained from a lot. We don’t mind people going high on us, and pressuring us. But, they caught us a few times.”

The lone Vancouver player Tverskov mentioned by name was Andrés Cubas. “Extremely impressive with his pressure and general movements,” he said of the defensive midfielder.

Cubas, a 29-year-old Argentine and Paraguayan national, made the game’s most important play, coming with the score 0-0 and SDFC trying to build out.

When SDFC rookie right back Ian Pilcher, 22, was too heavy with his first touch, Cubas swooped from behind and stole the ball.

The 5-foot-4 Cubas followed with a quick give-and-go to beat SDFC’s rapid convergence, ran to a through pass into the box, pulled out the goalkeeper with a dribble drive and made an ideal crossing pass, left to right.

Brian White, Vancouver’s goals leader, had earned a step on SDFC defender Luca Bombino, 19, at the far post.

The 29-year-old striker’s sliding finish went for SDFC’s first goal allowed in three matches.

Vancouver’s veterans weren’t done attacking San Diego’s rookie defenders.

Right wing Emmanuel Sabbi, 27, is an explosive attacker who spent two years in France’s top league.

Leading to the 11th-minute goal set up by the wide angle of attack, he drove by the agile Bombino, while staying beyond Tverskov and another pursuer.  Next came a give-and-go from Müller, a shot, a carom and a blast into the mixer that produced a goal.

It was 2-0, and SDFC was on its heels.

“It’s in the back of your head that they are feeding off what you’re doing,” said Tverskov, a defensive midfielder. “So you need to be careful.”

Vancouver left wing Ali Ahmed, 25, is in his fourth MLS season. A year ago, Pilcher was playing for the University of North Carolina-Charlotte in a different position.

Mere seconds before halftime, Ahmed tamed a long diagonal pass that defeated SDFC’s one-sided pressure.

Well wide of goal, the 5-foot-11 wing drove by Pilcher to near the back line, enabling a crossing pass. White, who’d gotten behind Bombino to the far post, finished with his chest. The lead was 3-0.

SDFC rookie Manu Duah, 20, made the game’s best defensive play, heading away a liner — but Vancouver went after him, too. In the 79th minute, Duah was harried into an errant pass. The result: goalkeeper Pablo Sisniega was red-carded out of the game for roughing up a player to try to prevent a fastbreak.

So, a few takeaways from the 11-minute blitz and overall uphill feel.

Second-seeded Vancouver exploited the inexperience of a SDFC’s three rookie defenders who, it can’t be forgotten, outperformed their MLS-minimum salaries to help power SDFC to the first seed and victories over eighth-seeded Portland and fourth-seeded Minnesota.

Sørensen didn’t join the team until January. He played 15 seasons in Denmark’s top league as a midfielder and coached in Denmark for a decade before his dismissal last December. The way his team performed Saturday in taking a 2-0 lead mitigated vulnerabilities on its own back line.

Vancouver’s Axel Schuster is in his fifth year as sporting director. He hit a grand slam by signing Müller, a fellow German, after Sørensen and he sold the 13-time Bundesliga champion and 2014 World Cup champion on Vancouver’s plan and aptitude. Müller, 36, has more big-game wisdom than many MLS clubs have as a whole. Keeping him out of MLS’ biggest game was going to very tough.

SDFC — players, coaches, front office and ownership — ought to benefit from the harsh lessons of Saturday’s game. They earned themselves a high-level education that many in their positions may not ever get.