The Vancouver Whitecaps are facing the kind of problem familiar to anyone with a few seasons of rec league soccer under their belts: they don’t have any goalkeepers available.
The Whitecaps have been left scrambling to find someone to start in goal in Sunday’s game against Charlotte FC. A finger injury suffered earlier this month is keeping starter Thomas Hasal out, while Cody Cropper and Isaac Boehmer have been placed in MLS health and safety protocols, leaving them unavailable as well.
Vancouver does have a fourth goalkeeper on their books, but Evan Newton is on loan to El Paso Locomotive in the USL Championship, and recalling him from a U.S.-based club would require clearing his International Transfer Certificate, a process that generally takes a couple of weeks.
Similarly, the MLS pool goalkeeper system would require an ITC to be processed, or for MLS to have a pool goalkeeper whose ITC is held by a Canadian club. It’s not clear that such a player exists, and MLSsoccer.com‘s Tom Bogert reported that the system was “not an option” for the Whitecaps this weekend.
As such, Vancouver got creative. First, they looked to the Canadian Premier League, signing Niko Giantsopoulos on a short-term loan just for this weekend. His club, York United, played a CPL match on Friday (Giantsopoulous went the full 90 in goal), and do not play again until a Canadian Championship cup match on Tuesday. Helpfully, both games are in British Columbia, with Pacific FC hosting York twice in a row.
Earlier on Saturday, the Whitecaps then relied on an only-in-MLS deal, signing Canada Under-20 goalkeeper Max Anchor out of their academy system to a deal in MLS Next Pro.
#VWFC are signing Max Anchor to a MLS Homegrown pre-contract for 2023, and MLS NEXT Pro for this year and also an MLS Short-Term Agreement for Sunday’s match. #MLS #CLTvVAN #ForTheCrown pic.twitter.com/as855UEgnO
— Har Journalist (@HarJournalist) May 21, 2022
Anchor has signed a pre-contract on an MLS homegrown deal to start in 2023, and with him in the fold at the MLS Next Pro level, Vancouver has the ability to sign him to a four-day MLS contract (per the terms of the MLS Collective Bargaining Agreement, teams can offer a player four such deals in a year before they’re obliged to sign him to a full-time MLS contract), which
All of this means the Whitecaps will have two actual goalkeepers available to do that against Charlotte. The situation echoes one they ran into during the MLS is Back Tournament in 2020, where Hasal (then a new homegrown and clearly third-choice) ended up being the only goalkeeper Vancouver had available for their knockout round match against Sporting Kansas City.
The Whitecaps will be hoping Giantsopoulous or Anchor can replicate what Hasal did that night, as he posted a shutout despite Kansas City attempting 37 shots. While the Whitecaps were eliminated in a penalty kick tiebreaker, Hasal managed to save a penalty there as well.
Vanni Sartini’s side will have a tough night at the office, as the missing goalkeepers are not the only players out. Jake Nerwinski and Pedro Vite are also in the health and safety protocol, while Tristan Blackmon and Caio Alexandre are both out with injuries, and striker Lucas Cavallini is suspended due to yellow card accumulation.
That leaves Sartini with just 22 players (including Giantsopoulos and Anchor) to call on as they host Charlotte Sunday evening.