Vanni Sartini, the director of Italian origin of the Whitecaps of Vancouver, is both socialist and atheist, two attributes which are strangely relevant in the eliminatory match of his team with the qualifiers of his team with Laftc Friday at BMO Stadium.
As a socialist, Sartini believes in the effort of cooperation, and he tried to shape his team of blue passes to reflect this.
“My motto is” the team is the leader “,” he said. “What we are trying to do on the field collectively is much more important than what we do individually.
“Everyone according to their ability to everyone according to their needs. This is what we are trying to do.”
If Karl Marx had a greater influence on Sartini's career than Pep Guardiola, it's ok. It seems to work fairly well so far.
The Whitecaps had only one record of victories in five years and were mired in a drought in the playoffs of three seasons of a franchise when Sartini succeeded Marc Dos Santos, now assistant of theFC, at the end of the 2021 season. In his first job as a manager of the MLS, Sartini, who will be 48 years old next week, won the last three Canadian championships and reached the playoff series three times. A victory Friday would put the Whitecaps in the semi-finals of the West Conference for the first time since 2017.
The team never went further in the MLS qualifiers.
And Sartini's shared approach has a lot to do with the recent success. Thirteen players contributed to the 52 goals of the Vancouver regular season this season, but only two of them scored two figures. This reflects the disjointed personality of the coach, who grew up in trying circumstances in Florence, at the Renaissance house, and continued to play semi-professional football in Italy, by working by working secondary marketing and mail jobs.
“I really believe that there is something who the coach is as a person when he thinks of the tactics he wants to use for the team,” said Sartini, a voracious and student reader who speaks three languages. “This is the reason, for example, I really believe in the defense of areas. Because everyone must defend.”
Lafc coach Steve Cherundolo is not so sure.
“If a coach can always impose his own personality on a group of individuals really depends on the group of individuals,” said Cherundolo, a right back whose player career has been much more remarkable, including more than 300 appearances in the German first division and seven departures of the World Cup for the United States
Under Cherundolo, Lafc (20-9-7, including the playoffs) went from a team based on short-term possession to a team that prefers to support it in defense and mark on the counterattack. However, he admired what Sartini did with his team, whose pay of $ 15.2 million ranks 20th in the MLS of 29 teams.
“It's a difficult team to beat,” he said. “It's a team that works hard, works together and that's what makes them effective. A team that follows rules and plays specific according to their means. ”
Cherundolo should know, since Friday's match will be Lafc's 12th against Vancouver (14-8-14) in the past two seasons, including a two-game scan in the first round of the western conference in the western conference last season. Under the league Weird playoff formatThe first round is a series for the best of the three and Lafc won the first 2-1 game At home, while Vancouver took the second 3-0 in Canada.
None of this will continue in the third match at the BMO Stadium, where Vancouver will again be an outsider against a Lafc team with the second best home record in the League. The match will go directly to the penalty kicks if the score is tied at the end of the regulation, the winner advancing to face the Sounders of Seattle in the semi-final conference in a match.
“It is a question of who wants it more,” said defender Lafc Sergi Palencia. “We have to want it more.”
Which brings us to the religious beliefs of Sartini – or rather to his lack of religious beliefs. Although this was a magical year for the Whitecaps – when they beat Toronto during week 6, they exceeded the classification of the conference which, late in a season for the first time since 2018, a stadium planning conflict forced Vancouver to play its playoff game in Portland last month, where timings had one of the best records in the league.
“God is a fan of the Timbers,” said Portland coach Phil Neville about the apparently divine intervention.
After the Whitecaps won this 5-0 match, then beat the LAFC last Sunday for the second time in 11 tests, Sartini was asked if God had suddenly changed allegiances and would seek to join a group of supporters from Vancouver.
“I don't know if he wants to join the Whitecaps. Or she, because perhaps God is an Elle,” he said. “If he wants to become a fan of Whitecaps, we will give him a honorary card of any group he will appreciate.”
Sartini said that he had not heard from God, but insisted that the good fortune of the Whitecaps was more the result of hard work and six goals in the last four games of the Ryan Gauld midfielder than the blessings of a deity.
“This is the work of men we are, the working class team we have,” he said. “Let's try to go to the next round.”
If Sartini can succeed, God may not be the only one looking for a place in the Vancouver train.
