The Vancouver Whitecaps headed to Tucson, Arizona, for the next stage of their preseason preparations on Monday, and they did so with four trialists in tow.
Whitecaps coach Carl Robinson is still looking to add some attacking elements to his squad and will have a closer look at three wingers and a striker in Arizona. Among the trialing quartet is veteran Welsh forward Robert Earnshaw, whose option was declined by the Chicago Fire at the end of last season and who Robinson knows the talents and virtues of very well.
Earnshaw came to Major League Soccer in 2013 with Toronto FC and went on to score eight goals in 26 appearances during his debut season for the Reds. After a short spell in England, the striker came back to MLS to join Chicago in 2014, adding another three goals in five games to his stats.
Earnshaw is a proven goalscorer in MLS, and Robinson is keen to see if he can be the veteran presence the Whitecaps' young front-line could use.
“Earnshaw I’ve known for many a number of years,” Robinson told reporters after the Whitecaps' first preseason training session in Tucson on Tuesday. “Ernie wants to get some football training under his belt. So I’m helping him a little bit, but we also get to have a look at him for 10 days because he’s without a club at the moment.”
The Welsh striker is joined in Arizona by former Whitecap Dane Richards, ex-Portland Timber Kalif Alhassan and 20-year-old Canadian Cristian Cavallini. Left winger has been an area previously identified by Robinson as still needing to be addressed, and the ‘Caps coach hopes he may find his solution in Richards or Alhassan.
“Kalif and Dane are wide players,” Robinson said. “We’re a little bit weak in that area, so I want to try and strengthen. They’ll come in for 5-7 days and I’ll have a look at them. Both different types of players. One’s more an outside-to-in player; the other one’s more of an inside-to-out player.”
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Cavallini, the younger brother of Canadian international Lucas Cavallini, is the only one of the four players without previous MLS experience. Richards, 31, went to college in the US and played six seasons in Major League Soccer, finishing the 2012 season with Vancouver before joining English club Burnley. Alhassan, 24, has four seasons in MLS under his belt; his option was declined by Portland at the end of last year.
Center back Pa Modou Kah was the only Whitecaps addition during the offseason with previous experience in the league, and Robinson hopes to add some more seasoning to his young squad before the season gets underway.
“I think it’s important when you’re identifying players,” Robinson said of his search for MLS-experienced guys. “Sometimes in MLS, a player gets valued too high because a team that owns their rights will ask for a little bit too much money for them, or allocation or draft picks. It’s important that we get the balance right, but we are looking for a MLS player or two.”
