PLENTY TO CELEBRATE
Whitecaps into MLS West semifinals with win.
Well, well, well. Look who finished second in the wild, wild West of MLS.
Yes, it’s the Vancouver Whitecaps, who stumbled to the finish line with just three wins in their final 10 games and with an attack reduced to popgun status by a spate of injuries to the club’s top attacking midfielders.
“You didn’t believe that, with how well we played the last month,” cracked goalkeeper David Ousted when asked if it seemed kind of surreal that the club finished second and earned a first-round playoff bye.
“Surreal is real. I would say we’ve been lucky with (other) results that have gone our way. But we also are in second because we deserve to be here. We’re the second-place team in the division. We’ve shown that over the year.”
He’s right, of course. It’s a 34-game regular season for a reason. All those wins they piled up in a 4-1 start and in a pair of 3-0 runs in mid-season paid off in spades.
Still, the Caps, winless in their last five, needed a nervy-for-thefirst-hour, 3-0 win Sunday over the playoffs-eliminated Houston Dynamo in front of 21,000 at BC Place to leapfrog the foundering Los Angeles Galaxy. Vancouver finished 16-13-5 for 53 points, tied with Portland (15-11-8), but claiming second by virtue of more wins.
The big-budget Galaxy, the two-time reigning MLS champions, fell 2-1 on the road to Sporting Kansas City to finish at 51 points off a 14-11-9 record.
One of head coach Carl Robinson’s favourite phrases is “to be honest,” and the bench boss insisted he isn’t at all surprised that the Caps finished with the third-best record in MLS.
“Over 34 games, the league doesn’t lie,” said Robinson, whose squad is the youngest in MLS. “We deserve to be where we are. That’s me being honest. And I always am honest.”
Finishing second, behind FC Dallas means the Caps advance directly to the two-leg conference semifinals next weekend and don’t have to play in one of the elimination games on Wednesday and Thursday. Those games pit No. 3 Portland at home to No. 6 Kansas City and No. 4 Seattle at home to No. 5 Los Angeles
The Caps will start the semifinal on the road Nov. 1, then play the second leg at home on Nov. 8. There’s a very good chance it could be against one of their Cascadia rivals.
“It’s always great playing the Cascadian teams,” said young winger Kekuta Manneh. “There’s a rivalry behind it, a history behind it. We’ll be ready whoever we have.”
With five games in the West all kicking off at the same time Sunday and five teams in position to finish second through sixth, there was plenty of scoreboard watching going on. And when Seattle and Portland took early leads over Real Salt Lake and Colorado, respectively, the Caps looked to be in trouble as they struggled through a scoreless first half.
But they finally broke through in the 59th minute against the Dynamo, who were just 2-9-5 on the road and playing out the string.
Manneh, goalless in eight, got his seventh of the season, on a well-placed, one-hopper from 22 yards that found net just inside the post. He was set up by Gershon Koffie, who had surprisingly started at No. 10 as the Caps’ medical staff told Robinson it was too risky to start Nico Mezquida, who had missed five games due to a hamstring injury.
Towering centre back Kendall Waston, who earlier in the day was named the Caps Player of the Year in a fan vote, made it 2-0 in the 72nd minute, heading a corner down and in off the thigh of Houston’s Will Bruin.
Late substitute Robert Earnshaw joined in on the unexpected offensive outburst with a flick-header off a perfect Mauro Rosales cross in stoppage time.
The Caps had three quality chances inside the first 13 minutes, but came up empty each time — twice on terrific diving right-hand saves by Houston backup Joe Willis, in for the food-poisoned Tyler Deric.
He stopped an Octavio Rivero header in the third minute and denied Matias Laba on a blistering shot from just outside the box.
On the third chance, Cristian Techera ripped a shot off the underside of the cross bar from 22 yards after Rivero had neatly headed down a fine Tim Parker ball to the top of the box. Blown chances like those had killed the Caps over the last five weeks. They had been shutout three times in going 0-3-2.
But they kept pushing forward in the second half and were finally rewarded for their effort.
And now they get another week for Mezquida and Rosales to get fully healthy, maybe even for captain Pedro Morales (hamstring) to perhaps be ready for a few playoff minutes.
That would be a surprise. But in an often wacky and wonderful season, the Caps have been full of those.