Caps Move Into First

The road warrior Vancouver Whitecaps pulled off a come from Behind 2-1 road victory over the Columbus Crew in Major League Soccer action winning their third game in five starts in front of 8,922 on lookers.

The win see’s the Whitecaps move into first place in the Western Conference standings with 10 points atop the table, also noting that the victory was the second in three matches on the road for Vancouver.

The Cap’s handed the undefeated Columbus Crew their first loss of the season in the come from behind effort as the Caps improved to 3-1-1 good for 10 points from 5 games in the early 2018 season.

The Caps coach made five roster moves in the line-up from the previous game against the LA Galaxy that see’s the return of Captain Kendall Watson back from International assignment.

Columbus opened the scoring in the scoring in the 29th minute on a strike by Pedro Santos firing home the original shot from Gyasi Zardes after Caps keeper Stefan Marinovic made the initial save off of Zardeo that saw him hammer home the first goal of the match.

The match remained this way that saw Vancouver settle down holding the Crew to the lone goal as the teams headed to halftime, but the second half would see Vancouver press the Columbus defenders forcing them to clear the ball in order to maintain the one goal advantage.

Vancouver struck for the game equalizer in the 51st minute on Kei Kamara’s second goal of the season tracking down a Brek Shea cross from the flank following a Columbus turnover.

He managed to nail it home from 18 yards out past Crew “tender” Zack Steffen sending it to the back of the net to even the match at 1-1.

It did however appear that the Caps scored the game go ahead goal in the 71st minute on a cut off the flank going around Crew “keeper” Zack Steffen managing to send a perfectly timed cross to substitute Alphonso Davies who entered the match late.

The goal however was reviewed by the officials and ruled a hand ball on the play and was called back keeping the match tied one.

Vancouver’s Russell Teibert came close to sending one past Steffen of Columbus a short 10 minutes later but was robbed as he deflected it off his palm managing to deflect it over the bar.

A short 7 minutes later, the Cap’s would not be denied following a ball wide from Teibert to Davies, that saw the teenager play a ball back to Felipe, who then swung in a cross for Kamara to head in for the 2-1 Whitecaps winning goal.

The win see’s the Whitecaps sit in first place in the Western Conference, tying for the league lead with 10 points.

Next up for Whitecaps FC is a visit to Real Salt Lake April 7, with the following match at BC Place April 13 (Friday) for their first ever match against the expansion side Los Angeles FC.

 For ticket information, visit whitecapsfc.com/tickets

MATCH DETAILS

Budweiser Man of the Match: Brek Shea

Scoring Summary

29′ – CLB – Gyasi Zardes

51′ – VAN – Brek Shea

78′ – VAN – Kei Kamara (Felipe, Alphonso Davies)

Stats

Possession: Columbus 66.7% – Vancouver 33.3%

Shots: Columbus 10 – Vancouver 5

Shots on Goal: Columbus 2 – Vancouver 3

Saves: Columbus 1 – Vancouver 1

Fouls: Columbus 10 – Vancouver 10

Offsides: Columbus 4 – Vancouver 1

Corners: Columbus 4 – Vancouver 0

Thanks to Vancouver Whitecaps for the stats