The season came to an abrupt end October 1st when the Cap’s played host to the Seattle Sounders in front of yet another record crowd of 24,837 at BC Place.
No different than watching a hockey game, this one included a lack of discipline along with a poor finish with not much of “lady luck” on the Whitecaps side.
In the 81st minute Jordan Harvey was called for a handball that allowed Sounders Brad Evans a penalty kick that proved to be season’s end for the Vancouver Whitecaps season.
This proved to be the game winner in the must win match for Vancouver, that saw Sounders goalkeeper Stefan Frei record 3 saves in the match.
The win see’s the Sounders move into 5th in the west standings allowing them to clinch a post season spot improving to .500 (13-13-5) for 44oints on the year.
They have three games left to move up in the Western Conference standings prior to the regular season is concluded.
Vancouver falls to 9-15-8 with two games remaining with no hopes of any chance of a playoff run.
The game started well for Vancouver as they continually pressed the Sounders defense causing problems at the back managing to get scoring chances only to have Sounders “keeper” Stefan Frei make some impressive saves.
Alvaro Fernandez of the Sounders had a great chance in the 7th minute sending a rocket towards David Ousted who narrowly got his hand on the blast sending the ball wide of the far post.
The Sounders made an sub early as Oniel Fisher had to come and replace an injured Alvaro Fernandez early in the first half.
Vancouver’s Pedro Morales opened the scoring on a penalty kick in the 25th giving the Caps a 1 nil lead.
Alphonso Davies the 15 year-old from Edmonton was electric in the first half in only his second MLS start and at times caused the Sounders fits in the opening half after being taken down in the penalty area by a Seattle defender.
This kid’s got lots of talent and marches to his own drum without showing any signs of rust and we were told that there was a Scout from Manchester United keeping an eye on him.
Morales made good the shot and converted the PK to give Vancouver 1 nil lead in the 17th minute.
On one of the only chances Seattle had in the first half saw them convert a Whitecaps mistake at the back and Osvaldo Alonso headed the ball for the equalizer tying the game at one in the 39th minute.
As the first half was coming to an end Pedro Morales rang a blast off the goal-post allowing both the teams to head to the intermission deadlocked at 1-1.
The second half saw Pedro Morales get a red card for an attempted elbow in the direction of a Sounders player and was red carded by referee Ricardo Sanchez.
The Caps were forced to play with 10 men for the remainder of the match and from there it seemed the Sounders took over.
Sounders Jordan Morris rang a shot off the crossbar and in a manner of getting more offense Seattle sent in Brad Evans for Oniel Fisher.
This proved to be a stroke of genius by Sounders Head Coach Brian Schemtzer late in the match, with him working his magic with his club.
Sounders import Nelson Valdez caused the Caps fits with his playing time in the match testing Ousted at the top of the penalty area only to see him get a finger on it tipping it over the crossbar.
Brad Evans was ejected for a an attempted Head-Butt forcing the Sounders to play with 10 men the rest of the match.
Vancouver’s playoffs hopes were put to rest for the 2016 season forcing the club to focus on next year.
The Cap’s have two games remaining this season with one on the road and the final game against the Portland Timbers October 23rd at BC Place with the kick-off set for 1 pm.
Man of the Match was Osvaldo Alonso from Seattle.
Other Notes:
The Whitecaps FC2 squad won their quarter final match in the USL Division 2 with a 2-1 win on the road over Colorado Springs Switchbacks to advance to the semi-finals against Oklahoma City Energy FC.
The match will be played October 8th at UBC’s Thunderbird Stadium with kick-off set for 12pm.
A win will see them advance to the USL Playoff Cup finals and really one out of two teams in the final isn’t all that bad!!
Tough year for Carl Robinson and group and Sportswave wishes him all the best moving forward.
Photo credit to http://wpmedia.theprovince.com/2016/10/vancouver-b-c-october-2-2016-vancouver-whitecaps-
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