David Ousted and Eddie Lack weren’t speaking the same language Saturday except when it came to goalkeeping.

“I call it Scandinavian,” Ousted explained after meeting Lack in the Vancouver Whitecaps’ dressing room. “He speaks to me in Swedish and I speak to him in Danish, but we can understand each other. It’s like English compared to Scottish.”

Och, aye, we ken.

But the conversation would have been simpler in English — each player’s second fluent language.

Ousted is the Whitecaps’ goalie, while Lack plays goal for the Vancouver Canucks. Soccer, hockey — goalkeeping is goalkeeping and the amiable pair had lots to talk about Saturday after Ousted’s spectacular first-half save launched the Whitecaps toward their 3-0 win over the Philadelphia Union at BC Place.

The Whitecaps were actually fairly flat against the dismal Union until Ousted somehow took a goal away from Andrew Wenger in the 26th minute.

After a deflected shot appeared to leave the Philadelphia midfielder with an open-net tap-in at the far post, Ousted dived instinctively back and to his right and made a stunning point-blank save against Wenger, who must have been kicking himself in the bahookie for not scoring.

It was surely one of Ousted’s best saves since he arrived in Vancouver nearly two years ago from Randers FC and Denmark’s top division.

“Sometimes it takes a little moment like that,” Whitecaps’ coach Carl Robinson said of the save that jump-started his team. “David’s save, I think, ignited the crowd and literally 20 seconds later Octavio (Rivera) could have scored.

“I did think it was in. A great reaction save.”

“I never give up on a ball,” Ousted explained. “Until it’s in the back of the net, I never do. That happened today. I saw him coming ... and I just dove all that I could to get in front of him and luckily my hands were in the right spot. That was definitely a great save and you store them and know they’re there.”

Ousted has been one of the Whitecaps’ best signings in Major League Soccer. He has not only become one of the league’s top goalkeepers — his shutout Saturday was the Dane’s MLS-leading sixth in 11 games this season — but is a leader within the team, too.

But at age 30, Ousted hasn’t surrendered his dream of playing top-flight European football.

“I know there’s interest in me back in Europe and I still have my ambitions to try myself out at the highest level possible,” Ousted reiterated. “I’m very happy here. My family is well settled and I enjoy playing for the Whitecaps. But I will always have my ambitions to keep me working and keep me going forward.”

Ousted and Lack were introduced by sports psychologist David Cox, who works with both players. Lack showed up at the game wearing a Paris Saint-Germain jersey bearing the name of Swedish star Zlatan Ibrahimovi, but left in Whitecaps’ white.

“It’s the goalkeeper union,” Ousted smiled. “You guys know we always keep together, never mind the sport. He’s a great guy. I’ll talk more to him. I think it’s exciting to see what he goes through in a game — the kind of mental preparation that he does. I think I can learn a lot from Eddie.” Asked how he would handle sometimes allowing three, four or five goals in a game as hockey goalies do, Ousted said: “I would not be happy. I’d be yelling at everyone. My teammates would not like me.” Yeah, they probably would.

IN LABA WE TRUST: Whitecap millionaire maestro Pedro Morales usually gets the glory, but Vancouver’s most valuable midfielder may be defensive stopper Matias Laba. The Argentinian, whose robust work must be seen in person to be fully appreciated, broke up at least four dangerous Philadelphia attacks before Morales made it 1-0 in the 32nd minute.