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Carl Robinson rarely gets riled up in practice.

If he scolds his players, it happens almost exclusively in the privacy of the Whitecaps’ locker-room.

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Tuesday, the Caps’ coach was the most animated he’s been this season — publicly anyway.

Partway through a drill, he gathered the team around the centre circle and made it crystal clear the effort and execution level wasn’t acceptable.

If it was a shrewdly timed show for public consumption, he masked it well. It looked more spur-of-the-moment — a wake-up call ahead of the biggest game of the season so far, at home to the Portland Timbers on Saturday (2 p.m., TSN1, TSN 1040).

Whatever the case, Robinson played down the heated huddle after practice.

“We need to up the intensity at certain times and I thought today was the right day to do it,” he said. “The reaction from the players was good.”

Photo by AP Photo / Julie Jacobson

The Caps, who’ve raised expectations in their two seasons under Robinson, are 3-5-2 and have just one win in their last six games.