P osted by

Harjeet Johal ,

May 14, 2015 Twitter

@HarJournalist Read this on your iPhone/iPad or Android device



VANCOUVER, B.C - Without further delay, the first leg of the Amway Canadian Championship semi-final match between Whitecaps FC and FC Edmonton finally kicked off after a snow apocalypse disruption one week ago. Vancouver fielded a strong lineup against Colin Miller's NASL side, but had to settle for a 1-1 draw in front of 15, 283 spectators at BC Place. The Caps and Eddies will head back to Edmonton and play the second leg of this series on Wednesday, May 20 at Clarke Stadium. FC Edmonton Manager Colin Miller was delighted with the result his team picked up. The Eddies scored an all important away goal and they will look to carry that momentum in front of their home supporters. "To put an effort in like that tonight I think is fantastic, absolutely fantastic. We wanted to keep the tie tight, score an away goal which we did and I thought for a spell in the first half almost gave the impetus back to the Whitecaps sometimes because we gave the ball away too easy in the wrong areas. That gives the crowd a lift because it gives the Whitecaps a lift. But the heart, the determination, the character was everything the Eddies stand for. I am very proud of everyone in the club and everyone back home is very proud of the team as well." Tomi Ameobi opened the scoring in the 4' minute after shockingly stripping the ball off of Gershon Koffie. Vancouver regained their legs after the break and looked more lively on offense. The Caps efforts paid off in the 87' minute when Gershon Koffie redeemed himself and knotted the match. The Ghanian holding midfielder had this to say about his up and down first leg performance vs FC Edmonton. "I think we came out to win this game. Sometimes it doesn't go your way, but we didn’t lose. We’ll take the positives out of this game. Mistakes are part of the game. Mistakes happen here and there. Thanks to my teammates, they helped to fight back."



The Opening 45

Edmonton started the match in a defensive 4-5-1 formation, but they were anything but defensive. Vancouver were caught off guard when the Eddies opened the scoring after a terrible turnover just outside the Vancouver box. Skipper Gershon Koffie had his lunch and his wallet stolen by Tomi Ameobi. The FC Edmonton striker walked in a hammered the ball home past a sliding Paolo Tornaghi. Edmonton struck first thanks to an unnecessary blunder by an MLS veteran midfielder. The Eddies lone striker shared his thoughts on the match and the tying goal that resulted in a hard-fought draw. "I think we probably deserved to get a little more out of the game. They were pushing in the second half, and obviously going down to 10 men kind of killed us a bit. They managed to get the goal when we had our man off." After securing an all important away goal, FC Edmonton were reluctant to sit back and rest on their early strike. The Eddies kept coming and applied pressure to the inexperienced Vancouver back-line of Ethen Sampson, Tim Parker, Christian Dean, and Sam Adekugbe. The Whitecaps struggled to connect in the opening forty-five. FC Edmonton looked like an MLS quality opponent and Vancouver did not. Carl Robinson was forced to make an unexpected first half substitution when Sam Adekugbe went down with a right ankle strain. Jordan Harvey was the only defender listed on Carl Robinson's bench and he entered the match at left-back for Adekugbe in the 17' minute. Harvey started and played 90' minutes in Vancouver's 3-0 win over Philadelphia on Saturday and did not skip a beat against FC Edmonton. The visitors stymied the Whitecaps and kept a disjointed Vancouver side from gaining anything going forward. Vancouver struggled to create offense and showed no connection between the midfield and striker Darren Mattocks. FC Edmonton's early goal gave them the confidence needed to come into BC Place and play a terrific first half. Vancouver went into the break with a possession advantage of 52% - 48%. Whitecaps gaffer Carl Robinson talked about how he was able to spark confidence and motivation within his team during his team talk at the half. “I just said to them to be confident. The game panned out exactly as I thought it would. Unfortunately I didn’t think about giving them a goal after two or three minutes. The way they played was exactly how I thought. I thought they slowed the game down. I give Colin credit. His team managed the game very well which is why I said to him at the end in the 46th, 49th minute, in the 55th minutes – your players are going down. It’s not why we pay to watch football. The ball wasn't in play enough." In 7 days the 2nd half of this game! Same vibes, same belief of the last minutes and we'll get to the #canChamp final! #GoCaps #VWFC — Paolo Tornaghi (@PaulTornaghi) May 14, 2015

VanOekel (@MVOextreme) named Man of the Match after an outstanding performance! Way to go Matt! #VWFCvFCE #canChamp — FC Edmonton (@FCEdmontonNow) May 14, 2015

The Second Half

The Whitecaps showed urgency in the opening minutes of the second half. Erik Hurtado had a glorious opportunity to even the match in the 49' minute. The Vancouver winger was able to dance around Johann Smith before firing a blast on target. Matt VanOekel was forced to make a lovely diving save to keep FC Edmonton ahead. Darren Mattocks had his own terrific opportunity to tie the match in the 57' minute when he challenged Matt VanOekel. The FC Edmonton goalkeeper turned aside the Jamaican internationals shot on target and continued to keep Vancouver from scoring. Mattocks described the atmosphere on the pitch. "It was always going to be a game like this, a bit scrappy. I think we did a great job fighting for 90' minutes. We go down 1-0 early, but I think we did a really good job of coming back. I would definitely take the positives out of this game and we look forward to next week in Edmonton. It's going to be a dog fight, and it's going to be the same, but we know we're capable of getting 3-points down there." In an effort to change the Whitecaps offensive tactics, Manager Carl Robinson brought on Robert Earnshaw in swap for Nicolas Mezquida. The substitution seemed to perk the Whitecaps because they continued to push forward for the equalizer. Darren Mattocks headed a ball into the path of Erik Hurtado in the 65' minute. With the crowd roaring and anticipating a strong effort on goal, Hurtado sent his attempt directly into the advertisement boards. VanOekel and FC Edmonton escaped danger once again. Holding midfielder Deybi Flores picked up right calf cramp and was forced to exit the match in the 74' minute. Kekuta Manneh was used as Vancouver's final substitution of the match. The speedy Gambian dynamo worked on the left flank with Mattocks supporting him up front. Just when it looked like FC Edmonton would escape Vancouver with the first leg victory they fell asleep in front of their own goal. In the 87' minute Erik Hurtado and Gershon Koffie teamed up to score. Koffie was able to send Johann Smith to the ground as he poked the ball into the net. Matt VanOekel had vacated his net and the visitors were unable to clear the ball out of danger. Man of the Match





Tim Parker

The rookie was solid anchoring the Whitecaps back-line. The 22 year-old player earned his first MLS start on Saturday vs Philadelphia and completed another 90' minutes vs FC Edmonton. Parker was able to switch from right-back on Saturday to his natural centre-back position. The rookie defender was able to help contribute to Vancouver's strong defensive front after allowing an early goal. Tim Parker showed that he is more than capable of stepping up and playing big minutes for the Whitecaps in any type of competition.

Who was your Whitecaps Man of the Match?

Who was your FC Edmonton Man of the Match?

Vancouver Whitecaps Starting XI: Paolo Tornaghi; Ethen Sampson, Tim Parker, Christian Dean, Sam Adekugbe (Jordan Harvey 17); Gershon Koffie(C), Deybi Flores (Kekuta Manneh 74); Erik Hurtado, Nicolas Mezquida (Robert Earnshaw 61); Kianz Froese; Darren Mattocks. (4-2-3-1) FC Edmonton Starting XI: Matt VanOekel; Eddie Edward, Kareem Moses, Mallan Roberts, Johann Smith; Sainey Nyassi (Michael Nonni 88), Cristian Raudales, Ritchie Jones(C), Daryl Fordyce (Tomas Granitto 80) , Lance Laing; Tomi Ameobi. (4-5-1)