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But they couldn’t match Lodeiro, although we wonder how much better Morales might look if a teammate occasionally scored from one of his passes.

Whitecap Erik Hurtado couldn’t convert a first-half breakaway sprung by Morales, and Giles Barnes, the best striker Vancouver has even if Robinson kept him on the bench for the first 61 minutes, banged an uncontested shot off the post from inside the penalty area after a sublime through-ball by Morales.

The Whitecaps need a Lodeiro. They need a central striker capable of at least 10 or 12 goals. When the team reconstructs this winter, those two positions should be the starting points.

They certainly do not need a new goalie, but they needed a better game from Ousted on Saturday, when he actually made three major errors in the second half but got away with the first two.

“He got time on the ball over there to drive in a cross,” Ousted said of Lodeiro, who wasn’t closed down by Whitecap substitute Alphonso Davies. “It goes over David Edgar’s head. I step out to try to get to it and Morris comes out of my blind spot and gets in front of me. It’s a good cross in, but we didn’t prevent it.

“We’ve definitely let in some bad goals this year and also we haven’t scored on our chances. We were inches away today on a great strike by Giles and if that goes in, we’re talking a different game.”

It didn’t sound like Ousted was accepting blame for the goal, but every keeper knows if he comes for the ball he better get to it.