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Final score: Impact 2, Whitecaps 1.

“That’s the beauty of the game,” said Montreal coach Wilmer Cabrera, whose team won for just the second time in 10 games.

“The game can change in one second, good or bad. In our case, we could go 2-0 (down), but nobody knows what could happen in this situation. But what I know is the mentality and the attitude of the players today.”

Photo by John Mahoney / Montreal Gazette

But Vancouver coach Marc Dos Santos failed to see the pulchritude in the moment, as the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) delivered yet another painful blow to his team this season. In his team’s six-game winless streak to start the season, the Caps were whistled for four penalty kicks. Two of them the referees’ association admitted later were wrong, and a third should be categorized as controversial at the bare minimum.

The bitter history was foremost in the coach’s mind when he addressed the media after the game.

“The key point in the game is the penalty-shot situation that I totally disagree (with). It’s a huge mistake,” Dos Santos said. “There’s no chance it’s called back in Atlanta, in Seattle, in L.A., no chance.

“But it’s called right now because we don’t have the full respect right now of officials, and that’s going to change. But it shouldn’t be called. It needs to be clear and obvious. … It’s ridiculous. It’s a changing point in the moment of the game.

“This is not called in other places. It’s not. I watch pretty much every MLS game. It’s not. I can’t talk about VAR this year, because it’s been disastrous for us in many moments. It was horrendous.

“The game is changing,” he said. “I fell in love with another game. This game is robotic. One day there’s not going to be players on the field; I think PlayStation on TV is going to sell more than real games. It’s becoming so robotic.”