P osted by

Harjeet Johal ,

April 26, 2015 Twitter

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VANCOUVER, B.C - The Vancouver Whitecaps tangled with Ben Olsen and his DC United squad at BC Place on Saturday night. A crowd of 21,000 witnessed a back and forth match that left the home side on the wrong end of a 2-1 defeat. The sending off of Matias Laba in the first half changed the complexion of the match. DC United created enough opportunities in the second half and secured an important road victory with Chris Rolfe's goal.

The Whitecaps still remain at the top of the MLS table with the gap is quickly closing. Vancouver have now lost two of three matches and have dropped eight of fifteen possible points at BC Place this season. Carl Robinson was not hiding away his disappointment in the result following the match. "Disappointed with the result, I think with chances we had, we could have, should have, maybe got something out of the game. Sometimes you don’t get things you deserve. And I think that’s what we got today." Pedro Morales opened the scoring 70 seconds into the match and also picked up a foolish yellow card for taking off his shirt while celebrating. DC United skipper Bobby Boswell scored on 10' minutes to equal the match 1-1. Matias Laba was harshly issued a first yellow card for a handball and later sent off by referee David Gantar after a heel clip on Fabian Espindola in the 42' minute. Carl Robinson did not want to go into detail about his teams reputation for picking up yellow cards or the type of bookings the 'Caps are earning. The Welsh gaffer touched the topic in an effort to shed some light. "There’s things we can do about certain yellow cards. There’s other things I can’t do about certain yellow cards, unfortunately. I’ll talk to them in there, because we keep racking them up. And that’s not what I want, and that’s not what the players want. Pedro takes his shirt off and gets a yellow card. In the emotion of the game he’s delighted and happy and he shouldn't do it. But he did do it. So all the yellow cards, that’s not for me to answer about."



The Opening 45

The goals came fast and furious in the opening minutes of the match. Whitecaps skipper scored his first of the season as he was left wide open in the DC United box. Octavio Rivero found Morales and he delivered a lovely loft past goalkeeper Andrew Dykstra. DC United coach Ben Olsen was shouting for an offside call on Rivero, but it never came. The Vancouver lead did not last long, because DC United came roaring back with a goal from their very own captain. Michael Farfan sent a terrific cross into the Whitecaps box that Bobby Boswell was able to head past David Ousted. The Danish keeper wasn't given much help when Sam Adekugbe was late to challenge Boswell for the header. After the pair of early goals the match settled down. The physical play and endless fouls slowed the pace of the opening forty-five down. A Pa-Modou Kah blunder nearly resulted in a goal for DC United in the 38' minute. The Whitecaps centre-back gave the ball to a streaking Fabian Espindola. The Argentine striker went 1 v 1 with Kah before laying the ball behind himself to Michael Farfan. The DC United midfielder was able to lift a chip shot over David Ousted, however the ball cleared the net as well. Matias Laba was given his marching orders in the 42' minute when he earned his second yellow card of the first half. Laba was trying to catch the speedy Fabian Espindola and managed to clip his heels. Espindola rolled around on the pitch making the tackle look much worse. Nevertheless, David Gantar reached for his pocket and Laba's night ended early. The usually never shy Pedro Morales was not willing to discuss the refereeing in this match. "I'm not talking for the referee." Vancouver was forced to play the remainder of the match with 10-men and went into halftime tied 1-1. I don't get people who say the Whitecaps are boring to watch and are over-rated. They are an entertaining side, full of quality. #VWFC — John Molinaro (@JohnMolinaro) April 26, 2015

Unreal match. #Vwfc came so close but fall 2-1. Gantar is something else. The word has not yet been coined to describe how terrible he is. — Kasey Hunter (@KRWJonze) April 26, 2015

The Second Half

Carl Robinson made a defensive substitution to start the second half. Gershon Koffie was summoned from the bench for Darren Mattocks. The swap of an attacking player for the more defensive minded Koffie would not have taken place if not for the Matias Laba sending off. DC United was quick to try to search for the go ahead goal soon after the re-start. Fabian Espindola broke in on David Ousted and had his shot turned away by the diving hand of the Caps keeper. The visitors weren't done as they kept pouring on the pressure. An ensuing corner resulted in a huge strike from Chris Rolfe in the 54' minute. Ousted was up for the task as he made a tremendous diving save. Vancouver created their own outstanding chance score moments after DC United's flurry of chances. Mauro Rosales fired a shot that beat Andrew Dykstra, but squarely hit off the far post. Pedro Morales followed up on the rebound only to have his shot blocked by Sean Franklin. Ben Olsen had to make a surprising substitution as backup goalkeeper Andrew Dykstra was forced to leave the match in the 58' minute with an ankle injury. Third string keeper, Travis Worra made his MLS debut with his parents in the crowd. Worra was almost left in tears when he spoke about his MLS debut and all of the hard work he put preparing for the match as if he was going to start all along. "At all times, you have to be prepared to play. All day today, I mentally prepared and watched tape. I acted like I was going to play. That’s what you have to do as a backup. When you’re called on, you can go in and make the saves and keep the ball out of the back of the net. That’s what I did and I felt confident. I felt nervous, I can’t lie, I was excited, but most importantly, I'm just happy to get the win for the team." The back and forth pace caught up the Whitecaps in the 64' minute when DC United took the lead. DC worked the ball up the pitch while Vancouver got caught ball watching. Chris Rolfe found himself unmarked just inside the 18. The ball was not cleared by the Whitecaps and Rolfe sent a bullet of a strike past the Danish keeper. DC United held a 2-1 advantage and never looked back. Vancouver's newest player, 'The Bug' Christian Techera made his MLS debut in the 76' minute. Techera was brought into the match to try to create some offensive with little time remaining. It was not to be as the Whitecaps failed to get going. On an evening with so much hope Vancouver just didn't have it. Man of the Match





David Ousted

A David Ousted vs Bill Hamid did not come to fruition because of Hamid's thigh injury. Instead, Ousted was the only star goalkeeper on the pitch at BC Place. Once again he showed his worth with fantastic save after save. With DC United pressing early in the second half they could have easily ran away with a lopsided win. Ousted made 4 saves on the night and looked as sharp as ever. "Yeah I'm happy with the saves today but still we lost as a team today. I’m disappointed at the loss. I think we could have gotten more out of it and even with 10 men at the end we could have tied it up and got a point but it wasn't to be."

Who was your Whitecaps Man of the Match?

Vancouver Whitecaps Starting XI: David Ousted; Steven Beitashour, Kendall Waston, Pa-Modou Kah, Sam Adekugbe, Matias Laba, Russell Teibert (Kekuta Manneh 70); Mauro Rosales (Christian Techera 76), Pedro Morales(C), Darren Mattocks (Gershon Koffie 46); Octavio Rivero. (4-2-3-1) DC United Starting XI: Andrew Dykstra (Travis Worra 58); Chris Korb, Kofi Opare, Bobby Boswell(C), Sean Franklin; Chris Pontius (Conor Doyle 90), Perry Kitchen, Michael Farfan, Nick Deleon; Chris Rolfe (Luis Silva 76), Fabian Espindola. (4-4-2) Notes: Vancouver returns to action on Saturday, May 2 when they travel to Oregon to take on Cascadia Rivals the Portland Timbers.