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Harjeet Johal ,

September 24, 2015 Twitter

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VANCOUVER, B.C - The Whitecaps and Sounders CONCACAF Champions League play continued at CenturyLink field with both teams having an opportunity to secure a place in the knockout round next February. A win for either side would see them through at the expense of their biggest rival. Carl Robinson elected to go with a youthful lineup while Sigi Schmid went with a more veteran lineup. The Sounders veterans won the tactics battle with a convincing a 3-0 victory in front of 37,624 spectators. A pleased Sigi Schmid talked about his balanced lineup that helped the Sounders move forward. "Obviously we are pleased with the result, it gets us into the next round. It’s nice to have a lot more players healthy, so then options and choices were a lot better. Obviously we played seven fresh guys tonight of the 11. It’s always easier when it’s a young player like Roldan plays next to an experienced player rather than having two young players next to each other. We are very pleased tonight." Lamar Neagle scored a brace, Chad Barrett added a goal and two assists, while Nelson Valdez also had a pair of assists The contest was one-sided with Vancouver never really threatening the Sounders. Carl Robinson made no excuses for the loss following the match. Vancouver clearly took one on the chin. “We had our first team that played on Saturday against Seattle. We’re young and we knew we were going to be even younger. We are banged up at the moment, but I won’t use that as an excuse. I made changes based upon energy levels among the team and picked the team that I thought could get a result today. We give away a couple of bad goals. You look at their lineup, a very strong lineup, and they made a number of changes as well. Their changes are experienced players, mine are young players so it’s one we’ve got to take on the chin.” The Opening 45

Chad Barrett had an unmarked header in the early stages of the matches which should have put Seattle ahead. Leo Gonzalez sent in a cross and Barrett was not picked up by Christian Dean or Pa-Modou Kah. The Seattle striker failed to convert as his header found the arms of goalkeeper Paolo Tornaghi. The Whitecaps received a scare on 25' minute as Cristian Roldan caught Nicolas Mezquida with his forearm as both players battled for position. Mezquida was down on the pitch and severely bleeding below his chin. After leaving the pitch for repairs the 23 year-old was able to return to the pitch. The experience of Seattle was quite clear on the opening goal of the match. A great build up from Cristian Roldan and Nelson Valdez led to the Whitecaps being exposed at the back. Chad Barrett was able to slip in behind the Vancouver back-four and sent in a cross into the Vancouver area. A streaking Lamar Neagle out raced Diego Rodriguez and poked home the ball in the 32' minute. Chad Barrett has a history of causing all sorts of trouble for the Vancouver Whitecaps. He was at it again and delivered some bad news for the visitors in the 38' minute. Marco Pappa sent in a precise free kick from the left flank that Barrett was able to rise up above Pa-Modou Kah and score. Paolo Tornaghi came out of his net to either catch the ball or punch it away. He did neither and was caught out of goal. The Sounders don't need any help scoring and Vancouver was not on point in the first half. Barrett was glad to see Seattle move onto the next stage after fielding healthy lineup and which featured a great showing and excellent 90 minute effort in front of the home supporters. “It’s good, it’s big, it’s nice we were able to field such a good team tonight. If you look, it’s a lot of the starters from last year. We haven’t been able to put out that type of lineup (in CCL), It was good to have so many healthy guys because this was important. It’s important to be able to go to the next stage." Vancouver had a first half to forget and went into the interval trailing 2-0 and showing zero signs of life. Robert Earnshaw was alone on an island up top and the Caps struggled to get possession. Seattle held a 61% - 39% possession advantage, a 3-1 corners advantage. All the emphasis on winning a Canadian Championship, choose to play your second XI in the next round and get eliminated. Bit pointless, no? — Mike Martignago (@MikeMartignago) September 24, 2015

So which #VWFC players actually want to go to Honduras for that last #CCL game? — Andrew Ngo (@doods1484) September 24, 2015

The Second Half

The Second Half got under-way and wasn't any better for Vancouver. Skipper Pa-Modou Kah had a disastrous give-away in midfield that Seattle devoured and turned into a goal. Nelson Valdez and Chad Barrett played a nice give-and-go before Barrett sprang a streaking Lamar Neagle. The Whitecaps defense was once again too slow to react. The Tacoma, Washington native was 1v1 with Tornaghi and able to score inside the far post. As if it couldn't get any worse for Vancouver, it did. Nicolas Mezquida was forced to depart the match when he pulled up with a hamstring injury. Mezquida was visibly frustrated as he left the pitch. Kekuta Manneh entered for Mezquida in the 54' minute. The Sounders continued to control the match and manage possession as well as the clock. Vancouver looked out of sorts on all fronts and never made Seattle work hard enough. It was just one of those matches for the Whitecaps that you have to chalk up and move on from. Passes went astray, the ball was dribbled out-of-bounds. This was no match of the day fixture. A disappointed Tim Parker pointed to the mistakes being the downfall for the Whitecaps after such a promising end to the Champions League. "I think it was pretty disappointing. They were goals that came from mistakes. I hate to say it like this but I think if we are going to get scored on we want the other team to earn it. I think we want to make Seattle earn those goals not kinda us give the ball away or something happen that we are at fault for it." CONCACAF Champions League will have to wait until next season for Vancouver. The Whitecaps got a good taste of what the competition in tails and this defeat will better the organization for the future. While teams from Mexico have long dominated in this tournament, MLS sides are starting to step up and get results. Carl Robinson and his players will have to come back stronger with a more balanced lineup in the future. Russell Teibert and the Whitecaps saw the standards of the team slip up in Seattle. The Canadian international vows to see better going forward. “You can say it is one game or the other. You can say it is because we drew at home or because we lost here. I don’t think it was up to our standard tonight. I don’t think it was up to our standard when we played at home. I think we can do better. I think we are a quality team and we have shown that we are one of the best teams in the MLS all season long. I think we just need to do better. We need to be better and play up to our standards. I think if we would have done this we would have advanced.” Paraphrasing Robinson's comments following the loss, "We never took this competition seriously, glad it's over"... #VWFC — Andew Chobaniuk (@morbital) September 24, 2015

Vancouver Whitecaps Starting XI: Paolo Tornaghi; Tim Parker, Pa-Modou Kah(C), Diego Rodriguez, Christian Dean; Deybi Flores, Matias Laba (Russell Teibert 63); Kianz Froese, Nicolas Mezquida (Kekuta Manneh 54), Sam Adekugbe (Marco Bustos 76); Robert Earnshaw. (4-2-3-1) Seattle Sounders Starting XI: Stefan Frei; Tyrone Mears, Brad Evans(C), Chad Marshall, Leonardo Gonzalez; Marco Pappa, Erik Friberg (Michael Azira 63), Cristian Roldan, LaMar Neagle; Nelson Valdez (Aaron Kovar 73), Chad Barrett (Oniel Fisher 78). (4-4-2) Notes: The Whitecaps return to MLS action on Saturday, September 26 as New York City FC visits BC Place.