VANCOUVER, BC – Vancouver Whitecaps FC will take the point, but not without some consternation.
After the 'Caps lost their talismanic captain Pedro Morales and winger Kekuta Manneh to first-half injuries, along with the defensive spine of the team, Matias Laba, to a 28th-minute red card, it seemed the visiting LA Galaxy had the clear upper hand.
But a solid defensive showing and some dangerous counter-attacking play saw the ‘Caps grab a gritty scoreless draw that extended their undefeated home record against the Galaxy to five matches, leaving 'Caps coach Carl Robinson with “mixed emotions.”
“Great character, great spirit, great fight by the group, by the 10 guys,” Robinson told reporters. “Obviously disappointed we picked up a couple of injuries to key personnel, but that's what squads are for. It was just one of those nights for us tonight where everything seemed to go against us.”
After a shaky defensive start to the season, the ‘Caps have now kept back-to-back clean sheets. Robinson was quick to praise the shift put in by his backline in the draw, singling out goalkeeper David Ousted in particular for the point-blank stop he made to keep Gyasi Zardes out.
LA outshot Vancouver 15-5 and controlled possession, but despite being down a man, Whitecaps FC were a constant threat on the counter and at times looked the more likely team to break the deadlock.
“I'm happy for them," Robinson said. “If we hadn't have taken anything out of the game after the amount of work we'd put in, I'd have been seriously disappointed.”
"Would I like to be greedy? Yeah, but we'll take a point and move on. I just saw Bruce in the corridor there. I apologized to him for bunkering in a little bit, but we knew we had to do it to get something out of this game. We got something out of the game."
The Laba red card was a decision that irked both coaches. LA coach Bruce Arena was unhappy at how the sending off disrupted the game, an opinion with which Robinson concurred.
“I agree with Bruce's comments,” Robinson said. “There are too many red cards. Fans pay their hard-earned money to watch games of football and the best players on the field – 11 v 11. There are too many red cards. Us as a group of coaches, and the players in there, are unsure … We've got one of the top midfielders in the league who's made a tackle today and has been sent off, and I'm not sure why.”
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