Match Report:

By Simon Fudge/whitecapsfc.com

Vancouver Whitecaps recorded their third straight win after an entertaining 3-2 victory at Carolina RailHawks on Friday evening.

In a game that had five goals, six yellow cards, and the sending off of Vancouver defender Takashi Hirano, the Whitecaps maintained their grip on first place in the USL First Division standings after first-half goals by Charles Gbeke, Omar Jarun, and Eduardo Sebrango gave Vancouver another valuable win on the road.

Though the Railhawks found the scoresheet through the South American duo of Santiago Fusilier and Martin Nunez, Carolina saw their winless streak extended to seven games after their first-ever home defeat to Vancouver. This despite putting the Whitecaps ten men under tremendous pressure in the second half.

Whitecaps head coach Teitur Thordarson named an unchanged side to the starting XI that played in Tuesday's 2-1 win at Miami FC Blues. RailHawks head coach Scott Schweitzer, meanwhile, made two changes to the side that lost 1-0 to Vancouver at Swangard last Saturday. Fusilier and Mauricio Segovia replaced Steven Curfman and Daniel Antoniuk for Friday's game.

On a nice evening for soccer in Cary, North Carolina, it was the Whitecaps in their away kit of all blue that made an sensational start to the match by taking the lead after just two minutes.

Alfredo Valente's free kick from the right side of the Carolina box came off of Sebrango's head, with Jarun doing well to track down the loose ball at the near post. With time and space, the centre back picked out Gbeke right in front of goal with his well-placed pass, and the Vancouver striker slotted home his second goal of the season and the Whitecaps first at WakeMed Soccer Park.

It was another great start to a USL-1 game by Vancouver, but Carolina tried to respond a minute later. Unfortunately for the home side, Ryan Solle's strike flew wide of the Whitecaps goal.

The expansive confines of Carolina's home pitch was providing welcome space for the visitors to exploit their hosts on a frequent basis.

On 10 minutes, Hirano earned a Vancouver free kick on the left-hand side after Fusilier had fouled the former Japan international. From Martin Nash's ensuing free kick, RailHawks goalkeeper Chris McClellan fumbled the ball in the Carolina box, with Jarun doing well to track down the loose ball. The big centre back turned and struck home his first-ever Whitecaps goal to go with his first assist for the club eight minutes earlier, as Vancouver were already two goals in front.

The home side tried to respond to the shellshock of being 2-0 down so early, with Whitecaps centre back Wesley Charles receiving a yellow card for his late challenge on Carolina striker Hamed Diallo on 13 minutes. Three minutes later, Fusilier was well off-target with a strike near the edge of the Vancouver box after getting on the end of Kupono Low's corner from the right.

The RailHawks would pull themselves back into the match on 18 minutes, and in controversial circumstances. Low's free kick from the left was punched clear out of his own box by Whitecaps goalkeeper Jay Nolly. The clearance, however, fell nicely for Fusilier and his half-volleyed strike back at goal found the back of the net, despite Nolly being deliberately impeded by Carolina's Segovia in his attempt to block the Argentine midfielder's shot.

It was great end-to-end action at times in the first half, with Gbeke forcing McClellan to tip over his powerful drive at goal on 20 minutes after Nash slipped a fine through ball to the former Montreal Impact hit-man.

The RailHawks then had a spell of possession through the middle stages of the half, but Low squandered a Carolina free kick on 29 minutes before Matt Watson rolled a shot wide of Nolly's goal four minutes later.

Despite Carolina having plenty of possession, the Whitecaps were still afforded a lot of space to attack their hosts, and it was captain Jeff Clarke that punished a poor clearance by Low on 35 minutes. With time and space to attack from the halfway line, Clarke played an excellent through ball into the path of Sebrango, who broke in clear on the Carolina goal. The Cuban hit-man took one touch before slipping a right-foot shot past the onrushing McClellan to give Vancouver a 3-1 lead.

The Whitecaps had their tails up about them at this stage, with Sebrango unlucky not to score his second goal of the match after just missing the far post with a unmarked header after the forward connected well with Valente's dangerous cross from the left on 37 minutes.

With proceedings edging towards halftime, the Whitecaps faced a challenging second half when it was reduced to ten men after Hirano went in with his studs high in an attempt to try and win the ball off of Carolina defender Chad Dombrowski. Referee Mark Kaldecik deemed the challenge to be a dangerous one and duly sent the left fullback off on 43 minutes.

Thordarson, however, felt the sending off was excessive. "Takashi didn’t seem to be close to anybody when he made the tackle, so I felt it was harsh for him to be sent off," he told whitecapsfc.com. "He could have received a yellow for it, but I didn't feel it merited a straight red. I must say that I'm very disappointed in the referees here tonight. They gave us five yellow cards and only one to them. The reason why we took off Charles Gbeke at halftime was because I clearly felt the referee was waiting for the right moment to show him a red card."

With a two-goal lead at the break, the Whitecaps introduced midfielder Vicente Arze for Gbeke at the start of the second half, in which the RailHawks had the majority of the chances after the restart. Indeed, Steve Kindel's off-target shot on 47 minutes proved to be a rare opportunity for the visitors.

On 50 minutes, Carolina had two great chances to get back into the match. First, Caleb Norkus headed Martin Nunez's cross from the right just wide of the target before Hamed Diallo forced Nolly into his first real save of the game with a close-range shot before the former Rochester Rhinos hit-man flashed the rebound across the face of the Whitecaps goal.

Two Carolina substitutes in Joey Worthen and Antoniuk then combined on 63 minutes, with Antoniuk forcing a save from Nolly before the Whitecaps number one made further stops from Watson and Diallo six minutes later.

Then after Diallo struck wide on 74 minutes, the Whitecaps had a rare spell in the Carolina defensive third a minute later, with substitute Nicholas Addlery having a shot cleared off the goal line before Arze fired an effort from the edge of the Railhawks box over McClellan's crossbar on 78 minutes.

For the most part, the ball was in Vancouver's half, as Carolina kept searching for a second goal, but substitute Chris Lemons frustrated the home fans by firing wide of the target on 81 minutes.

The home side would make things interesting two minutes later, as Carolina scored their second goal from a corner. Worthen got on the end of the ball into the Whitecaps box before playing it back in front of goal. A fortunate deflection off Nash's leg saw the ball fall to Nunez, and the Uruguayan's turn and shot found the back of the net for 3-2.

It made the final stages very exciting at WakeMed Soccer Park, with Carolina left in agony when Lemons' free kick drive hit the legs of Segovia right in front of Nolly's goal, but flew wide of the target for a goal kick on 86 minutes.

The Whitecaps then had to endure four minutes of stoppage time, with the visitors fortunate again to survive when substitute Nathan Zuzga's far-post header was inadvertently blocked by teammate Nunez, as it was heading towards the empty net. The ball struck the outside of the post and the side-netting, as Carolina squandered their last chance of the match.


Though they had some difficult moments to deal with at the end of the game, Thordarson felt the performance of his side merited the three points. "It was a fantastic win," he said after the match. "To have to play a man down for more than a half and manage that in the heat here was an excellent effort by the players. I never thought that we would get two early goals, but we had planned to have a go at them straight away. I felt that when they played us at Swangard last Saturday, we struggled when we allowed them to play, so we decided to take the game at them and it worked out very well. The first half was a fine example of good attacking soccer with the two early goals we scored, while the second half was a fantastic example of discipline and tactical awareness. We even had some good attacking moments in the second half where we could have scored again. It was a good team effort from beginning to end."

With Charleston Battery and Puerto Rico Islanders losing their respective league games on Friday, the Whitecaps now sit three points clear of Charleston at the top of the USL-1 table, with a game in hand on their South Carolina rivals. It makes Sunday's game at Blackbaud Stadium all the more important for both Vancouver and Charleston. Carolina, meanwhile, face a difficult trip to the Caribbean to face Puerto Rico on Sunday evening.

Vancouver Whitecaps FC have announced that they will pursue one of two Major League Soccer (MLS) expansion franchises set to be added to the league by 2011. Fans are encouraged to visit whitecapsfc.com/mls to register their support for a Whitecaps MLS franchise and help show the rest of North America what Vancouver and British Columbia have to offer.

Scoring Summaries:
VAN - Charles Gbeke (Omar Jarun) 2'
Alfredo Valente's free kick from the right side of the Carolina box came off of Sebrango's head, with Jarun doing well to track down the loose ball at the near post. With time and space, the centre back picked out Gbeke right in front of goal with his well-placed pass, and the Vancouver striker slotted home his second goal of the season and the Whitecaps first at WakeMed Soccer Park.

VAN - Omar Jarun 10'
On 10 minutes, Hirano earned a Vancouver free kick on the left-hand side after Fusilier had fouled the former Japan international. From Martin Nash's ensuing free kick, RailHawks goalkeeper Chris McClellan fumbled the ball in the Carolina box, with Jarun doing well to track down the loose ball. The big centre back turned and struck home his first-ever Whitecaps goal to go with his first assist for the club eight minutes earlier, as Vancouver went two goals in front.

CAR - Santiago Fusilier 18'
The RailHawks pulled themselves back into the match on 18 minutes, and in controversial circumstances. Low's free kick from the left was punched clear out of his own box by Whitecaps goalkeeper Jay Nolly. The clearance, however, fell nicely for Fusilier and his half-volleyed strike back at goal found the back of the net, despite Nolly being deliberately impeded by Carolina's Segovia in his attempt to block the Argentine midfielder's shot.

VAN - Eduardo Sebrango (Jeff Clarke) 35'
Captain Jeff Clarke punished a poor RailHawks clearance on 35 minutes. With time and space to attack from the halfway line, Clarke played an excellent through ball into the path of Sebrango, who broke in clear on the Carolina goal. The Cuban hit-man took one touch before slipping a right-foot shot past the onrushing McClellan to give Vancouver a 3-1 lead.

CAR - Martin Nunez 83'
Joey Worthen got on the end of a corner into the Whitecaps box before playing it back in front of goal. A fortunate deflection off Nash's leg saw the ball fall to Nunez, and the Uruguayan's turn and shot found the back of the net for 3-2.

Cautions:
Vancouver: Charles Wesley 13', Charles Gbeke 30', Steve Kindel 33', Eduardo Sebrango 61', Jay Nolly 88'
Carolina: Joey Worthen 90'

Ejections:
Vancouver: Takashi Hirano 43'
Carolina: none

Match Stats:
Shots: Vancouver 8 - Carolina 15
Saves: Vancouver 5 - Carolina 2
Fouls: Vancouver 12 - Carolina 11
Offsides: Vancouver 2 - Carolina 4
Corners: Vancouver 2 - Carolina 5

Vancouver Whitecaps FC
1.Jay Nolly; 4.Wesley Charles, 6.Luca Bellisomo, 15.Omar Jarun (18.Mason Trafford 87'), 22.Takashi Hirano 43'; 2.Jeff Clarke, 7.Martin Nash, 8.Steve Kindel, 9.Alfredo Valente (11.Nicholas Addlery 74'); 16.Eduardo Sebrango (26.Jason Jordan 69'), 98.Charles Gbeke (23.Vicente Arze 46')

Subs not used: 77.Srdjan Djekanovic, 29.Admir Salihovic

Carolina RailHawks
0.Chris McClellan; 14.Caleb Norkus (6.Nathan Zuzga 80'), 15.Frankie Sanfilippo, 23.Chad Dombrowski (22.Daniel Antoniuk 56'), 24.Mauricio Segovia; 3.Kupono Low, 12.Ryan Solle (8.Joey Worthen 56'), 17.Matt Watson (18.Chris Lemons 78'), 21.Santiago Fusilier (16.Steven Curfman 72'); 7.Martin Nunez, 19.Hamed Diallo

Subs not used: 1.Brian Levey, 5.David Lilly, 20.Jacob Coggins