A misfiring offensive group and a subpar match from some key individuals left the Vancouver Whitecaps without a point to show for their troubles as they left the Home Depot Center on Saturday night.
And perhpas no moment was as symbolic of the 2-1 loss to Chivas USA as Jun Marques Davidson's own goal to open the scoring, head coach Martin Rennie told Vancouver radio station TEAM 1410, an exclamation point on a rough night for the normally efficient defensive midfielder.
On the play, Carlos Álvarez attempted a cross only for the ball to ricochet into the goal off the Japanese-American’s back with Joe Cannon already moving the other way.
“That was frustrating,” Rennie said of Davidson’s 12th minute own goal, which put his team on the back foot early on. “Marques is one of our most consistent and reliable players. He just had an off night tonight. I think he wasn’t the only one, which was a little bit disappointing.
“We didn’t win enough second balls. We gave balls away a little easy. Both goals came from not dealing with second ball properly and it’s frustrating because we worked on that during the week.”
OPTA Chalkboard: Whitecaps hold possession advantage, but struggle in key areas of the field
On the other side of the pitch, Daigo Kobayashi, Darren Mattocks and Kekuta Manneh all missed gilt-edged chances.
Both Kobayashi and Mattocks had balls drop to them right in front of the target, only to react poorly and fire well over Dan Kennedy’s goal in both cases.
Manneh found himself through on goal in stoppage time but took a heavy touch which allowed Kennedy to come out and force the Gambian rookie to fire his shot wide of the target.
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“As a team you’ve got to take it how it is,” Whtiecaps midfielder Nigel Reo-Coker said. “You’re going to get games like this. The only thing you can do is continue to do what you’re doing and your fortune and your luck will change.
“The important thing and the positive is, we’re creating chances away from home, and we’re playing well away from home. It could be a different situation if we’re not playing well away from home and not creating chances.”
The loss is the second away defeat on the bounce for the ‘Caps, who fell to the Houston Dynamo by the same scoreline last weekend despite generating plenty of opportunities in that match as well.
“It’s frustrating that we’ve ended up coming out of that with a negative scoreline,” Rennie said. “Because that’s two weeks in a row where we certainly had a chance to win the game.”
