VANCOUVER, B.C. – Vancouver Whitecaps may have extended their unbeaten league run to eight games against Montreal Impact on Wednesday evening, but it was a rusty performance from what had been one of the in-form sides in MLS before the World Cup break.
The 0-0 draw at BC Place saw a much different performance from the free-flowing soccer the Whitecaps have been playing so far this season and it's a game head coach Carl Robinson would rather quickly forget and move on from.
"Well it wasn't very enjoyable watching it, was it," Robinson admitted to reporters after the game. "I didn't enjoy watching it and I think the players didn't enjoy playing in it. Bad day at the office I think you'd call it. Take a point against a team that were happy for a point.
"They could have won it, we could have won it, in the second half. Performance levels weren't to the standard that we've played this year."
The draw moves Vancouver into a three-way battle for third spot in the Western Conference alongside Colorado and Dallas, and was one of the games which Vancouver had in hand on those teams above them.
With their strong home form and Montreal's lowly league position and poor defensive record this season, this was a game which Vancouver were looking to fully capitalize on and take all three points.
"Yeah it is two points lost, but they've gone now. I can't get them back unfortunately," Robinson said.
"We're going to have to make up two points somewhere along the line. We got to Colorado on Saturday, a tough place to go, a Western Conference team, we've got to go there and win. We pick up four points from two games and it's a positive points total."
Robinson is now pondering lineup changes for that game against the Rapids, having gone for a speedy front line of Erik Hurtado, Kekuta Manneh and Darren Mattocks that simply didn't click.
Mattocks had a couple of squandered chances but the Montreal defense did well to close all three of them down, and Hurtado and Manneh had some of their quietest games in weeks.
"They were going to come and sit deep. That's the reality," Robinson said. "I knew what Frank was going to do and they done it excellently today. Sometimes you pick your team based on what you think is the right thing to win the game.
"I thought the three speedy guys were going to win us the game today. In hindsight maybe it would have been better to put in the more technical guys and bring the more speedy guys on towards the end."
Vancouver will now train for two days at home before heading off to the altitude of Colorado on Friday afternoon for Saturday's game (9 pm ET, MLS Live). Robinson said he will put his squad through their paces during that time, but that won't involve watching the game tape.
"I told them [the players] to look at it if they want. I won't be looking at it again. I've watched it once and that was enough."
