VANCOUVER, B.C. - A shorthanded Real Salt Lake side put in a valiant effort at BC Place on Wednesday night, but two first-half goals in a three minute spell proved to be their undoing as they went down to a 2-0 loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps.
A banged-up RSL were only able to name 16 players to their gameday squad, making six changes to the team that drew at home with Montreal on Saturday, and despite coming away empty-handed, RSL head coach Jeff Cassar took some solace in the fight his side showed throughout the game.
"I'm really proud of our performance with this group," Cassar told reporters after the match. "I thought we were very well organized, I thought we were disciplined. The last three or four games we've been doing a lot of good things and then paying for our mistakes.
"I don't think Jeff [Attinella] had to make a lot of saves tonight and we were pretty dangerous at times against them, but credit to Carl [Robinson] and his team for putting that pressure on us and capitalizing on our mistakes."
The makeshift RSL line-up battled well, and had more shots on target in the end than their hosts, four to two. Although they forced a couple of saves out of David Ousted and hit the bar in stoppage time, the visitors were unable to really trouble what has recently been a rather shaky Whitecaps defense, and will feel they should have done better at applying some pressure.
"The final ball needs to be better at times," Cassar admitted. "It's again, kind of going back to the last three or four games, we're doing a lot of very good things and then the final product isn't quite there.
"We're just going to continue to put the guys in those situations, look to improve every time we can and have full confidence in our players that the more we get them in those positions, they'll come through."
Already missing Kyle Beckerman through suspension for yellow card accumulation, Real headed into the Vancouver game missing regular 'Cap killer Joao Plata with a muscle injury, part of a battery of injured players in the squad.
With the games coming thick and fast, RSL now head back to Utah where they will host New England on Saturday (10 pm ET, MLS LIVE). Not many days to recover, but Cassar is hoping to have at least a few of his injured guys back for that one.
"Our injuries are pretty minor, so I don't think they're going to be long lasting, which is positive," Cassar added. "But obviously when you're travelling with 16 players, that's not ideal. We'll be fine. Demar [Phillips] should be healthy, Joao should be healthy when we return. We'll be okay."
