Outpossessed and outchanced, the Vancouver Whitecaps fell to FC Dallas on Saturday thanks in large part to a pair of late goals from Mauro Diaz and Jair Benitez.
But in truth, the Whitecaps were lucky to get into the break on level terms after allowing FCD to get into dangerous positions time and again in a first half dominated by the home side.
Those late goals, while excellent strikes, were on some level overdue finishes given how much of the ball Dallas retained and how dangerous the side looked for large spells.
“Ninety percent of football is about using your brain,” Nigel Reo-Coker told reporters when discussing the heat down in Frisco, Texas. “For us, we’re not used to this heat and humidity. That’s not an excuse, so we have to come with a game plan. We have to be compact, tight and difficult to beat on the counterattack.
"We did that today, but I just felt they were the better team. They scored three fantastic goals and they deserved to win.”
Not all in 'Caps camp felt the final result was deserved, however. Despite seeing his team look fairly toothless offensively and a bit frail at the back, head coach Martin Rennie felt it was simply three quality strikes that determined the result rather than a poor showing by his group.
“Obviously it was a shocker tonight,” Rennie said. “It shows you how cruel the game can be. We started off the game really well and got an excellent goal. But at the end of the day, Dallas scored three incredible goals on the night and that’s disappointing for us because I think that if you look at overall performance, we played well.
“They had three shots on target and they had three goals. They were unbelievable goals against us so it’s disappointing but there is a lot we can take from it. I don’t think it was a poor performance. It was a good performance.”
Vancouver's latest “good performance” now means the side has picked up just one win over its last eight matches, perhaps conjuring up memories of last season's diabolical final stretch in which the side won just one of its last 10 matches.
“We’ve been here before,” Rennie said. “It was a tough struggle to get there last year and it will be this year. It’s very close. There are a lot of games left to play, seven games, lots of points to play for. …
"We need to do well in the next couple of games but I don’t think that hurts our confidence. It is something we have to get over quickly.”
