VANCOUVER, B.C. – There's many words that could be used to describe the inconsistent performance of Vancouver Whitecaps' strikers this season. Streaky is one of them.
When they're hot, the goals have come on a regular basis. But once they hit a cold patch, it's been a veritable drought.
Erik Hurtado scored five goals in five games across all competition back in May and June and Darren Mattocks four in five a few weeks back. They were preceded and followed by a large stretch of games when both players failed to find the back of the net. Vancouver now head into a crucial away match against the Portland Timbers on Saturday afternoon (5 pm ET; NBCSN, live stream on NBCSports.com, TSN in Canada) desperately looking for at least one of their strikers to go back on a goal-scoring streak.
"It will help, as simple as it is," Whitecaps coach Carl Robinson said at training. "… Darren has gotten hot at times, Erik has gotten hot at a certain time and Kekuta [Manneh] was pretty hot at the start of the season. So you hope that one will catch fire and drag someone else along.”
Hurtado, who grabbed his first goal in more than three months last weekend in the ‘Caps 2-1 loss at FC Dallas and has five league goals this season, has even more reason to be motivated for Saturday’s big match. The second-year pro grew up in Beaverton, Ore., a suburb of Portland, and played for the Timbers U-23s while in college. Robinson is certainly hoping that Hurtado once again hits the rich vein of form that he showed before the World Cup break but that has been missing since.
"He's on fire isn't he, Erik. One in one," Robinson joked when asked whether Hurtado was now his in-form striker. "He's been excellent in training. He looks sharp, he looks happy, which is important, and hopefully he can [be the one].
"Erik getting the goal on Saturday will help his confidence, and hopefully it will drag one or two others up as well because I want competition for places all over. I've got a young forward line, and it's important they push each other. If he gets the start then it's for him to take the chance."
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Hurtado has saved some of his best performances for games against Portland these past two years and is putting the pressure on himself to now lead the team.
"If I'm the guy, then I'm the guy," Hurtado told reporters. "I'm just going to go out there and give my 100 percent. If it's not me and if it's someone else, then credit to them because they're carrying the team, and we need someone to carry the team. If not, then multiple people carrying the team. We need team performances to win games, and that's what's going to need to happen."
Robinson also acknowledged that the pressure can’t solely rest on Hurtado’s shoulders.
"It's going to be a team effort,” he said. “It's not going to be one individual getting 15, 20 goals, as I said it wouldn't be at the start of the season. It would be guys getting eight to 10 goals a season, and we've still got six games to go, so if a couple of those guys can get two or three goals between now and the end of the year they can reach their eight to 10 goal target."
Michael McColl covers the Vancouver Whitecaps for MLSsoccer.com.
