VANCOUVER, B.C. – How do you get a misfiring offensive unit going?
For the Vancouver Whitecaps, Saturday’s 1-1 draw with Real Salt Lake marked the fourth consecutive game in which the team scored just a solitary goal.
Indeed, from the club’s six matches this season, Vancouver have only racked up seven goals.
READ: Vancouver not content with draw: "We deserved more"
When asked what could be done to get the side’s attacking players to become more clinical in front of goal after this latest low-scoring affair, head coach Martin Rennie opted to appeal to the pocketbooks of his charges.
“Ultimately it takes players to [finish],” Rennie told reporters. “The last little part of the game is down to players putting the ball in the back of the net. Those who do that become very rich, and very wealthy, and very famous. It’s up to players to become that and ultimately, that’s what it comes down to.
“The ball can bounce off you sometimes, you can get lucky sometimes, but to be a consistently good goalscorer you can become a very wealthy young man, and it’s up to our players to become that if that’s what they’ve got the hunger and desire to do and the work rate to do.”
Vancouver's problem was not generating opportunities in their last match. Despite being outpossessed significantly in the first half of Saturday’s match, they had far better opportunities. Over the course of the game, Vancouver attempted 16 shots to RSL’s lowly four.
READ: What the Whitecaps learned vs. Real Salt Lake
According to Nigel Reo-Coker, these cold spells are just part of the game, and patience rather than excessive finishing exercises in practices will bring results in the offensive third.
“I just think it’s just a matter of time until our luck changes,” Reo-Coker said. “It’s not something where you have to say, ‘Oh, you have to go out on the training ground and work even harder,’ or put a lot of emphasis on it.
“It’s something that happens in football – you can get games like that.”
