VANCOUVER, B.C – Vancouver Whitecaps assistant Martyn Pert and FC Dallas head coach Oscar Pareja had to be restrained from one another following Vancouver’s 2-0 win at BC Place on Saturday, the second such altercation between the two teams in less than a month.
Pareja confronted Pert on the pitch at the final whistle and was captured by television cameras giving Vancouver's assistant a two-handed shove on the chest. Both coaches then had to be held back by players before calmer heads prevailed.
Pert and Dallas assistant Josema Bazan were both sent off for dissent during the teams’ matchup on Sept. 13, a 2-1 Dallas win.
"It's always fun to see Martyn get up there," Whitecaps goalkeeper David Ousted said. "He cares a lot and the players back him up."
Whitecaps head coach Carl Robinson said he missed Saturday’s altercation while he was talking to referee Ricardo Salazar at the time, and told reporters after the match that he didn't know what Pareja's gripe was with Pert.
While the Dallas coach claimed that "nothing happened,” the final whistle also saw Dallas midfielder Michel confronting Whitecaps forward Kekuta Manneh after some perceived showboating late in the match.
"I think it's two coaches, it's two teams, and it's very passionate, we want to win," Robinson said. "We went there three weeks ago and we took it on the chin. We lost 2-1 in a game where we probably could have got something. Today was our day, but they are a very good team.
“There's feelings in games. Every game there's a little bit of tenseness and things like that. It's important it doesn’t boil over, and from my group today it didn’t boil over."
Vancouver’s win on Saturday kept them in the fifth and final playoff spot, meaning that if the playoffs ended today, the Whitecaps and Dallas would meet in the Western Conference knockout round.
"If these two teams meet, I think it's going to be a brawl, to say it lightly," Ousted said. "You just see that [our] people get into every tackle and they did as well. They're a team that works really hard and wants to compete every time. If we get to there, I think it's going to be a great match, but we've still got a lot of work to do."
