Vancouver Whitecaps FC have enjoyed a much improved season in their sophomore year after struggling in their debut MLS campaign, but on Saturday, they experienced a rare blip, falling 3-0 to LA Galaxy.
“I think first off, you don’t try to dwell on these types of performances too much, you look at the positives we’ve created this season, the goals we’ve created, the clean sheets we’ve had,” captain Jay DeMerit told reporters after the match. “You take things in phases in these long seasons. I think our first phase has been good and now we just have to build, we have to learn and make sure that performances like tonight don’t happen a lot.”
Vancouver went into the game riding a five-match MLS unbeaten streak, so to crumple so in the result against the Galaxy put their relative success this season into perspective.
“We know that it’s a really long way to be top and it’s not just after three, four months even,” midfielder Davide Chiumiento said. “If we did play well and get a lot of points, that doesn’t mean we are the best team in the league. Tonight, we played against a team who is better today, and has a lot of experience and some great players. But sometimes when you lose like that, that’s also good for the players, so we know we have to work a lot.”
The good news for the club? The last time Whitecaps FC were on the end of a thrashing – a 4-1 loss to New England Revolution on May 12 – they bounced back with a five-game unbeaten run. A similar response will be just what their coach is looking for.
“We’re coming quite a long way with this team and we’re going to have days where we unfortunately get undone,” head coach Martin Rennie said. “As I’ve always said, it’s important how we react to that and learn from that. In the past, we have reacted well and learned well and I’m confident we’ll do that again.”
Martin MacMahon covers Vancouver Whitecaps FC for MLSsoccer.com.
