VANCOUVER, BC – Don't leave, or switch off your televisions, early.
Following three straight last-gasp wins, that should be the warning played before Vancouver Whitecaps FC matches this season.
Chicago lost out to an 86th-minute Octavio Rivero strike, and the MLS Player of the Month left it even later the following week to see off Orlando six minutes into stoppage time. Last week it was Robert Earnshaw's turn for the late heroics, right on the 90th-minute mark.
There may have been some elements of luck along the way, but it's a testament to Vancouver's resilience and fighting spirit. It also sends a message to the rest of the league – write the 'Caps off at your peril.
"I feel like it's testament to the will of the team," goalkeeper David Ousted told reporters. "These late goals, you can say it's lucky, but you can also look at it in a sense that that's the never-say-die attitude."
"It's belief that, even though it's the 93rd minute, we can still score a goal. And we showed that for three games now. If we can continue to have that, I think we'll see more of those late goals because of the belief in the team."
Whitecaps FC's action-packed endings shouldn't come as too much of a surprise this season. Last year, eight of their 42 goals came in the final 15 minutes of games, as did 13 of the 40 they conceded. The big difference this time around is that only one of their late goals last year actually won them the game, a fact not lost on captain Pedro Morales.
"When you play bad and you win, it's more easy afterwards," Morales said. "Maybe last year, in a game like Portland or Orlando, you don't play good and maybe last year you lost that game. But now I think the team has more experience."
It certainly feels like a different Whitecaps FC side this year. The confidence has always been there, but there is a new maturity and a real belief that this team can be something special this season.
Homegrown midfielder Russell Teibert thinks he knows why.
"It's credit to the character of this team and the mentality that we have," Teibert feels. "We're always pushing, we're always looking to win games and that's just the character of this team. It's really an accumulation of a lot of things. But to be a team that can score goals in the final minutes of games is very dangerous."
The late drama may make for exciting viewing. But 'Caps coach Carl Robinson admits that it can be draining for him on the sidelines, joking that the color of his hair reveals just how much. Yet he says he doesn't care when his team find the back of the net, just as long as they do.
"It shows great character in the group that I've got that they're willing to fight to the end," Robinson told reporters on Thursday. "It doesn't matter whether you score in the first minute or the 96th minute. It's about scoring a goal in between the first whistle and the last whistle."
"I'd like to win two or three-nil, like every manager would. Sometimes that doesn't happen, because the league's so very tight and the teams are so close that just moments of magic change games. So whether it's in the first or the 90th minute, it doesn't matter to me, as long as we do it."
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