VANCOUVER, BC – Vancouver Whitecaps FC put themselves firmly back in the Western Conference playoff mix on Sunday with a 2-0 home win over the Eastern Conference leading Sporting Kansas City.
"It would have been more relaxing if we'd got the third goal to tell you the truth," head coach Robinson told reporters after the game. "At 2-0 you're never really comfortable. I said to the guys at halftime, we've been in this position before. We were comfortable leading against Chivas 1-0 and we went out and switched off, so let's just try and learn something today and let's just try and overcome that little bit of a hurdle when we're leading at half time and we come a little bit flat.
"You're going to have a period of time where you're under the cosh a little bit but we bent a little bit but we didn't break and that's the pleasing thing for the guys in there."
It was a much needed win for the 'Caps, not just from a confidence point of the view but with those around them in the Western Confidence all picking up points and wins in recent games, Vancouver were in danger of being left on the outside looking in.
"I watched all the games yesterday and I was pig sick if I'm honest," Robinson said of the weekend's results. "Every game that I seemed to watch, the result I wanted to go our way didn't go our way, but as I said all along, it's not what other teams do, it's what we do.
"If we concentrate on our business and we get to where I believe we need to get to, then we'll all be happy. If we don't, it's down to me and it's down to the team. I don't want to rely on other teams to try and sneak into the playoffs. If we concentrate on our business and we do our business correctly, then we'll be there or thereabouts."
Whitecaps FC went into Sunday's match with four straight draws and were in 7th in the Western Conference standings. The win now moves them back above the red line for playoff spots into fifth place, but for goalkeeper David Ousted, the KC result will mean little if they don't go on and build on that now.
"It is definitely crunch time right now," Ousted told reporters after the game. "People are winning next to us and we need to keep winning like we did today to keep up with people and keep going up the standings.
"This was a good start but the work doesn't stop here. We've got an even more important game next week in Chivas. This will be a little bit for nothing if we don't go there and get something out of it
