Whitecaps looking forward to home-field advantage in playoffs

The Vancouver Whitecaps made no apologies for securing home-field advantage in the playoffs, almost by default, for the first time in their Major League Soccer history Sunday evening.
The Whitecaps earned a first-round bye as they blanked the Houston Dynamo 3-0 before a sellout crowd of 21,000 at B.C. Place Stadium. The Caps ended a five-game winless skid as they finished second in the Western Conference with a 16-13-5 record. But Vancouver coach Carl Robinson was feeling over the moon – not dwelling on the late-season swoon.
“Obviously, we’re happy,” said Robinson. “I think we got what we deserved. I’m a big believer (that), in this game, if you put your hard work in and you do things right, you get your rewards – and I think we got our rewards today. We deserved to win the game.”
Vancouver caught a break as Sporting Kansas City edged the L.A. Galaxy 2-1, giving second place to the Canadian squad. But Robinson was not doing any scoreboard watching as the Whitecaps used delay tactics for much of the final 10 minutes to preserve the win.
“We didn’t deserve to get to be where we are at the moment if we didn’t win, so I didn’t want to lose my focus, because if I lost my focus, then my players lose their focus,” said Robinson.
Kekuta Manneh gave the Caps the only goal they needed in the 59th minute before Kendall Waston headed home a Christian Techera corner kick in the 72nd minute and Robert Earnshaw headed the final goal in moments after subbing into the game in stoppage time.
The Whitecaps finally connected on some of their chances after failing to finish in the first half, although Techera hit the crossbar 13 minutes into the game. Sporting Kansas City did little in the second half after threatening briefly in the first 45 minutes on a pair of Giles Barnes free kicks and his shot from 20 yards out, which Vancouver goalkeeper David Ousted stopped.
In the first round, Seattle will host L.A. and Sporting Kansas City will travel to Portland in a pair of single-knockout quarter final games. The Whitecaps will then play the first-round winner with the best regular-season record. Dallas will play the victor with the second-best regular-season record. Both semifinals will be two-leg, aggregate-goal series. The winners will then advance to the Western Conference finals and MLS Cup series.
“It’s huge,” said Ousted of the first-round bye. “It gives us a break Wednesday (and Thursday not having to play) that one-off game, and then it certainly gets us into a two-way game (in) which I think our chances are a little bit better than in the one-off.”
Like his coach, Ousted was not apologizing after Vancouver got some help from a temporary friend, Sporting Kansas City. In contrast to the previous three seasons, the Whitecaps secured a playoff berth with weeks to go in the regular season and avoided a mid-summer swoon. But they suffered a late-season slump this year instead.
“I’d say we’ve been lucky when the results have gone our way, but we are also in second because we deserve to be here, because we’re the second-best team in this (conference),” said Ousted. “We’ve showed that over a (season). Maybe, in the last month, we haven’t showed it as much, but we’re here for a reason.”
In other words, he and Robinson believe that things eventually even out and a team’s talent proves itself over the full campaign.
“Over 34 games, the league doesn’t lie,” said Robinson.
Despite being the youngest team in MLS, the Whitecaps endured several injuries – including an ongoing hamstring problem that has forced captain Pedro Morales to miss most of the second half of the season -- and player absences due to suspensions and international duty. In the playoffs for the second year in a row and third time in their history, the Caps will now attempt to prove that they are for real in the post-season.
Vancouver lost do-or-die games to L.A. in 2012 and Dallas in 2014, with the winners both scoring decisive goals on penalty-kicks. Robinson does not want his youthful club just to try and survive in the playoffs. So he has already delivered a distinct message to his charges regarding quest for the MLS Cup.
“Let’s not cope,” he said. “Let’s try and win it.”
Vancouver’s opening series could have some added intrigue, because the Caps have a 50-50 chance of playing regional rival Portland or Seattle. In either case, hundreds of fans would travel to the away legs, adding plenty of colour and hostility to the intense atmosphere.
“It could be a fantastic matchup, either against Timbers or Sounders,” said Ousted. “The fans would enjoy that a lot – and so would I.”