Vancouver - Los Angeles Review

The thing is, we can't even really be upset at the Vancouver Whitecaps. Not really. They outplayed the LA Galaxy comprehensively. They certainly enjoyed the bulk of the chances; the only real danger came on the constantly-problematic corner kicks. Even late into the game, Vancouver was pushing Los Angeles well off balance. Bruce Arena admitted, outright, in the postgame press conference that "you could say say we stole a point."

The difference between the two teams was that the Galaxy had two screaming goals from distance, both beauties, one a ridiculously fortunate deflection off Gershon Koffie's foot. And the Whitecaps hit the goalpost three times. That's the entire soccer game: they got the inches and Vancouver didn't.

Shit happens. The Whitecaps blew what should have been a spectacular win, a borderline playoff clincher, and got what's still actually a pretty useful point because the soccer gods decided they shouldn't get this one. Instead of getting a valuable boost heading into a weekend match with the league leaders, the Whitecaps seem mentally more vulnerable than ever.

As always, Martin Rennie's substitution policy is getting stares of discontent. I, myself, think it is stupid, and that if Rennie really believes Greg Klazura and Russell Teibert are so completely unready for even the simplest MLS action then he is both wrong in that opinion and wrong to keep them, and furthermore insane if he believes Michael Nanchoff crapping on the field every appearance is somehow helpful. If you're that low on Russ, waive him like Lee Nguyen. (Hey, another cracker from that kid against Montreal today.)

But the Whitecaps didn't draw because they were tired. They sort of lost because Nanchoff was so shit but even that was only a minor factor. They drew because they were just so unlucky.

That is a spectacularly unsatisfying answer, I know. Sorry. That was a spectacularly unsatisfying game.