By JONATHAN VERA
CARSON, Calif — Nick LaBrocca scored the opening goal for the Rojiblancos in the first minute of the second half. Moments later, Camilo and the visiting Whitecaps answered back for the equalizer that sent this second half showcase into a 1-1 draw at the Home Depot Center.
LaBrocca’s unassisted blast came from 25 yards out 22 seconds into the second half. Whitecaps keeper Joe Cannon was unprepared for the shot as it was rifled through traffic.
“The space opened up and I just dribbled into it,” said LaBrocca. “It was then or never, so usually when you wait too long it gets blocked and you close up your own angle. The defender did a good job closing up the gap and I just drove into his space.”
Before the Chivas faithful could finish celebrating in the 1-0 lead, Vancouver answered back with a goal of its own by Camilo.
The Whitecaps attack surged well into the 18-yard area. Alexandre Morfaw’s launched a shot was deflected right in front of Camilo who unleashed a curling shot past Dan Kennedy and into net.
“Obviously the start of the second half was disappointing, for them to get one, but I thought we responded well,” confessed Caps coach Tom Soehn. “Once you’re down, we were in survival mode. Some guys came up with some big plays.”
Where other teams would have sank further down the rabbit hole, Vancouver mustered up the gas to answer back quickly. And for this characteristic, Soehn simply called it, “courageous.”
The Caps’ new found confidence was short lived until the 67th minute of play when Eric Hassli received his marching orders. The forward was ejected from the game after a studs-up tackle on Ben Zemanski. This is the third ejection for Hassli this season.
Unfortunately for the home team, being a man up for almost a third of the game did not help them in anyway, and the end result was one point.
“Coming away with a tie is the most disappointing thing,” said Justin Braun. “Anytime you play at home, you try to get three points, especially when you’re up a man for 20 minutes you should score. We we’re trying to push forward but it didn’t come.”
There are many reasons that could explain the Rojiblancos performance Wednesday night. Braun argued it was the change in the line-up.
Alejandro Moreno, Andrew Boyens and Simon Elliot are out of the Goats’ line-up on international duty and, “Anytime you change people up you have to get the chemistry right again. I think that was the problem tonight” said Braun.
Other can simply state that fatigue could have been the issue. Whatever speculations are out there, Coach Robin Fraser knows exactly what went wrong.
“We were too passive especially in the first half,” admitted a disappointed Fraser. “We weren't aggressive enough trying to get behind them and it set up for a difficult second half, but we came out with a little bit better mindset and obviously we got a goal, but we're not happy to give up another lead.”
Both squads were presented with opportunities that were either stuffed or botched by poor final touches; but the dominating force and ball possession clearly went to the home team. And because of this, the inability to convert a lead and one-all result hurt the most.
Nanchoff has been injured all season. He is supposed to be back soon and has played in at least on PDL game as a tune-up.
Few DPs ARE DP worthy but Hassli is pretty good.
Ya I have watched him and defenitly not dp worthy
Have you actually seen him play? He’s a good MLS player, he just can’t stay on the field.
I wish Vancouver would explain what is up with Nanchoff. I know he’s good enough to play for them. Not even on the bench.
“Eric the Red” haha ives! that’s a winner.
Hassli is just another bad european signing
Can’t tell yet, but what I DO know is that Schmid finally has some competition for Fattest Coach in MLS! 😀
I think Soehn is doing good, or better then expected.