VANCOUVER, B.C. – The Vancouver Whitecaps made some history at BC Place on Saturday evening.
Their commanding performance in a 2-0 win over the LA Galaxy made it four straight wins for the first time in the club's MLS era.
It also shot them to the top of the standings in both the Western Conference and the race for the Supporters' Shield.
It's still very early days, and 'Caps coach Carl Robinson is very much keeping his feet firmly on the ground, but Vancouver's start to the season will make many around the league start to sit up and take notice. For Robinson, though, his team need to be a lot better on a more regular basis if they are to stay there.
"I think they've got to feel good about themselves, because they've just put on a performance against the best team," Robinson told reporters after the game. "What we've got to do, as I said last year as well, is be more consistent. If we're more consistent then we become a very, very good team.
"I don't want to be a good team one week and a very poor team the next two or three weeks. It's about consistency. With young players you have inconsistency sometimes. My job, and my staff's job, is to make sure we get them more consistent than not. That's part of our focus here. We'll enjoy it. It's one game. It's another game off the calendar but we've got two massive games coming up."
The win aside, one particularly pleasing aspect to the game for Robinson was the possession stats.
The Whitecaps have been outpossessed in each of their previous three wins this season, managing only 33.6 percent in the 2-1 win over Portland last Saturday. Against LA, it was a completely different story.
Vancouver dominated the first half, with 56.9 percent possession. That number fell to 52.1 percent by the end of the night, as LA pushed to try and get back in the game, but the Whitecaps were in control from the first to the final whistle.
"I just challenged them," Robinson said. "I see it on a daily basis. They're very good players. They've got some talent, this group. I want them to work hard, I want them to get that winning mentality and competitiveness between themselves. If you do that Monday to Friday, it'll come out on Saturday.
"Sometimes we'll get it right and sometimes we won't, as we've seen in the last two weeks, but it's important when we don't get it right that we grind out victories and we did that last week. We got it right today and we played very well."
Confidence in the Whitecaps camp is seldom lacking, but Vancouver's excellent start to the season may have surprised even some of them. Robinson's message to his team now is a simple one: Keep it going and show some self-belief that this isn't just an early-season burst.
"They've got to start believing," Robinson added. "Believe that you're good players and show them you're good players. Because everyone can talk you up, but it's about doing it consistently – and keep doing it over a period of time."
Michael McColl covers the Vancouver Whitecaps for MLSsoccer.com.
