When heading out on a grueling stretch of five road games, getting off to a successful start can sometimes make or break the weeks to come.
The Vancouver Whitecaps found themselves in that position in Montreal on Wednesday evening. Despite a strong showing, which saw them dominating the play at times and getting themselves back into the match after falling behind to an early goal, a 2-1 loss to the Impact just made the extended spell away from home feel even tougher.
Whitecaps coach Carl Robinson took some solace from his side's performance in Montreal and feels they deserved more from the game.
"How we were one-nil down at half time was beyond me," Robinson told Vancouver's Team 1410 radio after the match. "We played very well with the ball. We gave away a goal in the first few minutes and we were chasing. The character in the second half, we continued to play the way we wanted to play, continued to chase that goal, we got the goal and we let them off the hook again. The second goal could have been avoided.
"I can't fault the performance, the way we played. I can fault the result because we didn't win."
Vancouver outshot the home side on the night, 20 shots to 15, but the more telling aspect was in the stats for shots on target. The Whitecaps managed just four to the Impact's seven, once again falling short in the final third.
The inability to finish their multitude of chances has plagued the Whitecaps going back to last season, but Robinson defended his side.
"Teams are not going to roll over and let you have endless chances," Robinson stated. "You've got to create your chances and sometimes we don't create enough chances. We created a number of chances today.
"Are they clear cut ones? No. If you look at the chances we had in the first half compared to the ones Montreal had, they go in one ahead. It's a learning process. We'll deal with it."
Facing three games in eight days, Robinson had indicated that he would make some changes to keep his lineup and players fresh. True to his word, the Whitecaps make six changes from the team that started the 2-1 win over Real Salt Lake on Saturday.
Hindsight is always a wonderful thing, but with Vancouver now heading to LA on Saturday to take on a Galaxy side they have never beaten at home, was the temptation there to play his strongest side against Montreal, against whom they have a much better record?
Regardless, Robinson stands by his choice.
"You talk about three games in a week and how you manage that," Robinson said. "Effectively, it's done in results. If you lose a game, it's the wrong decision. I could have played exactly the same team as Saturday and we lose and it's the wrong thing to do.
"Today, I decided to freshen it up because it's the right thing to do. The energy in the team was good, the performance was good, so it was the right thing to do. We lost, so I'll have to accept that and will take responsibility for that."
