VANCOUVER, BC – When Vicente Sanchez fired home his goal for the Colorado Rapids after just 79 seconds on Saturday, the writing felt like it was already on the wall for the visiting Vancouver Whitecaps.
That may seem strange to say with so much of the game remaining, and with the vast differences in the form of both teams heading in to the match, but below the surface of the Whitecaps' excellent first half of the season is one startling statistic – if Vancouver don't score first, they struggle.
The Colorado match was the sixth time this season that Vancouver have given up the opening goal of the game. They've only taken one single point from those matches, which account for five of the Whitecaps' seven defeats this year. It's concerning for head coach Carl Robinson, but does he have the solution to the problem?
"Maybe not concede after a minute, that might help," Robinson said wryly. "We talked about it in the lead up to the [Colorado] game. About being hard to beat and not giving anything away. We need to address it.
"We'll be behind in other games and it's important that we're able to bounce back. We know we're good when we go ahead of teams, which we've shown. But we're going to be behind at certain times and it's finding that attitude, finding that mentality to try to claw our way back because we do need to do that."
Contributing to Vancouver's woes in this area is their penchant for giving up those early goals.
The Whitecaps strong defensive record has been one of the key factors to their continued place at the top of standings, but they've given up 21 percent of their goals against this season in the opening 15 minutes of games.
"It's something all managers will look at," Robinson added. "We want to try to be hard to beat. We've conceded at the start of each half on Saturday. We know it's not good enough. We know we need to improve. If it was happening every week and we were losing every game then it would be a big concern of mine. It's important how you deal with it and get on with it, and we'll get on with it."
The contrast between going ahead in matches and falling behind is huge for the Whitecaps right now. Vancouver have taken 30 points this season from the 12 games in which they've been the team opening the scoring.
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They're the best in the league when they strike first, with the 'Caps fast paced, counterattacking style of play perfectly suited to dealing with teams that have to then open up and take the game to them. Making that style work when they themselves have to chase the game is now what the Whitecaps have to improve upon.
"We need to be better," goalkeeper David Ousted admitted. "We definitely are a really good team when we get ahead. We can play a little bit of counter, we can go on the break. We need to be better at breaking the teams down, especially them coming in to BC Place.
"There are going to be teams coming in, sitting deep and we need to be better on the ball, creating chances. That's a part of the story. I do believe that we have the quality to do that, so hopefully, coming home for a stretch now, you'll see that."
