Vancouver, BC (Sports Network) - Vancouver Whitecaps FC will be looking to
improve its playoff chances while snapping a lengthy winless run when the club
welcomes Chivas USA to BC Place on Wednesday.
The Whitecaps are in the midst of a seven-game winless streak which has seen
the club drop to fifth place in the Western Conference, just two points clear
of FC Dallas.
Vancouver is coming off of a 0-0 draw with Seattle Sounders FC. It was the
first clean sheet kept by the Canadian club since it played to a scoreless
draw with Chivas on July 7.
"The clean sheet comes from the eleven, not just us four at the back," said
defender Jay DeMerit. "It's a team effort. If you look at the guys, there were
a lot of tired bodies out there [Saturday]. That's because we got behind the
ball and did our work and we kept a good Seattle team scoreless. That's the
main thing, we have to keep going and now we have to go find the net."
The 'Caps have managed just three goals over their current winless run, but
head coach Martin Rennie saw plenty of positives to take away from the club's
Cascadia Cup draw with Seattle.
"We defended well [Saturday], we look organized, and we gave up very few
chances in the game," said Rennie. "We possessed the ball well, we created
good opportunities and we had a chance at the end to win the game, but I
definitely saw progress and a lot to build on going forward."
An offensive resurgence could be in the cards for Vancouver as it goes up
against a Chivas side that has conceded 23 goals in its last eight games.
The Goats are coming off of a 4-0 drubbing at the hands of Real Salt Lake, a
match that head coach Robin Fraser believes Chivas handed to the Claret and
Cobalt on a silver platter.
"Once again, we shot ourselves in the foot," Fraser told reporters after the
match. "It's always difficult to compete when you make critical mistakes and
give teams leads."
Goalkeeper Dan Kennedy says a silver lining lies in the fact that Chivas has
been unlucky in going up against teams gaining momentum, something that would
bode well for the Goats against an idle team like Vancouver.
"Right now it seems like we're getting punished for every small mistake, every
little detail we miss, we get punished for it," Kennedy said. "This is a time
of year where teams gain momentum for the playoffs or they don't. [Saturday]
we ran into a team that's gaining a little bit of momentum."
The Sports Network