Whitecaps blank Chivas USA, end winless streak

Vancouver, BC, Canada (4E Sports) – After scoring just three goals during a seven-game winless drought, the Vancouver Whitecaps came out with all cylinders firing and handed Chivas USA its seventh straight defeat via a 4-0 blanking Wednesday at BC Place.

The Whitecaps’ emphatic victory saw three teams eliminated from the playoff race, leaving just FC Dallas as the only challenger to Vancouver for the West’s fifth and final playoff spot.

Vancouver has 42 points while FC Dallas has 37 points but has three games remaining compared to the Whitecaps’ two.

In the West, San Jose, Real Salt Lake, LA and Seattle have already qualified while Sporting KC is the only Eastern Conference team that has secured a postseason berth.

“It’s been the performance we’ve been waiting for a long time,”captain Jay DeMerit said after the match. “It takes a certain effort from a lot of guys to do performances like tonight. For once we put a performance together — the defenders defended well, and the goal scorers went and scored goals.”

“At the end of the day, it comes down to pretty simple things and pretty simple jobs. It’s just a matter of guys taking responsibility to do them,” he added.

Things started well for the Whitecaps as Gershon Koffie buried a goal from the edge of the penalty area from a pass by Kenny Miller in the 11th minute.

“It helps when you get an early goal, and it’s fun when you win and score goals,” DeMerit said. “When guys are taking responsibility for their jobs, then you can sit back and enjoy it, because that’s what we’re here to do, we’re here to enjoy it.”

Dane Richards added a goal in the 35th minute with a right-foot shot from an assist by Camilo Sanvezzo.

Camilo Sanvezzo scored in the 62nd minute while Barry Robson capped the Whitecaps’ scoring with a goal in the 73rd minute.

“We’ve been working on it a lot — midfielders bursting into the box more,” Robson said. “These last few weeks, we’ve been working a lot on players breaking into the box and I think we’ve seen that tonight. We’re flooding the box with players, and you see, you get goals from it.”

Despite Chivas USA dominating possession with 67.8 percent of the ball, Vancouver’s defense did not allow a single shot on target.

“It’s very possible that that could have happened, but it feels like seven straight losses,” Chivas FC head coach Robin Fraser said. “While we’ve done some things well, we’ve done enough things wrong at critical times to lose games.”

---

---