VANCOUVER — The Vancouver Whitecaps know they haven’t been getting enough out of their offence in recent games.
Now they’re searching for remedies after falling 1-0 to the Houston Dynamo on Wednesday.
The ‘Caps controlled 61.9 per cent possession and outshot the visitors 16-8, but registered a single shot on target.
“That’s obviously something we need to improve on if we’re going to score more goals,” said Whitecaps captain Ryan Gauld.
“We created a few little half chances here and there, but nothing quite clear and obvious. It’s something that, us on the pitch, we need to figure out how to break it down a little bit better and create more obvious chances.”
Whitecaps head coach Jesper Sorensen described his team’s finishing as “horrible.”
“We hit the target once out of 17,” he said. “And of course it’s difficult to really complain about anything when you have the opportunities and you don’t even hit the target.”
Vancouver (11-4-4) came in sitting first in the conference standings after a 2-0 victory over their regional rival Seattle Sounders on Sunday, but were leap frogged by Houston (12-6-2) with Wednesday’s result.
The Dynamo are unbeaten in their last eight contests and have not conceded a goal since battling D.C. United to a 1-1 draw on July 22.
Houston nearly opened the scoring in the 16th minute Wednesday off a free kick in the midfield.
The ball fell in the penalty area and rolled to Hector Herrera, who hammered a shot on target, but ‘Caps centre back Mathias Laborda blocked it on the goal line.
The Dynamo then had a breakaway later in the half where Laborda poked the ball off the foot of Mateusz Bogusz just above the 18-yard box.
It then popped out to Franco Negri, who fired a long bomb into the top corner of Vancouver’s net to give the Dynamo a 1-0 lead in the 34th minute.
The Whitecaps got a prime opportunity to respond minutes later after Agustin Resch was shown a yellow card for taking down Cheikh Sabaly, gifting Vancouver a free kick inside the penalty arc.
Oliver Larraz took the set piece, sending his attempt into Houston’s wall.
Sabaly came close to levelling the score in first-half injury time with a shot from the top of the six-yard box that pinged off the left post.
The home side had another solid chance early in the second half when Gauld sprang Rayan Elloumi with a long ball up the middle of the field.
The striker sprinted through a pair of defenders to get to it and took a couple of strides into the area before sending a rocket just wide of the post.
The ‘Caps briefly appeared to knot the score at 1-1 in the 64th minute.
Emmanuel Sabbi put a shot through a pair of defenders and Elloumi slid in to direct it into the Houston net.
Referee Ricardo Montero Araya went to a sideline monitor for a video review and the play was overturned for a foul by Larraz in the buildup.
From Sorensen’s perspective, the Houston player was going down before Larraz made contact.
“But you know what? I’m not the referee,” the coach said. “They called it a foul, and that’s something that you sometimes have to accept, that it goes against you. I think it was tough, but … we had other chances.
“Of course when you score a goal, you hope that at least that it’s very obvious why it’s disallowed. I really could not see it. I’m also probably biased.”
There was pushing and shoving in the game’s final moments after Larraz was taken down inside the penalty area without a call, prompting chants of “ref, you suck!” from the announced crowd of 22,849.
The Whitecaps will go back and look at the film from Wednesday’s loss and try to diagnose what, exactly, could have been improved, Gauld said.
“I think if we knew exactly what, we’d have made more chances, scored more goals,” he said. “If we can make better runs, better decisions on the ball, see better passes and that, I guess. Just looking at things like that and trying to put it into practice in training and just improve on it.”
Whitecaps: Host FC Dallas on Saturday.
Dynamo: Visit St. Louis City on Saturday.
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