HARRISON, NJ: Vancouver Whitecaps FC (15-11-6) suffered only their second defeat in their past 10 matches as they dropped a 3-0 result on the road against New York Red Bulls (13-12-7) at Red Bull Arena on Saturday.
The ‘Caps were missing four players to international duty: Stefan Marinović, Kendall Waston, Yordy Reyna, and Christian Bolaños. Midfielder Andrew Jacobson was also absent, awaiting the birth of his second child. Four changes were made from last weekend’s victory in Kansas City as David Ousted returned to net, Aaron Maund came in for Kendall Waston, and Tony Tchani and Fredy Montero returned to the starting lineup.
It was a cagey start to the match as head coach Carl Robinson trotted out the team in a 3-5-2 formation, with the boys in blue finding their feet early on as they adjusted to the tactical shift.
New York eventually opened the scoring on 33 minutes on a very well-worked play. It started with Tyler Adams making a marauding run up the right wing, then finding Sacha Kljestan, who immediately passed wide left through a Bradley Wright-Phillips dummy to Daniel Royer. The Austrian then took a touch and beat Ousted to make it 1-0.
New York doubled their advantage on 58 minutes. Adams was again the initiator, playing a decisive through ball to Wright-Phillips. The Red Bulls leading scorer drove into the box and slyly played a chipped shot into the back of the net for a 2-0 lead.
Felipe put the match out of reach with a thunderous strike in the 72nd minute that found the far netting. The assist from Kljestan was his league-leading 17th of the season.
Whitecaps FC remain in first place in the Western Conference with two matches remaining. Next weekend is the final home match of the regular season on Sunday, October 15 against San Jose Earthquakes. Kickoff will be at 4:30 p.m. PT. Tickets remain available at ticketmaster.ca/whitecapsfc.
MATCH DETAILS
Budweiser Man of the Match: Aly Ghazal
Referee: Jorge Gonzalez
Attendance: 25,219
Possession: New York 56.8% – Vancouver 43.2%
Shots: New York 18 – Vancouver 3
Shots on Goal: New York 8 – Vancouver 1
Saves: New York 1 – Vancouver 5
Fouls: New York 12 – Vancouver 15
Offsides: New York 4 – Vancouver 0
Corners: New York 7 – Vancouver 3
51′ – VAN – Marcel de Jong
31.Luis Robles; 92.Kemar Lawrence, 33.Aaron Long, 55.Damien Perrinelle; 4.Tyler Adams, 8.Felipe, 5.Connor Lade; 27.Sean Davis (19.Alex Muyl 59′), 16.Sacha Kljestan ©, 77.Danny Royer (30.Gonzalo Verón 69′); 99.Bradley Wright-Phillips (88.Vincent Bezecourt 80′)
18.Ryan Meara, 10.Muhamed Keita, 15.Sal Zizzo, 22.Dilly Duka
1.David Ousted; 22.Aaron Maund, 26.Tim Parker ©, 17.Marcel de Jong (11.Nicolás Mezquida 54′); 66.Aly Ghazal; 28.Jake Nerwinski, 16.Tony Tchani, 67.Alphonso Davies (23.Bernie Ibini 65′), 2.Jordan Harvey; 12.Fredy Montero, 19.Erik Hurtado (20.Brek Shea 65′)
