Whitecaps settle for tie
San Jose scores late to deny Vancouver of clinching 1st place
VANCOUVER — Valeri Qazaishvili scored in the 77th minute to cancel out Yordy Reyna’s first-half goal as the San Jose Earthquakes salvaged a 1-1 tie with the Vancouver Whitecaps on Sunday.
With the point, Vancouver (15-11-7) remains first in Major League Soccer’s Western Conference, but missed an opportunity to clinch top spot for the first time in club history.
The Whitecaps sit two points up on both the Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers heading into the final weekend of the regular season.
San Jose (12-14-7), meanwhile, moved into the final playoff spot in the West after earning the hard-fought point.
With Vancouver seemingly in control in the second half, Qazaishvili took a sneaky pass from Chris Wondolowski before cooly beating goalkeeper Stefan Marinovic for his fifth of the season.
Qazaishvili then nearly gave his team the lead moments later, forcing a great leaping save out of Marinovic.
Reyna opened things in the 29th minute with his sixth goal when the striker finished off a great move where Cristian Techera played a ball into the path of a hard-charging Jake Nerwinski.
The Vancouver right back in turn fed a pinpoint pass across the face of goal that Reyna cooly steered home in tight to send the crowd of 22,120 at B.C. Place Stadium into a frenzy.
Reyna had an excellent opportunity to win it in the 86th minute, but Earthquakes goalkeeper Andrew Tarbell stood tall.
Brek Shea then sent a header over the top off a corner a few minutes later before another chance went wide in injury time as the Whitecaps pressed for three points.
Whitecaps striker Fredy Montero had a chance to put the Whitecaps up by two in the 48th minute on a quick counterattack, but Tarbell was there to make a fine stop before again thwarting the Colombian in the 60th to give his team a chance.
Reyna missed the first half of the season but has spurred the Whitecaps’ climb up the standings.
Vancouver closes the regular season this coming Sunday in Portland against the Timbers.
Coming off a disappointing 3-0 loss at the New York Red Bulls last Saturday, the Whitecaps had Reyna (Peru), Marinovic (New Zealand) and defender Kendall Waston (Costa Rica) all back from international duty.
Waston actually scored the goal that clinched his country’s place in next summer’s World Cup, while Reyna and Marinovic could face each other with their respective national teams in a two-legged playoff next month for a spot at the tournament in Russia.