Whitecaps hope to end first-goal curse
VANCOUVER — For a change of pace, Jake Nerwinski wants the Vancouver Whitecaps to strike first when they face the Los Angeles Galaxy in a Major League Soccer road game Saturday night.
The Whitecaps have allowed the first goal in five of the last six games, with three being road games. Three of the goals have come with less than seven minutes gone. Vancouver is 1-2-2 in those games.
“Sometimes we wait to be punched in the face,” said the veteran Whitecaps deender. “I think we should do the punching first, personally. If we can go up one nil early on, I think that gives us the momentum throughout the game. We haven’t started well... so that is something we need to change.”
Heading into the weekend Vancouver (8-9-6), the Galaxy (9-11-3) and Colorado (89-6) are all tied at 30 points in the Western Conference. They sit three points behind Portland, which holds final playoff spot.
The Whitecaps play four of their next six games on the road. Vancouver has a 2-7-3 away record.
“It’s important to just kind of look at it one game at a time and not look at the stretch of six games,” said Nerwinski. “On the away games, we just need to get points whether it’s a tie or a win. At this point in the season we can’t afford that many losses or losses at all. We need to make sure we take care of business at home and try to at least get a point away.”
Five of Vancouver’s 10 remaining games will be played at home, including three in a row before they end the season on the road against Minnesota.
Head coach Vanni Sartini said to make the playoffs, his team needs at least 12 points in their final home matches and another “five or six” on the road.
The Galaxy have a 6-5-1 record at home this year but are 3-4-1 in their last eight.
L.A. has lost six of their last eight matches, including six straight against teams from the Western Conference.
Sartini said Vancouver can’t take the Galaxy lightly. “When they are on a good day, they can beat every team. But they’re also a team that sometimes, if... they go a little down and they open up a lot because they are tactical players so you can counterattack them.”
The Galaxy have scoring punch with strikers Javier Hernandez and Dejan Joveljic notching nine goals each. L.A. also has allowed 13 goals in their last seven games. “They have a strong attack,” said Nerwinski. “Hopefully we can exploit their backline on a defence that has been kind of hemorrhaging goals of late.”