Whitecaps finish strong to earn bye into Western Conference semifinals

VANCOUVER — The Vancouver Whitecaps were facing a winner-take-all midweek playoff game on the road at halftime of Sunday’s regular-season finale.

Locked in a 0-0 tie with the visiting Houston Dynamo thanks to a number of missed chances early, results elsewhere weren’t going their way either on a final day of the regular season that could have seen the Whitecaps finish anywhere from second to sixth in the Western Conference. A lot changed in just 45 minutes. Kekuta Manneh, Kendall Waston and Robert Earnshaw scored in the second half as Vancouver clinched second place in Major League Soccer’s Western Conference with a 3-0 victory over Houston.

The result, coupled with the Los Angeles Galaxy’s 2-1 loss to Sporting Kansas City, means that the Whitecaps (16-13-5) will get a first-round bye before hosting a two-leg conference semifinal.

“I think we got what we deserved,” said Vancouver head coach Carl Robinson. “I’m a big believer in this game that if you put the hard work in and do things right you get your rewards, and I thought we got our rewards today.”

The Whitecaps are dealing with a number of injuries, including one to captain Pedro Morales, and will get a bit of a break before playing the first leg of their semifinal on the road Nov. 1. The rematch goes at B.C. Place Stadium seven days later in what will be the franchise’s first home playoff game since joining MLS in 2011.

“Hopefully, I can get a couple of guys fit and healthy,” said Robin- son. “We’ve never used the injuries as an excuse, and I never will.”

Winless in five and just 2-5-2 since the middle of August, the Whitecaps finally got the goal they desperately needed in the 59th minute when Manneh fired a low strike from 25 yards out that sneaked inside the post past Dynamo goalkeeper Joe Willis.

“We came out flying in the second half, finally took our chances,” said Manneh. “It was great for me to score that goal and lift the team up.”

Waston then put the game out of reach by heading a corner kick home in the 72nd minute, and Earnshaw added another in stoppage time on a header of his own.

“There were a few words said at halftime,” said Robinson. “I thought we needed to be a little bit more clinical and play with a higher tempo.”

Vancouver, which made the playoffs in 2012 and again last year only to lose single elimination first-round matches on the road both times, could have made life a lot easier against Houston (11-14-9), which had already been eliminated from post-season contention.