Morales still upset over goal that got away
If a 2- 0- 2 start qualified as a breakout, then going five games without a loss to start the Major League Soccer season would have been an explosion.
First- year midfielder Pedro Morales, who has been dynamite in studs for the Vancouver Whitecaps, realizes how close his team came to starting off 2014 with a bang.
“Honestly, I couldn’t sleep at night,” admitted the Chilean, following training Wednesday at Dhillon Field. “I couldn’t stop thinking about it.”
Indeed, Morales was still figuratively kicking himself days after Saturday’s 2- 1 defeat to the Colorado Rapids at BC Place Stadium, which turned the strong possibility of a 3- 0- 2 record after five games into a negative momentum shifter.
After Darren Mattocks scored his first of the season to make it 1- 0 for Vancouver, Morales failed to add the clincher just a minute later, when he accepted a pass from Mattocks and had Rapids’ goalkeeper Clint Irwin in the crosshairs.
That’s where Morales’s predatory scoring instincts should have taken over. But Irwin got just enough of his leg into the strike to deflect it wide. Following a controversial ejection to the Whitecaps’ Matias Laba, Jose Mari of the Rapids scored twice within a three- minute period to steal the game away from Vancouver.
Morales is tied for the league lead with seven shots on target and leads all of MLS with 12 chances created in open play. But that miss still stings.
“I just couldn’t help but think, if I’d scored that goal, it would have been 2- 0, and probably a beautiful home win for us,” Morales said.
Vancouver was on the point of falling madly in love with its MLS team. Now the enterprise is regarded with more of a circumspect eye. Did March signal resurrection, regeneration, or were the early- season possibilities laid out by the Whitecaps simply a false spring?
Over the next three weeks, we’ll know more. A home- andhome series with the Los Angeles Galaxy, starting Saturday evening at StubHub Centre in California, followed by a road game April 26 against another Western Conference power, Real Salt Lake, should provide more clarity.
Carl Robinson, the Whitecaps’ first- year manager, doesn’t need to be reminded that the Whitecaps won only six games against Western Conference opponents in 2013.
“Whether it’s East or West, we need more points to get into the playoffs, and I don’t care who we beat,” Robinson said. “As long as we keep improving and moving in the right direction, we’ll be there. Saturday is a good test for me. But it’s also a good test for my young team. The L. A. games are always tough games. We’ll see where we’re at Saturday night.”
The Whitecaps’ previous visit to California this season — a March 15 game against Chivas USA, co- tenants of StubHub Centre with the Galaxy — is not a comforting omen. Playing 10 men against 11 for much of the match, Chivas played the lethargic Whitecaps to a 1- 1 draw in 30 Celsius. Morales, who played for Malaga, in southern Spain, said he was unprepared for the conditions.
Morales has been receiving treatment and dealing with back issues since he arrived in Vancouver but he maintains the condition won’t limit or curtail his participation on Saturday.
“When I’m playing, I really don’t think about it,” he said. “I’ve been dealing with it for a long time, so I’m used to it. When I feel it the most, it’s when I shoot really hard. ”
The Whitecaps brass quickly has recognized the Chilean international’s ability to fit in, his poise, and his way of making those around him better. His touch and aim, with both feet, are remarkable. But his scouting report goes like this: Dynamic at home, quiet on the road. That has to change.