Vancouver Whitecaps beat the St. Louis City 4-3 in Major League Soccer in action in Vancouver Saturday.
The odds favoured Vancouver Whitecaps going into this game, but St. Louis had other plans.
This game started fast with fouls and corners conceded by both teams.
The stalemate was broken quickly in the 7th minute with a shot outside the box from Njabulo Blom, a deflection on the way took it out of the reach of keeper Yohei Takaoaka.
- Photo gallery: The Vancouver Whitecaps beat St. Louis 4-3
Minute 11, a shot at goal by St. Louis captain Eduard Loewen was blocked by Javain Brown’s body, but deflected only his arm. Loewen’s was able to convert the penalty into the bottom right of the goal to put St. Louis ahead by two.
Despite being down by two, the Whitecaps had several attempts to pull a goal back, St. Louis Keeper Ben Lundt was a match for these attempts. That was until minute 37, Brian White chasing a long ball over the top, was able to fire off a shot, which was deflected by the outstretched foot of former Whitecap Jake Nerwinski, over the head of a wrong-footed Ben Lundt; Vancouver Whitecaps back in the game at 1-2.
Minute 52, Jake Nerwinski, on the goal-line, blocks a header from Bjorn Utvik to avoid the tie-game, after Javain Brown’s header could only find the crossbar.
Loading ...Minute 54, Vancouver Whitecaps finally get their equalizer, with Johnson and White chasing through the centre, Nerwinski and Totland were indecisive, only for the ball to drop behind White, his back-heel flick sent it over the his head into the top of the net, for a total fluke of a goal.
Minute 61, a ball into the box from Ryan Raposo finds the Head of Brian White for his hat-trick, Whitecaps ahead 3-2.
Just before the end of regular time Luis Martins, down the left-wing cuts the ball into an unmarked Fafa Picault, an unsighted Ben Lundt could do nothing to stop the shot, 4-2 to the Caps.
The game wasn’t over yet, 3 minutes into time added, Indiana Vassilev on the edge of the box at left-side fires a low ball for Nokkvi Thorisson to deflect into the bottom left corner, to finish the game at 4-3; three points to the Whitecaps.
Quotes:
Vanni Sartini, Whitecaps head coach
On his team’s ability to come from behind and win the match:
“To be honest, we were two-nothing down, but it wasn’t a comeback of character. It was a comeback of being conscious of being a good team, to keep doing the things that we’re supposed to do. We were always calm and collected with the ball. We got to be honest also, St. Louis were missing some of their best players, so we even helped them at the beginning by scoring those two goals, but we knew that it was a chance for us to be in charge of the game and that’s what we did. We were able to get these three points back that are really important because we are, with two games in hand, potentially fourth. And we go now to play these two important games away, Minnesota and Montréal, a little light-hearted in the sense that instead of we have to win both, we have to do results in both, we want to do results in both but it’s not like the standings look that bad.”
On Brian White’s hat-trick:
“I am very happy for him. I think that everything happened when, after the first goal he scored, even if it was the deflection of Jake, the monkey that was on his shoulder went away. And when the monkey goes away, then you feel that free that even lucky things happen to you, because now you’re that positive and trying to go to score that goal and the second goal is actually like a lucky thing but the third goal is a goal that is a Brian White masterclass, like top of the top of the top. So I hope that it’s going to give him the confidence to smile, because we all love when Brian [White] smiles, and because the importance that he has for this team is astronomical, like I’ve said a million times, it’s not about the goals, it’s about the way that we play and it’s very tied to his quality of this performance and tonight was very, very good at that.”
Brian White, Whitecaps foreward
On the second goal:
“Yeah, definitely a bit of luck…I was trying to bring the ball with me. Fortunately, it hit off my heel and went over him [St. Louis goalkeeper Ben Lundt]. Take what we can get, right?”
