Despite valiant effort, Whitecaps lose to Tigres

For the first 45 minutes it appeared that the Vancouver Whitecaps might pull of the impossible against Tigres in the second leg of the CONCACAF Champions League series. But as we have learned time and time again, the impossible is just not possible when MLS sides meet their Liga MX rivals. The Caps as they took Tigres to the edge but did not have enough losing  3-1 before 16,258 fans at BC Place Stadium.

Vancouver had control of the game in the opening half of the second stage of their CONCACAF Scotia Champions league match up surprising the Mexican squad with a goal from Brek Shea sliding home the opening goal of the match just 3 minutes past a startled Nahuel Guzman of Tigres to give them a 1-0 lead in the game.

The Whitecaps continued to have a strong opening half as they held their Mexican counterparts in check in the opening 45 minutes, denying them any real scoring threats. When Tigres did breakthrough, steady play by goalkeeper David Ousted thwarted their efforts.

They lost midfielder Brek Shea about 20 minutes into the match with a lower body injury as he was attempting to take to make a move on a Tigres defender on the attack. Shea got twisted up and went down holding his knee and had to be helped off the field by the medical staff. Rather than go for a veteran presence coach Carl Robinson through caution to the win inserting 16 year sensation Alphonso Davies to replace Shea. Davies held his own against a difficult Tigres defense and created several goal-scoring opportunities

The Caps Fredy Montero  and Christian Bolanos which tested the Tigres goalkeeper Guzman who settled down and gave his team a chance as the play evened out at as the game went on in the opening 45 minutes which would have give them a one or two goal lead.

 Vancouver almost buried a chance two minutes in by Christian Bolanos who tested Guzman of UANL and made a brilliant save off the Whitecaps midfielder to keep the game at 1-0 and Bolanos a three minutes later added a second chance that Guzman snared as well to keep it a one goal game.

The sleeping giant from Tigres got woken up and made the adjustments that make them one of the best clubs in the CONCACAF Champions League and took control of the match playing keep away from the Caps with some sound possession of the ball.

French international forward Andre-Pierre Gignac struck a beauty of a free kick past David Ousted as he curled the ball around the Whitecaps wall in the 63rd minute and the game was tied at 1-1. Tigres would add another before the night was over with sub Damian Alvarez sent a well placed shot into the roofed a shot  of the net in the 84th minute to give them a 2-1 lead.