Vancouver Whitecaps 1-Sporting Kansas City 4

No one ever said the road to the MLS Cup playoffs was easy but the Vancouver Whitecaps seem to be making things more and more difficult for themselves. Faced with a ‘must-win’ scenario on Wednesday night at BC Place the Caps had a second half meltdown, allowing four goals in a 4-1 loss to Sporting Kansas City.

Things in the first 45 minutes did seem to be going in the home sides favor. In the 42nd minute midfielder Felipe hit a rocket of a shot past Sporting goalkeeper Tim Melia to give his side the 1-0 advantage. It was his first goal of the season in his first start since August 25th.

But in the second half Sporting’s potent attack came alive. Homegrown product Daniel Salloi (82′ and 90+7′) scored twice for Sporting while Yohan Croizet (62′) and Gianluca Busio (90+4′) each added a solo goal. For Busio the goal was of particular importance as it was his first start for the club and his first professional goal. The 16 year old has impressed in limited minutes this season for Sporting and appears to be primed to take on additional time in the season’s final days.

With the win Sporting (16-8-8, 56 points) move to within a point of FC Dallas (16-7-9, 57 points)  for the top spot in MLS’ Western Conference. The two sides will play each other on Sunday at 5pm EST at Toyota Park.

As for Vancouver (12-13-7, points) they are still in contention for a playoff spot but they are going to need some help. They are three points behind Real Salt Lake (13-12-7, 46 points) who host the New England Revolution (9pm EST/6pm PST, espn +). A win by RSL would all but seal Vancouver’s fate. Should the Revs pull off a result the pressure would be back on Vancouver who will travel to the City of Angels to take on LAFC (10/21 5PM EST/2PM PST, ESPN +).

On hand to cover Wednesday night’s match was our Vancouver photographer Gerrit te Hennepe. Please enjoy some of his photos from the match and make sure to check out all of our Vancouver photos on SmugMug.