by Graham Tooke, @chelskitooke
Vancouver came into Clarke Field on Wednesday night in need of a goal to have any chance of advancing to the Voyageurs Cup final. Even though Tomi Ameobi cancelled out Pedro Morales’ early penalty with one of his own in stoppage time, Matias Laba stabbed the winner to send Vancouver through.
Taking a leaf out of Edmonton’s book, the Whitecaps pressurized from the kick off. That led to Mezquida sliding in, and then Techera and his quick touch forced Eddies’ goalkeeper VanOekel into taking the diminutive winger out inside the box for a Whitecaps penalty. The keeper escaped with only a yellow card despite the question of an obvious goal scoring opportunity.
Pedro Morales slotted in his third goal of the season to give his side the early lead with FC Edmonton desperately trying to find a way of dealing with the blustery conditions. Not only did VanOekel have to worry about reading the ball getting hung up in the air but the sun was beaming down on his eyes.
Christian Dean found himself hauling down Nyassi often in order to contain his speed.
Carl Robinson sent out a side with a mixture of experienced and fresh faces. Tim Parker was given the start alongside Kendall Waston. Christian Dean may not have been happy about that, as he set up on the left looking very uncomfortable.
Sainey Nyassi definitely caused a few problems down their right while Lance Laing and Ethen Sampson entertained on the opposite side.
The fullbacks both received yellow cards in the second half, Sampson for a mistimed sliding tackle on Laing that saw the young South African come off worse taking a boot to the head and had to be replaced by Steven Beitashour.
Mezquida and Techera were at the root of the majority of excitement for the travelling Vancouver support cutting in from either flank and linking up well with Morales. But despite all their industry they didn’t have much luck in front of goal in the first half before Mezquida was replaced by Kekuta Manneh in the second.
Second half substitute Daryl Fordyce had the chance of the game to equalize for the home side. Lance Laing whipped in a delightful ball to the back post but the towering forward could only volley high with a delicate touch needed to get past the impressive Tornaghi.
Shortly after Techera almost wrapped up the win cutting in from the left but he managed to curl his shot narrowly wide.
Robinson went defensive bringing on Laba for the tiring Techera. While his opposite number Colin Miller brought on Hanson Boakai and later Frank Jonke as they chased the equalizer.
Sampson and Laing gave each other a tough time with the former taking a stud to the head.
The Jonke introduction looked to be a masterstroke by Miller as the dominant forward won a penalty with his first action of the match. A routine long ball looked to be comfortably collected by Tornaghi. However Waston gave an unnecessary nudge to the back of Jonke to give his keeper room giving away a needless penalty which Ameobi made no mistake with.
Having tied it up two minutes into stoppage time there was still an incredible five more minutes to play and just enough for Vancouver to hurt the home side.
Manneh won a fortuitous free kick out on the left. The Eddies backline failed to deal with the ensuing set piece and after Parker had kept the ball alive, Matias Laba blindly swiped under VanOekel from a tight angle.
Something of a collector’s item for the Argentine as he wheeled away in delight to be mobbed by his teammates.
The victory sends Vancouver into the Voyageurs Cup final with the first leg taking place in Montreal, August 12, with the return leg at BC Place, August 26.
The ‘Caps can now look forward to the CONCACAF Champions League draw in June with the tournament set to kick off in August.
