Vancouver supporters feeling a little blue.
The Vancouver Whitecaps denied the Portland Timbers a playoff spot on Sunday and captured their third Cascadia Cup in four years on Sunday afternoon as they dismantled the Portland Timbers 4-1.
Vancouver came out of the gates strong from the opening whistle having four chances in the opening 11 minutes testing the Timbers defense and goalkeeper Jake Gleeson.
The Whitecaps struck in the 13th minute when Giles Barnes ripped home a blast on a nice set-up by Fraser Baird. Baird sent in a cross from the right flank and Giles volleyed a howitzer home past Gleeson to give the Caps the early advantage.
Vancouver kept the momentum coming as they had chances from Nicolas Mezquida and defender Kendall Watson who sent shots just inches over the crossbar. Gleeson had to be sharp to keep it a one goal game and keep the Timbers in the match.
Barnes scored his second of the game in the 32nd minute on a steal off a Portland defender and hit low shot into the bottom right hand corner.
The start of the second half was an replica of the opening 45 minutes as the Whitecaps blistered the Portland defense. Captain Pedro Morales sent a rocket past Gleeson in the 53rd minute from 25 yards out to extend the lead to 3-0 over the Timbers.
Mezquida extended the lead to 4-0 on a brilliant goal in the 55th minute getting past three Timbers defenders and ripping it past Gleeson from the right flank edge of the penalty area.
Erik Hurtado almost extended the lead to 5-0 in the 59th minute ripping a shot that Gleeson got a finger on it to deflect it wide of the post. The only blemish on the day for the club was a late tackle by Kendall Watson in the Caps penalty area taking down Diego Valeri. Valeri was awarded a penalty kick by Alan Kelly and beat David Ousted to spoil the clean sheet.
From there the Caps played a solid match at both ends of the pitch as Coach Carl Robinson made some key subs to reward the players for their efforts on the afternoon. One such player wasBrett Levis who just signed a MLS contract. Levis played Whitecaps FC2 squad that just completed a remarkable second year in the USL Division 2 league. He did not disappoint the fans making several excellent runs on the Portland defense.
As the whistle went to complete the Caps win they were presented with the Cascadia Cup. Cup commemorates as champions of the Northwest and is contested between the Timbers, the Whitecaps and the Seattle Sounders. The trophy was inaugurated by the great fans of the of the I-5 Northwest and is present every year and is awarded to the the club with the most points between the three.
Pedro Morales was presented with the Dominic Mobilio Golden Boot Award having scored nine goals this season for the club. Mobilio played for the Vancouver 86ers and was killed in a car accident back in 2004.
So now comes the off- season when coach Robinson and the staff will look back and reflect on what went wrong and right at times during the 2016 MLS season. They honored the fans with a victory lap around the field to salute them and say thanks for the support all year.
