This is Carl Robinson's sixth season in Major League Soccer.
Having spent three seasons at Toronto, he obviously never experienced the playoffs as a player there, but he did at New York Red Bulls in the last two seasons.
This year, the Whitecaps assistant coach will be tasting the playoffs for the first time from a management point of view and AFTN's Christopher Vose caught up with Carl after training to get his thoughts on the LA game.
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The first thing we wanted to know from Carl was does his preparation change for these games as a coach instead of a player?
<i>"It's no different. It's my third season on the trot that I've reached the playoffs, obviously the first one as a coach.
The desire's there. The belief's there. Obviously it's important that we maintain focus because anything can happen in playoff games."</i>
With everyone seemingly writing off the Whitecaps in the playoffs, how does it feel to be the universal underdogs going in to the game?
<i>"Great. Football's a funny game. Everyone knows that on any day, anyone can beat anyone.
They've beaten us twice at their place, so I'm sure that they'll believe that they can beat us, but we certainly have an inner belief that we can beat them."</i>
Carl played against LA a number of times as a player. How did he find that experience of playing against the Galaxy?
<i>"It was great. It was always exciting because they've got good players. They've got some of the big name players in the League.
But it shows where you are as a player, because if you can compete against the best players, which they certainly have, then you're going in the right direction."</i>
If the Whitecaps can overcome the odds and get past the Galaxy, the Supporters Shield winning San Jose Earthquakes will await.
With what would be three games in a week, how well prepared would the Caps be for such a quick turnaround?
<i>"We take each game as it comes. Obviously we're not looking too far ahead as it's a massive game for us Thursday, but in our minds we know then that we match up well against San Jose, but that's not in our thoughts at the moment."</i>
With Martin Rennie and Paul Ritchie being alongside Robinson in the dugout, there was obviously a lot of banter around the recent Scotland-Wales World Cup qualifier (as we <a href="http://www.canadiansoccernews.com/content.php?3826-Celtic-pride-and-bragging-rights-on-the-line-for-Whitecaps-coaches" target="_blank">spoke with him about before</a>).
Rennie was obviously a bad loser and sent Robinson off to Honduras immediately after Wales' win on a scouting mission to watch the Canada game there. Does Robinson have any ill feelings towards the boss for sending him across the world and dampening his bragging rights?
<i>"(laughs) No, not all. Not at all. It's part of the job, finding players. There's good players all over the place, so it's important that we make sure that if we identify a player, wherever he may be, we go and watch him."</i>
And the Whitecaps fans want to go all over the place to watch their team too.
With a couple of hundred fans heading down to LA for the club's first MLS playoff match, does Carl have a final message for the travelling support?
<i>"Just keep doing what you've been doing. You've been fantastic all year for us through some ups and downs.
It's important that you're there. We appreciate you travelling with us and we'll do our very best to get us through to the next round."</i>
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