Looking at the fixtures at the start of the season, you would probably have taken a point against one of the strongest sides in the East, even at home.
A star studded New York side were simply not that for their latest visit to Vancouver. They were weakened, missing some big performers, weary and coming off a bad loss on Sunday.
The Red Bulls were a side there for the taking, then the Whitecaps scored and the visitors became the better side.
All things considered, it felt like a wasted opportunity and two points lost and that seemed to be the mood in the dressing room post-game too, which as a fan, you want to see. You want to see the players take it as bad as you do. You can't ask for much more.
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Head Coach Martin Rennie was fairly blunt about it in his post-game presser:
<i>"It's one of those game where obviously when you lose a late goal it does feel like a defeat."</i>
It was a fairly lacklustre performance from Vancouver. The spark was missing and they struggled to cope with a team that decided to play deep against them:
Darren Mattocks electric pace was badly missed and the whole attack suffered.
Sebastien Le Toux looked pretty tired as the match came to a close, Camilo was just not the player from last season, which maybe we could put down to a bit of rust, and Eric Hassli just couldn't get himself in the game when he came on and seems to be lacking some oomph.
We had one shot on target for the entire match. ONE. For a home game against a weakened side, that's not acceptable.
The front line has to produce more than that in a match like this.
It would have been nice to have Etienne Barbara as a back up on the bench instead of Long Tan, but it seems that the Malteser has re-aggravated his groin injury from earlier in the season in last week's reserve game.
Davide Chiumiento had another excellent game, with world class delivery. John Thorrington helped at times too, but seemed to float in and out of the game a little bit.
What really cost the Caps was the lack of wing play and penetration from Y-P Lee and Alain Rochat.
We've relied so much on the runs of this pair, that when it's not happening, you really notice it.
Lee had a few forays forward, but nowhere near his usual standard. He was also slow getting back at times.
I thought Rochat had a stinker. We were very poor defending that side of the pitch for the whole match. New York were allowed a lot of space on the right, just inside our half, and they tried to make the most of it.
Jay DeMerit also had some shaky moments, but thankfully Martin Bonjour shook off his blips of late and was the rock back there for this match.
The Red Bulls goal was dreadful on the Caps part. They simply fell asleep.
Failing to anticipate the short corner was mistake number two. The first one was the giving away of the corner in the first place, after Thorrington and Koffie were left to handle a NY break in the box.
If the conceding and marking was poor in the build up to the goal, how the Caps dealt with the final ball into the box was even worse.
There were six unmarked NY players in a bunch, just waiting for one of them to do the damage. Really horrible stuff.
The nature of the goal was bad enough, but the fact that Caps just didn't have it in them last night to hold on to their lead was what was really disappointing and Martin Rennie concurred:
<i>"The disappointing thing would be that we didn't see the game out. It's something we have to learn from.
There's two big things for us to make improvements on tonight.
One is how we break down a team the sits a little deeper and how we make sure we're clinical when we have chances.
And the second thing would be when we're ahead in a game, with a short time to go, making sure we see the game out. We need to manage that a little bit better."</i>
Although it's easy to feel down about the game, looking at the bigger picture, it's been an excellent June for the Caps and one which has seen them move into third place in the West and within six points of Conference leaders Real Salt Lake, with a game in hand.
Martin Rennie is certainly looking to take the positives out of it and build upon the negatives:
<i>"This has been a very strong three game run at home for us, seven points out of nine. It puts us and keeps us in a very strong position.
But it also shows the distance we've come when we're really disappointed with ties and we need to make sure we feel that disappointment, make sure it hurts us and make sure it gives us the inspiration to learn and get better because it's an improving team. A team that's working hard and doing a lot of things right but we must make sure we polish up on any things which could cost us, which I think we could definitely learn from tonight."</i>
A gruelling five game road trip now awaits the Caps and the team will need to be mentally tough to get them through it.
There's only two games out east, and thankfully they'll be back to back. After they're out of the way, it's only Western Conference match ups for the rest of the season.
That will be the most vital spell of the entire campaign and if the Caps can go into it with some decent points from their away spell, then it should set them up nicely for the run-in.
With the teams at the bottom picking up points last night, a poor road return could mean a pretty tight and tense last couple of months for all teams.
LA are now unbeaten in two, have some confidence going and are next up.
Let's just hope that the Galaxy resurgence doesn't mean the Caps are facing them at the worst time.
If the Caps can get something out of that one, then the psychological boost that will give them will be massive.
'Mon the Caps.
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<b><u>AFTN 3-2-1:</u></b>
3 points - MARTIN BONJOUR (a rock back there after a couple of dodgy games and what a strike for the goal)
2 points - DAVIDE CHIUMIENTO (if anything was going to happen, it was only going to be through him. His confidence is so high right now that his delivery and little flicks just keep getting better every game)
1 point - JOHN THORRINGTON (although he drifted a little in and out of the game, he put himself around a little last night and played some delightful balls through for the strikers)
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