Gutted.
Every season, every team will have a couple of games where a draw feels like a defeat. Vancouver Whitecaps gave us that feeling against Seattle Sounders on Saturday.
These are the games that build the character of a team. Players need to have the joy of winning ugly, and the pain of playing well and not winning, to fully move them on to the next level.
It's then how they react to such a game, both immediately and in the next match, that shows just what kind of mentally strong team you have.
After Saturday's game, every player and member of the management team felt the same way. They all know how much these matches matter and were frustrated at throwing the two points away. You can't ask for much more from your players than that.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
We hurt. They hurt. One love. One goal.
Now go out there on Wednesday and take out your anger and frustration on Toronto.
Overall, it was a great team performance against Seattle and a fantastic advertisement for football here in the Pacific Northwest, but argh, those missed chances really came back to haunt us.
If we had just taken one of those opportunities before or after half time, the result would have been a much different story. Football is a game of "what ifs" though, and we've stolen a few points ourselves already this season.
The chance Darren Mattocks blasted over fifteen seconds into the second half was the game changer.
We go two up there and Seattle are dead in the water.
Mattocks missed a load of chances. We know it, he knows it, everyone that saw the game knows it.
You can point fingers all day but how does that help a young player starting his fledgling career? It doesn't, and I really liked how Martin Rennie defended him after the match and took the positives out of his performance.
What can't be overlooked is the fact that he got himself into those positions in the first place, and with ease. His speed, skill and tenacity caused the Seattle defence a multitude of problems. They clearly didn't know how to handle him and it was a great choice by Rennie to throw the unknown quantity into the mix.
He was rusty, pumped up and nervous. Once he settles down and gets some minutes and a bit of confidence behind him, he is going to be an awesome asset for the team. His clinical finishing will soon come in MLS and when it does it's going to be devastating.
Omar Salgado had a good game on the left and linked up wonderfully with Alain Rochat. If he can only work on his control and, in particular, his first touch on through balls, he'll be even better.
Putting Salgado back in there after the stinker he had in New England will be a huge boost to the young player's confidence, and this is a game where confidence is king.
Rennie has said from the start that age doesn't matter to him if he feels the player is good enough and on form. Playing two inexperienced strikers on the wings at the same time may have been a small step too far, although you can't say they didn't create and their speed will cause every defence in MLS problems.
Talking of defensive problems, that was another two poor goals lost by ours.
Martin Bonjour started the season so solidly, but if you wanted to play the blame game, you could pin both of Seattle's goal somewhat on him.
It may be time for the Argentinean to get a little break and resurrect last season's successful Jay DeMerit-Carlyle Mitchell partnership.
Our full backs are amongst the best in the League and I loved seeing another facet of Young-Pyo Lee's play when he wasn't afraid to get involved and go face to face with a couple of Seattle players in the second half. Love his passion and 100% commitment.
Alain Rochat had a stand out game and what a goal. Not quite sure what Seattle's defence were doing for it mind you. No-one seemed to want to go near him and they let him walk into the box. Even Rochat was surprised by that after the match.
Our midfield looks so much stronger with Gershon Koffie in it. He has to get the start on Wednesday. From nowhere he seems to have added an attacking quality to his game that just wasn't there last season.
Keep it going. And the same for Davide Chiumiento, who is lighting the pitch up at the moment.
He has made it known he feels he should be starting more games. Responding on the pitch the way he has is the best way to assure that.
The nature of Saturday's draw is what is hard to take, but if you don't look at that aspect of it, the performance our guys turned in against one of the best sides in MLS shows just how far this team has come and how far they could go.
Martin Rennie wants more though, as he told reporters after the match:
<i>"I'm not here for us to make up the numbers, or anything like that. We're here to be the best. We're not here to tie games. We're not here to be happy with scoring two goals when we concede two goals.
We're here to become better and to take over as best we can. Today we could have done that. We could have had an excellent result, so it's very little satisfaction."</i>
It's great to hear that desire and determination, and he continued:
<i>"I wanted it to be a win, and it should have been a win.
It's frustrating that it wasn't, but at the same time, I think if someone had said to me in January you'll have the pre-season that you're going to have, unbeaten and winning a tournament, you'll be in the final of the Canadian Cup, with a game to go, all squared up, you're going to be fourth in the West and right there with the best teams, then would you accept that in January when you're taking over the worst team in MLS? Then yeah, you would grab it with both hands.
It's definitely not all doom and gloom, but I just want us to be making strides faster than we are and today was a chance for us to make that stride and Wednesday is as well.
We need to let the feeling of today burn enough so that Wednesday gives us that feeling of winning."</i>
We shouldn't let any despondency creep in just because we lost two points to our Cascadian rivals. We played well and other results this weekend were pretty favourable to us.
If we play like that on Wednesday then we'll be lifting our first Voyageurs Cup.
Frankly, anything else will be deemed as a failure. Vancouver expects.
'Mon the Caps.
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<b>AFTN 3-2-1:</b>
3 points - ALAIN ROCHAT (Immense. To have two of the best full backs in MLS on the same team is something we need to fully make the best of)
2 points - JOE CANNON (Went from doing nothing in the first half to single handedly keeping us in it in the second)
1 point - GERSHON KOFFIE (He's a difference maker in the middle this year. We missed him on Wednesday against Toronto and his performance against Seattle showed us why)
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