<center><i>** Match report and post-game reaction from the Caps locker room on Vancouver's 4-3 win over New England in MLS action **</i></center>
<b>Report:</b>
A game of two halfs is the old cliché and often the most apt description. It's more rare to get a half of two halfs but that's just what Vancouver Whitecaps and New England Revolution served up at BC Place on Saturday evening.
The Caps fought back from going two down in the opening 20 minutes to storm back in some style and grab a 4-3 win and three very vital points.
When Juan Agudelo and Kelyn Rowe put New England two up early, the writing seemed on the wall for Vancouver, but the game turned on a soft penalty decision when Kenny Miller went flying in the box and Andrew Farrell saw red for the challenge.
Camilo Sanvezzo's spot kick and goals from Miller and Jordan Harvey saw the Caps go in at the half 3-2 up and they never looked back. A second half wonderstrike from Miller eased the nerves and although Dimitry Imbongo brought them back with a late counter, Vancouver held on and gave the whole Whitecaps camp a massive boost.
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The Whitecaps didn't have their troubles to seek for the first of two vital back to back home games. With a heavily depleted backline, a weakened midfield and facing a very inform New England side, they would need to dig deep to get the three points they badly needed to keep themselves in the playoff mix.
Martin Rennie made two changes from the team that started last week's heartbreaking loss in Seattle. Whereas the addition of Daigo Kobayashi in place of Jun Marques Davidson was an attacking switch, the enforced change of centreback Carlyle Mitchell for the injured Andy O'Brien was really the only remaining card that Rennie could play in this hand.
With all of the Whitecaps defensive frailties and collapses this season, how Honduran international Johnny Leveron and Mitchell would gel at the back, with no chance to build up an understanding between the pair, was always going to be one of the keys to the game. There were a couple of shaky moments, but on the whole they played well together.
Vancouver had the first real chance of the match in the 8th minute. Russell Teibert passed the ball inside to Kobayashi from the right wing and he turned and played in YP Lee in the box. The Korean took a touch before firing inches past the left hand post.
As is so often the case in football, the Whitecaps were made to pay for that miss two minutes later.
Chris Tierney played a perfectly flighted long ball forward from midway in the Revolution's half and over the Caps defence. Agudelo ran onto the end of it, between Leveron and Harvey, to coolly slot the ball past Knighton for the opening goal.
The goal shocked BC Place but it was the visitors who were now playing the nicer football and Rowe fired over from just inside the box in the 19th minute following good build up play.
It was a warning that the Caps didn't heed and they fell two behind a minute later following more nice build up work from Saer Sene and Diego Fagundez. Rowe was the man that was played the final ball again and this time he made no mistake, keeping his shot low and into the bottom left hand corner for 2-0 New England.
It was looking bleak for Vancouver but they got the vital break they needed to get back into the game in the 23rd minute.
Teibert played a long ball forward and Miller timed his run perfectly to outpace the last two Revs defenders. Andrew Farrell tried to get a piece of Miller as he bore down on goal, but when he made the slightest of touches in the box the Caps striker became a flying Scotsman and went down in the box.
Referee Juan Guzman immediately pointed to the spot and worse was to come for New England as he helped Farrell to his feet before showing him a red card.
Up stepped Camilo to drill home his sixth MLS goal of the season and the Whitecaps were unexpectedly back in the game.
The Caps smelt blood and tried to immediately push for an equaliser, but the Revs held firm and brought on Darius Barnes to try and strengthen their defence and hold on to their lead.
They were only able to do that until the 39th minute.
Bobby Shuttleworth played a long New England goal kick downfield and it was met by the head of Mitchell who knocked it forward towards Miller. The Caps DP did the rest, playing a delightful chip over Stephen McCarthy then with signs of a Kenny Miller in his prime, he left the defender in his wake, showing great ball control and clinically firing the ball past the Revs keeper for the equaliser.
The Caps incredibly made it three in the 43rd minute.
Nigel Reo-Coker powered forward and played the ball out right to Teibert. The young Canadian then played the perfect ball to Harvey at the back post, who drilled it into the roof of the net from the edge of the six yard box.
It was Harvey's second goal in three games and Teibert's fourth assist in two.
Vancouver nearly grabbed a fourth a minute before the interval when Camilo played a neat one-two with Miller, powered past two New England defenders and rounded Shuttleworth, before Barnes got in a vital foot with the Brazilian poised to grab his brace.
It had been an incredible turnaround, but there was still no room for complacency in the second half, as one goal for the visitors and it was going to be a whole different ball game once again.
Vancouver carried the play to start the second half, but New England were having several forays forward and showing that they weren't out of this game just yet.
Neither side were providing much goalmouth action this half and Vancouver made an attacking switch to bring on Kekuta Manneh for Matt Watson midway through the second half.
The tension was lifted off the home team and home crowd in the 68th minute when Vancouver grabbed their fourth and gave themselves a two goal cushion.
Camilo played a beautiful long ball forward to Miller. The Scotsman let it take a bounce then took a step back to shake of his two markers before volleying over the heads of Barnes and McCarthy from 20 yards out and into the postage stamp corner, leaving Shuttleworth rooted to the spot.
Vancouver could relax a little and they brought on another rookie, Erik Hurtado, to try and see the game out and give him valuable minutes.
There was an unsavoury moment in the 77th minute when Shuttleworth feigned being caught by a late foot from Manneh. Replays showed there was no foul on the play but the young Gambian picked up a yellow card for the non challenge, leaving the Revolution keeper being roundly booed by the crowd for the rest of the match.
The tension came back to BC Place when New England pulled a goal back in the 84th minute.
Barnes played a perfect defence splitting ball through to sub Dimitry Imbongo and the Congolese striker held off the attentions of Mitchell to fire home decisively from 12 yards.
Despite the man advantage, the nerves were still very aware of Vancouver's knack of losing late goals. This time though they held on to win the seven goal thriller despite a late push from the Revolution which saw Brad Knighton make a fantastic last ditch tip over of a Lee Nguyen free kick.
It was a stunning comeback win for Vancouver, albeit in a match turned by a rather fortuitous penalty and sending off call.
The Caps still had to deal with the hand that they were dealt and they did that exceptionally well against a New England side who fought back well themselves and who had looked the real deal in the opening moments.
These are kind of wins and performances that can be season changing, instilling a new found confidence and self belief in a side, not only in fighting back, but in holding on to win and not conceding a vital late goal, as has been their downfall for much of this season.
How Vancouver go on and see out the month is the key here now. Another four or six points and June will have been so much better than it has felt at times and keep the Whitecaps right in the mix for a second consecutive playoff appearance.
FINAL SCORE: Vancouver Whitecaps 4 - 3 New England Revolution
ATT: 20,116
VANCOUVER: Brad Knighton; Young Pyo-Lee, Carlyle Mitchell, Johnny Leveron, Jordan Harvey; Nigel Reo-Coker (Jun Marques Davidson 79), Daigo Kobayashi, Matt Watson (Kekuta Manneh 66); Russell Teibert, Kenny Miller, Camilo Sanvezzo (Erik Hurtado 74) [subs Not Used: Joe Cannon, Adam Clement, Darren Mattocks, Tommy Heinemann]
NEW ENGLAND: Bobby Shuttleworth; Andrew Farrell, Stephen McCarthy, Jose Goncalves, Chris Tierney; Diego Fagundez (Dimitry Imbongo 69), Kelyn Rowe, Scott Caldwell, Lee Nguyen; Saer Sene (Darius Barnes 29), Juan Agudelo (Ryan Guy 74) [subs Not Used: Matt Reis, A.J. Soares, Chad Barrett, Andy Dorman]
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<b>Reaction:</b>
<b>Martin Rennie on the overall game:</b>
"We started off the game slow and New England were playing really well....We didn't defend well on the first two goals. The thing I liked was that we had a couple of leaders in Kenny and Nigel who kept going, who really showed grit, determination and fight and they know that if you keep going in the game, anything can happen, so from 2-0 down we've won a game 4-3."
<b>Martin Rennie on recent form:</b>
"We've won out third game out of the last five in MLS. We've got a game coming up Wednesday at home where we want to focus on getting our fourth win out of six which will probably make us the hottest team in MLS if we can do that."
<b>Martin Rennie on what was going through his mind when New England went 2-0 up:</b>
"I was just thinking this is going to be an exciting game because we're going to have to score three or goals to win it and that's what happened."
<b>Martin Rennie on letting New England back in to it at the end:</b>
"We must be the most entertaining team in MLS because the games never seem to be over when you feel that they should be."
<b>Martin Rennie on why Caps make it so difficult for themselves:</b>
"I have no idea. That's the thing I'm starting to wonder. It can't be good for my health watching these games because I've got used to coaching teams over the years that have consistently won and done things in a fairly organised way and right now we seem to be doing things the hard way. But right now we are winning, we are moving forward, but hopefully we'll get to the point where we're things are done a little bit more easily."
<b>Martin Rennie on the red card:</b>
"At that point we were struggling to find a way back in to the game but it was the right decision."
<b>Martin Rennie on confidence of team after coming back and not conceding late:</b>
"Wins do build confidence. We have been fairly confident. We have been playing well. I think sometimes people don't have a realistic perspective of where we are and what we're doing, but that's three out of five with the tie in there and that does build confidence. We just want to get our focus and determination right for Wednesday night and then we have a ten day break where we think a lot of our injured players will come back. Today's results help us a lot and now we need to dust ourselves off and get ready for the next one."
<b>Martin Rennie on Kenny Miller:</b>
"I thought they were absolutely fantastic goals and his overall performance was really top class. It made a really big difference to our team tonight. And as I say, nit just his workrate but his desire and hunger and workrate when we were losing and we weren't doing well that started to run off on other people.
"If ever there was a 'man of the match' award given to the right person then it was definitely tonight."
<b>Kenny Miller on the win:</b>
"We set out tonight to get a big three points and fortunately enough we got it. It was hard work and we made it tougher than it probably should have been towards the end but you've got to take the positives. It's three points, it's four goals at home, it keeps us that unbeaten record at home as well and sets us up nicely for Wednesday night to hopefully get another three points."
<b>Kenny Miller on his and the team's performance:</b>
"I'm delighted with the goals but more delighted with the three points and the fact that we've got another win at home and we're maintaining that record we've got at home. They're decent enough performances but we've got to get better."
"Delighted with the win but again losing three goals is disappointing for us because like I said last week, two goals should be enough to get something from the game but again tonight it wouldn't have been. But we've got to go away positive. We're happy, we've got three points, which was a big win and it sets up nicely. We set out to get six points from these two games and we're halfway there."
<b>Kenny Miller on fighting back from two goals down:</b>
"It's important that you keep going because when you're two goals down or two goals up that one goal can get you back into the game. It's important that you still have that belief and I always thought that at home we could get back in to it. Fair enough, the sending off does change the game a little bit but we got back in to it and from that moment on, particularly in the first half, we went from strength to strength."
<b>Kenny Miller on his second goal:</b>
"It bounced up. It sat up nice, I was expecting it actually to run, run over in front of me but it kinda stuck and I think it caught the defender out as well. It's just a case of hope, hit it and hope that it goes in and fortunately it did."
<b>Kenny Miller on whether the goal was his best one since the Scotland-Cyprus game:</b>
"Totally yeah. That's a good flag up that. If you go on You Tube you can see that one, it was a good one!" (Link - <a href="
<b>Carlyle Mitchell on overall game:</b>
"It was a very difficult game for me to come back into because I was out for like two and a half weeks. It was a very hard game but most of all we got three points."
<b>Carlyle Mitchell on communicating with Leveron:</b>
"The communication with me and Johnny was very hard because I speak English and he speaks Spanish, so it's very hard. We did more hand movements."
<b>Carlyle Mitchell on how his injury held up during the game:</b>
"I got a little twitch during the game but it wasn't bad so I just continued going."
<b>Brad Knighton on the importance of goals at both ends:</b>
"If we keep scoring goals at the rate we’re scoring goals we’re going to move up the table nice and fast, and look good doing it. We just have to shore things up defensively and that comes down to me being a leader and organizing the backline and making the saves I need to make to keep us in the game."
<b>New England manager Jay Heaps on his side's explosive start:</b>
"To be honest with you it was some of the best stuff we've done this season that first 20 minutes. I thought we were prepared, we were ready, we were all over them."
<b>New England manager Jay Heaps on the game changing sending off:</b>
"We're still looking at the film of it. We felt it was a bit harsh. It is what it is. The worst part is we're up 2-1 but we're down a man, seventy minutes to go. The referee's got to be 100% on that and he felt he was."
<b>New England's Andrew Farrell on his sending off:</b>
"It was a good ball they played in behind, deep in behind. I got caught off-guard because I didn’t see Kenny Miller coming in from behind, from my left side. It was kind of a quick play. I had my hand, I think, on his back and I don’t think it’s a foul, but obviously it’s in the run of play, so you can’t really see it, and I mean, on the replay it looks like a foul, so, it’s tough going down a man."
<b>New England's Chris Tierney on the game changing sending off:</b>
"We started really well, we were in full control of the game. Unfortunately it was a classic case of one play deciding the game. That red card clearly changed the game. We liked our chances with eleven men, 2-0 up after 20 minutes and were moving the ball well and creating chances."
<b>New England's Kelyn Rowe on the game changing sending off:</b>
"If it was 11 v 11, maybe it was two, three, four zero in the first half."
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