After seven attempts, Vancouver Whitecaps finally beat Los Angeles Galaxy in a day of firsts at BC Place.
A second half brace from Russell Teibert and a stoppage time clincher from Darren Mattocks gave the Caps a 3-1 win over the MLS Cup Champions.
Despite some nervy late moments, the Whitecaps came through with a massive and much needed win for the team as they enter one of the key parts of their season.
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Back at home, Martin Rennie again rang the changes, with Darren Mattocks returning as the main striker and Jun Marques Davidson making a surprise return in the DM role.
The team was looking like it was set up with a cautiousness in defence in mind and less of a cavalier home team line up against one of the deadliest attacks in MLS.
The visitors threatened early and Joe Cannon had to make a save from Jose Villareal five minutes in.
Darren Mattocks had a couple of half chances before the Whitecaps best chance of the match so far came when he connected with a great cross from substitute Russell Teibert in the 15th minute, but the Jamaican's header was easily held low by Galaxy goalkeeper Carlo Cudicini.
Villareal nearly played in Omar Gonzalez in the 23rd minute after some neat build up play left Johnny Leveron unsure of whether to track the ball or the man. Andy O'Brien was back covering and got the vital foot in to divert the ball for a corner which came to nothing.
Gonzalez then came close to giving Vancouver the lead in the 36th minute when he volleyed a Nigel Reo-Coker cross straight at his keeper but Cudicini parried well.
The teams headed in at the break with the visitors outshooting the Caps and enjoying a 60-40% percentage edge in possession. Dangerous stats to give any side, never mind the high firing MLS Cup winners.
Vancouver attacked from the start of the second half and Reo-Coker cracked one off wide left just 38 seconds.
The game quickly fell into a lull which the Whitecaps tried to snap it out of with a break which saw the LA defence scrambling to block a couple of Caps chances and then Gershon Koffie blast over the resultant corner.
LA came within inches of taking the lead just past the hour mark.
Vancouver had been giving Hector Jimenez a lot of room and the left and he whipped a great cross in to the back of the box which Gonzalez met superbly, but could only look on as it went just past the right hand post with Cannon beaten.
It was a miss that was to cost the Galaxy dear two minutes later.
Teibert got the ball on the right cut into the box, but finding no room, made some on the outside and buried a low drive into the bottom left hand corner to give the Whitecaps an unexpected 63rd minute lead.
It was the young Canadian's first professional goal but he wasn't finished there and added a second in the 76th minute in a move in which he both started and finished.
Collecting the ball in the middle of the LA half he ran goalwards and played a pass to Koffie. The Ghanaian took a touch and a turn and played the ball back to Teibert, who continued his run and buried it into nearly same spot.
Cannon tipped over a deflection in the 81st minute, as LA pushed to try and get back into the game.
And they did just that in the 86th minute when sub Gyasi Zardes rose well to head home a Villareal cross from eight yards out.
It was a nervy BC Place and Mattocks had a great chance to ease some of those nerves seconds into it when he did everything right, bore down on goal but fell to his knees in anguish as Cudicini pulled off the save.
As the resultant corner came in, the ball fell to Mattocks inside the six yard box and to the relief of everyone, spun on a sixpence and fired home to give the Caps an unassailable 3-1 lead.
Moments later it was a victory and a day of first.
Vancouver's first MLS win over Los Angeles, Russell Teibert's first goals as a professional Whitecap and Darren Mattocks first goal in what feels like a very long time.
It was an unexpected but welcome win and one that was much needed standings wise with how other results have played out this week.
The key for the Caps is now to build on this and string a set of results together in what is a tough string of games coming up.
FINAL SCORE: Vancouver Whitecaps 3 - 1 Los Angeles Galaxy
ATT: 21,000
VANCOUVER: Joe Cannon; Young-Pyo Lee, Andy O'Brien, Johnny Leveron, Alain Rochat; Jun Marques Davidson, Nigel Reo-Coker (Brad Rusin 85), Gershon Koffie; Daigo Kobayashi (Russell Teibert 14), Darren Mattocks, Camilo Sanvezzo (Jordan Harvey 78) [subs Not Used: Brad Knighton, Kekuta Manneh, Corey Hertzog, Tommy Heinemann]
LOS ANGELES: Carlo Cudicini; A.J. DeLGarza, Greg Cochrane, Sean Franklin (Colin Clark 85), Omar Gonzalez; Mike Magee, Juninho, Marcelo Sarvas (Gyasi Zardes 67), Hector Jimenez (Michael Stephens 73); Jose Villareal, Landon Donovan [subs Not Used: Brian Rowe, Rafael Garcia, Tommy Meyer, Colin Clark, Leonardo]
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<b><u>Reaction:</u></b>
<b>Martin Rennie on game:</b>
"We put together, in the second half, a decent performance. We took our chances when they came along and for the most part defended well. I thought in the end that was a fantastic win for us."
<b>Bruce Arena on game:</b>
"I think they muscled us on a couple of plays that made the difference in the game, to their credit.
"We didn't come here to lose the game. We're certainly disappointed. We didn't have good reactions from our team. I thought their team reacted better than we did.
"We could have got a goal early to take the lead in the game, which could obviously be a big difference in the game. But we didn't get it done and they did."
<b>Nigel Reo-Coker on game:</b>
"I think the lads need to take a lot of confidence and belief from that. To beat the league champions at home, convincingly as well, you've got to take confidence from that. And now we've got to use that to be a season changer for us and continue to grow as a team and try to achieve what we want to achieve this year."
<b>Martin Rennie on adversity:</b>
"People always want to avoid adversity and they think adversity's a bad thing. But adversity is the kind of thing that builds character. It's the kind of thing that makes you stronger. It's the kind of thing that if you approach it properly with your life you learn and you become better.
"No player is going to become a very, very good player, or a top player, without facing setbacks and knowing how to overcome them.
"I do think that these kind of things are good for us. They're not much fun. No-one likes losing, or missing chances or getting criticised, but those are the things that reveal your character and those are the things that make you into the person you need to be to be successful."
<b>Russell Teibert on goals:</b>
"It feels great. I was overwhelmed to score the first goal, then the second one came and the feeling's extraordinary."
<b>Russell Teibert on not being in starting line up:</b>
"I want to be ready whenever the coach calls on me to play. Unfortunately Daigo came off with an injury but whenever I get the chance to step on the field I'm going to take that chance to make an impact on the match whenever I can."
<b>Martin Rennie on Russell Teibert:</b>
"I think it will boost his confidence. Adding goals to his performance, we talked about and is something we want to see from him. He took his goals very well today and I was really pleased for him. He's worked a very long hard road from last season to become a first team player."
<b>Nigel Reo-Coker on Russell Teibert:</b>
"Very happy for him. Very happy and very proud. I see how hard he works. I've seen how hard he's worked since I've been here. I've seen the potential and what he can do and achieve."
<b>Darren Mattocks on finally scoring:</b>
"Obviously the goals have not been coming the last couple of games but I just stick to the drawing board, keep working. We've seen Van Persie go 13 games in the BPL without scoring a goal, and he's a world class player, so everyone can go through droughts. But I'm not finding excuses. I just got to keep working, but I'm very glad that the goal has come, but I just got to keep working out and keep being focussed."
<b>Martin Rennie on Darren Mattocks:</b>
"I'm really pleased for him. He's been working really hard on his game. He's got a lot of work still to do. He closed down well today. He put a lot of effort into the game and I'm really pleased for him to get that goal.
"Darren's a really talented player but he needs to just keep working on his game, putting in extra time. He's been doing a lot more on the training ground and we need to keep building on that, keep helping him do that, but that will definitely help boost his confidence. Scoring goals is certainly confidence boosting for any player but especially goalscorers."
<b>Nigel Reo-Coker on Mattocks scoring:</b>
"It's always good for strikers to score, especially after going through a little bit of a goal drought. I told Darren, for 90 minutes you got to keep going, your chance will come and you've got to take your chance. He took his chance and hopefully that will now give him confidence, go on a bit of a run now and take the momentum and belief."
<b>Nigel Reo-Coker on why he came off:</b>
"I'm feeling alright. I just felt it's coming to the end of the game now, I gave it all I could give. The legs were saying no, can't do any more, so I said bring someone else on fit, so someone who could be fit, just in case someone runs past me.
"I didn't want to be the one to let the team down. It's about being honest. I thought someone else could come on and hopefully not concede a goal."
<b>Martin Rennie on Daigo Kobayashi's injury:</b>
"He went over his ankle. He doesn't seem to think it's too serious but I haven't had a chance to ask the medical staff yet."
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