Roald Dahl couldn't have written a better tale of the unexpected in New Jersey tonight with a heavily depleted Vancouver Whitecaps side stunning the Eastern Conference leading New York Red Bulls 2-1 and bouncing back from Wednesday's Voyageurs Cup heartache in some style.
Despite going down to an unfortunate Greg Klazura own goal at the start of the second half, Vancouver fought back with two excellent goals from Jordan Harvey and Kenny Miller, missed some chances to kill the game off against a ten man New York side and survived a scare in the dying second to come home with the three points.
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The Whitecaps haven't fielded the same starting eleven for consecutive games this season and they didn't have their problems to seek for this one, with a squad depleted from injury, suspension, international duty and fatigue.
The result was a makeshift line-up in defence and midfield, with several fringe players getting the chance to impress the management and try and make a claim for a starting spot or at least more MLS minutes. With a result like this, they certainly made a case.
Of all those players, Greg Klazura had the biggest opportunity, finally making his Major League Soccer debut to replace a rested Young-Pyo Lee in the right back slot. He didn't look out of place, but it was certainly an eventful debut.
With Klazura on the right and Jordan Harvey coming in at left back, the unfamiliar backline was going to be heavily tested by a potent New York attack led by Thierry Henry.
If they needed any indication of what may lie in store they got it as early as the fourth minute, with Henry easily getting behind the Caps defence and on the better side of Andy O'Brien but he hit a week attempt straight at Brad Knighton in the Caps' goal.
On the road, with a weakened side and playing in very hot conditions, many expected the Whitecaps to be over-run but they had some of the better play in the early stages, taking the game to the Red Bulls, with Camilo Sanvezzo and Kenny Miller both having shots that went wide.
New York soon started to take over and dominate the possession, as you would expect from a home side high on confidence and Juninho came close to breaking the deadlock in the 21st minute when he hit a dangerous dipping shot that went narrowly over.
There was very little of note for the rest of the half with the home side continuing to boss possession, ending it 72%-28% in their favour, but really doing very little threatening with it.
After some more pressure and some trademark Whitecaps sloppy giveaways, the Red Bulls finally found their breakthrough six minutes into the second half.
Henry was given time on the edge of the box and played a perfect ball out to Jonny Steele and with the luck of the Irish, the former Whitecap saw his cross hit off the foot of debutant Klazura, giving Knighton no chance as it flew into the net.
Worse was to come for Klazura who went down with cramp and had to be replaced by Young-Pyo Lee.
Just when it was looking like everything that could go wrong for the Whitecaps was going to go wrong, the visitors remarkably found themselves level in the 58th minute.
Lee overhit a cross into the box but Eric Alexander's weak header fell straight to Jordan Harvey and the defender blasted the ball into the roof of the net giving Luis Robles no chance and his first action of the night.
New York had a couple of half chances that came to nothing before Camilo nearly shocked the home crowd when he made the most of a giveaway and curled a low shot goalbound and forcing Robles into a save.
The Whitecaps got a huge break in the 75th minute when Jamison Olave saw red for a second booking following a clumsy challenge on Kenny Miller.
The tide turned in the Whitecaps favour with Camilo heading a corner over and then Russell Teibert had a long range effort that flew wide.
And Teibert had a part to play in giving the Whitecaps an unexpected, but winning, advantage in the 83rd minute, sending a perfect cross into the box for Kenny Miller to rise and head home a bullet from eight yards out.
Red Bulls Arena was stunned into silence and it was a nearly a third for the Caps in the 88th minute when Daigo Kobayashi pounced on a giveaway and played in his fellow sub Kekuta Manneh, but Robles got a vital hand as the young Gambian tried to put the ball over him and into the net.
With the game in stoppage time Teibert should have put the game beyond doubt when Miller unselfishly squared the ball to the open Canadian, but his first touch let him down and when he recovered he blasted high and over from ten yards out.
Vancouver were nearly made to pay for that miss in the 95th minute when Henry got the better of O'Brien in the air and his header played in Peguy Luyindula. With time and space, he hit a weak effort straight at Knighton when he should have done so much better.
It was a huge let off for the Whitecaps and when the final whistle came seconds later it was another moment in Vancouver's season that swung on one play. For once, it swung in their favour.
There's a lot of hyperbole in football but this result really was a huge one for the Whitecaps and for an under pressure Martin Rennie.
They were outplayed and outpossessed for most of the match, with a depleted squad, but they showed a lot of fight and spirit that has been lacking for a lot of this year. They also showed great grit and determination to fight back from their midweek loss to Montreal. On top of all this they also got the monkey of their back of no away wins this season. A pretty good day at the office all round.
June is a vital month for the Whitecaps' MLS hopes and aspirations. Some more performances like this one and we could be heading into the summer with more on our minds than simply playing catch up.
FINAL SCORE: New York Red Bulls 1 - 2 Vancouver Whitecaps
ATT: 19,969
NEW YORK: Luis Robles; Kosuke Kimura, Markus Holgersson, Jamison Olave, Roy Miller; Eric Alexander (Lloyd Sam 72), Juninho, Dax McCarty, Jonny Steele (Heath Pearce 78); Fabian Espindola (Peguy Luyindula 70), Thierry Henry [subs Not Used: Ryan Meara, Brandon Barklage, Michael Bustamante, Connor Lade]
VANCOUVER: Brad Knighton; Greg Klazura (Young-Pyo Lee 57), Andy O'Brien, Johnny Leveron, Jordan Harvey; Jun Marques Davidson, Alain Rochat (Daigo Kobayashi 77), Matt Watson; Russell Teibert, Kenny Miller, Camilo Sanvezzo (Kekuta Manneh 87) [subs Not Used: Joe Cannon, Erik Hurtado, Corey Hertzog, Tommy Heinemann]
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