Vancouver Whitecaps rounded off a long five game road trip with a 1-0 defeat to a ten man Chicago Fire side at Toyota Park this evening.
With the Caps shipping out Davide Chiumiento and Sebastien Le Toux in the last few days, Martin Rennie went with a very defence minded line-up.
Jun Marques Davidson came back into a holding midfielder role alongside Alain Rochat, and Camilo Sanvezzo dropped back to the bench after an ineffectual outing in Toronto midweek, with Michael Nanchoff coming in for his first start of the season.
Joining Camilo on the bench was Eric Hassli, who many expected to get the nod after serving his latest one match suspension, and new signing Dane Richards, who had flown from New York to Chicago to join the team yesterday.
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The home side had the first chance five minutes in when Gonzalo Segares whipped in a cross from the left which fell to Chris Rolfe in the six yard box. The Fire striker could only direct his shot wide under good pressure from Jordan Harvey.
Chicago were looking the more lively by far in the opening stages and they got their reward in the 10th minute after Davidson conceded a free kick on the edge of the box.
Pavel Pardo beautifully curled the ball into the top left corner of the net, giving Joe Cannon no chance in the Caps goal.
Vancouver were offering no real attacking threat, as Chicago dictated the pace, and the Fire nearly doubled their lead in the 23rd minute.
Dominic Oduro dispossessed Martin Bonjour just inside the Caps half and played a neat one two with Alex, but Cannon was quick to come out and block the Ghanaian before he could get a shot off.
It was just another in a long line of huge stops from the Caps keeper this season.
Vancouver finally got their first shot on target 28 minutes in, but it was just a weak trickler from the edge of the box, that caused Sean Johnson no problems at all.
Alex hit a long range shot wide left in the 34th minute for Chicago, as the game started to open up a little.
Barry Robson gave warning of his danger from free kicks in the 42nd minute, firing a 35 yard rocket just over.
Chicago responded with a chance of their own and Harvey came to the rescue for Vancouver when he headed an Alex cross away from under the crossbar, with Patrick Nyarko set to pounce for the Fire's second.
That was the last real action of the half, and Vancouver went in to the break needing to find some way to kick start some attack and find some way of breaking down the Caps defence.
Vancouver made a change for the second half with Alain Rochat being replaced by new addition Dane Richards, as the team moved to a 4-1-4-1 formation.
It was Chicago though who nearly had the first breakthrough of the half three minutes in, when Oduro somehow managed to miss an open goal from three yards out and crashed the ball off the left hand post.
Luckily for him, his blushes were shared when he was ruled offside in a close decision.
Mattocks quickly forced Johnson into a save at the other end, as the second half threatened to be a lot more open.
Oduro was left wondering if his luck had deserted him for the night when he turned a Chris Rolfe pass into the net from close range in the 53rd minute, but this time there was no mistaking that he was offside and the goal was ruled out.
The Fire were turning up the heat and Alex was next to threaten the Whitecaps goal, with Cannon getting down low to save his 20 yard effort.
Camilo had come on as a Whitecaps sub, as the visitors looked to try and find some life and the Brazilian played a neat through ball for Mattocks in the 68th minute.
Mattocks found himself sandwiched out between Fire defenders Andy Friedrich and Austin Berry as he bore down on goal and the referee was immediately over to give Friedrich his second yellow in as many minutes and sent the German off.
He can perhaps think himself unlucky, as if anyone should have picked up a booking from the challenge it should have been Berry.
Robson stepped up to take the free kick and curled it just over.
The Whitecaps now had the man advantage and a great chance to take something from this match, and set out their intentions by taking off Martin Bonjour for Eric Hassli.
Camilo fired a long range effort just past the right hand post with 15 minutes remaining, as Vancouver begun to dominate possession.
Hassli came the closest yet to getting the Caps back on level terms, when Johnson brilliantly tipped his flashing header from a Y-P Lee cross over for a corner.
The Frenchman landed awkwardly on his ankle and was unable to continue for a few minutes, leaving both sides down to ten men for some of the closing minutes.
Despite Vancouver's pressure, they couldn't find the breakthrough for the equaliser and will be disappointed at coming out of this game empty handed after really turning up the pressure for the last half hour and being unable to make the extra man advantage count for the last twenty.
The Caps long road trip is now thankfully at an end, and they will be disappointed to be heading back to Vancouver with just four points at the end of it all.
With two huge games coming up against Western opposition next week, they need to regroup quickly, use the home field advantage and get their push for the playoffs back in full flow.
FINAL SCORE: Chicago Fire 1 - 0 Vancouver Whitecaps
ATT: 16,820
CHICAGO: Sean Johnson; Jalil Anibaba, Austin Berry, Arne Friedrich, Gonzalo Segares; Logan Pause, Pavel Pardo; Chris Rolfe, Alex (Dan Gargan 71), Patrick Nyarko (Rafael Robayo 78); Dominic Oduro (Corben Bone 65) [subs Not Used: Jay Nolly, Daniel Paladini, Marco Pappa, Federico Puppo]
VANCOUVER: Joe Cannon; Young-Pyo Lee, Martin Bonjour (Eric Hassli 75), Jay DeMerit, Jordan Harvey; Jun Marques Davidson, Alain Rochat (Dane Richards 46); Barry Robson, Gershon Koffie, Michael Nanchoff (Camilo Sanvezzo 59); Darren Mattocks [subs Not Used: Brad Knighton, Greg Klazura, Carlyle Mitchell, Russell Teibert]
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