By: Pierce Lang
In what was essentially a battle for the basement in the leagues overall standings, the Vancouver Whitecaps managed to claw their way back within a point of the hapless Fire, in an effort to climb out of the bottom slot in the table.
Before most of the fans had found their seats Vancouver found themselves up 1-0 on a goal by club leading scorer Eric Hassli.
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The big French striker found himself all alone with the ball at the top of the 18 after Chicago defender Yamith Cuesta pulled an Andy Iro and completely misplayed an Alain Rochat pass. It left Hassli all to his lonesome with just the keeper to beat. As Shawn Johnson dug in to make a last effort save Hassli hammered the ball into the top left corner of his net.
The game was fairly scrappy and considering that these are two of the worst teams in the league, you would expect nothing less. Jordan Harvey who recently came over from Philadelphia tripped up speedy Dominic Oduro at the four minute mark preventing a 1-on-1 with Jay Nolly. Harvey was given a yellow but his effort most certainly kept Vancouver in the lead.
Oduro was not done after the foul though. On 22 minutes he found his was into the box after beating Alain Rochat and was left to slot the ball past Jay Nolly and launch Chicago back into the game.
The 'Caps seemed to be empowered by the Chicago goal and persevered after that with Gershon Koffie scoring on a one hopper from outside the box less then a minute after the Fire equalized. Koffie's long range shot should have been stopped by the Chicago keeper but he may have been fooled by the bounce off the turf. Johnson went down and the ball went over his outstretched body.
Dominic Oduro was clearly a target of the Whitecaps aggressions and it seemed to pay off for the 'Caps. While he did seem to be getting special attention from Vancouver he made his way to ground rather easily after he realized he could get the odd call from the ref. The official seemed to be in no mood to be made a fool of as he judged Oduro's '25 dive to be worthy of a Yellow Card for simulation. Oduro rose to his feet after looking up to the blazing yellow card and proceeded to take a swing at John Thorrington. He was lucky not to be ejected.
The Caps had an opportunity to take a 3-1 lead into half when Cuesta lost his mind again and pulled down Camilo in the box. Camilo had no chance at reaching the ball he was chasing and Chicago's other defender would have easily cleared it from their box. Unfortunately on the penalty Eric Hassli felt like doing his best Terry Dunfield impression and placed a waist high shot at the outstretched palms of Johnson as he dove to his right.
The 'Caps kept the throttle down as they headed into the second half. Two minutes into the second half Camilo put the caps up three with a fantastic goal as he made a brilliant turn to split two defenders and spring himself free in the box his low shot to the right side beat Johnson and the score was 3-1
Jay Nolly had his first competitive start since the Nurtilite Championship game and he played well. His biggest save of the game came in the 58th minute as Orr Barouch brought down a Pavel Pardo chip and placed a side footed shot to the left of Nolly's goal. Nolly dove to his left and made a great two handed save on the Israeli striker.
Vancouver would keep up their relentless pressure as they found themselves with a free kick at the top of the Chicago box in the 71st minute. Camilo lined up to take the free kick and blasted a low shot past the wall and Johnson dove low to his left to make the save. Gershon Koffie almost netted his second goal of the game on the ensuing rebound but managed to put it off the inside of the post. Luckily for the Caps, the clubs tops scorer was lurking in the box and hammered the loose ball into the gaping net.
Chicago were not about to lay down and die though. In the 79th minute Barouch got his revenge on Nolly as he victimized Jordan Harvey off a Patrick Nyarko through ball. Harvey hesitated on playing the ball initially and it took a tricky bounce and was past him. Once the defender was caught flat footed Barouch was off to the races.
With the scoreline 4-2 in favour of the Blue and White the final whistle blew and the Caps earned their third win of the season and climb to with in 1 point of Chicago in the overall standings. Both clubs remain in last place in their respective conferences. Vancouver remain 4 points behind San Jose and 5 points behind expansion cousins Portland.
Vancouver's next game is at DC united on Saturday August 13th, at RFK Staduim. Game time is 4pm and will be televised on Sportsnet Pacific.