VANCOUVER, B.C. - The Vancouver Whitecaps had a fairly successful 2014 season, setting a number of club records along the way and clinching a playoff spot for the second time in their MLS era.
The primary aim for this season was to see further continued improvement. To achieve that, Whitecaps coach Carl Robinson targeted one thing in particular: more goals. A lot more of them in fact, as Robinson set out to find the players that would give his side 25 more goals this season.
As the Whitecaps enter the final month of the regular season, they sit in second place in the Western Conference, but those extra goals simply haven't come. In fact, with four games remaining, the 'Caps have scored 41 goals this season, one fewer than their 2014 total.
"Every team wants to score more goals," Robinson states. "I targeted that because if you look at all the top teams, all the successful teams in the league, they score lots of goals. We're lucky that we've got one of the best clean sheet records and one of the best defensive records in the league because you need to be successful at both ends of the pitch.
"We've done that very well on the defensive side. We need to improve on the attacking side. We've still scored a lot more goals than a lot of teams, but not enough for us. It's something that we'll try and address in these last four games and next year as well."
Vancouver's 42-goal total was the lowest of any side making the playoffs last season. Only five teams in all of MLS scored less.
This year, the goals have proven harder to come by for many sides. Only three teams have scored more goals than the Whitecaps in the Western Conference this year, but that's little consolation for Robinson.
"We need to score goals," Robinson admitted bluntly. "The game's about scoring goals. One goal in two league games is not good enough to win games of football. We started off not scoring enough goals, we went through midseason scoring a lot of goals, now we need to get out focus back. Keep clean sheets and score goals.
"We've got guys who can put the ball in the top corners. Sometimes we've got guys who can miss from three yards as well. That's the beauty of football."
The Whitecaps looked to have found their shooting boots in the summer, with goals coming from all areas of the team. With three defeats in their last four MLS games, and only a penalty to show for their efforts in those losses, some concerns are creeping in, but they're confident they'll refind their groove when it matters.
"We know it comes in bundles," goalkeeper David Ousted told reporters. "We know we've got the guys up front who have got the quality to score. We just need to keep getting in good positions, keep making the chances and put it in the back of the net. It's that little bit of concentration to put it those last couple of inches over the line but I definitely think we're going to get there."
The lack of goals certainly isn't for the lack of chances being created. Vancouver laid siege to New York City FC's goal in the closing minutes of their 2-1 loss at the weekend, squandering several breakaways with at least a man advantage.
The general feeling amongst the 'Caps camp is that it's better to be creating these chances and missing them than not creating them to begin with. But everyone is also fully aware that they need to refind their goal-scoring prowess quickly and make a statement to the rest of the league.
"We've been very unlucky," said winger Kekuta Manneh. "We've created some good chances but some of these goalkeepers have made great saves. That's what they're there for. We just need one of them to go in to get the confidence back.
"It's the time to pick up our form. Start winning games with a lot of goals and for teams to be scared for when we play them in the playoffs."
