Midfielder Kaick scored the go-ahead goal in the 47th minute and goaltender Michael Collodi made six saves to make it stand up as visiting FC Dallas clinched a playoff berth with a 2-1 Decision Day victory over 10-man Vancouver on Saturday night.
Osaze Urhoghide also scored for Dallas (11-12-11, 44 points), which leapfrogged Portland, a 4-0 loser to San Diego FC, into seventh place in the Western Conference.
Thomas Muller scored on a penalty kick and Yohei Takauka finished with five saves for Vancouver (18-7-9, 63 points), which finished even in points at the top of Western Conference with San Diego but will go into the MLS Cup playoffs as the No. 2 seed because San Diego (19-6-9, 63 points) won the tiebreaker with more wins. That also sets up a best-of-three rematch between the Whitecaps and Dallas in the first round of the playoffs.
The game took a dramatic turn in the 11th minute when Vancouver defender Mathias Laborda was sent off with a red card for tripping forward Sam Sarver as he ran toward the box down the right side of the field. Laborda was originally awarded a yellow card but referee Allen Chapman upgraded the penalty to a red card for denying an obvious scoring opportunity after a VAR review.
Dallas then took a 1-0 lead in the 18th minute on Urhoghide’s header inside the back post on a corner kick. It was the second goal of the season for Urhoghide.
Vancouver tied it in the 28th minute on Muller’s seventh goal in seven MLS games, a right-footed penalty shot into the bottom-right corner. The score was set up after Dallas defender Lalas Abubakar dragged down Emmanuel Sabbi rushing down the right side of the box.
Dallas regained the lead early in the second half on Kaick’s left-footed shot from the middle of the box into the middle of the net off a Sarver pass.
Vancouver nearly tied it in the 76th minute on a left-footed shot by Jeevan Badwal in the middle of the box but Collodi got his left hand on the shot and the ball trickled just wide of the right post.
–Field Level Media
