The Vancouver Whitecaps will search for the right windows on offense when they play host to FC Dallas on Saturday night.
Despite taking 18 shots, the Whitecaps managed just one on target during a 1-0 midweek loss to the Houston Dynamo.
“That’s a stat we’re obviously going to improve on if we’re going to score more goals. That’s not a good ratio,” midfielder Ryan Gauld said.
“We need to figure out how to break it down a little bit better and create more obvious chances.”
Wednesday’s loss ended a three-match unbeaten streak for Vancouver (11-4-4, 37 points). The Whitecaps enter this weekend’s match just one point back of Houston atop the Western Conference table.
Forward Brian White paces the Whitecaps with 10 goals in 17 regular-season matches, but he remains out with a hamstring injury.
Saturday is the second and final regular-season meeting between the clubs. Vancouver edged Dallas 3-2 in Texas on May 13.
Dallas (9-5-6, 33 points) travels to Vancouver aiming to stretch its unbeaten streak to four matches.
Forward Petar Musa scored a brace — his league-leading 15th and 16th goals of the season — to pace Dallas to a 4-3 victory over Real Salt Lake on Wednesday and remain atop the MLS Golden Boot race.
Dallas picked up its sixth road victory of the season, matching the club’s post-shootout era record.
“The most important thing is that we are all willing to fight for the team in the match, as Coach (Eric) Quill needs us to,” midfielder Joaquin Valiente said. “Ran (Binyamin) showed that best tonight by coming off the bench and scoring the (game-winning) goal.
“We are always training at 100% and resting when we can leading up to these games because we know we have many more tough challenges ahead of us.”
FC Dallas and the Whitecaps are 12-12-9 against one another in regular-season matchups all-time.
–Field Level Media
