Whitecaps looking to keep playoff hopes alive on the road against Sounders

For whatever reason, teams in Major League Soccer have a tough time winning away from home.

Whether it’s the travel, style of play, or some other factor, clubs are often pleased to escape enemy territory with a point from a hard-won tie.

But that trend doesn’t apply when the Vancouver Whitecaps meet the Seattle Sounders. The heated regional rivalry has seen the road team win five straight games since 2014 by a combined 11-1 score heading into Saturday’s clash at CenturyLink Field.

“No idea. Absolutely no idea,” Whitecaps head coach Carl Robinson said when asked for an explanation. “It very rarely happens in MLS.”

And he’s right.

Heading into Friday’s action, home teams have 140 wins, 51 losses and 91 ties in 2016. Road teams have won roughly one of every five outings.

Teams were even better at home last year with a 183-85-72 record for a .538 win percentage. Road clubs won just 25 per cent of the time.

The Whitecaps (9-13-7) have recorded four straight victories at Seattle in league play dating back to 2013. They need to maintain the road team’s dominance in the series with the Sounders (9-13-5) to keep their flickering post-season hopes alive.

Vancouver has five games left on its schedule and trails the sixth-place Portland Timbers by four points for the final Western Conference playoff spot. The San Jose Earthquakes are a point behind the Whitecaps, with the Sounders two adrift but both clubs have two games in hand on Portland and Vancouver.

“We’re facing an uphill battle,” said Robinson. “We have to be honest and admit that, but we’ve still got a chance.”

After a miserable summer run that saw them go 0-5-3 in the league, things have gotten a little brighter for the Whitecaps in recent days. They picked up a victory at the Columbus Crew last weekend to snap that ugly slide before downing Sporting Kansas City on Tuesday to qualify for the CONCACAF Champions League quarter-finals.

Robinson said the adversity faced this season — the Whitecaps had a stretch of one goal in seven matches during that eight-game winless streak — has helped him learn about his players.

“It’s been fair to say we’ve been well below our standards,” said Robinson. “I’ve questioned a few of them, I’ve asked them to do more and they’ve responded brilliantly.

“The last five games, even though we haven’t got the results in all of them . . . the performances have been absolutely what I expect. They’ve got to respond again. Saturday is a massive game for both organizations in the race for the playoffs.”

The Whitecaps have abandoned their ball-possession approach, at least on the road, the last couple of weeks. They’ve gone back to the counter-attacking style that saw them finish with the league’s best road record last season at 7-7-3.

Vancouver is just 4-9-2 on the road in 2016 and will have to keep an eye on Sounders midfielder Nicolas Lodeiro, who joined the club as a designated player from Argentina giants Boca Juniors at the end of July.

The 27-year-old Uruguayan has three goals and six assists in seven games with Seattle, which is 3-1-3 since replacing head coach Sigi Schmid with Brian Schmetzer on an interim basis.

“We have to do a very good job on (Lodeiro),” said Robinson, whose team beat the Sounders 2-1 at CenturyLink Field in March. “They’ve invested heavily in him.

“He’s a key player. He makes them tick.”

Notes: Sounders striker Clint Dempsey returned to practice this week after missing time due to an irregular heartbeat. But it’s unclear if he’ll play again this season. … Seattle visits Vancouver on Oct. 2.

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