In fact, anyone who had never seen the Whitecaps before Thursday’s playoff game would have likely said that Matt Watson — a guy who played in NASL last season — must be a Designated Player, not Robson or Miller.

But put Vancouver Whitecaps coach Martin Rennie into the camp of soccer bosses who have their teams practice penalty kicks ahead of knockout games.

The point guarantees that the Whitecaps will open the 2013 Amway Canadian Championship against No. 4 seed FC Edmonton, while Montreal will meet Toronto FC in the other semifinal.

But, the Whitecaps later found out they would become the first Canadian franchise to qualify for the playoffs after all, as FC Dallas couldn't capitalize on the Whitecaps slip-up, losing 3-1 to Seattle.

A last-second miss from Camilo brought the Vancouver Whitecaps’ winless streak to seven games, as the club tied the Seattle Sounders 0-0 in front of a crowd of 21,000 at a sold-out BC Place Saturday night.

A late Jamie Smith equalizer undid what looked as if it would be a first win in six for the Vancouver Whitecaps, as the club drew the Colorado Rapids 2-2 at BC Place Sunday night.

Frankly, a team that offers as little offensively as the Whitecaps doesn’t deserve points from matches. On Saturday, the Whitecaps got one shot on the FC Dallas goal. In their last game, a loss two weeks ago to the Los Angeles Galaxy, the Whitecaps got no shots on goal.

Actually, the Whitecaps offered danger only to the fans who suffered through a match where two wonder strikes -- from the Galaxy's Juninho and David Beckham -- acted as lipstick on a pig of a game that was dreadful on the eyes.

One halftime change altered the course of the game. It sent Real Salt Lake off the rails, and gave the Vancouver Whitecaps a major advantage.

For 75 minutes of Wednesday’s second leg of the club’s Amway Canadian Championship final against the Vancouver Whitecaps, things looked good for FC Edmonton to be Cinderella at the BC Place ball.