“From our point of view, it's not just this season, it's also last season as well,” club president Bob Lenarduzzi told reporters at a press conference at BC Place Tuesday. “In both of those years, we started well, and we tailed off toward the end...there's no doubt there's a fine line between success and what we would deem to be failure.

“That’s been the frustrating part of this game and, in some ways, our season. I think we’ve become much more expansive, much more entertaining, scored a lot more goals… but we’ve not tightened up well enough at the back.”

“If I was sitting in the stands I think I would be going home a very happy fan, but unfortunately for us their 'keeper makes two world-class saves,” captain Jay DeMerit told reporters following the match. “They should be making a statue of Donovan Ricketts in Portland right now, because he's definitely kept them in it, which is disappointing for us, because that was a game where we should have taken three points.”

“I have no idea what happened,” Reo-Coker said. “No explanation. I'm not going to make up no lies, no nothing. Today, we got taught a lesson. They were the better team than us. They've got a system they play. We struggled with their system."

“He whistled for a penalty and then he was influenced by the fourth official who said he didn't think it was,” Schallibaum said following the game. “For me it's a scandal because a decision was made and then all of a sudden it's not a penalty. It was something that changed the game even though we did not play a strong first half and we were unlucky on the penalty to Hassoun.”

The Vancouver Whitecaps didn't lose any ground in a scoreless draw with the San Jose Earthquakes at Buck Shaw Stadium Saturday night, but they didn't gain any either.

FC Edmonton will not confirm — and won’t even comment on this — but there have been reports out of Vancouver that the Eddies were close to securing Whitecaps’ defender Carlyle Mitchell on loan, adding to what has become a crowded back line.

“We’ve been doing that one-time passing at training a lot,” Koffie said following Saturday’s win. “To do one-time passing, you have to move, and know what to do before the ball comes.”

With the MLS season moved up to its earliest start ever, forgive us if we don’t feel 100 per cent totally prepared for First Kick. Judging by the way many MLS teams finished preseason, with tentative matches and still looking at trialists with a week to go before the games count in the standings, a lot of coaches aren’t quite ready for the early start, either.

So, Bernardez won the coach/GM vote handily, and he won the player vote. Yet, he’s not the Defender of the Year.