Going into the second leg of their Western Conference semi-final against the Seattle Sounders, any semblance of a positive result would have put the Vancouver Whitecaps into the conference final against either Portland or Houston.
Despite the apparent injuries to Yordy Reyna and Cristian Techera, Carl Robinson started his arguably best eleven, in what appeared to be the push Vancouver needed to reach the conference final for the first time.
But the game plan executed by what proved to be an unexpected starting lineup became a what-should-have-been expected result: let the opposing team come to us, counter, and wait for an opportunity.