Wednesday night at BC Place, the Vancouver Whitecaps fell 1-0 to the now conference-leading Houston Dynamo (although the Whitecaps still lead on points percentage) in a match that featured plenty of interesting talking points and key moments, despite there being just a single goal.

This is a bit of an odd phase of the season for the Whitecaps, as these remaining regular-season games don’t feel like they carry a great deal of importance, beyond wanting to see this team playing at its best when the MLS Cup Playoffs arrive. With Nashville cruising at least six points clear at the top of the Supporters’ Shield standings, that’s still something on the table for the Whitecaps, but if I were Jesper Sørensen, it’s not something I would make a top priority.

The most important piece for the Whitecaps is finding the right combination in attack, particularly when it comes to breaking down resolute defensive sides. We saw this struggle during Leagues Cup, and it was evident again against Houston, as one of MLS’s best defensive units sat ten players behind the ball for much of the second half.

Vancouver has a bit of a problem when they concede an early goal on the break. Despite some nice 1v1 defending from Mathías Laborda, the ball popped loose to Franco Negri from long distance in the 34th minute, and he absolutely smashed a shot past Yohei Takaoka. It was a brilliant strike, and even though I was sitting in the media suite in the 300 level, I can still remember hearing the sound of the ball being struck.

The funny thing about this match is that, other than that 0.02 xG effort that wound up being a goal, there was maybe only one chance of note for Houston, a Bogusz chance in the 56th minute, 0.12 xG. Houston basically created little to no threat throughout the match, and call me old-school or call me a data geek, but when you give away that little, you’re probably going to win a lot of games over the long haul.

If I’m going to be critical, the most damning part of the match for Vancouver was the way they spent 30 minutes at the end pinging it around like prime Manchester City in the EFL Cup, yet couldn’t find a breakthrough. There were a lot of repetitive attacking sequences, and though with some better finishing Vancouver probably would have scored anyway, I think it’s fair to say the way Vancouver is creating offense right now needs to be more varied.

One of the lights at the end of that tunnel is seeing Ryan Gauld and Thomas Müller play together. While it was better against Seattle than it was against Houston, there’s definitely something there, especially with a pacey winger on the opposite flank. Speaking of that position, it was great to see Bruno Caicedo back on the pitch after his injury. While Jesper Sørensen noted in his post-match comments that Caicedo needs to get stronger in order to stay healthy, there’s little doubt in my mind that his 1v1 threat is a key piece to adding some much-needed variation to the Whitecaps attack.

Obviously, we also have to address the VAR-reversed goal the Whitecaps scored. I continue to be baffled by the lack of clarity when it comes to the definition of a clear and obvious error. I think you’d have a hard time selling that Héctor Herrera was fouled, even in a coin-flip situation, let alone that there was enough clear and obvious evidence to overturn the call. When the official went to the monitor, I thought they were looking at Elloumi being offside, if I’m honest, rather than anything in the buildup.

Finally, it’s fair to say that a couple of recent heroes had off nights. Oliver Larraz was wasteful, with a few Berhalter-like moments at the top of the box, while both Sabbi and Elloumi whiffed on a number of big chances. The return of Brian White can’t come soon enough at this point. There’s no better way to build some momentum than having a striker who can bang in a few opportunistic goals.

All in all, I bristle at getting too worked up over a match the Whitecaps dominated, where they were only beaten by a speculative strike and had a goal of their own called back. Yes, if the Whitecaps were at their best, they probably win this one 2-1 or 2-0 anyway, but I think we all know the Whitecaps are not quite there at the moment.

All that matters is that they’re there by early November.