SEATTLE - The Vancouver Whitecaps are down but not out of the CONCACAF Champions League.
The Whitecaps are still alive in the tournament despite a 3-0 loss to Seattle on Wednesday night that saw the Sounders advance to the CCL quarter-finals.
"We're banged up at the moment, but I'm not using that as an excuse," Vancouver coach Carl Robinson said. "I picked a team that I thought could get a result today, and we gave away a couple of bad goals."
Lamar Neagle scored twice for Seattle, while the Whitecaps could only manage six shots, two on target. Nelson Valdez also scored for Seattle.
Vancouver (1-1-1, 4 points) still can tie on points by beating Olimpia in Honduras on Oct. 22, but the Sounders own the tiebreaker on goal differential, 4-1. The teams drew 1-1 in Vancouver on Aug. 5. Seattle completed Group F play at 2-1-1 and seven points.
"Until they scored, until that moment, I think we managed the game very well," said Robinson. "Then we got caught a little bit sleeping. The first goal went in, and as in every game, the first goal is always crucial. We concede a set piece in the back, and at two-nil, it's always difficult."
Neagle had nine MLS goals in 2014, but has just four in 29 games this season. His brace on Tuesday gave him three goals in four Champions League group-play games.
"That first goal (tonight) was unbelievable," Neagle said. "It was a great ball right in front of me, I was able to get in front of the defender a little bit, and I was able to get a small touch on it.
In the 32nd minute, Chad Barrett flicked the ball into the left side of the 6-yard box. Neagle ran onto it and one-timed a shot into the back right corner past goalkeeper Paolo Tornaghi.
Valdez scored in the 39th. Marco Pappa curled a free kick from the far right side into the box. Barrett and Valdez both went up for the ball, Valdez winning it and sending it off the back of his head into the right corner.
Neagle made it 3-0 just 1:04 after halftime when he received a through ball from Barrett, took it into the box and beat Tornaghi from 15 yards straight in front.
"After having nine last year and not having nine this year yet, it's nice to have two in a game especially in a game like this one," Neagle said.
Neagle was one of seven players in coach Sigi Schmid's starting lineup who did not play in last Saturday's 3-0 MLS victory at Vancouver.
"It helps him because has played a lot of minutes (1,956). We've sort of put the mantle of all the injuries we've had," Schmid said. "His legs were a little fresh, and also, your mentality becomes a little fresher."
"It's nice to have a lot more players healthy, so our options and choices were a lot better," he added. "We played seven fresh guys tonight out of 11, and those guys acquitted themselves well.
Goalkeeper Stefan Frei needed to make just two saves to notch the shutout.
The eight-team knockout stage is next Feb. 23-March 1.
