In Photos: Whitecaps Stun Houston In Eight-Goal Thriller

On paper this looked a fairly even match up, and with both teams fully prepared, it would be – but for one exception: Vancouver converted all but one of their on-target shots.

It took Brian White approximately 30 seconds to break through and play the ball to Pedro Vite and put Vancouver ahead.

Initially this appeared to have awoken Houston into action with an 8th minute goal from Corey Baird and a 16th minute goal from Amine Bassi, to put the visitors up 2-to-1.

Vancouver responded in minute 22, with Julian Gressel scoring his first of a brace and level the score 2-2 at half-time.

Today was a day for Vancouver to break records, by my watch it took Brian White 12 seconds to make it 3-2 when he cleaned up after Ryan Gauld’s shot was saved by Steve Clark.

The game took a turn for the worse in minute 69, when Nelson Quinones was adjudged to have raised his hands to the back of Mathais Laborda’s head and knocking him to the floor, leaving the referee with little option but to show the red card.

Julian Gressel secured his second of the game in minute 59, Sebastian Berhalter his first of the season in minute 88, and in time added on, Ryan Gauld finally secured his name on the scoresheet to make it a record-breaking six goal tally for the Vancouver Whitecaps.

Match Statistics

Possession: VWFC 47% – 53% Houston Dynamo

Shots: VWFC 16 – 13 Houston Dynamo

Shots on Target: VWFC 7 – 7 Houson Dynamo

Total Passes: VWFC 468 – 532 Houston Dynamo

Passing Accuracy: VWFC 82% – 84.4% Houston Dynamo

Fouls: VWFC 12 – 7 Houston Dynamo

Offsides: VWFC 3 1 1 Houston Dynamo

Corners: VWFC 3-2 Houston Dynamo

Header Image Photo Credit: John May