Whitecaps still looking for first road win

Monte Stewart VANCOUVER The Canadian Press Published Friday, Mar. 16, 2012 9:39PM EDT Last updated Saturday, Mar. 17, 2012 11:17AM EDT

The Vancouver Whitecaps are in their second MLS season, but have yet to achieve something that teams usually earn much sooner their first road win.

The Whitecaps will try to make amends for going winless on the road in 2011 when they meets Chivas USA on Saturday in the Los Angeles suburb of Carson, Calif. Captain Jay DeMerit said the Whitecaps have to build on the momentum they developed while blanking the Montreal Impact 2-0 in their season opener last weekend.

We had a tough time getting that away monkey off our back last year, DeMerit said. So the mentality is to get that off our back as early as possible this year, so we can just get on with it and focus on one game at a time. If we can continue to keep the same attitude and do the things we did right last week, it should come fairly quickly.

The Whitecaps went 0-12-5 on the road last season and finished last overall with a 6-18-10 mark.

DeMerit and other returnees hoping the new attitude brought by first-year coach Martin Rennie will carry over away from home.

It's a fresh season, so you don't worry about those things too much, but as those things go on, then the pressure seems to mount, DeMerit said.

He said the Whitecaps allowed too many easy goals on the road in last season. Away from home, teams have to play a more compact, defensive-oriented style.

We have to get guys behind the ball and make sure we're solid at the back and as an 11 and then use our quality up front, he said after practice Friday. We know we can, but there's a formula that goes into that, and we didn't get that formula right enough last year.

The Whitecaps squandered leads at times on the road last season, when few of their players had MLS experience. DeMerit the core unit now experienced in the league's intricacies, but the club still has to play smarter.

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Whitecaps still looking for first road win