VANCOUVER - The memory still causes Kekuta Manneh to shake his head in frustration.

With the Vancouver Whitecaps down a goal late in the second half of last week's loss to New England, Manneh took a perfect pass from teammate Erik Hurtado. Alone in front of the net, and with plenty of time, Manneh drilled a shot that sailed high over the crossbar.

"Nine out of 10 times I would have finished it," Manneh said after a Whitecaps' training session this week. "It was one of those days.

"If he gives me that ball Saturday, I will put it in the back of the net."

Capitalizing on their opportunities is something the Whitecaps want to do when they face the Philadelphia Union Saturday in their Major League Soccer match at Talen Energy Stadium.

The Whitecaps have two losses and a tie in their last three MLS games. They have scored four goals over that span but could easily have generated several more. The players are creating the chances, just not finishing.

Defender Jordan Harvey said when it comes to scoring goals, the team isn't doing any one thing wrong.

"It's physical, it's mental, a lot of it is luck," said Harvey, who has scored two goals this season. "The ball bounced around in the box so many times last game, I thought it would bounce to one of us eventually.

"That's the hardest part of the game, putting it in the back of the net. That's something we need to fix. We are creating chances and that's the deep lying issue we are satisfied with."

Gordon Forrest, Vancouver's assistant coach, is pleased with the Whitecaps' work ethic and ball movement.

"We're happy we do create these chances," he said. "We just have to keep being positive, work hard on the training ground, and hopefully the guys start scoring.

"The confidence comes from that and you score more goals."

The Whitecaps have slipped to 6-7-3 and hold the sixth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. The Union, who defeated the Chicago Fire 4-3 Wednesday, lead the Eastern Conference with a 7-4-5 record and have just one loss in their last 10 games (4-1-5). The Union are also 6-0-2 at home this year and have gone a franchise record 10 games unbeaten at home.

"This group fights," head coach Jim Curtin said on the Union's webpage. "They have a lot of guts.

"We have confidence we will get chances and score goals."

Harvey said the Union might not be flashy but they get the job done.

"Their blue-collar mentality kind of matches the city," he said. "Everybody on that field is working hard, extremely hard, and together. That's the belief they have played with this year.

"We've had that at times. We need to show more of that throughout the course of the second half of the season. It's going to be a tough test."

The Whitecaps are in a stretch where they play four games in 12 days. Following their loss to New England last Saturday, they travelled to Toronto where they lost 1-0 in the first leg of the final of the Amway Canadian Championships on Tuesday. After the game in Philadelphia, Vancouver returns home to face Toronto on Wednesday night in the final leg of the two-game aggregate championship.

"It's a lot of travel," said Manneh. "We're not worried about that.

"We have a big enough squad to deal with that."

Vancouver has experienced a roller-coaster season. The Whitecaps started the year with just two wins in their first seven games. They seemed to turn things arounds when had just one loss in their next six games and fashioned a three-game win streak before stumbling again.

Goalkeeper David Ousted said the team can't afford to keep giving points away.

"We are still in the mix," said Ousted. "The start of the season hasn't been as we had hoped.

"Now is the time to refocus. What we need to do is go get the wins so we can crawl up the table."

News from © The Canadian Press, 2016