The Vancouver Whitecaps suffered their first MLS defeat of the season on Saturday night, losing 1-0 at home to the San Jose Earthquakes to continue their recent dip in form.

Vancouver beat Minnesota United 6-0 at home last weekend, but it came in between two Concacaf Champions Cup defeats to the Seattle Sounders, followed by this defeat to the Earthquakes. In all three defeats, the Whitecaps have struggled to take advantage of the opportunities they did create, while uncharacteristic defensive lapses were punished with costly goals.

Whitecaps defender Ralph Priso said that the team beat themselves on Saturday by not doing some of the things that make them a good team, and that they will get back onto the training pitch and dig themselves out of the rut they’ve found themselves in for three of their past four games.

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“Really disappointing,” Priso said when asked for his overall thoughts on how Saturday’s match played out. “It’s important to pick up points at home, and I think it’s a game where it’s more about us and not the opponent. I don’t think they beat us today, credit to them they take the three points, but I think we more did it to ourselves.”

Priso was also adamant that playing so much football over the past few weeks with the Champions Cup did not impact their play in Saturday’s MLS clash, saying that his team wanted to move on in the continental competition and would not use that as an excuse had they advanced past the Sounders either.

Whitecaps head coach Jesper Sørensen echoed Priso’s sentiments. He believed that his side’s second half was better than the first, and that they got into the situations they wanted to find themselves in, saying “we had our chances but did not take them.”

Sørensen also said that his side needs to be better when teams sit back and defend in a low block, which San Jose did in the second half in particular as they looked to hold on to their 1-0 advantage.

“We have to have the right timing in how to do it, we have to have the right decision-making in the last part and how to break them down,” he said. “It’s something that we’ve faced now a couple of times and we’re gonna face a lot more because we’ll play high up the pitch in many games against many opponents.

“It’s gonna be something that we have to go back to the training ground and get better.”

With an extra week between matches due to the international break, the Whitecaps boss will have a chance to iron out some of the kinks and make sure his team is ready for another west coast rivalry match against Portland Timbers at home on April 4. The Whitecaps beat the Timbers 4-1 in Portland on March 7.

Several of Vancouver’s key players will away from the group for the next week, though — including Priso with Canada, Sebastian Berhalter with the United States, Andrés Cubas with Paraguay and Kenji Cabrera with Peru.