Surprised to be a Whitecap, forward Barnes excited about playing for Vancouver

VANCOUVER — Forward Giles Barnes knew a deal was in the works, but he was expecting to end up with Blackburn Rovers of the English Championship League.

Instead, late last Saturday, the 28-year-old from London was dealt from the Houston Dynamo to the Vancouver Whitecaps in a Major League Soccer deal involving general allocation money.

“As far as I know the (Blackburn) deal was really close to getting done,” Barnes told reporters during a conference call this week. “For whatever reason it didn’t happen.”

Surprised? A little. But Barnes is still excited to be leaving a Houston club mired in last place in the MLS Western Conference and land with a team very much in the playoff picture.

“I try not to have anything surprise me in football,” said Barnes, who has 31 goals and 14 assists in 113 MLS regular season games with Houston. “You just have to get on with it.

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“As a competitor and an athlete I want to be competing for things and that’s exactly what I came for. Coming to Vancouver, it’s a young side with a great manager. I’m really excited to be here and at the end of the year I want to be lifting a trophy.”

Barnes could be in the lineup when the Whitecaps play the Colorado Rapids Saturday at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.

Whitecaps manager Carl Robinson said he tried twice before to acquire Barnes.

“He’ll add to all the attacking forwards that we have,” said Robinson. “We need to try and get results to shoot us up the league.

“He’s an exceptional player and he will make us stronger.”

Barnes hopes to bring a finishing touch to a Whitecaps team that has scored just four goals, and been shutout three times, in its last five games (1-2-2).

“I wear my heart on my sleeve when I play,” said Barnes. “I think we’ve got a lot of great players. We have a lot of players who are good with the ball. A lot of young players with a lot of energy.

“Hopefully I will be able to provide that finishing touch, those extra goals that need to be done. I will try to be a match winner as well as a great teammate.”

The Rapids have also added to their roster, acquiring attacker Sebastien Le Toux from Philadelphia Union in exchange for general allocation money.

In eight MLS seasons playing with Seattle, Vancouver, the New York Red Bulls and Philadelphia, Le Toux has 56 goals and 55 assists in 236 games.

Vancouver enters the weekend holding the sixth and final playoff spot in the West with 30 points from an 8-9-6 record. The Rapids are second in the West with 38 points from a 10-3-8 record.

The Rapids saw a 15-game unbeaten streak snapped with a 5-1 loss to New York City FC, but remain unbeaten a home where they are 8-0-3.

Head coach Pablo Mastroeni said the loss to New York should serve as a wakeup call to his team. The Rapids had not allowed five goals in a game since a 5-1 loss to Real Salt Lake back in September 2014.

“You lose a close one in the waning minutes of a game, you’re thinking that nothing needs to be changed and we’re right there,” he said. “It’s a whole reset. It’s a mental reset. It’s a rethink everything.”

In their last meeting on July 9 at BC Place, centre back Axel Sjoberg scored late in stoppage time to give the Rapids a 2-2 draw.

Colorado has beaten the Whitecaps in their last five games at Dick’s Sporting Goods Park.

It’s been a busy stretch for the Whitecaps.

Robinson dressed a young roster with four call-ups from Vancouver’s USL team in a 1-0 win over Central FC Tuesday night in a CONCACAF Champions League match against Central FC at Couva, Trinidad and Tobago. That game came after Vancouver’s 2-0 loss Sunday to FC Dallas in an MLS game played in blistering 40-degree heat in Frisco, Texas.

The Whitecap players who didn’t play in the CONCACAF match had travelled to Houston for training. Those playing in Trinidad met up with the rest of the squad in Houston for a couple a couple of days of practice before travelling to Denver.

Jim Morris, The Canadian Press