Vancouver Whitecaps coach Carl Robinson said his side's inability to attack was "not acceptable" as his side crashed out of the MLS playoffs with Thursday night's 2-0 defeat to the Seattle Sounders.
Clint Dempsey scored twice to lead the defending champions into the Western Conference final, while the Whitecaps rarely looked like a threat to score.
"They deservedly beat us over two legs," Robinson said. "We just weren't quite good enough to get over that hump."
Robinson rued his side's inability to push forward, as the Sounders outshot his Whitecaps by a margin of 20-2 at CenturyLink Field, while Vancouver only put a single shot on target over both legs.
"It's not acceptable, because you need to put shots on target to score goals," he said. "We got in some very good areas and we didn't execute. That's the difference between us and them today.
"They had a number of shots on goal, on target, and Clint pops up with the two [goals]. The better team won over the two legs."
Vancouver put on a defensive display in the first leg at home, only using midfielders Yordy Reyna and Cristian Techera as substitutes as they tried to recover their fitness, and Robinson said they still weren't 100 percent in Seattle either.
"They were off it," Robinson said. "As a manager, you make gambles. We made a gamble today because on Sunday I wanted to be safe with them, but today we knew it could be our last game. The risk didn't work."
The Whitecaps were in a strong position to finish at the top of the Western Conference table this season but only managed one point over their final three games and instead finished third while the Sounders earned the No. 1 seed.
It marked the second time in three years that Vancouver exited the playoffs in the conference semifinals, but Robinson remained confident for the future.
"We came up a bit short," Robinson said. "We managed to win the [knockout round] playoff game against San Jose, which was great, but we've fallen short again this year. We know where we are. I won't fault the players in there. Sometimes you have to accept where you are in football.
"We know where we are as a club, which is fine, but we did come up a little bit short. So we'll have to get our thinking caps on, we'll have to go back to the well and see what we can do, because we need to come back better next year because that's the level we want to try and achieve."