Patrick Vieira: “The difference was that they took their chances and we didn’t in the first half.” (Anne-Marie Sorvin/USA TODAY Sports)

VANCOUVER — There’s a good chance that on the flight home, the New York City FC players will be kicking themselves for their inability to kick or head the ball into the Vancouver Whitecaps net Wednesday night.

They squandered so many opportunities in their 3-2 loss at B.C. Place and they knew it.

NYCFC dominated the first half, outshooting Vancouver, 11-1, but had only two goals to show for its efforts.

“In the first half we created a lot of chances, and we only score two goals,” head coach Patrick Vieira said. “Then we came back in the second half, they were more aggressive, put us under a lot of pressure. And the chances or the situations that they created, they scored the goals. I think both teams had their own half, and the difference was that they took their chances and we didn’t in the first half.”

So, it was a difficult defeat to swallow, the first time NYCFC fell to the Whitecaps in three matches after winning the first two encounters.

“Unfortunately, you cannot lose the game like that,” said center back Maxime Chanot, who scored a goal, adding that City was “2-1 away with 45 minutes left, we should be more clever and play differently. As players, we made a big, big fault. We have to think about this and try not to do the same mistakes in the next games.

“We’re not happy about the result and I would like to forget this game and look forward to the next one,” he said.

The loss snapped NYCFC’s team-record four-game winning streak. Now the team will get some time to rest during the CONCACAF Gold Cup break.

City doesn’t return to action until a July 19 home game against Toronto FC at Yankee Stadium.

“You can always be better,” midfielder Alex Ring said. “You have to have that goal, but all-in-all I think that we can be quite happy with the way we are playing in the season until now, and I think we are getting better and better. Today was an off day from us in the second half, but that happens. We had four wins before that. You win, you lose, but the most important thing is how you come back after a loss, and that’s what we’ll be focusing on when we come back.”

Front Row Soccer editor Michael Lewis has covered 13 World Cups (eight men, five women), seven Olympics and 25 MLS Cups. He has written about New York City FC, New York Cosmos, the New York Red Bulls and both U.S. national teams for Newsday and has penned a soccer history column for the Guardian.com. Lewis, who has been honored by the Press Club of Long Island and National Soccer Coaches Association of America, is the former editor of BigAppleSoccer.com. He has written seven books about the beautiful game and has published ALIVE AND KICKING The incredible but true story of the Rochester Lancers. It is available at Amazon.com.