EDMONTON -- The Whitecaps needed two late goals to avoid an upset in the first leg of their Amway Canadian Championship semifinal. A... Shaw . Substitute Tom Heinemann scored in the 88th minute to give Vancouver a 3-2 comeback victory over FC Edmonton on Wednesday night. The second leg is set for May 1 in Vancouver. The semifinal winner will face the Toronto-Montreal winner in the final for a spot in the CONCACAF Champions League. Whitecaps coach Martin Rennie figured it would be tough game coming in and he was right. "I am very happy to come out of it with the win and it certainly was a tough game," said Rennie. "Credit to Edmonton, theyve played very well tonight. They worked us very hard after losing a goal so early in the game, they responded really well and scored two goals, put us under pressure. "But I thought in the second half we did play really well. I thought we put Edmonton under a lot of pressure and had a few good chances in the game and were well worthy of the win." Edmonton, winless in three games in the North American Soccer League, had a surprising 2-1 lead at the half that they managed to hold through the first 37 minutes of the second half. But Vancouver, 2-3-2 in the MLS, pulled even in the 82nd minute when Camilo Sanvezzo scored on a penalty kick. Sanvezzos second goal of the match came after he was fouled inside the box by Edmonton defender Mallan Roberts. "Well, you know, the man is known around the league for being a little bit of a leap-frogger but it was my first time seeing it and my first experience with it," said Roberts. "But hes a true professional and I guess you could say hes good at it, So congrats to him. I dont think he was touched, but unlucky call I guess." Heinemann scored on a rebound as he got a foot on the ball that bounced off the post. "It was a bit of a pinball situation," said Edmonton goalkeeper Lance Parker. "The ball gets crossed in and we try to clear it and hit it away and it goes off the post, comes back to a player in front of me, slips it right at me. I tried to close the legs, but it got through. It was just bing, bing, bing, bing, bing, quick goal. " The underdog Eddies, who hadnt won in four previous Canadian championship games and had scored only one goal in those games, scored twice in the first 26 minutes to take a 2-1 lead into the half. Vancouver dominated the first four minutes of play, pressing on offence and getting the games first goal in the fifth minute. Sanvezzos free kick from just outside the box found the far corner of the goal when Parker got distracted by a charging Vancouver player. "I wasnt sure if he was in an offside position, but with him flinching to go for a shot and then pulling back a it froze me and that took me out of going to my left on the far post," said Parker. But Edmonton turned the momentum in the eighth minute when Michel Cox lifted a header over Vancouver goalkeeper Brad Knighton. Chris Nurse gave Edmonton the lead with a pinpoint header off a corner kick in the 28th minute. "We have a really, really strong mentality," Roberts said of FC Edmontons ability to overcome the early deficit. "We go down and we kicked it into gear like you saw. The games never going to be over until the last whistle and thats the way we play." Edmonton spent much of the second half in a defensive position, offering little offence, and Vancouver took advantage to mount a number of serious offensive thrusts before they finally broke through with the two late goals. Toronto defeated Montreal 2-0 earlier Wednesday in the other semifinal. The final is set for May 15 and 29. Alex Gordon . Nash introduced his longtime friend on Thursday as the man who will lead the senior mens team, confirming a hiring that likely had only one candidate. "Thats why its been one of the best kept secrets in three or four months," Nash joked. h... . Kubel hit a two-run single in the ninth inning to rally the Diamondbacks past Aroldis Chapman and the Cincinnati Reds 4-3 Saturday night for their fourth straight victory. [url=http://www.nhlpenguinshockeystore.com/black-71-evgeni-malkin-womens-jersey/... Malkin Jersey .5 million, two-year contract that includes a vesting option for 2016. The team announced the move Saturday. ... Oduya Blackhawks Jersey . Valpo (22-10), the fourth seed in this years event, also saw Cory Johnson and Howard Little score in double figures with 15 and 14 points, respectively. The ninth-seeded Penguins (9-21) were paced by Damian Eargle with 21 points, nine rebounds and five blocked shots.KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. -- Venus Williams won in her first singles match since August, dispatching Kimiko Date-Krumm 6-0, 6-3 at the Sony Ericsson Open on Wednesday. She smiled, raised her arms in victory, then skipped to the net to shake Date-Krumms hand before twirling around and pumping her arms in a celebration worthy of winning the title, not just a first match. But other than playing a meaningless doubles match during the United States Fed Cup first round victory over Belarus in early February, she hadnt played an official match since the U.S. Open first round. The 31-year-old Williams withdrew from her second round match against Sabine Lisicki at the U.S. Open after announcing she had been diagnosed with the fatigue-causing, auto-immune disease known as Sjogrens Syndrome. "I mean, just to be in this tournament is a huge win for me. Just to be here is a win," Williams said. "You know, thats what I told myself going in, that this is a win. I have nothing to lose." Asked how she felt during and after the match, Williams said, "I feel like a person that has an autoimmune disease. You know, for me, Im not going to probably feel like everybody else. But for me, my personal best is to give 100 per cent." Once a world No. 1 and a seven-time Grand Slam singles champion, Williams is ranked No. 134. Shes hoping to be able to play steadily now and to make her third U.S. Olympic team -- she won gold in singles and doubles at the 2000 Sydney Games and a doubles gold medal at the 2008 Beijing Games. Williams had five aces and 26 overall winners in the match while taking advantage of five of 10 break point opportunities. In the first set, Williams lost only seven points on serve. She dropped her serve only once in the match, in the first game of the second set. Aleksandra Wozniak of Blainville, Que., won her opening round match 4-6, 6-3, 6-0 over Eleni Daniilidou of Greece. WWozniak trailed by a set and a break at 1-3 in the second set before mounting an impressive comeback. Tony Kukoc Jersey. She won the final 11 games of the match, is now on a six match winning streak after taking home the title last week at the Nassau Challenger in the Bahamas. Wozniak will take on the tournaments No. 28 seed, Monica Niculescu of Romania in round two on Friday. Wozniak won their first meeting in 2009 in the opening round of the French Open. The unseeded Kim Clijsters, a former Sony Ericsson Open champion (2005 and 2010), came through a 4-6, 6-1, 6-0 first-round match against Jarmila Gajdosova of Australia. Clijsters, a four-time Grand Slam champion, is currently ranked No. 37. This match was Clijsters first outing on court since she sustained a left ankle injury at the Australian Open. She lost in three sets to eventual champion Victoria Azarenka in the semifinals in Melbourne. "My ankle feels -- it feels totally fine," Clijsters said. "I dont worry about it anymore. Im not able to play without the tape yet. I still need that support." Clijsters clearly struggled to find her form at the outset of the match. She lost the first set to the No. 45-ranked Gajdosova after initially leading 3-1 in that opening set. But once she found her groove, she dominated the final two sets, only losing one of 13 games played. In the first set, Clijsters surrendered her serve on two of nine break points. In the second set, Clijsters saved all four break points she faced. And by the third set she never offered Gajdosova a break opportunity. "When it comes down to my game I just felt like I wasnt just quite going through my shots as well as I should have," Clijsters said. "As I started to feel more comfortable in the conditions and playing matches again, I felt like I was hitting through the ball better, and that showed in the second and third set." ' ' '