Carl Robinson felt his Vancouver Whitecaps side allowed Montreal Impact to get one over them in their MLS season opener on the weekend.

The Whitecaps found themselves two goals down at half-time before eventually losing 3-2 to their Canadian rivals at BC Place in what was a frustrating performance according to Robinson.

"When you lose at home it always hurts," Robinson told reporters after the match.

"It's not nice when you lose games of football. We gifted Montreal the win today.

"That's an honest assessment. If you score two goals at home and give three bad ones away, you don't win games."

First-half goals from Ignacio Piatti and Dominic Oduro had the Impact in command before Jordan Harvey pulled one back in the second half for the 'Caps.

Piatti's second late in proceedings gave the visitors a buffer prior to Kendall Waston's late consolation goal as Vancouver kicked off the 2016 campaign with a disappointing result.

But it wasn't all doom and gloom from Robinson who feels there were some positive signs for the 'Caps.

"The character of the group is phenomenal. It's never in question," he said in regards to the second-half fightback.

"They kept going till the end. It's not nice when you're at home and you're down two goals, twice. But you learn from it and you move on.

"We played some good stuff today at certain times today. We just need to limit the bad goals."