Los Angeles, CA—–Vancouver entered Saturday night’s match with LAFC at BMO Stadium without a road win and with their lineup chances looked very slim. That is why they play the game.
The Whitecaps put it together and walked away with a 3-2 win over LAFC on the back of an strong team performance, led by a goal and two assists from Ryan Gauld in his best game of the season.
Gauld scored a goal and two assists, and Yohei Takaoka had seven saves for the Whitecaps (6-5-7, 25 points), who entered 0-4-3 in away games and had not won on the road since June 18 of last season. They became the last Western Conference team with a road victory this season.
Ranko Veselinovic and Brian White scored a goal in the opening 23 minutes for Vancouver to end a 15-game regular-season road losing streak.
Both teams had opportunities to score, with Carlos Vela hitting a wide open chance in the box right at Yohei Takaoka. Immediately after, Cordova found himself 1-on-1 with John McCarthy but missed badly. It was a tough miss, and Vancouver should have been up 2-0.
“To be completely honest, this team is the best that we’ve ever had — at least (since) 2019 that I’ve been involved with the club,” said head coach Vanni Sartini. “We showed today that no team in the league is better than us.
Denis Bouanga and Carlos Vela scored for LAFC, who fell to 6-2-2 at home this season and lost on their own field in an MLS regular-season game for the fourth time in the past two years.
John McCarthy had six saves for LAFC (9-4-5, 32 points), who faced the Whitecaps two times in CONCACAF Champions League play in April and advanced 6-0 on aggregate.
The Caps looked comfortable and the four-man midfield was really effective in slowing down LAFC’s breaks and quickly winning the ball back. The home side had miscues where they seemed to regain control of the match but Gauld quickly wrestled it back off a 3v3 break, playing in a nice cross that met the head of White. A backpedaling Ilie Sanchez could do nothing to seal off White.
Right before the break, LAFC made Vancouver pay. Slow build up outside the box left a simple cross that was slipped away from a waiting Stipe Biuk but only as far as Denis Bouanga, who made no mistake with a basically empty net to pull one back for the home side.
Gauld assisted again in the 23rd minute when his left-footed centering pass went to White for a header past McCarthy for his team-leading seventh of the season.
LAFC trim the lead in half in the 45th minute when Bouanga scored his team-leading 11th of the season off a rebound from a Takaoka save off a shot by Ryan Hollingshead.
With LAFC pressing the Whitecaps defense, Vancouver converted a second-half chance for a 3-1 lead when Gauld scored his fourth goal of the season in the 63rd minute after McCarthy made a save on a Sergio Cordova shot.
Vela pulled LAFC back within a goal in the 68th minute when he scored off a nice pass from Mateusz Bogusz for his sixth of the season.Vancouver looked like a totally different team and were forced to employ some last-ditch defending to keep Bouanga and Vela at bay.
