Report and Reaction: Hearts of a Champion – nine-man Whitecaps make history with performance for the ages against LAFC

What a team. What a season.

In a year of incredible matches, performances, and dramatic endings for the Vancouver Whitecaps, BC Place may just have played host to the best of them all on Saturday evening. There was the Pumas game down in Mexico and Tristan Blackmon’s stoppage time stunner. The comfortable handling and demolition of Messi and his Miami side in two matches. But none saw quite the fight against adversity that the nine-man Whitecaps had to pull off in their MLS Western Conference semi-final against LAFC. The heart and guts on display by every Whitecap was why the city has fallen in love with this team. Players were literally putting their bodies on the line to win this one.

How it even got to that stage is a whole other story in itself.

Up by two at half time thanks to goals from Emmanuel Sabbi and Mathias Laborda, and seemingly cruising to their first ever Western Conference final, Vancouver looked to be on a different level from their visitors. LAFC had been severely outplayed, but they regrouped, made some personnel changes, didn’t allow Vancouver to dictate the play and possession in the second half, and most importantly, pulled one back on the hour mark through Son Heung-Min to give themselves real hope of pulling off the comeback.

Blackmon’s sending off for a second yellow card three minutes into second half stoppage time gave LA the chance to find a late leveler from the subsequent free kick, and they found it in style as Son’s curler is one of the best you’ll see all year and even longer.

Extra time came and went, with Belal Halbouni hobbling off to send the Whitecaps down to nine men for the majority of it, but an incredible sequence in stoppage time of extra time saw LAFC denied by the woodwork three times in the space of about five seconds and all of Vancouver’s lucky charms seemed to be paying off.

Their luck continued into the penalty shootout with Son crashing his first kick for the visitors off the woodwork. Marky Delgado soon missed as well for LA, with an awful penalty, and the scene was set for Laborda to step up and dispatch the winning spot kick, sparking jubilation both on and off the pitch.

It was an incredible ending to an incredible match with an incredible battling performance from Vancouver, and now their first ever Western Conference final awaits them in a week’s time. They’re bloodied, bruised, and beaten up, but you still wouldn’t bet against them, and that’s been the story of their season.

The Whitecaps line-up all but picked itself in this one, with Jesper Sorensen having the rare luxury of an almost full squad to choose from with Blackmon and Brian White returning from injuries, and the match started the way everyone expected: Vancouver wanted possession and were moving the ball around with short passes, while LA were happy to give the ‘Caps possession in the middle of their half and looked dangerous on the counter.

The Whitecaps were dominating and started to turn the screw, getting their first look on goal in the 14th minute when Laborda played a neat give and go with Sebastian Berhalter, but his shot was easily held by Hugo Loris. The French keeper was called into action again four minutes later, this time denying Ali Ahmed, after a great run from the Canadian winger.

Vancouver were in complete control, pressing, full or urgency, and seemed to be first to every second ball, as LAFC struggled to get any kind of attacking threat going at all. It was no surprise then that the ‘Caps opened the scoring in the 39th minute, although how it came about won’t have been high on many people’s predictions. It was route one football at its finest.

Yohei Takaoka executed a move the Whitecaps have practiced in training a lot in recent months. Ball in hand, he looked up and saw the chance to spring Sabbi against two LA defenders, sending the ball deep into the visitor’s half and letting the forward’s pace do the rest. Sabbi got ahead of the defenders before producing a sublime finish to chip the advancing Hugo Lloris and the ‘Caps had the lead.

Takaoka became only the third goalkeeper to get an assist in a MLS playoff game, but better was still to come for the ‘Caps before the half played out.

As the game moved into first half stoppage time, Vancouver had a corner on the right and Berhalter swung in another of his trademark pinpoint deliveries. Thomas Müller rose to meet it and brought a diving save out of Lloris. The rebound fell to Laborda in the six yard box and the Uruguayan made no mistake in slotting it home and the ‘Caps led by two going in to the break.

Vancouver had one foot in next week’s Western Conference and LAFC needed to make changes or their season was over. They did, bringing on a couple of subs for the second half, and the momentum of the game immediately changed. LA were now on the front foot, weren’t being overrun in the middle of the park, and taking the game to the Whitecaps. Everything the ‘Caps had done so well in the first half seemed to stop, with too many heavy touches, giveaways, and playing deep instead of going forward.

Takaoka made a couple of early saves, but LA’s pressure paid off on the hour mark.

Marky Delgado floated a lovely ball into the box, which was headed down by one of those halftime subs, Andrew Moran, straight into the path of an open Son. The Korean’s first effort was saved by Takaoka, his second was blocked on the line by a prone Laborda, but it was third time’s the charm and he eventually poked it past Priso and LAFC were back in the game.

How Son was wide open lies in him being a step ahead of Tristan Blackmon as the ball was played in. He was in an offside position, gained an advantage on the play when he eventually received the ball, and although it was the subject of a lengthy video review, it was deemed to be a second phase of play and the goal stood.

With the game in the balance, the Whitecaps needed to re-find the groove they had in the first half, and they slowly started to.

Lloris came up with a game-saving stop for his side in the 78th minute, with a superb block to deny Blackmon, who had got a stretching leg onto the end of a Berhalter free kick into the back of the box.

LA turned up the pressure in the closing minutes, squandering some good opportunities to level, then with the game three minutes into stoppage time, Blackmon picked up a second yellow for a block on Bouanga, who certainly played for it and got the decision, setting up a set piece opportunity for Son.

The Korean legend then produced one of the best free kicks you will see this year, to curl the ball over the wall, past a flying Takaoka, and into the top left corner, and we were all tied up.

The game was heading for extra time, with Vancouver down a man and now very much on the back foot and up against it.

The extra 30 minutes saw the Whitecaps simply unable to generate any offense. They were pinned back in their own half, dealing with wave after wave of LAFC attacks. But the 10 men were holding firm, helped by a lot of wastefulness from the visitors.

With 10 minutes of extra time remaining, Belal Halbouni, who had come on after Blackmon’s sending off, stretched to block a goalbound shot but caught his foot in the turf and was clearly in a lot of pain. Unable to continue, he hobbled off, and the Whitecaps were down to nine to see out the match.

Sensing blood in the water, LAFC threw everything at them, sending balls across goal with no takers and firing over from good positions with the goal gaping.

Then, two minutes into stoppage time, came the game’s defining moment. David Martinez’s cross from the right took a deflection, forcing Takaoka to acrobatically tip it on to the bar. The rebound fell to Bouanga, but he couldn’t get a clean connection and hit his effort off the left post. Chasing down that rebound, Bouanga curled a beauty towards goal, but just got slightly too much lift on it and it crashed off the bar and the Whitecaps finally cleared the danger.

There was still time for some more heart palpitations as the ‘Cap killer Bouanga had one final chance to win it at the death, sending his shot from a tight angle across goal and clipping a post in the process.

LAFC were inches away from winning, but now they had to head to penalties and Vancouver were very much back in with a chance of winning.

A hobbling Son stepped up to take the first penalty for LA, but crashed his effort off the frame of the goal. BC Place erupted and the belief was back in full flow for the Whitecaps faithful.

Berhalter and Jayden Nelson scored for the ‘Caps, with Bouanga burying his for LA. Trailing 2-1, up stepped Delgado, but his possible Panenka attempt was skied over (it was so bad a kick it was really hard to work out what he was attempting there) and the ‘Caps now had breathing space in the shootout.

Ryan Gauld made no mistake for Vancouver, with Moran scoring for LA. That gave Edier Ocampo the chance to win it for the ‘Caps, but Lloris came up with the big save to keep LA hopes alive. Frankie Amaya had to score for the visitors and he did, setting the scene for the man of the match, Laborda, to seal a famous victory for Vancouver.

Laborda buried his kick perfectly and BC Place erupted once again. The Whitecaps were heading to their third final of the year.

Vancouver had been in control, seemingly thrown it away, and were looking like lambs to the slaughter in extra time. Yet they still found a way to get the win down two men. That’s what this team has been about all season. The heart, the guts, the fight. It’s there in spades.

What next week’s line-up for the final looks like is now the problem. From the luxury of having a near full compliment of players, they are now missing two centre backs once again, but they have depth and they’ve called upon it all year with much success.

Now there’s a wait. Will we be back at BC Place to take on Minnesota or heading to San Diego for a top two shootout? Wherever it is and whoever it is, no-one will want to play this team for the rest of the playoffs.

The epic season continues.

FINAL SCORE: Vancouver Whitecaps 2 – 2 LAFC (Whitecaps win 4-3 on penalties)

ATT: 53,957

VANCOUVER: 1.Yohei Takaoka; 2.Mathías Laborda, 6.Ralph Priso, 33.Tristan Blackmon, 18.Édier Ocampo; 16.Sebastian Berhalter, 20. Andrés Cubas; 22.Ali Ahmed (7.Jayden Nelson 82’), 13.Thomas Müller (59.Jeevan Badwal 91’), 11.Emmanuel Sabbi (25.Ryan Gauld 62’); 24.Brian White (75.Rayan Elloumi 62’, 12.Belal Halbouni 90’+4) [Substitutes not used: 32.Isaac Boehmer, 17.Kenji Cabrera, 23.Joedrick Pupe, 28.Tate Johnson]

LOS ANGELES: 1.Hugo Lloris; 14.Sergi Palencia (21.Ryan Raposo 77’), 5.Ryan Porteous, 91.Nkosi Tafari (30.David Martínez HT), 24.Ryan Hollingshead (29.Artem Smolyakov 88’); 11.Timothy Tillman (23.Frankie Amaya 88’), 4.Eddie Segura, 8.Mark Delgado; 27.Nathan Ordaz (19.Andrew Moran HT), 7.Son Heung-Min, 99.Denis Bouanga [Substitutes not used: 12.Thomas Hasal, 22.Alexandru Băluță, 30.David Martínez, 45.Kenny Nielsen, 66.Mathieu Choinière]

SCORING SUMMARY:
39’ – VAN – Emmanuel Sabbi (Yohei Takaoka)
45’+1 – VAN – Mathías Laborda
60’ – LAFC – Son Heung-Min
90’+5 – LAFC – Son Heung-Min

Shootout
LAFC – Son Heung-Min – Missed
VAN – Sebastian Berhalter – Scored
LAFC – Denis Bouanga – Scored
VAN – Jayden Nelson – Scored
LAFC – Mark Delgado – Missed
VAN – Ryan Gauld – Scored
LAFC – Andrew Moran – Scored
VAN – Édier Ocampo – Missed
LAFC – Frankie Amaya – Scored
VAN – Mathías Laborda – Scored

STATS:
Possession: VAN 46.4% – LAFC 53.6%
Shots: VAN 9 – LAFC 25
Shots on Goal: VAN 6 – LAFC 8
Saves: VAN 6 – LAFC 4
Fouls: VAN 18 – LAFC 17
Offsides: VAN 1 – LAFC 3
Corners: VAN 5 – LAFC 15

CARDS:
44’ – VAN – Thomas Müller
52’ – LAFC – Mark Delgado
64’ – VAN – Tristan Blackmon
77’ – LAFC – Ryan Porteous
81’ – LAFC – Ryan Raposo
82’ – VAN – Ali Ahmed
87’ – VAN – Sebastian Berhalter
90’+3 – VAN – Tristan Blackmon (2nd yellow, RED)
95’ – LAFC – Frankie Amaya
97’ – VAN – Ralph Priso
102’ – VAN – Yohei Takaoka

REACTION:

VANCOUVER WHITECAPS

JESPER SORENSEN

On the match:

“Football is a funny game. Over the course of two hours you can come through everything. We played, for me, a very very good first half. Second half, they changed and got momentum going. They played through the middle and we really gave the ball away too easy. And then in the extra time, we were of course lucky to get the win. But the players, they did everything. Sometimes you just have to give everything you’ve got on the pitch, and see what happens. If you are two men down, normally it’s not possible to get through 25 minutes, but the players did it. They were extremely disciplined, extremely unselfish. Everybody put everything out on the pitch, a little bit of luck in the end, And of course, I am so happy for the players, because we’ve had such a great season so far. Everyone has chipped in throughout the season. We’ve faced adversity throughout – and also in today’s game – and everybody is just trying to stick to the plan and trying to do everything they can and trying to help their teammates. But I am also a little bit tired now.”

On what he said to the players after the match:

“I said that it was amazing that we could find the energy and we could find the composure. Football is a game where there is a lot of unpredictability, and sometimes you have to rely on things that you don’t normally rely on. Normally we are a team that has possession, plays well, and has a great flow of the game like we had in the first half, and chance creating. In the end that was simply not possible, and you have to rely on the grit and the grind and running the metres and to protect the box… we survived, because that was what it was. It was amazing how much effort they could put on the pitch two men down.”

DEFENDER MATHÍAS LABORDA

On the match:

“I’m so proud of this team, all the staff that work around us. It’s a really special moment with all the people here. It’s amazing.”

On playing with nine men:

“We are a family on the pitch, and out too. We just played with heart.”

On the atmosphere like in the stadium:

“Amazing. I couldn’t hear my teammates on the pitch. It was really nice, and hopefully we can repeat that.”

WINGER EMMANUEL SABBI

On the match:

“It’s football, it’s crazy. We were coasting in the first half, and they had special moments and tied it up. It’s just about being a collective and keep going, and that’s what we did… it’s hard when you’re nine-v-eleven, our job was just to try to get to penalties and that’s what we did.”

On overcoming adversity:

“Next man up. We’ve had a lot of injuries, we’ve had games that we were down, games that we were up. Our whole thing in the club is next man up, and that’s what you saw tonight.”

LAFC

HEAD COACH STEVE CHERUNDOLO

Postgame comments on Apple TV about the match:

“With reflection, tomorrow, the next day, a couple of days later I think we’ll all come to the conclusion that we lost this one and Vancouver didn’t win.”

[From postgame presser] Thoughts on the loss:

“It wasn’t meant to be tonight. I think that was very clear for everyone to see.”

SON HEUNG-MIN

Thoughts on the loss and his crucial missed penalty:

“I always want to step up for the team. The final second half of extra time I just had a cramp that I didn’t have a good feeling, but I tried to step up. When I tried to shoot the ball, tried to shoot the penalty, in the last moment I felt the cramp again and it was not as much accuracy as I could. But that’s just to explain how I felt it. It’s all on me, it’s all on me. I have to take responsibility and as I’ve said, this is on me. The players did everything that they could. I’m very, very pleased, very proud, but this is on me and we move on and next year, next season we can come back stronger.”

HUGO LLORIS

Asked about thoughts on the game, decided to talk about the pitch first instead:

“First of all, I really want to be honest with you. I came to the MLS because I still want to enjoy football. I was really pleased for semifinal of conference to see a full stadium, but I think playing on the artificial pitch like this one is almost unacceptable. I think the MLS should think about it and the owner of Vancouver should think about it because we all love football. This pitch and this crowd, this stadium deserves a better field, you know. In lower divisions in France there’s even better artificial pitches than this one. I think it’s something that we can improve for the MLS.”

More on the pitch:

“It’s not good and you see today, some injuries, and I don’t think it’s good for football. I’m sorry, it’s not in my hands, but I think it’s a question to put on the table for the future of MLS and the future of soccer, because it’s important to give to the athlete the best tools, and I’m sorry to say that, but that’s the truth.”