Report and Reaction: Dominant Whitecaps leave Galaxy seeing stars in three goal romp

It takes a lot to keep Vancouver Whitecaps down these days and they picked themselves up, dusted themselves down, and got back to winning ways at BC Place on Wednesday evening, bouncing back from Saturday’s disappointing defeat to St Louis City to see off the visiting Los Angeles Galaxy 3-0.

‘Caps Captain Ryan Gauld led the way with a record-setting goal and an assist, while Brian White grabbed his 15th goal of the year to open the scoring for Vancouver early. Bruno Caicedo added a late third from the spot, while Yohei Takaoka kept his, and the club’s, 10th clean sheet of the year in the league, in a dominant performance that saw them put in another professional, workmanlike performance that kept a very dangerous Galaxy front three at bay.

As crucial a victory as it was, it was also important to show that the weekend’s result was just a blip and we saw more of the real Whitecaps in this one. The chemistry looked better and it was an important message to the rest of the league that you write off this team at your peril.

Jesper Sorensen made four changes from the team that went down to St Louis on Saturday night, going with the front four that dominated Dallas a few games back. That explosive attack laid siege to the Galaxy goal in the opening minutes of the match.

The ‘Caps had their first chance two minutes in, when Emmanuel Sabbi played a through ball for Gauld to try and get on to, but it was overhit and was easily collected by JT Marcinkowski in the LA goal.

Gauld got onto a White through ball four minutes later and with just the keeper to beat, he hit a weak shot straight at Marcinkowski when he should have done much better.

Sabbi was stopped by Marcinkowski in the 8th minute, but Vancouver weren’t to be denied and kept the pressure on. Gauld played a quick throw in to Thomas Müller, who chipped the ball into the box for White. The ‘Caps leading scorer took a lovely first touch with his head before volleying home a beauty and Vancouver had the early lead.

Definitely a contender for the Whitecaps goal of the season, the ‘Caps kept pushing for a quick second.

LA were always going to be dangerous on the counter with the front three Greg Vanney had put out, and Kyogo Furuhashi brought the first save of the game out of Takaoka in the 18th minute. Pablo Ruiz tried his luck for LA three minutes, but was denied again by Takaoka.

The Whitecaps had let the Galaxy get a foothold back into the game, akin to how Saturday played out against St Louis, and then their explosive front four was depleted in the 27th minute when Müller was forced off with what looked like a tight quad after a tackle, replaced by Cheikh Sabaly.

The Whitecaps had a few half chances to end the half, the best of them coming in the 34th minute when Gauld played the ball out to Sabaly and his low cross just eluded the outstretched leg of White and Vancouver had to settle for a narrow one goal lead at the break.

The ‘Caps came out on the front foot to start the second half and Sabbi had a chance that he hit over in the 47th minute, then a minute later Gauld rose superbly to direct Sabaly’s cross on goal, but it was turned away by a sprawling Marcinkowski. The rebound fell to Sabbi, but he blasted high and over from close range.

Gauld had another effort saved in the 50th minute, but that crucial second goal was proving elusive and LA were still very much in the match.

Sabbi played White in five minutes later after some nifty play to set up the chance. White tried to round Marcinkowski, but the keeper was quickly off his line to block the danger and the loose ball was cleared before Gauld could get onto it.

That second goal finally came in the 57th minute, with a little bit of a helping hand from the visitors as Erik Thommy slipped, allowing Gauld to nip in and a fire a low one past Marcinkowski.

That goal saw Gauld become the first Whitecaps player in the MLS era to record 50 goals and 50 assists for the club.

Oliver Larraz pounced on some horrible Galaxy defending in the 66th minute, but after a scramble in the box and some blocked shots, LA survived.

Harbor Miller hit the outside of the post for LA in the 84th minute, before Vancouver were handed the chance to grab a third at the death.

As the game got set to head into stoppage time, Tristan Blackmon went on a superb run, threading a perfect through ball for Rayan Elloumi to get on to. As the young ‘Caps striker took a touch, he was pulled back by Emiro Garces and the referee pointed to the spot.

Up stepped Bruno Caicedo, firing it straight down the middle. Marcinkowski got a strong hand on it as he dived to the right, but the power took the ball over the line and it was 3-0.

A scoreline that was probably a fairer reflection of how the match was than just a two-goal victory and the Whitecaps kept their three point lead at the top of the West. It could, and should, have been by an even wider margin.

It was a much better performance than the weekend, with the team showing a lot more attacking prowess and cohesion. Every aspect of the team was improved, which is the exact kind of reaction you want to see. Every team is going to have their off days, it’s just been a pity that Vancouver have had two at home in the past couple of weeks.

While the attack will get much of the credit, and rightly so, the defence has to be given their flowers for another fantastic defensive display. There was simply no way through for LA, with some great tackles and blocks, and barring almost getting caught on an early counter, they neutered the Galaxy’s dangerous forward line. Clean sheets in close to half of their league games is what wins championships.

Next up is Austin, and with next week’s Canadian Championship second leg in Montreal very much in the balance, it feels like a match that Sorensen can do some key rotation. But the Texans can’t be taken lightly either, so treading the line between too much and too little change will be an interesting one for the ‘Caps coach to manage.

FINAL SCORE: Vancouver Whitecaps 3 – 0 LA Galaxy

ATT: 20,947

VANCOUVER: 1.Yohei Takaoka; 18.Édier Ocampo, 2.Mathías Laborda, 33.Tristan Blackmon, 28.Tate Johnson; 8.Oliver Larraz (77.Yadaly Diaby 88’), 20.Andrés Cubas; 25.Ryan Gauld © (23.Aleksa Cvetković 72’), 13.Thomas Müller (7.Cheikh Sabaly 27’), 11.Emmanuel Sabbi (14.Bruno Caicedo 72’); 24.Brian White (19.Rayan Elloumi 88’) [Substitutes not used: 32.Isaac Boehmer, 3.Sam Adekugbe, 29.Mihail Gherasimencov, 70.Rui Modesto]

LOS ANGELES: 12.JT Marcinkowski; 26.Harbor Miller, 5.Jakob Glesnes, 15.Justin Haak, 3.Julian Aude (14.John Nelson 69’); 8.Lucas Sanabria (27.Erik Thommy 55’), 17.Pablo Ruiz, 16.Isaiah Parente (6.Sergi Roberto 56’); 21.Robert Taylor (25.Emiro Garcés 87’), 7.Kyogo Furuhashi (18.Marco Reus 56’), 11.Hirving Lozano [Substitutes not used: 1.Novak Mićović, 4.Maya Yoshida, 20.Chris Rindov, 76.Troy Elgersma]

SCORING SUMMARY:
8’ – VAN – Brian White (Thomas Müller, Ryan Gauld)
57’ – VAN – Ryan Gauld
90’ – VAN – Bruno Caicedo (penalty kick)

STATS:
Possession: VAN 51.2% – LA 48.8%
Shots: VAN 18 – LA 9
Shots on Goal: VAN 9 – LA 5
Saves: VAN 5 – LA 6
Fouls: VAN 11 – LA 13
Offsides VAN 1 – LA 0
Corners: VAN 7 – LA 5

CAUTIONS:
74’ – LA – Justin Haak
75’ – LA – Sergi Roberto
89’ – LA – Emiro Garcés
90’+2 – VAN – Yadaly Diaby

REACTION:

VANCOUVER WHITECAPS

HEAD COACH JESPER SØRENSEN

On the performance tonight:

“I think that we looked good. The first half was good, we gave a couple of chances away, one that I was not happy with after our own corner kick, we have done that before and we shouldn’t. But apart from that, I think that we didn’t give many chances away in general in the game. We also got Aleksa (Cvetkovic) in play and I had to make some early substitutions. I think all in all that the team played a good game today, it was good.”

On the difference between tonight and last Saturday against St. Louis:

“We were able to sustain [the early lead]. Had they scored on the chance I was mentioning, then we would not have been able to profit from the lead, but it’s always good to score early or score first because you put the opposition under pressure. And I think we did that. I think we played with a good flow, we had a lot of opportunities. In the first half, we had a couple we missed where we could have gone up 2-0, but then in the second half we scored on a couple and the third one came very late bit it was good to see that we were able to not just protect the lead but go for even more goals, and also make it more comfortable in the end.”

On Ryan Gauld’s historic achievement tonight:

“Of course, congratulations to Ryan, that’s a great feat here for the Whitecaps. I have, in my time, been a little bit unfortunate not having him available for that much time, but now he is and everybody can see what he contributes, how he contributes to the team with a great mentality. And we all know that he’s technically very skilled, he has a great shot and all that stuff, but apart from that, he’s also an extremely hardworking player and he just has the passion for competing and always helping his teammates and is very unselfish. And so its great to see him back, and it’s even realistic to also believe that, in a month or two, that he’ll be even better, even sharper because then he has been going for a couple months. And I think it’s fantastic he’s already where he is, and he’s had a great career so far in Vancouver, and really has been one of the players who has also elevated the team and the club to where it is now. So it’s great that we can find some things that we can also celebrate him for.”

MIDFIELDER RYAN GAULD

On his 50-50 goal and assist milestone:

“It’s nice to get the goal. Personally, I don’t look so much into scoring the 50th or anything, but it was nice to get the goal. I think we got off to a great start, creating a good few chances in the opening period. Brian tucked one away really well, so it was good just to get that goal and then kind of kickstart us.”

On the importance of consistency:

“Definitely, because teams are making it hard for us. They’re sitting deep against us, [but] that wasn’t so much the case tonight, the Galaxy had quite a lot of the ball. But teams have been tending to sit in a little bit against us. So when we do create the chances, we need to be getting on form and putting them away. I think we’ve done a decent job of that tonight.”

LOS ANGELES GALAXY

HEAD COACH GREG VANNEY

On the match:

“They were on top of us right away as a little bit of a result of trying to keep the game in front of us a little bit more, not separating ourselves too much and I just felt like we weren’t blocked up well enough and communicating through some of our references as they were moving around. So, they were able to get through on us and get some dangerous opportunities. And then I think in some of our possessions we weren’t clean with the ball. To be honest, at times I think guys were struggling with the surface. It was very slippery and slow, but that’s not an excuse. I felt like we just missed passes and lost balls easily. I felt like we worked really hard to try to recover balls through the course of the day for varying reasons. They were running off of us sometimes in certain positions, and sometimes we were disconnected in trying to organize our pressure. I felt like that was part of it. I thought we had some promising attacks, we had some good looks on goal in the first half, as the half progressed. But all in all, I think we struggled to find the tempo and the rhythm of the game and to set it ourselves. I think some of our possessions were long and slow, and we weren’t really breaking them and then turning them into attacks. We were just passing and as we were passing the ball, especially down the stretch, they were able to move and cover the ground faster than we were moving the ball to find the advantage in the possession, so they were locking us up and creating issues. I just think we never really caught the tempo of the game with any consistency over the course of the night, and that became an issue. And like I said, guys were running off of us too easy in certain positions. We were exposed. I felt like we were having a hard time really slowing them down or preventing them from getting deep in our half and creating opportunities against us. And so then we’re building out of the back a lot as well.”

On building continuity within the group after the transfer window:

“I think it’s difficult. I think also fresh faces, a lot of new guys that we’re trying to integrate, and then obviously you have a three-game week, middle game on turf. We have some guys that we need to be mindful of given the situation, so not a lot of continuity through those 10 games. Hopefully we can start to build off of that tonight again. We rotated guys in to shorten the amount of work and the exposure to the turf, so we hope that this is the last moment that we kind of have to do something like this. We hope we can be a little more consistent with everything that we’re trying to do, especially in the midfield, because I think that’s what ties a lot of these things together. So, hopefully we get some continuity. We knew this was going to be a rotated group as we got through the night.”

On his decision to rotate the midfield midweek:

“I will say this for the sake of saying it – and it had nothing to do with the outcome of the game – but the surface here is really, really difficult. And the coach before, he said to me, his words were ‘this is the worst field in the league, and it’s even worse than it was before they changed the carpet.’ And what I understood through that was it’s extremely slippery, guys are very uncomfortable and uncertain about footing, and the field play is incredibly slow with no bounce. So I think it was important for us to protect those guys that we protected tonight. We got through the game without any injuries. I think guys obviously are a little tired but hopefully we can build forward. We’ve got a home game that’s massive on the weekend, and hopefully we can build forward with some continuity through this, but a disappointing night. I just never thought we found the speed of it and against a good team and a difficult place to play.”

On building relationships within the roster:

“Consistency in terms of our lineups is going to be important down the stretch because we just don’t have a lot of time in games and sessions and all that kind of stuff. We need some consistency. That’s going to be on me and, again tonight I chose to make a rotation and to protect guys, but I do think we’re going to need some consistency which allows guys through the course of games and training sessions just to get some of that continuity that we need to have. A lot of the guys, whether it’s Serge [Roberto] and Marco [Reus] and the guys that are in there, depending on who the third midfielder is, they’re guys of experience, and they will connect, Chucky [Lozano], they’ll connect with each other. I think it’s just again repetition and time. I tried to bring some of the guys on together at the end of the game in hopes that again, just another 30 minutes or 45 minutes would give them an opportunity to be out there together. I felt by that point we were kind of chasing it a little bit, so, it was a little bit of a different feel. And I took Kyōgo [Furuhashi] off just as a precaution for him a little in terms of how much we’ve been using him and tried to go Marco at the nine, but Marco at the nine is not going to be our setup as we move forward. So just continuity I think is a big part and getting these guys out there together as much as possible and working together.”

DEFENDER JAKOB GLESNES

On the difficulty of building momentum with different starting lineups:

“That’s hard to say. We are, we are a big group now, but of course it always helps the confidence when we can take three points and if we can stay with the same team, for example, that can help to build some momentum, but as well we have a big group now with a lot of good players. But again, it’s not enough to win one game and then lose the next game, so we have to step it up from here on and out. We know on the paper we should have a really good team, but then it’s not to get it out there as well, and then we have to count it up in in the end if that’s good enough, but we have to work hard now because every single game matters, so it doesn’t matter if we’re home or away, we have to be better than what we were showing tonight.”

On the difficulty of playing through Vancouver’s press:

“I would probably say it’s both. They did well in their high press, but we was also giving it away the ball too easy and in too big of a moment to give away. And the second goal is killing us, and that was like a little bit, the rhythm of the night. So that’s sad, again, we are meeting a really good team in Vancouver, but again, it’s not good enough if we want to take points on the road to give away goals like that.”

On communicating calm and motivate the team for the upcoming games:

“I think, we saw that last night, no, Saturday, we saw how the feeling is when we are winning and how much better that feeling is, and we need to have that hunger every day, and I feel like we have it. It is more we have to take the other team up as well, like it’s a good team on the road that we, and if we want to win games like this, we have to be on from the first second to the last second and like you guys said, we were maybe coming a little bit slower from already from the first half and also now we came out for the second half as well and that’s not good enough. If we want to have points on the road, we have to step it up. I know that it’s a hungry group out there that want to win every, every game, and hopefully we, we’re going to start already on Saturday and we can build some momentum and some confidence out of that, yeah, because it is, it’s not many days since we saw, we’re sitting with a totally different feeling that we’re sitting with today.”