Vancouver Whitecaps v LA Galaxy – The Defensively Strong Story In Pictures

The Juno Awards take place in Vancouver tonight, but Saturday evening provided more of a “do you know who they are” moment when it came to identifying a hugely undermanned LA Galaxy side at B.C. Place. Depleted and missing around 9 players from their gameday squad due to injuries, international call-ups, and suspension, the Galaxy were only able to dress six players for their bench – and two of them were goalkeepers.

It’s a story we’ve seen played out here in Vancouver before, as a weakened visiting team come here and the Whitecaps simply can’t get the job done against them, and it was a case of deja vu, as L.A. left with a point from a 0-0 draw that saw Vancouver’s Yordy Reyna and L.A.’s Emmanuel Boeteng squander their respective teams’ best chances to grab all three points in what turned out to be a defensive deadlock from both sides.

Robbo said that the ‘Caps “won’t be fooled again” by an understrength opponent, but in the end they were left saying “I can’t explain” why they couldn’t get the job done. Just imagine how bad this could have been if Zlatan had arrived just that wee bit earlier.

Regular AFTN photographer @ResidualImage and our new photographer @FrogPhoto were there to capture all the action before, during and after the game. Here’s their “Story In Pictures”, with a full Flickr slideshow at the end.

Vancouver’s answer to the Hollywood sign?

Curva’s ready for battle

The was Carl Robinson before having to watch that!

Your Whitecaps starting XI

Sigi Schmid checks out the scoreboard to remind himself of just who’s in his team for this one

Willie’s Corner

Alphonso Davies was being given some attention from a team, once again

Protect yourself at all times!

But he was soon up and at ’em – he just needs to hold on to the ball that tad bit less

The Whitecaps best chance of the game fell to Yordy Reyna, but one on one with David Bingham, he hit the ball straight at the Galaxy keeper

Cristian Techera came close too, curling one just over

Once Upon A Time the ‘Caps could beat these weakened teams

And Vancouver had a very lucky escape when Emmanuel Boateng left Jose Aja in his wake, bore down on Stefan Marinovic’s goal, but pulled his shot wide when he should have scored. Phew!

Another Cristian Techera free kick fails to find the target

Kei Kamara nearly grabs a late winner for the ‘Caps, with a bit of solo trickery

That took him with just Bingham to beat

But agony as his shot goes just wide

There was only one team happy with the end result

You can see all of our photos from the game HERE and in our full Flickr slideshow below: