The Vancouver Whitecaps tied a club MLS record with their seventh road win of the season, a 1-0 effort against Austin FC.
A dominant match from beginning to end, the Whitecaps were rarely pressured by the home side.
Whitecaps head coach Vanni Sartini said they “were in charge of the game for 90 minutes.”
“We had a load of chances. We defended very well,” he said.
Whitecaps head coach Vanni Sartini was forced into a couple of changes from the midweek as Brian White was out with a concussion. Sam Adekugbe made the trip but was dealing with a groin strain.
That meant Fafà Picault was alongside Ryan Gauld at the top, a position the Haitian is familiar with but does not count among his favourite.
The Whitecaps started strong, pressuring Austin and hemming them inside their half for long stretches of the first half. Vancouver was the dominant side in possession, shots and passing.
But for all that dominance, they were unable to convert their chances.
Gauld thought he had done so last in the first half. Ryan Raposo laid the captain up, and the shot was well-placed, beating Brad Stuver as it curled in by the far post.
However, referee Mark Allatin was called to the pitch-side monitor to review the goal. Ranko Veselinović was deemed to be offside in the build-up to the goal, a play in which the defender did have a touch as the ball went to the left before it was played in for Gauld.
The Whitecaps continued on the front foot to start the second half. Ali Ahmed and Pedro Vite were connecting well on the left, and Mattias Laborda was making deep runs into the opponent’s 18-yard box from his wide centre-back position.
“We call it ‘the bridge’ when the defender goes up on the side when we’re attacking their half. Today, [Laborda] gets many times because we were always in their half. And they were defending with a lot of men, so we needed bodies,” Sartini said.
Sartini added that the runs came from Laborda’s side and not Bjørn Inge Utvik’s because there was more space. Austin FC’s Jon Gallagher, according to Sartini, was “a little more timid and so, stayed a little bit low.”
Vite broke the deadlock at the 70th minute. Ahmed’s initial shot from the left was blocked but was unable to get by the Ecuadorian midfielder.
Vite played the 1-2 pass with Gauld in front of him, which enabled him to get space around Gyasi Zardes. As he received the ball back, the lethal on-touch shot was beyond the reach of Stuver.
“To be honest, this is actually a month that Pedro [Vite] was been very well. Even before the stop and in the Leagues Cup, did he very well,” Sartini said.
Even with nine minutes of added time, Austin never looked like they were coming back into the match. The win moves the Whitecaps up to 5th in the West for now, depending on results on the West Coast.
Up next
The Whitecaps are back at home next Saturday to take on another Texan club, FC Dallas. That match is on Sept. 7 at 7:30 p.m.
However, it is also an international break, which means the Whitecaps will be without the services of Gauld, Ahmed, Adekuge, Vite, Picault and Andrés Cubas who have all been called up for their respective countries.