The Vancouver Whitecaps were the better team but had to rely on penalties to secure the win against LAFC.
Leading the game for 88 minutes, two late goals forced the match into penalties, where the Whitecaps converted all four of theirs compared to LAFC’s two.
“[The players] put in 94 minutes of intense, hard work. It’s very, very difficult to play here. It’s one of the hardest places to pay in the league,” Whitecaps assistant coach Michael D’Agostino said after the match.
There were a few changes to head coach Vanni Sartini’s lineup, some to given opportunities and some forced due to injury.
Most notably, club captain Ryan Gauld was out, suffering a knee injury in the last MLS match against Houston. This created a need for a change at the top of the pitch.
Going with a 3-5-2, Sebastian Berhalter drew in at a more advanced role, where he had found some success earlier in the season.
Isaac Boehmer was given the nod in goal, and Canadian centre-back Belal Halbouni earned his first start after impressing in the friendly against Wrexham A.F.C.
The Whitecaps did not waste any time getting on the scoreboard. Berhalter controlled a loose ball from an LAFC clearance. With his second touch, the midfielder struck it clean and through traffic, picking out the low corner from about 35 yards out.
The wonder strike had the Whitecaps up by a goal only five minutes into the match.
“He’s really stepped up,” D’Agostino said of the midfielder. “Sebastian’s one of the hardest working guys not only on this team but that I’ve ever met. And he’s a guy that’s definitely put in a lot and is getting the rewards for it.”
The visitors continued to push forward, adding another goal in the 17th minute.
Once again, Berhalter played a huge part. His delivery off an awarded corner found Ranko Veselinović pinpoint at the top of the 6-yard box. The centre-back’s header was simple and redirected into the far post.
It was a glaring error from LAFC as Veselinović was unmarked centrally in the box.
LAFC had their best chance of the first half in the 33rd minute. Mateusz Bogusz won the ball off of Pedro Vite and turned towards goal. His shot beat Boehmer at the far post but not the post itself.
The danger continued as the ball bounced behind the Whitecap goalkeeper wide open in front of the goal mouth, but there was no LAFC player to get on the end of it.
The second brought a much-changed side for LAFC. With only 45 minutes to find any sort of goal production, head coach Steve Cherundolo made his moves.
The Whitecaps had to absorb early pressure, particularly the three dangermen of Bogusz, Cristian Olivera and Dennis Bouanga. However, a combination of Boehmer, the back line and a bit of luck kept the Whitecaps safe through their first 15 minutes of the half.
Berhalter continued to be lethal in his creativity. A short free-kick gave Ali Ahmed and decent chance. His cross into Levonte Johnson, a halftime substitute, almost found the mark as well.
But in the 87th minute, disaster struck. Veselinović went down and was unable to continue. A shift in the back line from to four meant the game plan had to adjust.
It did not.
In the 88th minute, just one minute after the injury, LAFC found their glimmer of hope. Kai Kamara, a late-game substitute got on the end of a smart cross from Bouanga. The journeyman’s header got past Boehmer to make it a frenetic ending the the match.
“It’s going to change when your centre-back scores a goal of you, that’s leading the back, the captain of the game comes out of the game,” D’Agostino said. “We definitely tried to pick up the slack. At the end of the day, we hope he’s okay.”
And frenetic it was. Mathías Laborda had saved a clear goal from off the line earlier in the half, and was at it again in the final minute, keeping another Bouanga cross from finding an open man.
Boehmer also had a couple of quality saved as the clock moved into stoppage time.
Levonte Johnson had a golden opportunity to regain the two-goal lead. He chased down a long ball and got in front of his defender to take the shot on his right foot, but the ball was just shy of the near post.
The Whitecaps would come to regret that miss.
In the 95th minute (there were only five minutes of extra time given) Bogusz had a glancing header off of Nathan Ordaz’s volley. There were questions of offside, but VAR agreed with the on-pitch call.
“On the original in-play, it looked offside. But you look at the video…and Utvik was the one that was out a little bit wider and probably it was very close,” D’Agostino said.
But ties are not allowed in the group stage of the Leagues Cup. Why? Really, who knows?
The Whitecaps would finish the job on penalties, but there will be questions about letting the game slip away in the final minutes of regular time.
Sartini was also given a red card at the end of the match for comments made to the fourth official.
“I actually don’t know what the reasoning for getting sent off was,” D’Agostino said of Sartini’s sending off.
Club Tijuana up next
The Whitecaps come away with two points by winning on penalties, just one of those quirks of the Leagues Cup.
But they will be without their head coach that that match. Interestingly, Club Tijuana will also be without their head coach after he was sent off in the first Leagues Cup match in this group.
“We’re going to work the same way that we do for every game,” D’Agostino said. “We’ve been through this situation before at the beginning of the season when Vanni was suspended. And we worked together, and everybody did a little extra when we needed to. And we pulled together some good results.”
LAFC sit on three points at the end of the group stage. The Whitecaps need any sort of positive result, a win either in regulation time or penalties, which will mean they top the group.
“In terms of going for the win, we went into today knowing that if we get a bit of a result, it’s a bonus. And then we want to win at home. We always want to win at home. We’re definitely not going into that game looking for a draw.”