LAFC pulls away in second half to open playoffs with win over Whitecaps
LAFC won its MLS playoff opener Saturday, which isn’t as impressive or definitive as it sounds.
In years past, the dominant 5-2 win over the Vancouver Whitecaps at BMO Stadium would have moved the team on to the next round. This year, it’s little more than a step forward on that path.
That’s because MLS changed its playoff format again this fall, making the first round a best-of-three series rather than a single match. So rather than advancing to the second round, LAFC is only advancing to the second game.
It can close out the series with a win Nov. 5 in Vancouver. If a third game is needed, it will be played Nov. 9 at BMO Stadium.
As LAFC looks to win another title, many of its players dislike the new playoff format that features a break in play for teams vying for the MLS Cup.
“I would love to end the series in Vancouver and that’ll be our objective. We want to play the exact same way we play here,” LAFC coach Steve Cherundolo said.
However under the new playoff format, one in which total goals and goal differential don’t count, little of the dominance LAFC showed in the victory will carry over to the next game.
“You’ve got to turn the page,” LAFC goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau said. “Winning 8-0, 10-0, 12-0, you still go there 0-0. You have to take the positives, you have to take that momentum with you. But at the end of the day, the page has to be turned and focus on a brand new field, brand new game next weekend.”
If Saturday’s seesaw opener lacked finality, it didn’t lack excitement, with Vancouver twice erasing one-goal deficits in a wide-open first half before LAFC put the game away with three unanswered scores in the second half. Ryan Hollingshead and Dénis Bouanga had two goals each and Jesús Murillo scored once for LAFC. Brian White and Sam Adekugbe scored for Vancouver.
Hollingshead put LAFC in front in the 18th minute but had to work for the goal, first nodding a Carlos Vela corner kick on target from the far post, only to have Vancouver keeper Yohei Takaoka make a diving, one-handed save. Takaoka pushed the rebound right to Hollingshead, however, and this time the LAFC defender didn’t miss, putting a low, left-footed shot across the goalmouth and just over the line.
That was a good omen for LAFC, which has lost just once in 24 games in all competition when scoring first. Undeterred, Vancouver pulled that goal back less than 10 minutes later when White made Murillo pay for a giveaway deep in his own end by burying a right-footed shot from inside the box.
The PA announcer had barely finished acknowledging the tying score before Bouanga, the league’s scoring leader, untied it with his seventh goal in his last four games and his second in as many Saturdays against Vancouver.
“I was super happy to receive this honor beforehand. And I wanted to do something special,” he said in French, with Crepeau translating.
Adekugbe pulled that one back 11 minutes later, scoring his first league goal of the year on a far-post header off a Ryan Gauld free kick, marking the first time Vancouver scored twice in the first half of an MLS game since July. The last time LAFC surrendered two first-half goals was in June, in a 3-2 loss to these same Whitecaps at BMO Stadium, Vancouver’s only win over LAFC in the last three seasons.
The Whitecaps have gone even longer without a playoff victory, their only postseason win coming in 2017 against San José. That drought continued Saturday, with Hollingshead putting LAFC in front to stay seven minutes into the second half, knocking in another deflection, this one off a Bouanga shot, from the top of the six-yard box.
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“Bounces can go your way and I’m always opportunistic,” Hollingshead said. “When I’m in the box, I’m always looking for where can I get that, if the ball pops out in a certain way, I’m there and ready to go.”
It was one of four LAFC goals that came off set pieces against a Vancouver team that was very good at defending them in the regular season. Hollingshead and Cherundolo credited assistant coach Marc Dos Santos for spotting some things to exploit while studying film of Vancouver.
“Marc is on top of set pieces,” Cherundolo said. “In the end, it comes down to consistency of the service and the timing of the runs. And the third factor on set pieces is the will to go get the ball first. And tonight, our guys showed that they were hungry. And they took advantage of set pieces.
“In playoff time and in tournaments and in finals and all competitions around the world, set pieces unlock games and unlock results. And it did tonight.”
But LAFC wasn’t done, with the red-hot Bouanga adding an insurance goal in the 64th minute, banging in a right-footed shot from outside the box off a Vela free kick. That gave him his second two-goal brace in four playoff games and 35 goals in all competition for the season, the second-most for an MLS player in a calendar year, only behind Vela’s 38 in 2019.
“I have that goal in mind,” he said of breaking Vela’s record. “That’s my mentality. I trust the system and I trust the team and that’s part of scoring goals.”
Murillo closed the scoring by heading in a Mateusz Bogusz cross in the 80th minute to send LAFC on to Vancouver with a win, but little else.
“We’re going to Vancouver to play our third time against them in a row, so we know what they’re going to bring. They know what we have,” Hollingshead said. “It’s going to be another battle and our goal, 100%, is to go there and end the series.”
