LAFC’s MLS Cup quest starts strong with win over Vancouver

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LAFC's MLS Cup quest starts strong with win over Vancouver

No MLS coach has won more regular season games over the past three years than LAFC’s Steve Cherundolo. But it was really just a first part, an aperitif. Because where Cherundolo and his team shine the most is in the playoffs, which they opened again on Sunday with a methodical 2-1 victory against the Vancouver Whitecaps in front of a sold-out crowd of 22,298 spectators at the Stadium BMO.

With the victory, thanks to goals from Denis Bouanga and Cristian Olivera, LAFC enters the second game of the best-of-three playoffs next weekend, needing a victory to advance to the Conference semifinals West. If Vancouver wins, the series will return to BMO Stadium on November 8 for the third and deciding game.

Since joining LAFC, Cherundolo has lost just once in nine playoff games, winning one MLS Cup and losing by a goal in another. If he leads his team back to the championship game this fall, he will become only the third man in league history to lead his team to the Finals in three consecutive seasons.

However, the road is littered with potential potholes, which Cherundolo’s team bypassed on Sunday.

LAFC got off to a difficult start which saw Vancouver miss a golden opportunity to take the lead in the seventh minute when Stuart Armstrong burst into the box alone with only LAFC goalkeeper Hugo Lloris to beat. And he beat him cleanly, but his right-footed shot bounced off the left post and crossed the front of the goal without crossing the line.

Seven minutes later, Pedro Vite gave the home side another scare, sending a low right-footed shot inches past the other post. Had either entered, it could have caused problems for LAFC, which has won just once in 11 regular season games by conceding the first score.

But all that became moot when a video replay convinced referee Jair Marrufo that Vancouver defender Tristan Blackmon had blocked Mateusz Bogusz’s shot with his arm, leading to a penalty converted by Bouanga for a 1-1 lead. 0 at LAFC. The goal, in the 30th minute, was Bouanga’s 21st of the season and his eighth best penalty shot in the league.

Vancouver almost matched that in stoppage time when Ryan Gauld fired a left-footed free kick 20 yards off the crossbar, giving the goalposts more saves than Lloris in a first half that ended with the head of LAFC. And that brought two other stats into play: LAFC entered Sunday 15-1-0 in MLS while leading after 45 minutes and 6-1-2 in its last nine games with Vancouver, including a sweep of two matches in the first round. last season’s playoffs.

Neither trend reversed in a second half dominated by LAFC, doubling its lead 12 minutes after the break at the end of a passing sequence that saw Ryan Hollingshead and Bogusz head the ball around the box before hit Olivera while charging from the right. wing. Olivera then fired a powerful right-footed shot that deflected off Whitecaps goalkeeper Yohei Takaoka into the roof of the net.

Vancouver made the final seconds a bit dramatic when Gauld finally found the back of the net in the fifth minute of added time to make the final score more respectable. That score came nine minutes after Carlos Vela, the last member of LAFC’s original roster, drew a huge ovation by replacing Bouanga. Vela’s last appearance came in the MLS Cup Final in December.

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