Saturday night in the Midwest, the Vancouver Whitecaps put in a dominant performance against St. Louis City SC, taking three points by a final score of 4-1.

Amidst a hectic travel schedule, Vanni Sartini managed to find big performances from his best players, all while sprinkling in enough rotation to keep an eye on the busy schedule remaining prior to Leagues Cup. While St. Louis is in a vulnerable position at the moment, due both to injuries and turmoil within the club itself, full credit has to be given to the Whitecaps for taking advantage of another favourable road matchup, maximizing their points tally.

Alright, here are three thoughts from the match against St. Louis:

An Eye on the Playoff Race

As much as the result in itself was huge for Vancouver, it also shaped up to be a very good night for the Whitecaps in the West playoff race. LA Galaxy dropped a 2-0 result to FC Dallas, while the Colorado Rapids drew 1-1 against the NY Red Bulls. Those are two teams that Vancouver is looking to chase down as they fight for a top four spot in the West, and while you obviously have to take care of your own matches first, it’s always good to see those around you struggling to get results across the line.

With a couple matches in hand on most of the teams around them, it’s crucial that Vancouver takes advantage of this soft portion of the schedule (in terms of the strength of opponent), with this trend continuing against Sporting KC midweek at home. That match will be followed by a huge weekend affair against Houston, who is currently 8th but still just 4 points back of Vancouver.

The further Vancouver can push up the table before the break, the more runway this club will have to integrate new players if they are able to make some key additions in the summer window.

Defensive Consistency?

Vancouver’s defensive play this season has been confusing and frustrating at times. With so much rotation along the backline, it’s been hard to know exactly what to make of this defensive group.

Quietly though, Vancouver has settled into a bit of a rhythm over the last four matches, with Utvik, Veselinovic, and Laborda starting three of those four. Vancouver has not allowed more than a single goal per match over that stretch, and they are also undefeated in those matches.

Players like Mathias Laborda are growing in confidence as well. The Uruguayan played an absolutely beautiful ball to Fafa Picault which helped facilitate Vancouver’s second goal, and if the backline can contribute to the buildup in a meaningful way going forward, that’s a huge bonus.

It’s certainly not a finished product, but Vancouver continues to measure out quite well defensively. If they can lock in a starting back three and eliminate some of the simple errors they have suffered this season, it could help this team take a big leap forward.

White and Gauld

It’s hard to ignore what’s right in front of you. Vancouver’s best players were massive once again in this match, and it’s been a huge part of this recent run for the Whitecaps.

Brian White is up to 14 goals on the season, with 7 goals in his last 5 matches. Ryan Gauld, not to be outdone, is up to 9 goals and 9 assists on the campaign, with 1 goal and 5 assists in his last 4. When you’re getting that kind of production from your top contributors, it makes it easier on everyone else in the team.

Added to this, I think one of the big reasons why Vancouver has been so successful on the road this season is because they are absolutely clinical whenever their opponents make a mistake playing out of the back. Taking advantage of those moments, as Gauld and White were able to do in the opening minutes of this match, goes a long way to securing wins on the road. Early goals force the other team to chase the match on their own pitch, and Vancouver’s attackers thrive when their opponents feel like they have to force the issue.

With White and Gauld posing such a threat, we’ve also seen the renaissance of depth contributors like Ryan Raposo and Fafa Picault, who each were able to chip in against St. Louis. With the return of Sam Adekugbe and Ali Ahmed to the lineup on the horizon, Vancouver is in a position to pose a real threat down the home stretch this year, especially with so many road matches already under their belt. Now, they need to focus on making BC Place a fortress.