A heartbreaking late goal for LAFC saw the Vancouver Whitecaps blow a 2-0 lead and settle for a draw in their Leagues Cup opener, though they did manage to notch two points after winning the penalty shootout.

Late drama, where a controversial Mateusz Bogusz goal grabbed the equalizer for LAFC, washed out a well-planned tactic for the Caps, where they controlled the match on their terms — right up until the end, that is.

Vanni Sartini opted to go for a mostly first choice lineup, with a few wrinkles tossed in. No Ryan Gauld meant a 3-5-2, with Mathias Laborda playing as a more defensively minded wingback of sorts and Belal Halbouni and Isaac Boehmer earning a start after getting minutes in the Wrexham friendly. Brian White was joined by Fafa Picault up top.

Four minutes in and the Caps stunned LAFC. Sebastian Berhalter has had some mighty fine strikes from distance but I don’t think he had any better than his strike to beat Abraham Romero, which was launched from well outside the box and dipped and fizzed into the upper 90. The Caps had started fairly defensively but Berhalter did superbly to tally with their first half chance of the night.

The Caps parlayed that energy into a window where they really were on the front foot, winning the ball in advanced positions and trying to get Ali Ahmed and Fafa Picault into wide areas to get LAFC out of system.

Berhalter played a massive role in the Caps’ second goal as well. The Caps’ pressure on the counter won them a corner and it was some fantastic delivery to find Ranko Veselinovic, who was unchallenged on an easy header to double Vancouver’s advantage.

LAFC started to show signs of danger when the game opened up, whereas the Caps were perfectly content to let them sit in possession for large swaths of the game while putting lots of bodies in the box to try and break things up. 

The best chance for the home side in the first half came off a well-orchestrated counter press that forced Pedro Vite into a very bad turnover but Boehmer was saved by Mateusz Bogusz’s shot hitting the upright. The Caps nearly hit back with a third, after Ali Ahmed played Brian White in with Romero in no man’s land but the chip went wide of the net and Vancouver took their 2-0 lead into the break.

LAFC took their chance to make some changes at the half, introducing Kei Kamara, Omar Campos and Eduard Atuesta in a bid to turn the tide of the match. Levonte Johnson took off Fafa Picault at halftime for the Caps as well, with Fafa nursing a possible knock.

The second 45 started with similar dynamics to the first, with the Caps holding onto possession where they could but generally looking to focus on transition opportunities that were starting to materialize with greater frequency. Things slowly got more wide open, however.

LAFC, however, were denied a goal to get back into the match inside the first 10 minutes of the half with a fantastic stop on Bogusz, who had found himself with a golden chance after a great ball from Denis Bouanga, but the youngster was equal to his one time shot.

It was an even better stop from Mathias Laborda to save Boehmer’s blushes, after he spilled a corner kick after colliding with Bjorn Utvik. It was seemingly an empty net for Bogusz but Laborda slid over brilliantly to push it off the line and keep the good fortunes going.

Things started getting wild when LAFC pulled one back through Kei Kamara after a rare miscue from Isaac Boehmer saw him arrive too late to stop the hulking forward from connecting with a Bouanga cross that was not closed down properly.

Levonte Johnson missed a golden chance to seal the match 1v1 and he was made to pay, as LAFC went down the other end of the pitch and Bogusz finally got his goal, with Bjorn Utvik apparently playing him onside away from the play in a heartbreaking collapse for the Caps. The goal will prove controversial, as it wasn’t quite clear if Bogusz was onside, and Sartini earned a red card (stop me if you’ve heard this before) at the tale end of the match.

The Caps did win the penalty shootout to claim two points from this one, softening the emotional blow a bit.

Stray Thoughts

• I told myself that I wasn’t going to get emotionally invested in Leagues Cup … sigh. Vancouver against LAFC … never boring eh?
• This was overall a positive performance but the Caps’ inability to kill off matches is seriously starting to become a problem. There is simply no need to play as wide open as they did in the dying moments of this match and it cost them a badly needed win. And Levonte Johnson will probably never hear the end of it for his miss in the dying moments.
• The Caps should have probably got burned from some loose mistakes well before the last 10 minutes but I thought they did very well to, generally, keep their shape and frustrate LAFC. This was probably the only viable gameplan against LAFC sans Ryan Gauld (and, for most of the match, Andres Cubas) and it was pretty well executed.
• A couple times in the first half, the Caps were able to get the ball to Ali Ahmed in acres of space and Ali made a great run, only to make a really poor decision in the end about when to move the ball on. In one case, the attack sputtered and in the other he earned a (dubious) booking for simulation. He’s made great strides (another attack saw him play a beautiful ball into White to get him 1v1) but this area of decision making is one where he really needs to grow if he’s going to succeed in Europe.
• Congrats to Isaac Boehmer for joining the David Ousted Memorial First Half Time Wasting Club.
• Brian White won’t have a ton of direct contributions in this one but he was masterful at occupying the two LAFC center halves and opening up a lot of space in transition. By the time he exited the match, you could tell he was just gnawing at the opposing defense.
• This result will mean the Caps need only to avoid defeat against Tijuana at home on Saturday, so not a ton changes for them. Depending on how the other groups play out, finishing second might actually mean avoiding Monterrey or Pumas. Probably best to remain emotionally disinvested, however.

Three Stars

3. Isaac Boehmer

Boehmer had one very shaky moment, spilling a fairly straightforward corner and granting LAFC an open net (Mathias Laborda bailed him out). But beyond that he had a couple of excellent saves and moments where he read the game with a veteran level of skill. He could have done better on Kamara’s goal but had a nice stop to deny David Martinez moments later and came up big in the penalty shootout.

2. Belal Halbouni/Ranko Veselinovic/Bjorn Utvik/Mathias Laborda

I was going to just go with Halbouni here, as he went toe-to-toe with Denis Bouanga, even putting in a crunching, perfectly timed challenge after picking up a yellow. But the entire backline put in a strong shift, keeping their shape and their discipline to make things very difficult on LAFC for much of the match.

1. Sebastian Berhalter

There’s no mystery with this one but Berhalter’s splendid performance goes well beyond his wonder strike and a lovely assist. His delivery was inch perfect for the rest of the night as well and he put in a defensive shift, while also making himself available as a creative outlet by drifting out to the right. Berhalter is making it impossible to remove him from the starting lineup.