By Alexandre Gangue-Ruzic and Samuel Rowan

The Vancouver Whitecaps 2024 MLS season came to an end on Friday, as they fell 1-0 to LAFC in game #3 of their first-round playoff series. 

After doing well to force a third and decisive elimination game with a big performance last Sunday at BC Place in game #2, the Whitecaps were unable to replicate that sort of showing in this third game, as they were shut out for the first time in these playoffs. 

As a result, they’re left to turn their attention to the offseason, where they’ll reflect on a strange campaign. Overall, it felt like these Whitecaps were close to taking a big step forward, but they came short of their big goals in the end, with a third-straight Canadian Championship win remaining as the big highlight of the year. 

Because of that, some intriguing moves await. Certainly, it doesn’t feel like this team needs major surgery to take that next step – these playoffs showed that this Whitecaps team can cause problems to top sides – but they still need to tweak their roster to reach that level consistently. 

In terms of this game, the Whitecaps started well – after a quiet first few minutes, they started to take over the game and were the better team in the first half, outshooting LAFC 8-4 and holding 62% of possession, but they failed to score despite that. 

Sensing that, LAFC did well to adjust in the second half, making two half-time subs, and those moves ended up paying off, as they started to wrestle back control of the game early into the second stanza. 

That paved the way for them to pounce on a Whitecaps mistake in the 62nd minute, as Aaron Long beat Brian White to a long ball, heading it forward towards Mateusz Bogusz. There, the Polish international did well to react to a misplaced header from Andrés Cubas, storming into Vancouver’s box and slotting home what ended up standing as the winner. 

Despite a late Whitecaps flurry, they weren’t able to turn that into any chances, as LAFC shut things down, allowing them to advance past Vancouver for a second straight season at this stage. 

Annnnnnd that’s the final whistle, LAFC takes it 1-0.

First half: fantastic stuff but no goal

Second half: started poorly & pressured and the Caps were punished for it

Absolute bummer for sure, but there’s something to be said about going toe to toe with the conference champs

— The Third Sub (@The3rdSub) November 9, 2024

No doubt, this series was much closer than the 2023 matchup between these two teams, won by LAFC across two games, but the final result remained the same, which will certainly frustrate these Whitecaps. 

With that in mind, here are three thoughts on this one, as we saw it. 

LAFC shines late after 2nd half adjustments:

In a series that was shaped by fine margins, tactical adjustments were always going to play a big factor in key moments. 

Through two games, Vancouver had the upper hand on this LAFC side, and the fact that LA changed as much as they did going into game three was a credit to the work the Whitecaps were able to do in the first two games.

Even after the first forty-five minutes of game three, the Whitecaps looked to have everything in control. 

With the match still in the balance, Steve Cherundolo took a big risk at half time, reintroducing Olivier Giroud and adding Eduard Atuesta in the midfield. It was a bold move for the American manager, but one that ended up paying huge dividends.

LAFC got the early second forty-five jump on Vancouver with those changes, hemming the Whitecaps in their own half as they struggled to string passes together in order to break through LAFC’s pressure.

In particular, LA’s dominance in the air was a big theme. That dominance was on display in the leadup to the LAFC goal, as Brian White failed to provide much challenge for Aaron Long after Yohei Takaoka was pressured into playing a long clearance.

MATEUSZ BOGUSZ GIVES @LAFC THE LEAD! 💪

📺 #MLSSeasonPass: https://t.co/tCCqmVBmgo pic.twitter.com/IMm1L1Pl6N

— Major League Soccer (@MLS) November 9, 2024

There were other factors that ultimately led to LAFC breaking the deadlock with that goal, not just White’s struggles, although White’s failure to find a breakthrough in hold-up play throughout the night really hurt Vancouver at both ends of the pitch, and that was not an edge Vancouver could afford to give up so decisively.

Overall, Vancouver played LAFC very evenly this entire series. The fact that game three came down to a low-event scrappy 1-0 match is a credit to all the improvements that were made this season. At the same time though, Vancouver failed to find a way to unlock LAFC in the final half of football in this series, while the home side was able to make bold adjustments and find a breakthrough at a crucial moment in order to advance. – Sam

Whitecaps come up short offensively at the worst time:

It was a rough end to the regular season offensively for the Whitecaps, whose attack stumbled at the worst time, as they scored just three goals in their last six games across all competitions before the playoffs. 

But then, things turned around at the right time, as the Whitecaps scored five against the Portland Timbers in their wild card match, before scoring four goals in the first two games of this series. To be fair, Ryan Gauld is a big reason for that – he scored five of those nine goals, and was directly involved in three others – but even beyond him, there was reason for optimism in terms of maintaining this strong offensive pace. 

Unfortunately for the Whitecaps, some old offensive habits crept up in this game, and at the worst time, which led them to get shut out. In particular, they struggled to break down LA’s low block, especially in the last 30 minutes. 

Yet, this is a key worry in these games – the Whitecaps have struggled to find the net in these elimination games in past seasons. Now, after this loss, they’ve scored just one goal across the three games in 2021, 2023 and 2024 in which they were eliminated from the playoffs in the first round.  

What that means is that when they’ve gone out in the postseason, they’ve usually not gone down swinging. Those games have been cagey – they conceded just four goals across those three games (two to Sporting KC in 2021, one to LAFC in 2023 and now one to LAFC in 2024), but they’ve been unable to find the goals needed to break open those matches. 

Plus, what’ll frustrate most is that the Whitecaps recently made a breakthrough in elimination games these playoffs, scoring five with their backs against the wall against the Timbers before finding three in their game #2 win over LAFC. 

Perhaps, however, they used up all of their elimination game magic in those matches, as they lacked that same free-flowing nature in this game, but it’s a big concern they’ll want to address going forward. 

Now, the Whitecaps are at a point where they can go up against these top teams and hold their own. They’ve proven that over the last two seasons. Long gone are the days of wondering if this team can handle its own against teams like LAFC. 

But as back-to-back eliminations from the Champions Cup, Leagues Cup and the playoffs have shown, turning those positive performances against top teams into wins continues to be a big challenge. 

Now, however, the more important question – how do they fix that? 

Certainly, it feels like the solution lies offensively – ultimately, the big theme in a lot of those losses was that they didn’t score enough, and this game was another example of that. 

They have more offensive juice in this roster than past editions thanks to the addition of pieces like Stuart Armstrong and Fafà, but depth remains a big issue – it felt like once Armstrong and Picault ran out of juice and were taken out of this game in the last 30 minutes, the Whitecaps’ attack completely stagnated. Yet, all year long that’s been a theme – if the Whitecaps don’t take a team to the sword early, they’ve struggled to score. 

Otherwise, a big thing to watch will be with Brian White. Despite scoring 30 regular season goals across the last two seasons, he was unable to get going in these playoffs, as he scored against the Timbers but then went scoreless in three across this LAFC series, which is less than ideal given how important he is to this attack. 

No doubt, he wasn’t getting as many chances as he typically likes, but he also had a few glorious looks across this series and wasn’t able to put them away. 

Brian White forces a smart save from Hugo Lloris. 🧤

📺 #MLSSeasonPass: https://t.co/tCCqmVBmgo // Audi #MLSCupPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/KrdjBx96da

— Major League Soccer (@MLS) November 9, 2024

Now, they’ve either got to figure out a way to get him more chances in these games or find a way to put someone beside him who can take some of the load off him. If not, one might wonder if they’re getting the most out of him in these big games, leading to questions on whether he’s the best fit in this system for big matches like this. -Alex

Where do the Whitecaps go from here?

Well, to the offseason, for one.

Beyond that, though, there are some very interesting questions that lie ahead for this team. It’s obvious they were much better than last year, even if the regular-season standings don’t reflect it.

It’s also frustrating that Vancouver weren’t able to test themselves against a Houston or Colorado in the first round instead of the top seed – perhaps a matchup like that might’ve given us a better gauge of the level of this team. 

It’s too bad we don’t get to see how the Armstrong Whitecaps compare to, say, Houston or RSL. #VWFC

— Caleb Wilkins (@wilkins_caleb24) November 9, 2024

In some ways because of this, it feels like we still don’t know how good this team really was, and that’s what makes the offseason tricky.

How much should the Whitecaps keep the same, and how much should they change? 

The designated players aren’t going anywhere. That’s for sure. The same can be said of Brian White and Ranko Veselinovic, I’m pretty confident.

Yet, beyond that, it still feels like there’s lots of room to tweak around the edges. There are players that have not provided the desired impact for their salary and roster position – there are also players that just don’t fit the system. All of these specific discussions are ones we can have in the weeks to come.

Perhaps even more importantly though, there’s the question of what the Whitecaps require to finally get over the hump against LAFC, or beat the likes of Tigres and Pumas in the Leagues Cup for that matter. How can they take that next big step as a club? Where can they find the marginal gains required to hit the next level?

That’s something which is hard to answer in the midst of watching players stare blankly at the floor in the locker room, having just been eliminated from the playoffs. Yet, that process must start right now in order to create a different outcome at the end of next season.

Here’s to hoping they will get there. -Sam

This post was done in collaboration with Canadian Soccer Daily, who cover all things Canadian Soccer at https://canadiansoccerdaily.com