Sunday night in Los Angeles, the Vancouver Whitecaps secured their 11th win of the season in a 1-0 result over LAFC at BMO Stadium.

While the match lacked the end-to-end action of Vancouver’s midweek affair at BC Place, that was welcome news for the Whitecaps, who were able to return to the structured system that has guided them to success so far in 2025.

It was a resurgent defensive showing for a team that had lost that identity somewhat since their Cup Final disaster in Mexico, and this was highlighted by a man of the match showing from Mathias Laborda. At the other end of the pitch, all it took was a single breakthrough from Emmanuel Sabbi and Jeevan Badwal to bag three hard-earned road points.

Alright, let’s have a look at the player grades:

Yohei Takaoka – 7.5

I think it got a bit lost how bad Takaoka was against San Diego midweek, as he made a couple of early saves and otherwise did not receive a ton of support, but it was still a very rough outing for him. This match in some ways was the opposite. He didn’t have to make any crazy saves but he was very sharp throughout, and made some nice reads on shots, leading to those efforts looking fairly uneventful.

Tate Johnson – 7.0

The young American also recovered from a lesser performance midweek, as he was back on the pace in this match. The defensive effort and fight in 50/50’s was notable, and he made some nice runs forward, even if the passing and linkup play with Sabbi was not always the sharpest.

Ranko Veselinovic – 7.0

The Serbian defender did a good job against Giroud and also made a number of great long passes (9/12) forward, as Vancouver played a bit more direct and a little less possession based in this one.

Tristan Blackmon – 6.5

The Whitecaps being a little less aggressive meant that Blackmon was less active on the ball than normal. Nonetheless, he was solid in the defensive third and provided great support for Laborda out wide.

Mathias Laborda – 8.5

At this point, you might as well call Mathias the Bouanga specialist. The Uruguayan showed great discipline against the dynamic winger, and made a number of savvy tackles (7 in total), preventing LAFC’s primary method of attack from ever gaining any real momentum. A great performance.

Ralph Priso – 7.5

I’m adding Ralph to the starters as he played most of the match at the six. Obviously, you never want to see Cubas go down like that, but the way Priso came in on the road against LAFC and didn’t miss a beat was massively impressive. Ralph has his limitations but he’s been tremendous this season in a no-nonsense CDM role.

Jeevan Badwal – 7.0 

The youngster still has growing to do, obviously, but you see flashes every match of his potential to be a very high-end player. The interplay with Sabbi on Vancouver’s goal was fantastic. I’d like to see him stay engaged a bit more over the course of the match, as there are 10-minute stretches where he isn’t particularly involved, but that will come with time.

Pedro Vite – 6.5

The rather stagnant pace of this match didn’t suit Vite super well, but he played in a number of dangerous crosses, ones that probably made him wish Brian White was back with the team.

Emmanuel Sabbi – 7.0

For a guy that just hasn’t had the momentum behind him in recent weeks, it all came together in one sequence for Sabbi, as the buildup, the touch, and the finish all materialized at the same time. It was great to see him back on the board with a goal, and hopefully, that will open up the floodgates a bit. Vancouver might need him with Ahmed and Gauld on the sidelines.

Daniel Rios – 6.5

I think you can see that Rios is playing a bit more like White the longer he is with Vancouver, and as a player with underrated technical quality, his holdup play has been getting better. Still, he doesn’t quite have the same feel as White for those subtle off-ball runs, and he lacks the same ability to find crosses played into the box. Overall though, Rios is a very solid backup striker.

Edier Ocampo – 6.5

Ocampo lost all nine of his duels in this match, but honestly, who cares, that wasn’t really the point of his role. He provided good energy and snarl to the attacking line and it allowed Vancouver to sit a bit deeper without threat of being exposed by the quick transitions LAFC loves to generate.

Substitutes – 7.0

We have to start with Antoine Coupland who was everywhere off the bench for Vancouver and certainly did not look out of place. Otherwise, I didn’t see too much from Ngando, and Utvik came in right at the end of the match to prevent any last-ditch aerial threats from LAFC.

Alright, those were my thoughts from the weekend in LA. Let me know yours in the comments as always!

(Image: Vancouver Whitecaps FC)