VANCOUVER, B.C. (Saturday, July 15, 2023) – The LA Galaxy, playing with 10 men, saw their seven-match unbeaten run come to an end with a 4-2 loss on the road to Vancouver Whitecaps FC at BC Place on Saturday night.
Galaxy Run Of Form
The Galaxy’s seven match unbeaten run was snapped following the loss to Whitecaps FC, with LA now holding a record of 3-1-4 (15 GF, 13 GA) in eight regular-season matches played dating back to May 31. **
LA Galaxy Against Vancouver Whitecaps FC
**Saturday’s match marked the 33rd meeting across all competitions between the Galaxy and Whitecaps FC, with LA leading the all-time series 15-11-7. Against Vancouver, the Galaxy hold a 14-11-7 record in league play and a 1-0-0 record in the MLS Cup Playoffs. In 15 all-time regular-season matches played on the road against Vancouver, LA holds a 4-7-4 record. In two matches played against Vancouver during the 2023 campaign, LA holds a 0-1-1 record. The Galaxy and Whitecaps FC will square off against one another again in Leagues Cup 2023 action at Dignity Health Sports Park on Saturday, July 29 (7:30 p.m. PT; MLS Season Pass on Apple TV).
Goal-Scoring Plays
VAN – Brian White (Ryan Raposo, Andres Cuba), 2nd minute: Working down the left flank, Ryan Raposo’s cross into the penalty area found Brian White, whose header from close range snuck in at the near post.
VAN – Ryan Gauld, 10th minute: Julian Gressel’s low cross from the right wing was partially deflected by Chris Mavinga, but Ryan Gauld was first to the loose ball and his shot from the right side of the penalty area found the top left corner of the goal.
VAN – Ryan Gauld (Penalty Kick), 23rd minute: Ryan Gauld’s penalty-kick attempt was fired into the back of the net.
LA – Gastón Brugman (Riqui Puig), 61st minute: Riqui Puig’s in-swinging corner-kick delivery towards the top of the 18-yard box found Gastón Brugman, who volleyed the ball into the bottom right corner of the net.
LA – Mark Delgado (Preston Judd, Gastón Brugman), 74th minute: Preston Judd’s pass behind the Vancouver defense found Mark Delgado, whose first-time shot from the right side of the six-yard box was fired through the Vancouver goalkeeper’s legs.
VAN – Sergio Cordova, 90+4th minute: After a shot hit the underside of the crossbar, Sergio Cordova was first to the rebound and converted his shot from close range.
Postgame Notes
- The Galaxy’s seven match unbeaten run came to an end following the loss to Whitecaps FC, with LA now holding a record of 3-1-4 (15 GF, 13 GA) in eight regular-season matches played dating back to May 31.
- Saturday’s match marked the 33rd meeting across all competitions between the Galaxy and Whitecaps FC, with LA leading the all-time series 15-11-7.
- Against Vancouver, the Galaxy hold a 14-11-7 record in league play and a 1-0-0 record in the MLS Cup Playoffs.
- In 15 all-time regular-season matches played on the road against Vancouver, LA holds a 4-7-4 record.
- In two matches played against Vancouver during the 2023 campaign, LA holds a 0-1-1 record.
- Riqui Puig recorded an assist for a fourth consecutive match and created three chances in the loss to Vancouver
- Puig has tallied two goals and ranks tied for second in MLS with six assists in eight league matches played dating back to May 31.
- Mark Delgado tallied his second goal of the season in the loss to Whitecaps FC.
- Gastón Brugman recorded one goal and one assist, completed 65 of 73 passes (89.0%) and won seven possessions, two tackles and five of eight duels against Vancouver.
- In 22 minutes of action as a second-half substitute, Preston Judd recorded his second assist of the season.
- Tony Alfaro made his LA Galaxy debut, logging 45 minutes in his first appearance for the club.
- Jonathan Bond recorded five saves in his return to the starting lineup.
- LA played with 10 men for 68 minutes after Chris Mavinga was issued a second yellow card in the 22nd minute of the match.
- The Galaxy lost for the first time this season in their secondary kit, holding a 1-1-3 record in five matches played this season in the “LA Kit”.
*
Next Game
*Next up, the LA Galaxy begin play in Leagues Cup 2023 by hosting Club León at Dignity Health Sports Park on Tuesday, July 25. The match on July 25 kicks off at 7:30 p.m. PT and will be broadcast live on MLS Season Pass on Apple TV.
2023 MLS Regular Season
LA Galaxy (5-10-7, 22pts) at Vancouver Whitecaps FC (8-7-7, 31 pts)
Saturday, July 15, 2023 – BC Place (Vancouver, B.C.)
Goals by Half 1 2 F
LA Galaxy 0 2 2
Vancouver Whitecaps FC 3 1 4
Scoring Summary:
VAN: White (Raposo, Cubas), 2
VAN: Gauld, 10
VAN: Gauld (penalty kick), 23
LA: Brugman (Puig), 61
LA: Delgado (Judd, Brugman), 74
VAN: Cordova, 90+4
Misconduct Summary:
LA: Mavinga (caution), 9
LA: Mavinga (second caution, ejection), 22
LA: Puig (caution), 23
VAN: Schopf (caution), 48
Lineups:
LA: GK Jonathan Bond; D Calegari (Mauricio Cuevas, 69), D Chris Mavinga, D Kelvin Leerdam, D Raheem Edwards (Julián Aude, 68); M Riqui Puig, M Gastón Brugman ©, M Mark Delgado (Memo Rodríguez, 76); M Tyler Boyd, M Douglas Costa (Tony Alfaro, 45); F Dejan Joveljić (Preston Judd, 68)
,
Substitutes Not Used: GK Jonathan Klinsmann; M Daniel Aguirre, M Efraín Álvarez, M Uri Rosell
TOTAL SHOTS: 12 (Riqui Puig, 4); SHOTS ON GOAL: 6 (Riqui Puig 3); FOULS: 9 (Gastón Brugman, Chris Mavinga, 2); OFFSIDES: 2; CORNER KICKS: 7; SAVES: 5
VAN: GK Yohei Takaoka; D Ranko Veselinovic, D Tristan Blackmon, D Luis Martins; M Alessandro Schopf (Ali Ahmed, 62), M Julian Gressel (Deiber Caicedo, 77), M Andres Cubas (Sebastian Berhalter, 45), M Ryan Raposo, M Pedro Vite (Russell Teibert, 50); F Brian White (Sergio Cordova, 76), F Ryan Gauld ©
Substitutes Not Used: GK Isaac Boehmer; D Matteo Campagna; F Simon Becher
TOTAL SHOTS: 17 (Ryan Gauld, 7); SHOTS ON GOAL: 9 (Ryan Gauld, 5); FOULS: 14 (Four players tied, 2); OFFSIDES: 2; CORNER KICKS: 5; SAVES: 4
Referee: Joe Dickerson
Assistant Referees: Jeremy Kieso, Chris Wattam
Fourth Official: Michael Venne
VAR: Alejandro Mariscal
Weather: Partly Cloudy, 78 degrees
Attendance: 18,354
All statistics contained in this box score are unofficial
LA GALAXY POSTGAME QUOTES
LA GALAXY HEAD COACH AND SPORTING DIRECTOR GREG VANNEY
On his thoughts on the first 23 minutes of the game:
“The first goal is ridiculous. I mean, it’s just a ball that’s hung up in the air. It’s 6-yards out. It’s hanging in the air for a little bit. I mean, we’ve got to come take it. I’d like to see Bondy [Jonathan Bond] just come take it. Clean it up, and that whole play is done. [Brian] White is… he’s a handful just in the air. And they’re going to serve things up, we know that. But we can be more aggressive on that play because the ball is just floating up there for us to come take it. Instead, we’re stuck on our line and then we have a second chance to make a save and we don’t. And, now we’re down 1-0 just a couple minutes into the game. And it seemed like it started a series of unbelievable moments where we just… every pass they made, they got themselves in, they were hitting crossbars, they were doing all kinds of stuff. The [Chris] Mavinga one, gosh. He jumped around him pretty clean. In which case, he put himself in a position to try to make a play on the ball. I’m not exactly sure where or how he got him, that’s what I was trying to ask on the side. Because he kind of got his foot in between the ball and the player. So, to be honest, I was a little bit confused. Obviously they came straight red right away, so that made me think they thought they got him on the jump around, but, he didn’t. So, then they, to my understanding, they thought that he got him on the foot somehow because then it was a yellow. Because he went for the ball. So, I was… yeah, I mean, we put ourselves in a really tough spot in the situation. I’d love to say it was fairly soft, but, we put ourselves in a bad situation and a hole that we had to dig ourselves out of. And the first half, just coming out of the box, we didn’t deal with things well. We knew they were going to cross balls, whip things into the box, and that we needed to deal with it, and we just, we didn’t. And, that was the first half. Just trying to get ourselves into it. I think when we went down a man, I was actually quite proud of the group and how they managed that whole situation. We had more than our fair share of possession, which usually doesn’t happen when you’re down a man. We obviously got two goals back in the second half. And we gave ourselves a chance to maybe squeeze something out of here, I just think we ran out of gas down the stretch. When you’re down a man and the field is open, you start to try to rush attacks and passes, and the field gets really opened up, and when you’re down a man, it’s just really difficult to manage. But I was proud of the guys when they went down a man. I thought our response was certainly courageous and they went for it.”
On Mark Delgado’s status and his goal:
“Injury wise, it was in the ankle region, and I don’t know exactly. Nothing with the knee. Nothing that is what you would call a traditional ankle sprain. It’s possible it could be a little bit of a higher ankle sprain, but I don’t know exactly. So, when we get an MRI, but the initial ultrasound and X-ray and stuff like that were negative, which is a good thing, it’s now just the question of what exactly did happen, because he’s still pretty sore in the area. In terms of the goal, I thought it was a great goal. Again, we got out of the left side, and then we worked our way back across to the right and he just broke out of the midfield on the outside of their back three. We got it across to him, and it was a difficult angle, but somehow, it found its way. I think it was through the keeper’s legs, at least where I was, but somehow it snuck its way into the goal. And, again, it gave us some life and some energy and some hope there down the stretch to try to give ourselves something. But, again, just the amount of work that everybody put in, Mark [Delgado] always, but just the amount of work everybody put in when we were down a man to make it even respectable is positive work from the guys.”
On the substitution at halftime bringing out Douglas Costa, and if there was injury concern, or if it was a tactical decision:
“It was just precaution. With Douglas [Costa] on turf and given where the game was, and we wanted to get a center back in, I had to take somebody off, unfortunately, and just for precaution, 3-0, it was Douglas. And, as it would have it, we get ourselves back into the game, and give ourselves a chance. But, it was more just to preserve him. He’s been in great form, and given the situation on the turf and the circumstances, I just didn’t want to risk him.”
LA GALAXY GOALKEEPER JONATHAN BOND
On his thoughts on the first 23 minutes of the game, and what he saw from how they started the game:
“Just, obviously, collectively, making some bad decisions. Just didn’t deal with things really well in the final third, and put ourselves under pressure from early on, and then gave ourselves a mountain to climb. So, obviously disappointing first 23 [minutes], then kind of a decent reaction after that.”
On the first goal scored by Vancouver and if he thought he had a chance to save that:
“Yeah. I mean, I’m not going to lie, the turf absolutely killed me. The ball doesn’t bounce on the turf. And it’s very difficult when you’re training every day and are used to a certain standard of field, and then suddenly you’re playing on that. And, look, obviously I’ve got to say I can do better, but honestly, that can’t be a professional standard of surface. The ball, literally you can see it outside of the 18-yard box every time there’s a long ball, the ball just dies. Just sits there. The pitch is water logged. It makes the game very difficult for everyone, but especially teams that come here. It’s very frustrating, because obviously that’s an important moment, the first goal, and it’s just something that I’ve got to just accept and move forward from.”
On if he saw Chris Mavinga’s penalty and if he thought there was a foul there:
“No. I felt like he, at the last second, got inside position on him. There was obviously a little bit of contact, but I thought he got his leg in front. I felt like he made some contact with the ball, which, the ref said to me there was no contact on the ball. When I saw it on the screen up above, it looked like there was a little bit of contact. And I felt like their player had kind of been caught up speed wise and was looking for a foul. I didn’t think it was a foul. And then obviously not only was it a penalty, but a red card as well. So, a very frustrating decision.”
