LAFC is no longer the King of the North.
Coming into the midweek match in Vancouver, LAFC had never lost in Canada. In fact, they'd been perfect. Three matches north of the border for the Black & Gold resulted in three wins.
Coming into the midweek match in Vancouver, LAFC had yet to lose in 2019.
That is no longer the case as well.
Here are the takeaways from LAFC's 1-0 loss to the Vancouver Whitecaps:
Long Balls Early
LAFC rotated heavily for this match. Three players received their first MLS starts - Peter-Lee Vassell, Niko Hämäläinen, and Shaft Brewer Jr. - and three changes were made to the backline.
From the start, Vancouver made it obvious they fancied a go right at the LAFC fullbacks. As LAFC pushed high up the pitch, the Whitecaps looked to go long early and often, with most of those balls being angled towards the areas of Brewer Jr. and Hämäläinen occupied in the LAFC defense.
To pin back the LAFC fullbacks to a greater extent, Vancouver did its best to outman LAFC in those wide areas when they went long. Aside from the goal, Hämäläinen and Brewer Jr. did a decent job dealing with the spaces in behind and the numbers running at them but you could tell it affected them. And that's going to happen with young players. Which is why you get them these types of matches
Both seemed hesitant to get forward offensively, but more importantly, they weren't able to step up into the play to help LAFC recover balls in Vancouver's half.
Couple those things with the 'Caps using the tactic to keep players behind the ball all night and it was effective at knocking LAFC off its game.
Latif Has A Rough Go
As much as Latif Blessing pinballs around the pitch, he's usually able to avoid the big hits.
He wasn't so lucky on that Doneil Henry tackle. Woof! was that heavy. And still, having seen Latif knocked around a bit before, I fully expected him to get up and be fine.
Sadly, that wasn't the case - maybe, if it wasn't turf, but I digress.
Latif suffered another heavy tackle a few minutes later and had to come off. LAFC has already had its fair share of guys sidelined this season. Luckily, it appears Lee Nguyen is rounding back to full fitness. But you hate to see a player with Latif's resilience and energy go out of a match early. Hopefully, it's nothing major.
Lack Of Control In Midfield
A bit of a chicken or the egg conundrum for me here. Was LAFC unable to break Vancouver's first wave of pressure because they lacked control in the midfield or did they lack control in the midfield because LAFC couldn't break the first wave of pressure?
Either way you look at it, it wasn't a good night for LAFC's style of play.
Vancouver was happy to get numbers behind the ball, leaving Yordy Reyna on his own up top. Dropping into a 4-1-4-1 out of possession, the Whitecaps consistently repelled LAFC from the center of the pitch. Whether it was midfielders not finding the right passes forward or not being able to bring the ball under control between the lines, there was almost zero combination between LAFC's midfield three. And on the flip side of that, the lack of cohesion going forward meant too many times the three weren't in a place disrupt and recover balls when Vancouver turned things over.
Which leads to the next takeaway...
Unable To Free Up Vela & Rossi
Yeah... ummm... that's... that's not a pretty sight for LAFC.
But when you don't control the match, you're not going to be able to find your best players in good spots.
Carlos Vela and Diego Rossi were pretty quiet tonight. But with Vancouver putting 10, sometimes 11, men behind the ball, Rossi and Vela needed their teammates to offer more going forward to free up space. Just finding the feet of Vela out wide to the right with two defenders nipping at his heels isn't going to do it.
LAFC is at its best when it is fluid. Passes and touches by players in central areas force the opposition's defenders to engage and allow Vela and Rossi those little avenues forward. When you can't get them on the ball while moving at the defense, it just makes it too easy on a side as organized as Vancouver was behind the ball - even if Vela or Rossi beats one man, there's another just behind him.
Put It Behind You
No one likes losing. All the factors aside though - travel + rotation + turf + bad outing - LAFC had opportunities to at least equalize in the match. That didn't happen tonight, but you've got to move on from matches like this.
In some ways, the quick turnaround might not be so bad. After a night like this, it's sometimes better to get right back on the pitch than to stew in it.
Either way, LAFC face the team with the second-best record in MLS on Sunday. The great start aside, it's how you react in these moments that forge the type of team you'll become by the end of the season.
"We're trying to continue to become a better team," Bob Bradley said immediately after the loss to Vancouver. "One of the ways you show that you're better is that when you lose a game - in this case, the first game of the season - that there's a strong response. We've got important games coming up."
And with that... on to Seattle.
