No MLS coach has won more regular season games in the past three years than Steve Cherundolo de Lafc. But it was only really an act of opening, an aperitif. Because where Cherundolo and his team shine the most brilliant is in the playoffs, which they covered on Sunday with a 2-1 methodical victory on the Whitecaps of Vancouver in front of a closed window crowds of 22,298 at Bmo.
With the victory, on the goals of Denis Bouanga And Cristian OliveraLafc takes place in the second match of the three best qualifiers next weekend, needing a victory to qualify for the semi-finals of the Western Conference. If Vancouver wins, the series will return to BMO Stadium on November 8 for the third decisive match.
Since its care of the LAFC, Cherundolo has only lost once in nine games in the playoff series, winning an MLS cup and losing by one goal in another. If he brings his team back to the championship match this fall, he will just become the third man in the history of the League – and the first in 17 years – to bring his team to the final in three consecutive seasons.
However, the road is heavy with potential nests-de-poule, including some of the Cherundolo team sank on Sunday.
“The guys did enough to win the first game and nothing more,” said Cherundolo.
“There is more work to do. There are a few more games. Maybe only one for us.”
Lafc resisted a trembling start that saw Vancouver explode a golden opportunity to go ahead in the seventh minute when Stuart Armstrong broke out in the box only with only the Lafc goalkeeper Hugo Lloris beat. And he was beating it properly, but his right shooting bounced on the left post and at the front of the goal without crossing the line.
Seven minutes later, Pedro quickly threw another scary in the home team, sending a low foot shot a few centimeters from the other position. If one or the other had entered, it could have solved the problems for Lafc, which only won once in 11 regular season games during the conceded of the first score.
But everything that has become theoretical when a video replay convinced Jair Marrufo that the defender of Vancouver, Tristan Blackmon, had blocked Mateusz Bogusz's shot with his arm, leading to a Bouanga penalty kick converted for an advance of 1-0 Lafc. The goal, in the 30th minute, was the 21st of the Bouanga season and its best eighth in the Place League.
Vancouver almost equaled this in time of time when Ryan Gauld wrapped a free kick 20 meters from the crossbar, giving the goal posts more stops than Lloris in the first half that ended with the Lafc. And that brought into play two other statistics: Lafc entered MLS player on Sunday 15-1-0 on Sunday in the lead after 45 minutes and 6-1-2 in his last nine games with Vancouver, including a two-game scan in the first round of the playoffs last season.
None of these trends will be reversed in the second half that the LAFC dominated, doubling its advance 12 minutes after the break at the end of a sequence that passed which saw Ryan Hollingshead and Bogusz direct the ball around the box before hitting Olivera will load from the right wing. Olivera then had a hard foot shot that diverted the goalkeeper of the Yohei Takaka Whitecaps in the roof of the net.
“It was fun to watch,” said Cherundolo about the lens. “Exactly how we rely on the tactical board.”
Vancouver achieved the last seconds a little dramatic when Gauld found the bottom of the net at the fifth minute of the downtime to make the final score more respectable-and perhaps give the Whitecaps a little momentum entering the second match next weekend.
“The work is certainly not done,” said defender Aaron Long, repeating his trainer.
“It will be a complicated match,” added Olivera in Spanish. “We are going to go there and seek victory. It was not easy. But we have a good team that deserves to move forward. ”
The LAFC striker, Kei Kamara, above, is in the air in the Vancouver midfielder Sebastian Berhalter during the second half on Sunday.
(Alex Gallardo / Associated Press)
Gauld's goal came nine minutes after Carlos VelaThe latest member of the original LAFC list attracted a huge ovation when he came for Bouanga.
When Vela, whose last appearance came to the final of the MLS Cup in December, was agitated, rushed to the sidelines for a long time, removed the brassard of the captain of his biceps and gave it to Vela, who carried it during most of the first six seasons of the team.
“It was easy,” said a long time. “Carlos coming on the ground, there is for the first time? Yeah, he obtains it for sure.”
The team did not make Vela available to comment.
