Brian White scored his seventh and eighth goals and the Vancouver Whitecaps rallied to a 2-2 draw against visiting Los Angeles FC on Sunday.
White’s second multi-goal performance of the season pulled him into a three-way tie for the MLS scoring lead. He scored both goals through the air to help Western Conference-leading Vancouver (8-1-3, 27 points) extend its league unbeaten run to seven matches.
The Whitecaps are unbeaten in their last 11 in all competitions after also advancing to the Concacaf Champions Cup with two-leg quarterfinal and semifinal series wins last month.
Sebastian Berhalter and Ali Ahmed had Vancouver’s assists.
Mark Delgado gave LAFC (5-4-3, 18 points) an early advantage and Denis Bouanga doubled the visitors’ lead from the penalty spot after only 19 minutes with his team-leading fifth goal.
The Black-and-Gold extended their own unbeaten MLS run to five games while scoring multiple goals in all five. But they’ve settled for draws in three of those contests.
Bouanga converted his penalty decisively after Edier Ocampo’s clumsy, late challenge on Ryan Hollingshead left referee Joe Dickerson no choice but to point to the spot.
White had his first goal only seven minutes later. On a free kick from about 35 yards out on the right, Berhalter provided a diagonal cross into the box, and White out-jumped center back Aaron Long to direct a firm header past Hugo Lloris from close range.
The leveler came in the 70th minute. Ocampo’s challenge helped Vancouver turn LAFC over in its own half, and Ahmed switched play with a long ball to find Emmanuel Sabbi on the left.
Sabbi crossed the ball back into the penalty area, where it deflected off the head of an LAFC defender before reaching Ahmed on the back post.
Ahmed headed the ball across the goal again, where White outmuscled Eddie Segura and powered in a second header past the sprawling Lloris.
The visitors had the best late chances to earn a victory, but Yohei Takaoka made a pair of impressive stops to deny Jeremy Ebobisse in the 90th minute and Cengiz Under in second-half stoppage time.
–Field Level Media
