Ryan Gauld scored his 50th career goal and Yohei Takaoka made five saves as the host Vancouver Whitecaps blanked the Los Angeles Galaxy 3-0 on Wednesday night.
Brian White and Bruno Caicedo also scored goals for Vancouver (14-5-4, 46 points), which maintained a three-point first-place lead over the Houston Dynamo in the Western Conference. It was the 10th clean sheet of the season for Takaoka.
JT Marcinkowski finished with six saves for Los Angeles (7-10-8, 29 points).
Vancouver took a 1-0 lead in the eighth minute on White’s 14th goal. Thomas Muller set up the score when he fielded a throw-in and chipped a pass to White cutting down the right side on the box where White drilled a right-footed shot into the top right corner of the net.
Los Angeles had a good chance to tie it 10 minutes later but Takaoka came up with a highlight-reel double-save on a right-footed try in the middle of the box by Kyogo Furuhashi followed by a left-footed try by Pablo Ruiz outside the box.
The Whitecaps peppered the goal at the start of the second half with Marcinkowski coming up with a pair of saves on Gauld, the first on a header in the center of the box followed by a left-footed shot from the top of the box.
Gauld then increased the lead to 2-0 in the 57th minute when he intercepted Galaxy defender Jakob Glesnes’ outlet pass above the box and then dribbled through traffic and launched a left-footed shot into the bottom left corner. Gauld’s third goal of the season enabled him to become the first Whitecaps player to reach 50 goals and 50 assists in the team’s MLS era.
Caicedo made it 3-0 in the 90th minute with a penalty kick after Emiro Garces dragged down Rayan Elloumi breaking down the left side of the box. Marcinkowski got his hand on Caicedo’s right-footed shot, but the ball landed about a foot across the goal line.
–Field Level Media
