VANCOUVER, British Columbia — The Galaxy find themselves in the thick of a tightly packed logjam in the Western Conference standings, which means the race for playoff berths will likely go down to the final week of the regular season.
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An early-September loss isn’t going to scuttle the team’s postseason hopes, but it doesn’t make it any easier to walk off the field after a defeat. Every loss feels like a missed opportunity with the clock ticking.
Ryan Gauld scored his 50th career goal and Yohei Takaoka made five saves as the first-place Vancouver Whitecaps shut out the Galaxy, 3-0, on Wednesday night at BC Place.
Brian White and Bruno Caicedo also scored goals for Vancouver (14-5-4, 46 points), which maintained a three-point lead over the Houston Dynamo (with a game in hand) in the Western Conference. It was the 10th shutout of the season for Takaoka.
JT Marcinkowski finished with six saves for the Galaxy (7-10-8, 29 points), who find themselves in 12th place, but just three points behind seventh-place Colorado with nine games left in the regular season.
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.
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The Galaxy 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 kept up the pressure 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 broke through to double the lead 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.
With White, Gauld and Müller subbed off, 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.
Read more Orange County scores and player stats for Wednesday, Sept. 9
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The Galaxy host Seattle on Saturday at 7:30 p.m.