Whitecaps end long road drought by knocking off LAFC

Ranko Veselinovic and Brian White each scored a goal in the opening 23 minutes and the Vancouver Whitecaps ended a 15-game regular-season road losing streak with a 3-2 victory Saturday over Los Angeles FC.

Ryan Gauld added a goal and two assists, and Yohei Takaoka had seven saves for the Whitecaps (6-5-7, 25 points), who entered 0-4-3 in away games and had not won on the road since June 18 of last season. They became the last Western Conference team with a road win this season.

Denis Bouanga and Carlos Vela scored for LAFC, who fell to 6-2-2 at home this season and lost on their own field in an MLS regular-season game for the fourth time in the past two seasons.

John McCarthy had six saves for LAFC (9-4-5, 32 points), who faced the Whitecaps two times in CONCACAF Champions League play in April and advanced 6-0 on aggregate.

In their first game in two weeks, after Wednesday's contest at Colorado was postponed because of inclement weather, the Whitecaps looked fresh when Veselinovic scored in the second minute for his first goal of the season on a glancing header off a corner kick from Gauld.

Gauld assisted again in the 23rd minute when his left-footed centering pass went to White for a looping header past McCarthy for his team-leading seventh of the season.

LAFC cut the deficit in half in the 45th minute when Bouanga scored his team-leading 11th of the season off a rebound from a Takaoka save off a shot by Ryan Hollingshead.

With LAFC pressing the Whitecaps defense, Vancouver converted a rare second-half chance for a 3-1 lead when Gauld scored his fourth of the season in the 63rd minute after McCarthy made a save on a Sergio Cordova shot.

Vela pulled LAFC back within a goal in the 68th minute when he scored off a centering pass from Mateusz Bogusz for his sixth of the season.

--Field Level Media