Here are all the details you need ahead of Los Angeles FC’s matchup tonight against the Vancouver Whitecaps. You can get live scores and stats during the game here.
When: April 13th, 10 p.m. EST
Where: BC Place Stadium
Where to watch: YouTube TV, UniMás 46
Where to listen: ESPNLA 710, KFWB 980
LAFC record: 2-0-2
LAFC projected starting lineup: Tyler Miller; Jordan Harvey, Laurent Ciman, Walker Zimmerman, Steven Beitashour; Mark-Anthony Kaye, Benny Feilhaber; Diego Rossi, Carlos Vela, Latif Blessing; Marco Ureña.
Vancouver record: 3-1-2
Last weekend: The Vancouver Whitecaps suffered a 2-1 loss on the road against Salt Lake City despite a stoppage time goal scored by Brek Shea.
For LAFC, the fifth road game of the season is a chance to reclaim momentum. After starting the season with two huge wins, the club fell to 2-2 with a frustrating come-from-behind loss against the LA Galaxy and a devastating 5-0 loss to Atlanta United last week. Now, the team faces the second-highest ranked team in the Western conference. A short week of training following the Atlanta game has been an important period of transition for the young club.
“It’s been good. Everyone has responded with the right attitude. I think the intensity has gotten much higher, but that’s expected,” Mark-Anthony Kaye. “I think we are going in the right direction. If you look at it right now, we have six points from four away games. It’s not bad, it’s not great. But we’re not in the worst position right now.”
In order to succeed against the Whitecaps, LAFC will have to be prepared to defend against a strong counterattack. Vancouver has notched a winning record so far this season despite possessing the ball for only 44 percent of game time. Head coach Carl Robinson draws up a defense that plays deep in its backfield, burning opponents on counters headed by the speedy Kai Kamara.
This was a point of weakness for LAFC in the Atlanta game, which exposed the club’s propensity to cheat in the midfield and leave the defense exposed to counterattack. In training this week, head coach Bob Bradley worked to coach his team on how to prepare for a similarly-minded Vancouver squad.
“We’ve had very good week of training,” Bradley said. “Of course, when you lose 5-0, there’s a hard look at many different things. There were positives, so we understood that. But we also realized that, especially late in the game, we just lost our way. And that that has to be something we take personally, and to ensure that is not going to be the way we go about things.”
For defender Jordan Harvey, the game in Vancouver will be a homecoming. He starred with the Whitecaps for seven seasons, setting a program record with his 199 appearances. Harvey earned Player of the Year wearing the blue and white in 2016, and he remains one of the more decorated players in the program’s history.
With the suspension of João Moutinho, who received two yellow cards in the match against Atlanta, Harvey will most likely join the starting lineup to face his former teammates. But for Harvey, the main focus of the game is on the team, not his individual moment.
“I think it’s a huge moment for us as a team to get back to the foundation that we started upon early in the season,” Harvey said. “I don’t think the last game is indicative of the personalities and character that we have in this locker room. We have quality in this locker room, not just on the pitch but off of it. That’s what we’re going to bring into this game.”
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