Whitecaps 2, Sounders 0: A rare and dominating win over their Cascadia rivals

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The Vancouver Whitecaps were walking wounded after two straight losses, but have righted the ship after getting rid of Gang Green on Saturday.

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A rare goal by Pedro Vite, and a surgical strike turned own goal by Ryan Gauld, and the Whitecaps got back in the win column by dominating the visiting Seattle Sounders 2-0 on Saturday night at B.C. Place.

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The Dome hasn’t seen many victories over their Cascadia Cup rivals — just four in MLS history coming into the night — but the 19,108 in attendance Saturday watched the Caps smother Seattle defensively to record their first home shutout over the Sounders since a 2-0 win on July 6, 2013.

The victory jumped the Whitecaps (4-4-5) up the standings to seventh, while the Sounders (7-5-2), losers of two straight and three of their last four, are in second place in the West after LAFC scored in the final seconds to beat San Jose 2-1 and take first in the West.

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Vote for Pedro

Vite doesn’t score that often, but when he does, it’s against Seattle, at home, to open the scoring.

When Ecuadorian midfielder took advantage of a bad turnover to score against Dallas midweek, it was his first goal since Sept. 17, 2022, when he scored the opener in a 2-1 win over the Sounders.

He scored again Saturday, this time when he pressured Alex Roldan into a terrible touch off his chest, then running around the Sounders defender to poke in the ball for the 44th minute opener.

Vite now has four career MLS goals for the Caps.

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Bad luck boys

Brian White has had his share of bad luck this year, he of the stratospheric xG but just four MLS goals. It appears to have rubbed off on Gauld.

His 59th minute strike, curling around a defender and off the post, bounced off Stefan Frei and trickled into the net. He got mobbed by his teammates, all of them rubbing his sandy mop, as everyone in the building had figured he’d scored the insurance goal.

But the MLS replay officials killed all the joy, ruling his score an own goal off of Frei.

He’s yet to score in league play this year.

He’d hoped to have had a little of that 2021 magic, when he had four goals and six assists after joining the Caps in mid-season, so he pulled his Adidas cleats from that year out of storage. It appears they still had a little mojo left in them, but not enough.

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NEXT GAME

Wednesday

Canadian Championship semi-final

Pacific FC vs. Vancouver Whitecaps

7 p.m., Starlight Stadium, TV: TSN, Radio: AM730

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Smothering defence

While their home shutout streak was snapped in their win over Minnesota, they started another one Saturday. Starting in a 3-5-2 formation with a mobile trio of centre backs in Javain Brown, Tristan Blackmon and Matthias Laborda, they kept the Sounders at bay.

Seattle had just three shots at the half, none on target, and finished with eight shots overall. Yohei Takaoka was called on just once to make a save, skying high to tip an Albert Rusnák shot over the bar in the 65th minute.

The Whitecaps had 17 total shots, five on target, and could have inflated their goal total but for the bad luck that has dogged their finishing all season.

Cascadia race

The Sounders might be atop the West, but they’re at the bottom of where it really matters, the Cascadia Cup.

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With the win, the Whitecaps and Portland are tied on six points, with the Timbers ahead on goal difference (+4 to +1). But at the bottom, winless in 2023, are the Seattle Sounders, with a goal differential of -5, after losing 4-1 and 2-0 to Portland and Vancouver, respectively.

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