LAFC can only manage a draw with Whitecaps

The scenario was simple for LAFC heading into the final week of the MLS regular season: win its final two games and the team goes to the playoffs. Anything short of that and well, it gets complicated.

Tuesday it got complicated, with LAFC and the Vancouver Whitecaps playing to a 1-1 draw at Banc of California Stadium, setting up a must-win game for LAFC in its season finale Sunday on the road against the Colorado Rapids.

Both goals came in the first half with Cristian Dájome scoring for Vancouver and Mamadou Fall matching that for LAFC deep in stoppage time.

The tie leaves LAFC ninth in the Western Conference standings, two places and two points out of a playoff berth. And the only path through is a narrow one.

LAFC would have to beat the Rapids on the road and at altitude, hope that Real Salt Lake wins neither of its final two games with Portland and Sporting Kansas City and see the Galaxy lose or draw at home with Minnesota in their final match.

If all those things happen LAFC would finish with 48 points and finish no worse than seventh, moving on to the postseason on a tiebreaker.

LAFC (12-12-9) could have avoided all that math with a win. Instead, the draw extended its unbeaten streak to a seasonlong six games while taking the team’s destiny out of its own hands, requiring it to get help to reach the postseason.

It was an outcome LAFC coach Bob Bradley had considered coming into the week.

LAFC forward Brian Rodriguez challenges Vancouver Whitecaps goalkeeper Maxime Crepeau during the first half Tuesday.

(Ringo H.W. Chiu / Associated Press)

“There can be no looking back, no part of being afraid in any situation,” he said before the game.

“This group has embraced the fact that OK, we’re not exactly where we want to be. But everything is still there for us.”

The same could be said of the Whitecaps, who have been on a tear since early summer losing just twice in their last 21 games. Vancouver did that while dealing with COVID-19 restrictions that closed the Canadian border, forcing it to play more than half its home games in Sandy Utah. It also had to overcome the August sacking of coach Marc dos Santos.

Now it goes into the final game of the year Sunday, when it plays host to the Seattle Sounders, with a chance to clinch its first playoff berth since 2017.

LAFC, meanwhile, has been in playoff position for just a day since mid-August and is in danger of missing the postseason for the first time in franchise history.

Playing on a field left rough and rutted by a weekend music event, Vancouver broke in front in the 15th minute on a counter-attack goal from Dájome, his 10th of the season.

The sequence started with LAFC’s Raheem Edwards losing the ball at midfield. Brian White, who helped key the Whitecaps’ turnaround after coming over in a June trade from the New York Red Bulls, pushed it up the left wing before rolling a pass into the box and behind Dájome, who spun back to gather the ball, then sliced between defenders Sebastian Ibeagha and Jesús Murillo to bury a right-footed shot into the back of the net.

The deficit was just the second LAFC has faced in six games but it didn’t last until halftime, with Fall knocking in a loose ball that ricocheted off defender Florian Jungwirth in stoppage time. Referee Alex Chilowicz initially waved off the goal but after consulting a video replay he let the score, which came on LAFC’s 13th shot of the half, stand.

LAFC, which outshot Vancouver 24-5, kept the pressure on to start the second half, forcing Whitecaps keeper Maxime Crépeau into two of his season-high 10 saves in the first five minutes.