Galaxy tighten grip on Western Conference with win over Whitecaps

It looks like the top seed in the Western Conference is the Los Angeles Galaxy’s to lose this season.

The Galaxy took another step towards securing the top spot in the West on Saturday night. The Galaxy jumped out to a big lead against the Vancouver Whitecaps and never let up, and they went onto the 4-2 win at Dignity Health Sports Park.

“I think we are already doing great,” said Galaxy forward Joseph Panitsil, who scored a goal on Saturday night. “The only thing we need to be better is trying to defend what we have scored. If we scored in the first half, we need to try to defend and score more but it happens, even the greatest clubs in history also concede goals and make it difficult for themselves. But we are in a position that we contain everything around by making our mentality of winning the trophy.”

It wasn’t just Saturday night’s win that was key for the Galaxy. The three points against Vancouver combined with losses to LAFC and Real Salt Lake left the Galaxy (17-7-7, 58 points) seven points clear of second place RSL for the top spot in the Western Conference.

“Any cushion we’ll take at this point,” Galaxy head coach Greg Vanney said regarding the Western Conference Standings. “We have two on the road obviously and one at home. So we’ve got a tough finish in the season and we’ll take anything that we can get to try to finish on top.”

The Galaxy got out in front in the 32nd minute. Riqui Puig played a ball to Dejan Joveljic, who then took the ball into the penalty area. Whitecaps defender Ranko Veselinović did poke the ball away from Joveljic, but the ball fell to Gabriel Pec, who blasted a left-footed one-timer that beat keeper Yohei Takaoka far post.

The good news for Vancouver was that they scored the first two goals in the second half, the bad news was that one of those goals was credited for the Galaxy. The bad Whitecaps goal came five minutes into the second half, as Pec dribbled down the right side into the penalty area, played a short cross into the six-yard box intended for Joveljic, Vancouver’s Sebastian Berhalter tried to make a play on the ball, but he sent the ball into the back net for a Whitecaps own goal that doubled the Galaxy advantage. Vancouver did score a goal of its own in the 63rd minute, and Berhalter played a part in it. Ryan Gauld sent a ball into the penalty area to the back post area, Berhalter headed a ball into the six and Brian White sent the point-blank shot into the back net to pull a goal back for Vancouver.

The Galaxy though had a response of their own throughout the rest of the half. The Galaxy got that goal back in the 69th minute, as Puig sprung Pec down the right side with a long ball, Pec ran down the ball, touched into the penalty area, then split a pair of Whitecaps defenders with a ball towards the six that an unmarked Joseph Paintsil came in and fired past Takaoka into the back net to restore the Galaxy’s two-goal advantage. Puig wrapped up the three points for the Galaxy in third minute of stoppage time, as he trailed Pec on a counterattack, Pec fed him a ball and Puig blasted a shot just inside the penalty area into the back net. Not even Sam Adekugbe goal at the death for Vancouver could dampen the Galaxy’s mood.