High-flying Whitecaps eager to 'make a statement' as they get set for yet another LAFC playoff rematch
For the third straight year, the Vancouver Whitecaps and LAFC are set to face off in the MLS Cup Playoffs, as they’ll meet in a tectonic Western Conference Semi-final matchup at BC Place on Saturday.
After going head-to-head in the first round of both the 2023 and 2024 MLS Cup playoffs, with both matchups being won by LAFC, the Whitecaps will be hoping that the third time can be the charm. Or, well, for those officially taking count, this technically is the fourth time - you can’t forget that these sides also met in the quarter-finals of the 2023 Concacaf Champions Cup, which was also won by…LAFC.
.@LAFC defeated @WhitecapsFC in a three-game series last year. 😤
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) November 20, 2025
The rematch is set for Saturday in Vancouver // Audi MLS Cup Playoffs pic.twitter.com/K9nSSV5K5b
Safe to say, the pressure is on the Whitecaps to finally get a result against this LAFC side, against whom they have a record of 1W-0D-6L in past playoff and knockout round matches.
This time, though, it does feel like the Whitecaps are better equipped than ever to tackle the challenge of facing an LAFC side who have been quite dominant across this decade.
For the first time since 2021, the Whitecaps finished ahead of LAFC in the regular season standings this year, as they amassed an impressive 63 points, which was tied for fourth-most in the entire MLS.
RALPH PRISO CAME IN CLUTCH! 😤#VWFC | #DALvVAN pic.twitter.com/9rOrJsgV6I
— X - Vancouver Whitecaps FC (@WhitecapsFC) November 2, 2025
Along with the run they made to the final of the 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup, and their fourth straight Canadian Championship victory, it’s been an impressive campaign from the Whitecaps already - no matter what happens in this game, which is arguably their biggest MLS match in their history.
But while this is already the best season of their MLS era, that will quickly be forgotten if they can’t get past LAFC, showing why they’ll be eager to get the job done and reach the Conference Final for the first time this weekend.
“Hopefully it’s going to be different and we come out as winners this time,” Whitecaps captain Ryan Gauld said this week when asked about facing LAFC again. “We’ve not had much luck at getting past LAFC in the last couple of years, but we all know how good a side they are. But if you want to win the trophies, you want to beat the best teams, so it's going to be a good challenge for us.”
For what it’s worth, some things do favour the Whitecaps in this matchup, so it’s not as if this is some ‘David vs. Goliath’ matchup where all is pitted against them.
Namely, the big one is home-field advantage - this game will be played in front of a sold-out crowd at BC Place, in what promises to be a special atmosphere. Given that the Whitecaps picked up 34 points from 17 regular-season games at home, amassing a 15W-6D-3L record across all competitions, that’s no small detail.
The place is officially PACKED🔥🏟️
— X - Vancouver Whitecaps FC (@WhitecapsFC) November 14, 2025
Every fan in the building will get a limited-edition playoff rally towel 🤩
Doors open at 4:30 pm PT so get in early, get loud and rep your 'Caps by wearing blue and white 💙🤍
📰 | https://t.co/gF7icED4Hw#VWFC | #OwnTheSummit pic.twitter.com/qldYQm0L4y
Otherwise, it’s worth noting that this will be just the second time they meet in a winner-takes-all matchup, as their other MLS Cup playoffs meetings all came in a best-of-three setting, and their Champions Cup matchup was a two-legged tie.
Naturally, LAFC won that one winner-takes-all matchup, which came in game #3 of last year’s playoff meeting, but the Whitecaps will hope the experience they’ve gained over the last few years helps them ahead of this latest single-game elimination matchup.
Lastly, it’s worth noting that they’ll have no shortage of motivation ahead of this match, and perhaps that’ll be what they need to get this over the line - sometimes, spite can be the best fuel, after all.
At a certain point, the Whitecaps want (and need) to get past this LAFC team, so why not now?
“Yeah, it leaves a bitter taste the way the last (two playoffs) ended, and there was the Champions Cup a couple of years ago, where we’ve come up against them, and they’ve got the better of us,” Gauld admitted. “There’s definitely a feeling that we want to put things right and make a statement for the club that we've improved, that we're getting better, and that we’re a serious team.”
No doubt, though, this feels like a pivotal juncture for the Whitecaps. For those familiar with Vancouver sports lore, this feels like their ‘Slay the Dragon’ moment, which is a reference to when the Vancouver Canucks finally beat the Chicago Blackhawks side that eliminated them in both the 2009 and 2010 Stanley Cup playoffs in a dramatic first-round series in the 2011 playoffs.
While that 2011 Canucks team didn’t go on to win it all, falling short in Game #7 of the Stanley Cup final, that run has proven to be their best moment of the 21st century, by far, and it all started with their ‘Slay the Dragon’ moment.
Because of that, it almost feels fitting that the Whitecaps will need to get past LAFC to reach the new frontier of a first-ever Conference Final appearance, turning this into the sort of true playoff run they’ve never had in their MLS era.
On paper, it’d have been more than fair to suggest that this game would’ve been better served as a Conference Final matchup - the Whitecaps are #1 in all of MLS in actual goal difference (+28) and expected goal difference (+25.7), while LAFC are #3 in GD (+25) and #2 in expected GD (+25.4) - but both teams slipped to #2 and #3 in the Western Conference table behind San Diego due to congested schedules caused by the Whitecaps Champions Cup run and LAFC’s Club World Cup participation.
As a result, that created a scenario where these two teams, who are also authors of two of the top seven seasons tracked by American Soccer Analysis in terms of expected goal difference (the 2025 Whitecaps are fifth, and the 2025 LAFC are seventh), are facing off this early in the playoffs.
Yet, as the saying goes, sometimes, you need to beat the best to be the best, no matter if it’s in the first round or in the final, so both teams will relish the chance to test themselves against the other.
“It’s hopefully going to be a great game,” Whitecaps head coach Jesper Sørensen said this week. “It's going to be two very good teams coming up against each other, with some very good players and exciting players on both sides, in a full stadium.”
“We'll be ready for it. I know about the history of Vancouver and LAFC, so we want to try and see if we can change things. This is a new group, and they are also a new group. There are two very good teams from this season - two of the best, actually, if you look at the (data) behind the results, there are two very good performing teams.”
“We face them when we face them, so it’s going to be exciting, nerve-racking, and fun - it's going to be a lot of stuff - but we'll be ready. Both teams know each other well, so there won't be that many surprises, so let's see what's going to happen.”
The @WhitecapsFC lift the Voyageurs Cup trophy for the fifth time in their history 🏆🔵
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) October 2, 2025
🔴 Watch TELUS #CanChamp on OneSoccer & TSN 4/5 pic.twitter.com/ji7EcgZxIA
Now, what will be interesting to see is who the protagonists of this game end up being, as there’s no shortage of players to watch on Saturday.
What’s unique about this matchup from a Whitecaps perspective is that this isn’t just the first time that they’ll meet LAFC without sitting as a massive underdog in terms of team performance, but they’re also able to finally match their glitzy counterparts in terms of star power, too.
Naturally, LAFC’s side grabs the attention with the presence of Denis Bouanga and Heung-Min Son, but the Whitecaps now have Thomas Müller, and a collection of players who had exceptional breakout individual seasons, such as Sebastian Berhalter, Ali Ahmed, Tristan Blackmon and Yohei Takaoka. Along with Brian White and Ryan Gauld, the Whitecaps' original 1-2 star punch, and all of a sudden, the Whitecaps can feel confident that they’ve got the talent to go head-to-head with LAFC, which hasn’t always been the case in past big-game meetings.
“The group deserves to have this matchup and this crowd - when seeing the development and the improvement this season under Jesper, they’ve been to a Concacaf Champions Cup final, and this has been the best season points-wise,” Müller, who spoke alongside Gauld ahead of this match, said.
“We are a serious team, and we deserve this. This crowd and our fans can look forward to the game. We are happy to be there, but our mission is not done yet; we're thinking about only this game, but we have more plans.”
Certainly, the Whitecaps have already staked out an earlier warning in their first two matchups against LAFC in 2025, drawing the first one before winning the second, although it’s worth noting that both teams have changed significantly since their latest matchup, which came before Son and Müller were even in MLS.
At the same time, those results are an important reminder that LAFC aren’t some invincible force that the Whitecaps have no chance of beating, showing that they’ll just need to play their game and control what they can control.
If they do that, they'll have the chance to make this a special night, one that could quickly become an instant MLS classic if both teams play to their potential.
“Yeah, it’s always good to have it in the back of our heads that we know we're capable of beating them,” Gauld finished. “When it comes to playoffs, it’s a one-off game, and a lot of things can happen, so we've got to play the game that we've been playing for the majority of the season, playing with high intensity, and trying to be in control of what happens.”
“You can look at both teams, and there's been a lot of changes over the last six, seven months, so you can’t look too much into what's happened in the past, anyway.”
