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Whitecaps Play to Scoreless Draw Against LA Galaxy

The Whitecaps were reduced to 10 men, but still nabbed a point

By JonSzekeres
Anne-Marie Sorvin-USA TODAY Sports

The Whitecaps made the best of a bad situation on Saturday night, playing to a scoreless draw with the LA Galaxy. The Whitecaps were really put through the grinder on the night, with two players suffering injury and a red card handed out that reduced them to 10 men. Considering the circumstances, a draw wasn't exactly the worst possible outcome.

The 'Caps starting 11 was lead by David Ousted taking his spot in the cage, with Fraiser Aird, Kendall Waston, Tim Parker and Jordan Harvey making up the backline. Matias Laba took his spot in midfield, with Pedro Morales, Cristian Techera, Nicolas Mezquida and Kekuta Manneh joining Octavio Rivero in the attack. Rivero would get the Whitecaps first good scoring chance in the seventh minute, when Fraser Aird launched a deep ball that was collected by Mezquida. Mezquida cut towards the middle of the pitch, drawing defenders towards him and opening up space for  Rivero, who then took his pass. Rivero got a shot off, but it was handled by Galaxy Goalkeeper Brian Rowe.

In the 18th minute, the Whitecaps starting lineup suffered a major blow when Pedro Morales limped off the pitch. The Whitecaps Captain was later diagnosed with a left hip strain, and he was replaced by Andrew Jacobson. The bad news kept coming, as in the 27th minute, Matias Laba picked up a red card. Arguably the Whitecaps most important defensive player, the Whitecaps suffered a major double whammy in having him sent off. Was it a red card? Well, you can take a look here, from a few different angles.

The Whitecaps attack was certainly stunted after that, but they did get a few chances. The best of the rest of the first half had to go to Jacobson, who launched a laser beam that Rowe was able to get a mitt on. However, they would also see another starter sent off by injury, this time Kekuta Manneh. He was replaced by Christian Bolanos.

In the second half, the Galaxy continued to push with the Whitecaps down a man. However, David Ousted kept pushing back. In the 70th minute, he made perhaps his best save of the night.

The Whitecaps were able to hold on for the rest of the match, and must have been happy to score the single point in a 0-0 home draw. Certainly it could not have been the type of match the fans were hoping for, but a draw is better than a loss.

David Ousted was the Whitecaps pick for Man of the Match, and I think it's pretty hard to disagree with that. He was sensational on the night, as the Galaxy had 15 shots total, and 4 on the Vancouver net.

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