Kickoff was at 6:15 p.m.
Midnight struck 10 minutes later.
Major League Soccer’s Cinderella had rolled through the season with statistically its youngest roster, and if you figured it was only a matter of time before a backline that starts three rookies turned into a pumpkin, well, it was.
San Diego FC won’t be headed to South Florida to face Lionel Messi and Inter Miami in MLS Cup next weekend. The Vancouver Whitecaps will after a clinical 3-1 victory Saturday night at soldout and stunned Snapdragon Stadium in the Western Conference final.
For really the first time all season, the expansion club looked like one – surrendering three first half goals, then finishing the game with 10 men and a 19-year-old, third-string goalkeeper making his MLS debut.
“Details are for later, but it clearly wasn’t our best night and they had a very good night,” coach Mikey Varas said. “I know that this hurts, but nobody can take away this season that these guys did. Nobody can ever take that away from them. They made the city dream, they made a whole region dream.
“We were one step away from MLS Cup, and 12 months ago we were all introducing ourselves.”
The game was essentially over after barely 10 minutes, which is all it took for the league’s most potent front line this side of Miami to unlock, unravel and undress SDFC’s rookie outside backs.
Eighth minute: Right back Ian Pilcher, who a year ago was playing college soccer for the Charlotte 49ers, coughed up the ball in his own third. Four one-touch passes later, Brian White was tapping it into the net.
Eleventh minute: Left back Luca Bombino, who is 19 and was in MLS’s reserve league a year ago, got roasted by Whitecaps winger Emmanuel Sabbi, who dribbled into the box and fired a hard shot that backup goalkeeper Pablo Sisniega, starting for the injured CJ dos Santos, blocked into the middle of the field instead of wide.
The ball rolled to Ali Ahmed, who ripped a shot that rookie center back Manu Duah, a freshman midfielder at UC Santa Barbara at this time last year, cleared … off Sisniega’s back and into the net.
The Whitecaps absorbed pressure for the next half-hour before launching a counterattack after another ill-advised loss of possession by the hosts, and soon Ahmed was matched one-on-one against Pilcher on the flank.
Ahmed put him in the spin cycle and fired a cross that White easily chested across the line – 3-nil.
“It was obviously a tough first half for us,” captain Jeppe Tverskov said. “Yeah, I feel like they were clever on the press. They tried to sneak up on us and not go too early and wait for the perfect pass. It became too hectic and made it a very difficult start for us, going behind 1-0 and then 2-0. We had to climb a mountain.”
The crazy part? If you had said one team’s back line would have had skid marks on it, you would have assumed it was Vancouver.
Tristan Blackmon, the MLS defender of the year, got two yellow cards and was ejected from the conference semifinal last week against LAFC, bringing with it a one-game suspension. His backup, Belal Halbouni, subbed in and promptly tore his ACL, leaving the Whitecaps to play nine vs. 11 for the remaining of overtime before prevailing in a penalty shootout.
That forced Mathias Laborda to move from left back to center back alongside Ralph Priso, a converted midfielder already playing out of position. Tate Johnson, a 20-year-old rookie, was inserted at left back. The potential subs included two guys coming off injuries who have barely played all fall.
“A lot of stuff can happen through the course of 2½ hours,” Vancouver coach Jesper Sorensen told media after the improbable win against LAFC. “We are prepared for most of it. I think we showed (last week) we have the mentality to go through a lot. And we will have to go through a lot to go on to the MLS final.
“And we are ready to suffer on the pitch.”
They didn’t have to suffer much Saturday, at least not until Varas made the rare move of introducing three halftime subs: Hirving “Chucky” Lozano for forward Corey Baird, Luca de la Torre for midfielder Anibal Godoy and Franco Negri for Pilcher at outside back.
Lozano, who hasn’t started since a locker room tantrum back in September, responded with a 60th minute goal – a looping shot from long range after a quick restart caught Vancouver off guard. That re-energized a crowd, buoyed by a 5-3 SDFC win at Vancouver in June.
But this was a different Whitecaps team. For one, it has German superstar Thomas Muller after his August transfer from Bayern Munich. It also was aligned in a 4-2-3-1 instead of a 4-3-3, providing a more robust presence in the midfield. It also didn’t try to frenetically and maniacally high press SDFC, a tactic Sorensen later admitted was poorly conceived.
And SDFC didn’t have Escondido native Milan Iloski, who had four goals in 20 minutes in the 5-3 win but a month later had his loan agreement end and ultimately landed with the Philadelphia Union.
In the 79th minute, SDFC didn’t have a goalkeeper, either.
Sisniega charged out from his goal and fouled midfielder Ryan Gauld in what referee Joe Dickerson deemed a clear goal-scoring opportunity and automatic red card. With dos Santos injured in the first round against Portland, that meant third-string keeper Duran Ferree had to make his MLS debut at age 19 and the hosts had to play the rest of the game down a man.
“It was a great season for me and my teammates, the staff, the leadership, a very good season,” Lozano said. “We definitely wanted to win and be champions, and it wasn’t meant to be. But everyone can leave with their heads held high about the season we had.
“Tonight was unfortunate, but this is the football. You win some, you lose some.”
The final whistle mercifully sounded, and the Snapdragon Stadium crowd – much of which resisted the temptation to get a head start on traffic – stood and honored the expansion club with a heartfelt ovation.
“That means a lot,” Tverskov said. “I think they could tell we were very disappointed. We haven’t had a game like this almost throughout the whole season. … That’s why it hurts as much as it does. It’s been a fairy tale season for all of us. Everything has been magical, and you kind of could see the end and dream. It means we’ve been doing a lot of things right.
“I think we can be proud in a lot of things we’ve done and I think we’re building something also for the coming seasons. Maybe that’s something to reflect on next week. It’s difficult today.”
