When LAFC takes on the Vancouver Whitecaps this Saturday at sold-out BC Place in Vancouver (Sat. Nov. 22, 6:30 p.m. PT, Apple TV MLS Season Pass), Maurice Edu will be in the broadcast booth as the match analyst for MLS on Apple TV, and his former U.S. Men’s National Team teammate Dax McCarty will be watching from afar as an Apple studio analyst. The two retired midfielders spoke with members of the media about the Western Conference Semifinal matchup between third-seeded LAFC, playing in its fourth straight conference semifinal, and second-seeded Vancouver, which set several club records this season en route to its first conference semi since 2017.
“I'm really excited for the matchup,” said McCarty, who last year in his final season as a player helped Atlanta United to the Eastern Conference Semis. “These are two of the best teams in Major League Soccer. It's an ideal way for them to meet, in a high stakes game in the playoffs.”
“It's gonna be an incredible game,” said Edu (below), a native southern Californian who played 11 seasons in MLS and Europe and will call the game with Apple TV play-by-play man Keith Costigan. “We’re privileged that we get to watch such a beautiful football match in an incredible stadium packed with passionate fans. It's MLS playoffs, man. I'm looking forward to it.”
The only MLS team to reach this stage of the playoffs in each of the past four seasons (2022-2025), LAFC has played in two of the last three MLS Cup Finals, and eliminated the ‘Caps from the last two postseasons (’23, ’24). Vancouver, which set new franchise records this year for points (63), wins (18), away wins (8), goals scored (66), and goal differential (+28), is aiming to reach the Western Conference Final for the first time ever.
Each team’s top stars were the first topic of discussion.
SON AND BOUANGA
“The connection with Son and Bouanga, you have to talk about it, you have to start there because of how dangerous it is,” McCarty said of LAFC forwards Son Heung-Min and Denis Bouanga, who have taken MLS by storm by combining for 23 goals and eight assists since Son joined LAFC in early August. “I love the fact that Vancouver is one of the best defensive teams in the league, and they get to go up against Son and Bouanga. Those are two of the most in-form attackers in the league, and you get the second-best defense in the league trying to stop them.”
Son, who has recorded 10 goals and four assists for the Black & Gold since coming over from Tottenham Hotspur of the English Premier League, collected his first MLS playoff goal and first playoff assist in LAFC’s 4-1 win over Austin on Nov. 2, pushing the Black & Gold into Saturday’s knockout match in Vancouver.
Bouanga’s MLS resume is three years longer than Son’s and is overflowing with accolades. The 2022 MLS Cup champion was just named to the MLS Best XI roster for the third straight season after becoming the first player in league history to record three straight seasons of 20 or more goals. The 2023 Golden Boot winner and 2025 Golden Boot runner-up, Bouanga is LAFC’s all-time leader in playoff goals (10 goals in 14 games), and leads all active MLS players in that statistic as well. He scored twice against Austin earlier this month, marking his third brace in an MLS Cup Playoff game. The last one came in a 5-2 win over Vancouver in 2023.
One of Bouanga’s greatest achievements, however, has been the on- and off-the-field relationship he has forged this season with Son, the former EPL Golden Boot winner.
“Vancouver's issue,” said McCarty, “is that Son and Bouanga pick up different positions all over the field, and they really look for each other to combine and work with each other … That's a mismatch in this game for Vancouver, the fact that those two guys are significantly faster and have more pace than the center backs from Vancouver.”
CANADIAN COUPLE
The Whitecaps have a dynamic duo of their own in midfielders Sebastian Berhalter – the 2025 Team MVP and an MLS Best XI honoree – and Thomas Müller – the legendary German playmaker who has contributed to the best season in ‘Caps history by adding nine goals and four assists since arriving from Bayern Munich in the same transfer window that brought Son to LAFC.
“I've done a lot of Vancouver games this year,” said Edu, “and before Müller, it was really incredible to see Berhalter’s growth. Growth as a player, but also you just see this kind of like natural leadership. I have been around him a couple times and he just has this kind of presence about him that's very welcoming, and you see how that translates on the field. He's a tenacious type of player, and I think the strides he's made this season have been incredible.”
Just as Son and Bouanga have connected at the top of LAFC’s attack, the 24-year-old Berhalter (four goals, 11 assists) and 36-year-old Müller (nine goals, four assists) have been Vancouver’s engine in the center of the pitch.
“There's a little bromance brewing between both sets of players, between Son and Bouanga for sure, and Berhalter and Mueller have been the same,” said Edu.
“It’s like ‘Stepbrothers,’” said McCarty, quoting a line from the 2008 comedy starring Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly. “‘Did we just become best friends? Yes.’ That's on the field, off the field, all of it. Berhalter’s grown a lot this year. He is probably the most improved player in Major League Soccer from where he was last year to where he is now. Just a really impressive rise for him, a true breakout season.”
FAMILIAR FOES
These two clubs have met 14 times since the beginning of 2023. No two MLS teams have played each other more often in that span.
In 2023, they played six total matches in all competitions, with LAFC earning a 15-6 advantage in goals scored on its way to knocking the ‘Caps out of Concacaf Champions League and the MLS playoffs (including the first postseason road victory in Black & Gold history). The scorelines since then suggest that the gap may be shrinking.
Last year (2024) the two sides again faced off six times, with LAFC scoring 10 total goals to Vancouver’s seven. The Black & Gold advanced past the ‘Caps in their Round One Best-of-3 playoff series despite the Whitecaps’ 4-3 edge in aggregate goals.
“There's been a natural kind of organic rivalry that's been brewing over the last couple of years between LAFC and Vancouver,” said Edu, who called last year’s Round One series. “The key now is, can Vancouver start winning some of these important games?”
Their two regular-season meetings this year resulted in a 2-2 draw on May 11 at BC Place, and a 1-0 road win for Vancouver at BMO Stadium on June 29.
But that was before LAFC added Son and the ‘Caps added Müller. And that was before LAFC center back and captain Aaron Long suffered a season-ending injury, and starting defensive midfielder Igor Jesus met the same fate. On Vancouver’s side, star striker Brian White has missed time due to a leg injury since the most recent LAFC match, while three-time team MVP Ryan Gauld (2022-2024) missed the first six months of this season with a leg injury of his own.
With that in mind, do this year’s head-to-head results mean anything with regard to Saturday’s knockout match? “I don't think you write them off totally,” McCarty said. “You have to take little tactical things here and there, how teams approached the game. I remember when LAFC went up to Vancouver and that game ended up being a 2-2 draw, LAFC got off to a great start. They were up 2-0. That's a perfect microcosm of what [head coach] Jesper Sørenson and Vancouver are all about. They never panicked, they never got flustered, they didn't have their strongest team available, and yet they just kept going after the game.
“That’s what a fit and healthy Brian White will do for you,” McCarty continued. “He's a match winner. He's proven that. I think he's the kind of the forgotten man in a lot of these conversations … because you have to talk about Son, Bouanga, Müller. Those are the three guys that are gonna be on the tips of everyone's tongue, and rightfully so. Son and Müller have come in and completely changed the trajectories of both of their teams. Both of these teams were very good. Now I think they're great … but Brian White really is the X factor. What is his fitness like? How long can he play? Can he start the game?”
For the record, LAFC leads its all-time series, 12W-7L-6D, outscoring the ‘Caps 51-29 in all competitions. The Black & Gold has held its own at BC Place, going 4W-4L-2D there in all comps.
COACHING TRANSITIONS
LAFC is seeking to end the highly successful Steve Cherundolo era with a title in his final season as head coach, while Vancouver wants the same prize to cap off Jesper Sørensen’s first year in charge.
LAFC has gone 10W-3L-1D in MLS Cup Playoff matches since Cherundolo was hired at the beginning of 2022. A former star in the German Bundesliga, Cherundolo—the only coach in MLS history to win the Supporters’ Shield and MLS Cup in his first year—announced earlier this year that he will step down and return to Germany with his wife and children at season’s end. During his final year in LA he has pushed a lot of the right buttons, including his midseason shift from a 4-3-3 formation to a hybrid 3-5-2 once Son came on board.
“Steve Cherundolo going to a back three with three center backs was the right move for them tactically. When you added Son to the mix, their attack—you didn't need to have another attacking player on the field to create chances. It’s obvious that they’re so much more balanced with him on the field. And their fullbacks, their strengths are being able to get up and down the field and not worry so much about what's going on behind them … [Sergi] Palencia and [Ryan] Hollingshead, are two of the best two-way fullbacks in Major League Soccer … and the three center backs, [Ryan] Porteous, [Nkosi] Tafari, and [Eddie] Segura, have been excellent. Aaron Long’s injury could have really derailed this LAFC season, but Porteous has come in and I've been really impressed.”
Vancouver’s previous coach, Vanni Sartini, “deserves credit for the couple of years he built Vancouver, for the success they had,” McCarty noted, “but Jesper Sørensen's taken them to a whole another level where they dominate on both sides of the field. They've got one of the best attacks in the league, they've got one of the best back lines and best goalkeepers in the league. They just have a really fun identity. Whenever a Vancouver game was on in the past, it was always, ‘I don't really know if I wanna watch that game,’ to be completely honest. Now when Vancouver plays, I have to watch them.”
PREDICTIONS
“I am going to reserve the right to see the lineups before I make any, definite predictions,” McCarty said, mentioning the potential return of White, who led the ‘Caps in regular-season goals (16), and Tristan Blackmon, the former LAFC man who was named the 2025 MLS Defender of the Year despite a knee injury that has sidelined him since mid-September. “If they are fit and available to start the game I'm gonna give the edge to Vancouver ... Now, if they're not that's a different story, because I really do believe Son and Bouanga and the combination they have, if you don't have your best players available they could be a little bit too much to overcome.”
Edu added: “From Vancouver's standpoint your game plan has to be: Dare someone else from LAFC to beat you beyond Son and Bouanga, right? … I could see this being a 2-2 game that goes to penalty kicks, and then we see who wants to be the hero in penalty kicks.
“This to me is the game of the week,” Edu added. “I'm excited. Obviously Messi and Cincinnati, Philly- New York, Seattle-Minnesota are all gonna be really good ties, but this game to me has every element that you look for from a playoff match.”
LAFC visits the Vancouver Whitecaps in the Western Conference Semifinals on Saturday, November 22, at BC Place in Vancouver. Kickoff is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. PT. The match will be broadcast live on MLS Season Pass (Apple TV), with radio coverage on 710 AM ESPN LA, the ESPN App, 980 AM La Mera Mera (Spanish), and 1230 AM KYPA (Korean).
