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Sports
LAFC 1, Whitecaps 0: Refs ruin the night for Caps and their record crowd
They booed Max Crepeau every time he touched the ball. They booed the officials for every questionable call. They booed lustily every time an Los Angeles FC player fell heavily to the B.C. Place turf, pantomiming some phantom injury — a display of theatrics that was both frequent and frustrating.
The black-clad visitors will move on in the MLS playoffs to face the winner of Seattle vs. Dallas, which will be decided next Friday.
L.A earned a 22nd-minute penalty when referee Tim Ford ruled that Caps centreback Tristan Blackmon had tripped Mario González in the box, pointing immediately to the spot. The jazzed-up stadium erupted in disbelief, but there was no call for Ford to check his decision on a sideline monitor, as the VAR check showed no error in judgment.
Denis Bouanga powered it home past a helpless Yohei Takaoka, and it stood up as the winner.
The loudest boos of the night came in the final moments of injury time, when Ford knocked over Alessandro Schöpf just as he was trying to hit a shot after an extended bout of Whitecaps pressure. L.A. turned it the other way, and scored into an empty net, and the crowd went bananas, with invectives of every description being thrown at him.
Incandescent with rage, Whitecaps coach Vanni Sartini practically went into orbit, getting ejected from the game with a red card.
He wasn’t there to see Ford called to the monitor for a VAR check, and the goal chalked off for offside — as Takaoka was still upfield, it meant Carlos Vela’s pass put Bounga in an offside position.
“Maybe he felt excited because he was in Canada and he wanted to do (something Canadian). … I think Tim is a good guy but … the referee was a disaster. We have to be completely honest; the referee was a disaster. … At the end, we didn’t have a fair chance, to be honest. Because today, unfortunately, the referee had a bad game.”
Sartini went on to describe the plays he had issues with, including the non-penalty on Richie Laryea in the second half. If that wasn’t called, the González call shouldn’t have either, he said.
The game was whistled moments after Bounga’s goal was waved off, and B.C. Place security was needed to keep the Whitecaps players — notably Sam Adekugbe — from the officials as they were led off the field. Bottles, streamers and profanity followed them off as they were quickly ushered down the tunnel and out.
They were probably passed by Sartini, who came back through the tunnel after the final whistle to cheers and applause as he saluted the crowd and gathered his team together.
Sartini knows there will be blowback for his comments about the officiating, and made the request to the journalists at the presser not to ask the players about the refereeing, so he could take all the fines. And he knows it will probably go beyond a financial hit.
There were a combined 32 fouls in the Decision Day meeting at B.C. Place between these two teams, and the physical play carried over on Sunday. Takaoka took a foot to the face from Gonzalez in the 40th minute, but it only earned the L.A. player a yellow card.
The visitors were lucky not to be down to 10 men, as Gonzalez had also gotten away with another bookable offence earlier in the half.
LAFC showed off their battle-hardened experience with the display, as the cheap fouls broke up the Whitecaps’ offence and kept them from building any momentum.
The Whitecaps had 13 shots to L.A.’s eight, but Crepeau was the man of the match, making several key saves against his old team, including a late White header in the 85th minute and a Gauld volley in the 98th.
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LONDON – Canada will meet three-time champion Germany in the Davis Cup quarterfinals in Malaga, Spain this November.
Canada secured a berth in the quarterfinals — also called The Final 8 Knockout Stage — with a 2-1 win over Britain last weekend in Manchester, England.
World No. 21 Felix Auger-Aliassime of Montreal anchored a five-player squad that included Denis Shapovalov of Richmond Hill, Ont., Gabriel Diallo of Montreal, Alexis Galarneau of Laval, Que., and Vasek Pospisil of Vernon, B.C.
The eight-team draw for the quarterfinals was completed Thursday at International Tennis Federation headquarters.
Defending champion Italy will play Argentina, the United States will meet Australia and Spain will take on the Netherlands. Schedule specifics have yet to be released but the Final 8 will be played Nov. 19-24.
Tim Puetz and Kevin Krawietz were unbeaten in doubles play last week to help Germany reach the quarterfinals. The country’s top singles player — second-ranked Alex Zverev — did not play.
The Canadians defeated Germany in the quarterfinals en route to their lone Davis Cup title in 2022. Germany won titles in 1988, ’89 and ’93.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Canada, fuelled by a 2-1 win over the U.S. and scoreless draw with Mexico, has jumped two places to No. 38 in the FIFA men’s world rankings released Thursday.
Of the top six CONCACAF teams, Canada was the only one to move up. Mexico was unchanged at No. 17 while the U.S. and Panama each fell two rungs to No. 18 and 37, respectively
Costa Rica slipped one spot to No. 50 and Jamaica two places to No. 61.
It marks Canada’s highest ranking under coach Jesse Marsch, who was hired in mid-May when the Canadians were ranked 50th. Since then, the team has climbed to No. 49, 48, 40 and now 38.
Canada has been as high as No. 33 in the men’s ranking, achieved in February 2022 under John Herdman with Canada, named the “Most Improved Side” in 2021 by FIFA, turning heads with an unbeaten run in CONCACAF World Cup qualifying.
The new rankings encompass 184 internationals involving teams from all six confederations including 2026 World Cup qualifiers in Asia, Oceania and South America.
The top 10 was unchanged with Argentina ahead of France, Spain, England, Brazil, Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal, Colombia and Italy. But the gap at the top is closing with Argentina losing 2-1 away to Colombia and 3-1 at home to Italy.
Teams 10 through 15 were also unchanged. But there was movement after that in the form of Japan (, up two), Iran (No. 19, up one) and Denmark (No. 20, up one). Egypt (No. 31), Ivory Coast (No. 33), Tunisia (No. 36) and Algeria (No. 41) all jumped five places while Greece (No. 48) climbed six spots.
The biggest movers were Brunei Darussalam (No. 183) and Samoa (No. 185), who vaulted seven spots on the back of two wins apiece.
Qatar suffered the biggest drop, tumbling 10 places to No. 44.
San Marino remains at the bottom of the rankings in 210th place despite recording its first victory in more than 20 years, San Marino defeated Liechtenstein 1-0 on Sept. 5, ending a 140-game winless run since a 1-0 decision over the same opponent in April 2004.
Liechtenstein fell four places to No. 203.
Canada’s next match is an Oct. 15 friendly against Panama at Toronto’s BMO Field. The next men’s ranking will be released Oct. 24.
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Follow @NeilMDavidson on X platform, formerly known as Twitter
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
It has been a difficult start to the NFL season for quarterback Bryce Young and the Carolina Panthers.
Carolina has dropped its opening two games after Sunday’s 26-3 loss to the Los Angeles Chargers. And Young, the first player taken in the ’23 NFL draft, was 18-of-26 passing for 84 yards with an interception while being sacked twice.
As a result, veteran Andy Dalton will start Sunday when Carolina faces the Las Vegas Raiders (1-1).
According to the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp., the Chargers’ win was the most accurately predicted moneyline selection by Proline bettors. A whopping 92 per cent of wagers were on Los Angeles beating Carolina with 92 per cent also picking the Chargers to cover -4.5.
In other action that went in favour of Proline bettors: Kansas City edged Cincinnati 26-25 (86 per cent correctly selected the Chiefs to win); Houston got past Chicago 19-13 (81 per cent); the New York Jets defeated Tennessee 24-17 (78 per cent); Pittsburgh beat Denver 13-6 (76 per cent), Washington beat the New York Giants 21-18 (73 per cent); and Seattle toppled New England 23-20 (62 per cent).
However, only five per cent of bettors had the Raiders upsetting Baltimore 26-23.
And there was one winner of Proline’s second week main NFL pool of $407,613.
In NFL futures bets after the second week of the season, the odds for offensive player of the year got shorter for running backs Breece Hall (Jets) and Bijan Robinson (Atlanta) and Detroit receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown. But they got longer for running backs Kyren Williams (Rams), Christian McCaffrey (San Francisco) and Jonathan Taylor (Colts).
Quarterbacks Bo Nix (Denver), Jayden Daniels (Washington) and Caleb Williams (Chicago) all had their odds for offensive rookie of the year go up while they went down for running back Ray Davis (Buffalo), tight end Brock Bowers (Raiders) and receiver Malik Nabers (Giants).
Quarterbacks Patrick Mahones (Chiefs), Aaron Rodgers (Jets) and Jalen Hurts (Eagles) all had their odds for regular season MVP go up. But quarterbacks Jordan Love (Packers), Lamar Jackson (Baltimore) and Joe Burrow (Cincinnati) all saw theirs go down.
Kansas City, Philadelphia and Houston had their Super Bowl odds increase while Green Bay, Baltimore and Cincinnati all decreased.
Not surprising, the week’s top events were all NFL games. In order, they were; Buffalo-Miami, Chicago-Houston, Cincinnati-KC, Raiders-Ravens; and Saints-Cowboys.
A Proline retail player cashed in a $26,183 winner from a $10 bet on a 12-leg major-league baseball parlay. Another won $24,602 from a $10 wager on a 12-leg NFL parlay.
A third received $1,737 from a $3 bet on a six-leg NFL parlay.
A digital bettor earned $2,927 from a $25 bet on a five-leg NFL parlay while a second had a $704.35 return from a $1 wager on a seven-leg NFL parlay.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
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