Whitecaps suffer rare setback at home as surging St. Louis City nets 3-1 win

VANCOUVER — The Vancouver Whitecaps know they have a tough schedule, but they refuse to use it as an excuse.

Vancouver surrendered two goals in four minutes near the end of the first half for a rare 3-1 home loss against St. Louis City SC on Saturday at BC Place.

The loss followed Wednesday’s 1-1 draw in the first leg of the Canadian Championship semifinals against visiting CF Montreal. Vancouver is back in action on Wednesday against the visiting L.A. Galaxy, for its third game in six days.

Head coach Jesper Sorensen expressed his confidence in his squad handling the demands of the heavy workload.

“We know we have a tough schedule, it is what it is,” Sorensen said. “It’s always tough when you don’t win the games, rather than when you win, and have a game coming up. But we have a strong side and we think we can handle it. We think we’re good enough to handle a very tough schedule.”

City SC midfielder Tomas Totland scored one goal and set up another at the tail end of the first half for St. Louis’ first away win against the Whitecaps in Major League Soccer play.

The goal was Totland’s second of the season and first since May.

The match started great for the Whitecaps when Emmanuel Sabbi opened the scoring in the third minute with his fifth goal of the season. Sabbi jumped on a misplaced pass by midfielder Daniel Edelman and curled a shot past the fingertips of the diving Roman Burki.

The goal was Sabbi’s fourth in MLS play, and fifth of the season.

Sabbi came close minutes later, after being played in by Thomas Müller, but dragged his shot wide of the post.

Former Whitecaps striker Simon Becher wouldn’t be denied a goal against his former team, equalizing in the 23rd minute after finding himself facing Vancouver goalkeeper Yohei Takaoka alone in the six-yard box.

The goal made up for a missed opportunity by the former SuperDraft pick minutes earlier, after a rebounded clearance ended up on his foot, only to be denied by the sprawling left leg of Takaoka.

St. Louis doubled its lead near the end of the first half with Edelman making up for his earlier mistake. He found Totland who tucked it past Takaoka in the 41st minute.

With the Whitecaps fielding a younger team on Saturday after the draw against CF Montreal, several changes were made at halftime with leading goal scorer Brian White subbed on, along with captain Ryan Gauld 15 minutes later.

“We had some structure problems in the first half, regarding our pressure, and of course we didn’t make the necessary adjustments until halftime and that’s on me,” Sorensen said after the match. “When there’s structure problems, of course then it’s on me.”

Vancouver thought they had found a way back into the game with a penalty in the 78th minute, only for referee Michael Venne to go to the video review and overturn his original call.

“I was happy with the second half in general, we could’ve created a little more chances, we could’ve made some of the situations we had into bigger chances, but in general the second half was uplifting,” Sorensen said.

St. Louis, which extended its unbeaten streak to 13 games, moved into a third-place tie with LAFC and Dallas, all with 37 points, six back of the Whitecaps.

UP NEXT

St. Louis: Visits the Portland Timbers on Wednesday.

Vancouver: Hosts Los Angeles Galaxy on Wednesday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 5, 2026.

Nick Wells, The Canadian Press