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“We lost a game. It was a game against a team that is, by far from my opinion, the best team in the league, a team that just won five to one in Kansas City, so we have to react,” said Dos Santos.

The Caps will likely never have expensive talent the likes of Vela, who is the fifth-highest paid player in MLS ($6.3M) and is the odds-on favourite for MLS MVP as he leads the league in goals (19) and assists (12). But a Rossi ($1.05M), Eduard Atuesta ($493,000) or Kaye ($177,811) are in the realm of reality.

Vancouver won’t ever spend like their deep-pocketed Black and Gold counterparts — they were fifth overall in team salaries as an expansion side, and are fourth overall this season — but they have a coach who can build, hopefully, a budget version.

Photo by Harry How / Getty Images

BY THE NUMBERS

Even before the Whitecaps took the lead in the fifth minute, when Reyna took advantage of a howler by L.A. goalkeeper Pablo Sisiniega — he misjudged his rush on a long ball from Jon Erice, allowing Reyna to collect it, sidestep him, and shoot into an empty net — L.A. was flooding forward in waves.

They hit the crossbar twice in the first half before an own goal from Andy Rose on a Vela-taken corner kick in the 35th minute. Diomande made it 2-1 six minutes later off another Vela corner, and the floodgates opened.

L.A. outshot Vancouver 31-5, 14-3 on target, and held a 67 per cent possession advantage that felt far more heavily weighted than it actually was.

It was only the second multi-goal loss of the season for the Caps, who had lost 2-0 to the L.A. Galaxy at home in April. Every other game had ended in a tie or one-goal margin. The Caps haven’t given up as many goals since losing 6-0 to Sporting KC in April 2018 — though that game saw Vancouver down two men by halftime through red cards to Reyna and Efrain Juarez.