Led by Robinson, Whitecaps climb to top of MLS table with win over Galaxy

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Five matches into a 34-game schedule, the Vancouver Whitecaps, in their fifth season, and second led by manager Carl Robinson, finally have the makings of a team that could be one of the best.

At B.C. Place on Saturday night, the surging Whitecaps defeated the MLS Cup defending champions, their long-time nemesis the L.A. Galaxy. The final tally was 2-0 – and the win propelled the Whitecaps to the top of the Western Conference with the best record in Major League Soccer.

Robinson, a 38-year-old Welshman, has crafted a physical, fast, attacking squad. His team leads the league in shots on goal, fouls and yellow cards. Robinson has been especially savvy finding talent in Latin America, and on Saturday seven of the 11 starters were players he has brought to Vancouver.

Robbie Keane saw it. Keane, the Galaxy's star striker, was last year's league MVP and has been essential to the dynasty manager Bruce Arena has built in L.A. In a league structured to produce parity, L.A. has won three of the past four MLS Cups, the first in 2011 when Keane arrived in August. Last year, he scored the championship-winning goal in extra time.

Keane is also one of Robinson's closest friends. The two first met as teenagers in the late 1990s when they began their lives in professional football with Wolverhampton Wanderers in England's Midlands. On Saturday against the Whitecaps, Keane was checked tightly, unable to get any open looks. He didn't register a shot – after scoring twice on eight shots in four previous games.

"This is 100 per cent Carlo's team," said Keane of his friend's remake of the Whitecaps. Last year, when Robinson was a rookie manager, the Whitecaps were a hybrid, a roster crafted in part by previous administrations. "I knew it was only a matter of time before he had a good, good team that wants to try and play football, very attack-minded, and we've seen that tonight."

This season's key additions are two 23-year-olds from Uruguay. Striker Octavio Rivero was the MLS player of the month in March and scored the second goal Saturday, his fourth of the season to lead all MLS scorers. Nicolas Mezquida, an attacking midfielder, helped set up Rivero's goal and was Saturday's player of the game.

This is the finishing punch the Whitecaps sorely lacked last year, when they scored only 42 goals, barely one a game. This year, the team aims for at least 60 goals. The sellout crowd of 21,000 at B.C. Place bellowed Rivero's name over and over after he scored, in a call-and-response with the stadium announcer.

There are several asterisks on this story, beyond the fact it is early April. The Whitecaps, while wire-to-wire impressive against the Galaxy, have often been outplayed this year, even as they managed to snatch wins in the final moments of games. And the Galaxy have been known as slow starters, falling to 1-2-2, and this year are without the retired Landon Donovan. The Galaxy on Saturday night weren't exactly their champion selves. Reinforcements will arrive: Steven Gerrard, captain of Liverpool and England, joins the team in the summer.

Robinson, after the game, sat cross-legged, his hands folded in his lap, at a table facing upward of 20 reporters. He repeated a "it's one game" mantra. He did allow a small bit of savouring.

"We just put on a performance against the best team," Robinson said. "If we're more consistent, we become a very, very good team. I don't want to be a good team one week and a very poor team the next two or three weeks."

The Whitecaps have fared worst against the Galaxy than any other MLS team – one previous win, a record of 1-9-2 in 11 matches going back to the Whitecaps' expansion debut in 2011. Over that time, L.A. had outscored Vancouver 25-9.

"Very important," Vancouver captain Pedro Morales said of the win. The Chilean came to Vancouver last year, Robinson's first big-time acquisition, and was chosen as the 2014 MLS newcomer of the year.