LAFC picked up their first loss in three games on Wednesday, losing 2-1 at the Vancouver Whitecaps on a day the team managed only one shot on target. They played from behind from the 30th minute when Lucas Cavallini scored his first goal of the night, and during a particularly poor display from the visitors.
"None of them played well enough," Bradley said about his absence-plagued team's first half performance. "The first half was, from a football standpoint, from the whole team, wasn’t good and it wasn’t an easy half. There was no fluidity. Vancouver today played more off of long balls, off of second balls, so we really never got much going."
The second half fared better for the visitors, who did score their lone goal late into the match when Eduard Atuesta converted a penalty. They probably enjoyed their best spell of the match to start the second half, before Cavallini's second goal began to put the game out of reach.
Highlights: Vancouver 2, LAFC 1
"I thought we started the second half in a much brighter way. Tempo got picked up a little bit and now you’re trying to push to get back to 1-1," Bradley said.
Still, LAFC struggled in the second half, and on Cavallini's second in the 59th minute. Bradley said his side did not "defend well in front of the goal," and that proved costly against an in-form Cavallini.
Bradley felt his team lacked sharpness, and that ultimately made it difficult to claw their way back into the game despite progress in the second half.
"You focus on the things you try to do as a team and the ability to get a game under control and some tempo with passing, that happens when players are sharp, when things happen quickly," Bradley said. "It was not a sharp game in that regard."
