ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Thomas Mueller scored in the seventh minute of stoppage time, Nelson Pierre also scored late and the Vancouver Whitecaps beat Orlando City 2-1 on Saturday night to take sole possession of first place in the Western Conference with a week left in the regular season.
Vancouver (18-6-9) has 63 points, three more than second-place San Diego, and closes the Major League Soccer regular season next Saturday against Dallas.
Orlando (14-8-11) is seventh in the Eastern Conference with 53 points, one behind Nashville. Eighth-place Chicago has 52 points and Columbus has 51.
Muller capped the scoring with Ryan Gauld's finishing cross and has nine goals (six goals, three assists) in six appearances for the Whitecaps.
Dagur Thorhallsson opened the scoring for Orlando City (14-8-11) in the 24th minute. On the counter-attack, Martin Ojeda arced a short cross to McGuire and headed it past Thorhallsson, who fired home from the center of the penalty area.
Pierre, who replaced Daniel Rios in the 74th minute, scored his first career MLS goal to make it 1-1 in the 81st minute. The 20-year-old homegrown player was making his third appearance for Vancouver and had his first touch deflecting Sebastian Berhalter's shot off the post.
Orlando's Robin Jansson left the game with an apparent knee injury and was replaced by Duncan McGuire in the 18th minute.
This was the first meeting of the clubs since April 20, 2019. The Whitecaps are 4-1-1 all-time against Orlando City.
___
AP Soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer