Whitecaps suffer rare setback at home, fall to surging St. Louis City

Two goals in four minutes condemned the Vancouver Whitecaps to a rare home loss against St. Louis City SC on Saturday night at BC Place.

City SC striker Tomas Totland scored one 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 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.

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.

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.

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.

The Whitecaps won’t have much time to dwell on the setback as they host L.A. Galaxy on Wednesday, their third game in six days.

St. Louis: Visits the Portland Timbers on Wednesday.

Vancouver: Hosts Los Angeles Galaxy on Wednesday.