Becher answers the question his manager asked
Simon Becher had a $12 million reason to worry about his place. Rafael Navarro landed in St. Louis this week on a club-record cash trade from Colorado, ten goals already banked with the Rapids, and the obvious assumption was that the new striker would walk into the starting eleven.
Yoann Damet went the other way. He kept Becher in the side, left Navarro on the bench, and watched his forward score for a third consecutive match on Saturday night in Vancouver.
The goal came in the 23rd minute. Carlo Holse fed Alexandru Matan in central midfield, Matan threaded a pass between two Whitecaps defenders, and Becher was suddenly one-on-one with Yohei Takaoka. He struck it across the goalkeeper’s body and inside the right post. Seventh of the season, and the leveller St. Louis needed.
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Two goals in four minutes broke Vancouver open
Emmanuel Saabi had put the hosts ahead inside two minutes with his fourth of the campaign. For twenty minutes Vancouver looked every bit the team sitting top of the Western Conference. Then St. Louis scored three times either side of Becher’s equaliser and the night turned.
Totland made it 2-1 in the 41st, arriving to meet Daniel Edelman’s dragged-back cross with a low first-time finish past Takaoka. Four minutes later the same move ran down the opposite flank. Totland crossed this time, Conrad Wallem took a touch to sort his feet, and guided a shot into the lower right corner. Matan collected two assists on the night.
Vancouver had not conceded three at home in league play all season. Their edge over second-place Houston stayed at three points rather than growing, which matters with the playoff seedings tightening.
Fifth in the West and still climbing
St. Louis sit on 37 points from a 10-6-7 record, and the unbeaten run now reads thirteen matches: nine wins, four draws. That stretch has carried them to fifth in the Western Conference, level with fourth-place Dallas and separated only by the third tiebreaker of goals scored. Third-place LAFC hold the goal-difference tiebreaker over both.
Navarro finally got on in the 61st minute for his debut. Damet now has a selection headache at centre-forward, which beats the one he was managing back in June.
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