Pretty complete domination VCFC 4-2 win Dylan Vanney added a goal in the 47th. All told, VCFC had 31 shots to 6 for Vancouver and won the corner kick battle 10-2. Considering 21 of the shots from VCFC were inside the box, they were definitely getting in good spots but Vancouver did a good job of blocking the shots
Here are the goals. I don't think the Vancouver GK was necessarily the greatest, but Placias and Ramos Jr are finishers and they toyed with him. You can see why Placias went to Europe. He just knows what he is doing in front of goal. Vanney's show was a great team goal. GOAL!!! Julian Placias opens his account for the season! 💥#VCFCvsVAN | 1-0 | 8’ pic.twitter.com/aaMHxDl7xz— Ventura County FC (@vcfcpro) March 2, 2026 RIGHT FOOT. BOTTOM LEFT. NET. 💥Julian Placias makes it 2–1 for Ventura County FC. #VCFCvsVAN | 2-1 | 27' pic.twitter.com/QBQQgUHAWQ— Ventura County FC (@vcfcpro) March 2, 2026 MAKE IT THREE. 💥Rubén Ramos Jr. puts Ventura County FC up 3–1!#VCFCvsVAN | 3-1 | 35' pic.twitter.com/Kh0rEb4zJZ— Ventura County FC (@vcfcpro) March 2, 2026 MAKE IT FOUR. 💥Vanney drills it right-footed from the center of the box.Miller ➡️ Vanney (Vilamitjana in the build-up).#VCFCvsVAN | 4-1 | 47' pic.twitter.com/09411pEpYk— Ventura County FC (@vcfcpro) March 2, 2026
Here was the first Vancouver goal. The man was left unmarked just outside the far corner of the box and slotted home a nice goal. Prince Amponsah delivers from outside the box to equalize! 👊 pic.twitter.com/Ptyhvg76m8— MLS NEXT Pro (@MLSNEXTPRO) March 2, 2026 Second Vancouver goal was a counter that split the center backs and Conlon came out and was pretty easily evaded. Vancouver pulls one back!Daniel Ittycheria whips the ball in for his first professional goal. pic.twitter.com/9peMqrLrLp— MLS NEXT Pro (@MLSNEXTPRO) March 2, 2026
Excellent game and total domination overall. VCFC seem to have changed their strategy : it's all about Academy players and a couple of former college players (Arnau Vilamitjana, Troy Elgersma, GK Sebastian Conlon and CB Sebastian Hernandez, who's also a former Academy player and played a couple of games with G2 in 2020). No more former MLS players who didn't make the cut like Chris Rindov. A couple of first-team players (or close to, in the case of Vanney) did OK : Ruben Ramos Jr. scored on his lone opportunity, Dylan Vanney had up and down moments but scored a good goal after a cross from Harbor Miller. But I was more impressed with other players : Julian Placias was extremely solid as our striker : quick, physically gifted and excellent finishing. Hat trick was very close. He's a former Academy player who left for Belgium two years ago, but didn't succeed here. His last official game was last April so a pretty impressive showing. Troy Elgersma played as a winger and seemed above everyone else in terms of physicality. He had a couple of high press who lead to turnovers, one of them ended as a Placias goal. I also loved what I saw from Vilamitjana, solid on both sides of the ball, comfortable with an excellent vision. He's a little bit old (he'll turn 25 in September) so I'm not surprised to see him a little bit ahead. Our central defender pairing (Jose Magana and Sebastian Hernandez) got the job done. But the most impressive performance came from 15-years old Vicente Garcia. He was so smooth under pressure in the midfield and made deep runs through the Vancouver 2 defense multiple times (re-watch the first goal where he got an assist). That was an excellent showing for such a young player.
Dylan Vanney named the Rising Star of the Match Week by MLS Next Pro Continued success following a breakout season. ⭐️Dylan Vanney is the MLS NEXT Rising Star of the Matchweek. pic.twitter.com/jwrzNhxx6s— MLS NEXT Pro (@MLSNEXTPRO) March 3, 2026
Here’s Sebastian Hernandez’ agent’s announcement of his signing with VCFC. He omits what LEM-LAG mentioned above - that Hernandez came up through LA Galaxy Academy before going to Portland for college (where the head coach is a former UCLA coach who recruits heavily from SoCal and former Galaxy Academy kids) Sebastian Hernandez signs with Ventura County FC (LA Galaxy II)!Undrafted Portland Pilots captain (Elite 8, First Team All-WCC) chose VCF after interest from multiple MLS Next Pro sides. Debut? Started & captained the full game in opener yesterday winning 4-2! 🇲🇽🇺🇸⚽ Proud… pic.twitter.com/1TCXQyENDH— Jose E. Martinez (@JEMMARTINEZ91) March 4, 2026
No lineup posted yet, but here's the stream for VCFC's game today at Austin FC II, scheduled to start at 5:30 pm. https://www.mlsnextpro.com/news/live-streams-watch-austin-fc-ii-vs-ventura-county-fc-mw2-march-8th
The lineup was stated in the broadcast, not posted on social media. Parente gets some match action with VCFC Elgersma Placias Vincente Garcia Parente D. Vanney Vilamitjana Dalgado Hernandez Magana M. Vanney Conlon
After going down 2-0 in the first half, VCFC showed their mettle by scoring two in the second half and then winning the PK shootout. Dylan Vanney's free kick goal is a thing of beauty. He's scored from free kicks last season as well and has become a real threat on those. He also scored the winning PK FREE KICK MAGIC. ✨⚽73’ — Dylan Vanney buries it into the bottom left corner! pic.twitter.com/pb6TiE4T6f— Ventura County FC (@vcfcpro) March 9, 2026 A couple of minutes later Troy Elgersma scores the equalizer WE’RE LEVEL! 💥 76’ — Troy Elgersma drills it home.Mason Vanney ➡️ ElgersmaVilamitjana in the build-up! pic.twitter.com/Fi9Fs78yFM— Ventura County FC (@vcfcpro) March 9, 2026 Final score⚽️ pic.twitter.com/MeCc1CMnw8— Ventura County FC (@vcfcpro) March 9, 2026
More difficult game for our reserves this time. Austin 2 sat deep and exploited every mistake, like on the first goal where Dylan Vanney lost a ball he shouldn't have lost. Fortunately for him, he had a pure moment of magic on the free kick he scored. Austin 2 must have looked at the tape of the opener, as they left very few space for our striker Julian Placias this time, and he struggled to have service. Another player who had a way better performance last week was Arnau Vilamitjana. On the good performances front, Isaiah Parente played an hour and looked solid on both sides of the ball. Vicente Garcia looked once again good, this kid has something in him. MOTM award is probably easy : our GK Sebastian Conlon kept us in the game multiple times and won us the PK shutout.
I don’t think it has been announced anywhere, but it looks like Chase Gozdieski has joined VCFCGozdieski, 19, was the 1st ever USL Academy signee for NoCo Hailstorm in 2024, and spent last season in USLC with the Colorado Switchbacks. https://t.co/JsyeeaswAp— Next Pro News (@NextProNews) March 13, 2026
Your VCFC starting line up for today’s match 🏟️💙#mlsnextpro #vcfc #siempreadelante #prosoccer pic.twitter.com/E9GVq3f8kL— Ventura County FC (@vcfcpro) March 15, 2026 Same lineup as last week, except for Lepley replacing Parente.
Dylan Vanney with the goal, up 1-0 Placias finds Vanney with a lovely backheel and Vanney does the rest! ⚡1-0 @vcfcpro pic.twitter.com/mqIRnmLLFr— MLS NEXT Pro (@MLSNEXTPRO) March 16, 2026
Back and forth game with St. Louis, but with VCFC up 2-1 in the 63rd minute, they let it slip away with two goals in the next 15 minutes Final Score. pic.twitter.com/jeZAbfPIse— Ventura County FC (@vcfcpro) March 16, 2026
VCFC played a good game but it's always difficult against St. Louis 2, as their players are often 2 or 3 years older. Dylan Vanney was involved on both goals with an excellent finish on the first (along a good cross from his brother Mason and an excellent dummy by Julian Placias) and a beautiful through ball on the second by Arnau Vilamitjana. Dylan still lacks a little bit of consistency but in the final third he's often lethal. Not the best game from GK Sebastian Conlon, who made a mistake on St. Louis second goal similar to Micovic against Colorado last week. I like what I see sometimes from our CB Sebastian Hernandez and Jose Magana, but they struggle to have complete 90-minute performances. Julian Placias is a name to watch, he's physically above the MLS Next Pro level with good speed and interesting technical abilities for someone of his size. Tucker Lepley had a good game and I wonder if we played him to prepare him for a start in the CCC this week.
Pepe Magana not in the lineup, but Lepley is there. Your VCFC starting line up against @timbersfc2 ⚽️ #mlsnextpro #vcfc #siempreadelante #prosoccer pic.twitter.com/euu3rwXQWB— Ventura County FC (@vcfcpro) March 24, 2026
0-0 tie and VCFC wins in the shootout (8-7) to get 2 points. Sebastian Conlon was man of the match with 7 saves, plus the winning save in the shootout. In something you don’t see every day for a GK, he was the fifth taker for VCFC and made a great PK shot. Mason Vanney also had a save off the goal line in the game.
I agree, Sebastian Conlon was easily MOTM and it's not the first time. He saved the team many times including on some nervy moments from our CBs Sebastian Hernandez and Enrique Martinez. Another player who struggled a lot was Julian Placias, who had no service and was constantly beaten by other defenders. Troy Elgerma has an interesting profile : he's a very strong and athletic winger, and is not hiding from his defensive duties. He's skilled but can't dribble much, he's more of a finisher and has reminded me a little bit of Kai Koreniuk so far. Tucker Lepley looked OK, so did Mason Vanney. I thought Riley Dalgado, who often played in a very advanced position in the first half, had his best game in a while. But yeah, the star was really our GK.
Game tonight! 8 pm at Tacoma Defiance mlsnextpro.com We'll be without a bunch of players out on national team duty, including Pepe Magana, Harbor Miller, and Ruben Ramos Jr with the U19s and Eric Preston with the U18s,
Social media person was late with this one as the game is 0-0 in the 42nd minute Lepley is playing with VCFC. Elgersma is at Left Back with Dalgado out with the USYNT duty and he's proven to be a handful galloping down the left side. Vanney had the best chance that was saved by the keeper Your VCFC starting line up for tonight’s match against @tacdefiance ⚽️ pic.twitter.com/OO8pjtzESA— Ventura County FC (@vcfcpro) March 30, 2026
VCFC 1 - Tacoma 0 74th minute Dylan Vanney scores on a well-worked corner kick play involving a slotted ball on the ground to the top of the box where on an un-rushing Vanney flicked it to the back post. Dylan Vanney taps the ball in for his fourth goal of the season. 👊@vcfcpro leads in Tacoma! pic.twitter.com/kmIp3HLfQX— MLS NEXT Pro (@MLSNEXTPRO) March 30, 2026
FINAL: VCFC 1 - Tacoma 0 Conlon makes a diving save to parry the ball away in the last minute as Tacoma was throwing everything forward and VCFC hangs on for the win. Nice to get a win.
In answer to Ruiz's question, I suspect the answer isn't whether Vanney is close to playing for the first team, but whether his Dad wants him to play for the Galaxy. Vanney definitely has earned the same Homegrown contract as some of the guys who already have them or are in the pipeline (signed to VCFC contracts that convert to HG deals next year or the year after). Plus, he hasn't signed with a college like his brother Mason, so that's not the holdup. He may have hopes of playing in Europe and doesn't want to restrict his options, but he turned 18 in November, so he could have gone during the winter window if there was anything serious in the works. I wonder if Greg is thinking more pragmatically in dealing with this quandary. What if Greg doesn't last long-term as head coach of the Galaxy? Does he or Dylan want to sign with the Galaxy and be forced to remain under those circumstances? Alternatively, what if Greg is definitely here for the length of his contract? Is it good for Dylan to play under his Dad to start his MLS career? Additional quandary: Does Greg want to be the one to sign Dylan and reject his twin brother Mason? Right now, Dylan is still finishing his senior year in HS (at the Galaxy Academy with online learning, but he's with his twin brother, living at home etc). He may not be emotionally ready to leave. Come August, however, when Mason is leaving for the University of Denver, I expect some decisions will have to be made. Dylan Vanney scores VCFC’s lone goal in its victory over Tacoma Defiance.Vanney has four goals and one assist in five MLS Next Pro matches. Clearly one of the names to watch. How close is he to playing for the Galaxy first team - the talent is there. #LAGalaxy https://t.co/rH7FwAZOV8— Alex Ruiz (@AlxRuiz15) March 30, 2026
It was as close as a road win could get, but congratulations to the boys for a good performance with several players on international duty. It's the second clean sheet in a row for VCFC (in two away games !) and, while Sebastian Hernandez and Enrique Martinez were solid, our GK Sebastian Conlon was again clutch on a couple of plays. With our GK issues I think he will be a name to follow in the next couple of months. Another surprisingly good performance came from 17 years old Brett Phan in the midfield for his first ever start for our second team. Julian Placias is still struggling after his thundering start to the season. Once again Dylan Vanney was decisive and he's without a doubt the number 1 threat for this team, but I would like to weight a little bit his performances : while he's excellent in the final third (and he's still progressing), his play as a midfielder is sometimes inconsistent. In the first half he had a bad giveaway who resulted in a shot off a post. It's OK, he has the time to progress but I'm not sure he would bring much to the first team right now.