No MLS coach has won more regular-season games in the last three years than LAFC’s Steve Cherundolo. But that was actually just a supporting act, an appetizer. Because where Cherundolo and his team shine most is in the playoffs, which they opened again on Sunday with a methodical 2-1 victory over the Vancouver Whitecaps in front of a sellout crowd of 22,298 at BMO Stadium.

With the win thanks to goals from Denis Bouanga and Cristian Olivera, LAFC enters Game 2 of next weekend’s best-of-three playoffs needing a win to advance to the Western Conference semifinals. If Vancouver wins, the series returns to BMO Stadium for the third and deciding game on November 8th.

Since taking over LAFC, Cherundolo has lost just once in nine postseason games, winning one MLS Cup and losing by one goal in another. If he gets his team back to the championship game this fall, he would become just the third man in league history – and the first in 17 years – to lead his team to the Finals in three consecutive seasons.

Read more: Playoffs “a little strange” for Olivier Giroud, but he still wants the MLS Cup title

However, the road there is full of potential potholes, some of which Cherundolo’s team avoided on Sunday.

“The boys did enough to win the first game, nothing more,” Cherundolo said.

“There is still a lot to do. There are still a few games. Maybe just one for us.”

LAFC got off to a rocky start and Vancouver missed a golden chance to take the lead in the seventh minute when Stuart Armstrong stormed into the penalty area alone with only LAFC keeper Hugo Lloris to beat. And he beat it cleanly, but his right-footed shot bounced off the left post and over the front of the goal without crossing the line.

Seven minutes later, Pedro Vite gave the home team another scare, firing a low right-footed shot inches past the far post. If either had gotten in, it could have spelled trouble for LAFC, who won just once in 11 regular-season games when they conceded the first goal.

But all that was moot when video replay convinced referee Jair Marrufo that Vancouver defender Tristan Blackmon had blocked Mateusz Bogusz’s shot with his arm, leading to a penalty that Bouanga converted to give LAFC a 1-0 lead . The 30th-minute goal was Bouanga’s 21st of the season and his league-best eighth penalty.

Vancouver nearly equaled that mark in stoppage time when Ryan Gauld curled a left-footed free kick off the crossbar from 20 yards out and hit the goalpost in a first half that ended with LAFC leading, making more saves than Lloris bestowed. And that brought two more stats into play: LAFC started MLS play Sunday 15-1-0 after leading after 45 minutes, and 6-1-2 in its last nine games against Vancouver, including a two-game win in the first round of last season’s playoffs.

None of these trends would be reversed in a second half in which LAFC dominated, doubling their lead twelve minutes after the break at the end of a passing sequence in which Ryan Hollingshead and Bogusz moved the ball around the penalty area before finding Olivera, who came from the right Wing stormed in. Olivera then fired a hard right-footed shot that was deflected into the roof of the net by Whitecaps keeper Yohei Takaoka.

“It was fun to watch,” Cherundolo said of the goal. “Exactly the way we prepare on the tactics board.”

Vancouver added some drama in the final seconds when Gauld found the net in the fifth minute of stoppage time to make the final result more respectable – and perhaps give the Whitecaps some momentum heading into the second game next weekend.

“The work is definitely not done,” said defenseman Aaron Long, echoing his coach.

“It will be a complicated game,” Olivera added in Spanish. “We will go there and look for the win. It wasn’t easy. But we have a good team that deserves to progress.”

Gauld’s goal came nine minutes after Carlos Vela, the final member of the original LAFC squad, received a huge ovation when he came on for Bouanga.

As Vela, whose last appearance came in the MLS Cup final in December, was waved off, Long stormed to the sideline, pulled the captain’s armband from his bicep and handed it to Vela, who wore it for most of the team’s first six seasons.

“It was a simple thing,” Long said. “Carlos coming back to the field for the first time? Yes, he definitely gets that.”

The team did not make Vela available for comment.

This story originally appeared in the Los Angeles Times.