"syntax error, unexpected token \"(\", expecting \"{\"" when attempting to login to laravel from ionic using passport authentication - laravel-passport

Question

I am attempting to create a login / registration process using an ionic 5 app and laravel 9. Registration works okay but when I attempt to login, laravel returns the error:
"syntax error, unexpected token \"(\", expecting \"{\""
login.page.ts
login(email: String, password: String) {
return this.http.post(this.env.API_URL + 'auth/login',
{email: email, password: password}
).pipe(
tap(token => {
this.global.storage.setItem('token', token)
.then(
() => {
//alert('Token Stored');
},
error => alert(error)
);
this.global.token = token;
this.global.isLoggedIn = true;
return token;
}),
);
}
Controller:
public function login(Request $request)
{
$data = [
'email' => $request['email'],
'password' => $request['password'],
];
try (auth()->attempt($data)) {
$tokenResult = auth()->user()->createToken('Pesacount-User-Access-Token');
$token = $tokenResult->accessToken;
if ($request->remember_me)
$token->expires_at = Carbon::now()->addWeeks(1);
$token->save();
return response()->json([
'access_token' => $tokenResult->accessToken,
'token_type' => 'Bearer',
'loginStatus' => 'Successful'
/***
'expires_at' => Carbon::parse(
$tokenResult->token->expires_at
)->toDateTimeString()
*/
]);
return response()->json(['token' => $token], 200);
} catch (Exception $e) {
return response()->json(['error' => $e->getMessage()], 401);
}
}
According to the logs, the error is caused when running
try (auth()->attempt($data)) {
I was originally running laravel 5.6 and everything worked okay. Upgraded to laravel 9 and thats when the error started