Red-hot Whitecaps head to Seattle to play massive playoff, Cascadia Cup offshoots

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There are no more ‘Pop-Gun Caps’. These Vancouver Whitecaps now have a few live rounds in their arsenal.

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Since acting head coach Vanni Sartini took over the team, the Whitecaps have gone from an expected goal scored every 90 minutes (xG / 90) of 0.95, 24th in the league, to 1.3 xG in seven. matches, with 11 goals scored. They scored four goals in their win over Real Salt Lake in that span, something they hadn’t done since the penultimate game of 2019.

Seattle Sounders coach Brian Schmetzer isn’t surprised by how well his opponents have been playing. Portland (7-0-1), Seattle (6-2-0) and Vancouver (5-1-2) have had the best records in the Western Conference in the last eight games.

“Vanni Sartini, the coach, was actually in my professional license course as one of the instructors. So he’s a good coach and a good guy, ”said Schmetzer. “You get that ‘new boy punch,’ even though Marc started that little run that they had. It was unfortunate … it was the loss to Pacific FC … that was what got him fired. But Vancouver has been playing well for a while. So hard team. “

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NEXT GAME

Saturday

Vancouver Whitecaps vs Seattle Sounders

6 pm, Lumen field, TV: TSN, Radio: AM730

Seattle faces a team missing No. 1 goalkeeper (Maxim Crepeau) and starting fullback (Javain Brown) for international service, and designated player Lucas Cavallini due to injury. But the Sounders are even scarcer, without five key figures in Raúl Ruidíaz (Peru), Cristian Roldan (United States), Alex Roldan (El Salvador), Xavier Arreaga (Ecuador) and Nouhou (Cameroon).

“Seattle is a great team,” Sartini said. “They play very well and everyone says, ‘Yes, it’s an international duty, so they will miss some players,’ but the players who are going to play … are good. We need to be at 100 percent to have a performance that allows us to go home with a result ”.

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The Sounders are eligible to call up players from their USL squads under the “extreme difficulty” rule, but they plan to race the horses they already have on the team.

“We have done this before. We’ve had weeks where we’ve missed the guys, ”Schmezter said. “It is a good opportunity to see some of the young children bring their children here.

“I think we have enough (players) so far. I mean, I always knock on wood, whatever happens to any of these guys, I think we’re fine. “

The Whitecaps (9-8-10, 37 points) rank eighth in the conference, one behind Minnesota (10-9-8), who hold seventh and last in the playoffs. The Loons face the third-place Colorado Rapids on Sunday.

A positive result would bring the Whitecaps closer to their first playoff appearance since 2017. That’s old for the Sounders (16-5-6), who top the West with 54 points and could extend their record-setting playoff streak of the season. 13-year-old MLS with a win or draw Saturday against Vancouver.

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Sartini knows they are knocking on the playoff door, but they have yet to open it and pass.

“We try to play our best game and be the best version of ourselves, as we were last week,” he said, referring to last week’s 3-0 dominance over the San Jose Earthquakes.

“So that’s what we are trying to do this week. It’s good in the sense that we have a full week to prepare, so we are going over all the tactical moves that we have to do, the little things that we have to improve. But we are reminding ourselves that it is going to be very difficult, because… it is the best team in the league. It’s going to be difficult, but we can do it. “

Ruidíaz’s absence means the Caps will see a healthy dose of Fredy Montero, who returned to the Sounders this season after the Whitecaps refused to keep him around. The 34-year-old forward is second in the team in scoring (6) and third in assists (4) and is only behind Ruidíaz, Cristian Roldan and João Paulo in goal contributions.

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Montero and Bruin will likely start atop the Sounders, who, like the Whitecaps with Sartini, use a three-man baseline and speed from their wings to destabilize their opponents before attacking centrally.

“We need to reduce the space for them,” Sartini said. “So to be very compact with our midfield, with our defense. What they try to do most of the time is free up space for themselves, especially Fredy, that in their pocket. He is very good at controlling the ball, turning and playing. What we have to do, as always, is not to focus too much on them, instead of making him focus on the fact that the ball should not come to them very easily.

The 1-0 loss to Portland was Vancouver’s only loss in its last 15 games, and there is nothing to lose your head about, as the Timbers are unbeaten in eight straight games. That was the Caps’ first Cascadia Cup game of the year; Saturday’s game at Lumen Field will be the second.

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The Timbers lost 6-2 to the Sounders in August, but beat them 2-0 in a rematch two weeks later, and currently lead the PacNor amateur trophy rankings with six points. Seattle has three, Vancouver zero.

None of the teams’ first three encounters (the Caps 1-0 win over the Timbers at the start of the season, their 2-2 draw in Seattle, and the Sounders 2-1 win over Portland in May) counted at the Cascadia. positions. It wasn’t until the Whitecaps’ return to BC Place was confirmed and a balanced schedule was established in the remaining games that the Cascadia Cup was resurrected.

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