Football Season Guide

Last season was certainly an improvement on the previous year for Vancouver Whitecaps, but still full of ups and downs. 2022 was their worst ever start to an MLS campaign and although they didn't hit that low again, it wasn't a much better opening in 2023. Popular coach Vanni Sartini was able to turn things around again and showed more tactical flexibility by switching to a 3-1-4-2 system which freed up the mercurial Ryan Gauld to play up front alongside Bryan White. Together the duo formed one of the best strike partnerships in MLS which eventually fired the Caps to a 6th place finish in the Western Conference. The play-offs brought a tie against 2022 MLS Cup champions LAFC where they were expectedly beaten. The highlight of last season was the retention of the Canadian Championship, with victory over CF Montreal in the final. Sartini became the first Whitecaps coach to win the competition twice. The Caps also outperformed Portland Timbers and Seattle Sounders to win the Cascadia Cup for the first time in seven years. A triumph which didn't bring silverware, but was just as important, was Sartini finding a way to get his team to start picking up results on the road - an achilles heel in recent years. The club lost a player of proven quality in Julian Gressel midway through last season and club captain Russell Teibert was released but they have brought in some experienced MLS veterans in midfielder Damir Kreilach and winger Fafà Picault to replace them. A couple of centre-backs also arrive to beef up the defence in Bjørn Inge Utvik, who has experience playing in Europe, and the much less proven Belal Halbouni. Caps fans hoping for a better start to the 2024 season might be disappointed. Sartini is a beloved manager because he wears his heart on his sleeve, but that can often land him in trouble with emotional outbursts. The coach will be banned for the first six games of the new season after some wild comments directed towards the referee in their play-off match with LAFC.