Sportsnaut
Two sides looking for their first wins of the season square off when the Vancouver Whitecaps host defending MLS Cup champion New York City FC on Saturday.
Vancouver (0-1-0, 0 points) opened the 2022 campaign with a 4-0 loss to the Columbus Crew, the second-largest margin of defeat in a season-opening match in MLS history. The Whitecaps had seven shots, but none on target.
“No one likes to get beat by any scoreline, but four-nil, that was a tough, tough couple of days,” midfielder Ryan Gauld said. “It took a couple of days to try and clear it from the system, but it’s a fresh start, hopefully, for us on Saturday. We’re looking forward to it.”
Home openers at BC Place haven’t been kind to the Whitecaps in recent years. The club had just one win in home openers between 2015 and 2020, going 1-4-1 during that stretch. Due to COVID-19 restrictions in British Columbia at the time in 2021, Vancouver played its home games at Rio Tinto Stadium in Utah, home of Real Salt Lake, for the first half of the season.
NYCFC (0-1-0, 0 points) arrives in Vancouver for the final leg of a trip that has kept them away from New York for seven weeks. They’ve endured a busy calendar that included CONCACAF Champions League games and two road games to open up the MLS season.
“We have a good team and I think also that the environment is very good, so we enjoy being together,” coach Ronny Deila said. “As I said, we want to finish off these seven weeks with a good performance and a win, and then we can really look forward to going back to New York and start playing at home again with our fans.”
The club opened the season with a 1-0 loss against the Los Angeles Galaxy, becoming the fourth defending champion in the past six years to open with a defeat.
New York is 3-1-1 in five all-time meetings with Vancouver.
–Field Level Media
