Eighty Six Forever, Match Preview, Vancouver Whitecaps FC

Match Preview: Can the Whitecaps surprise Tigres in leg 2?

Can the 6th time be the charm?

That’s the question that the Vancouver Whitecaps will look to answer on Wednesday, as they take on Tigres in the second leg of their first-round Concacaf Champions Cup tie at the famed Estadio Universitario in Monterrey.

Their second-ever visit to the stadium, they’ll be hoping for a little more love this time around on Valentine’s Day, as they fell 2-0 there on their last visit, which came in leg one of the 2016-2017 Champions Cup semi-finals on March 14th, 2017.

Yet, speaking of that game, it fittingly helps explain why this week’s match is such a full-circle moment for the Whitecaps.

Their first competitive matchup with Mexican opposition in their MLS history, that first Tigres matchup was a chance for this ‘Caps side to get a taste of what it meant to play against the best in Concacaf, which led to a harsh learning lesson from those Whitecaps in the form of a 4-1 aggregate loss across the two legs, as they were unable to recover from their first leg defeat in the end.

Seven years later, however, these ‘Caps return a hardened group, and head into this game with a different mindset. Having gone toe-to-toe with Liga MX opposition three times in the last 12 months, finishing each game with a draw, they’ve now shown that they can at least show a positive image of themselves in these sorts of games, after just being preoccupied with not getting run off the field.

They proved as much in the first leg of this tie, in which they drew Tigres 1-1 at “home” on Vancouver Island, where they opened the scoring at Starlight Stadium via Damir Kreilach before conceding a late equalizer to Andre-Pierre Gignac, as despite that scoreline, the Whitecaps were arguably the better team on the day.

Unfortunately, it was not enough to win the game, meaning they remain winless against Mexican teams through their first five competitive meetings in the MLS era, but now they’ll look to change that in their sixth attempt.

There, however, they’ve got a tall task in front of them. Not only are they heading into one of the toughest stadiums in Mexico, but they need to at least get one goal to have a chance at progressing, too, which is going to be a tall task.

Especially against an in-form Tigres side, one who responded to their draw against the Whitecaps in midweek with a big 3-0 win this past weekend against Santos Laguna on the road in Liga MX play, keeping them in a tie for first place in the table, that’s just a small reminder of the challenge that awaits the Whitecaps.

At the same time, this Vancouver team has every reason to be relatively optimistic heading into this game. They remain without key regulars Sam Adekugbe and Ali Ahmed due to injury, while Andrés Cubas is unlikely to feature after missing out on the first leg with a knock, but they remain otherwise at full strength, with everyone who played last week likely to be available.

As a result, they’ll be unlikely to change much about their lineup, and will likely stick for a similar aggressive tactical approach as they employed last week, given that they need to score to even have a chance at advancing. Sebastian Berhalter could be asked to fill in for Alessandro Schopf, given the latter’s struggles to keep up to the pace of Tigres’s play last week, but other than that and a potential start for Fafà Picault, who was excellent off the bench, that should be about all the ‘Caps will likely do to change things up.

Meanwhile, for Tigres, they could tweak their attack, as they were unable to offer as much offensive threat as they would’ve liked in leg one, which was uncharacteristic for a team of their calibre.  Because of that, keep an eye for a start for Juan Brunetta, who scored a brace this weekend in that Santos Laguna win, after he came off the bench last week.

Other than that, however, both sides will likely run back what they did in leg one, as they look to secure progression to the next round, in what should be a pretty entertaining match if leg one were to mean anything.

Now, all that’s left is to ask two questions – can the ‘Caps find a way to overcome that Liga MX hurdle and keep those Concacaf dreams alive? Or will Tigres wake up and show why they’re a sleeping giant in this region?

We find out on Wednesday.

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