Saturday afternoon at BC Place, the Vancouver Whitecaps will welcome western conference rivals Real Salt Lake to town.

Vancouver is flying high off the back of two consecutive road victories, while RSL is coming off of a bye week. Salt Lake started the season with a stand-alone match against Inter Miami, which they dropped 2-0. Since then, their performances have been mixed, with a record of 1-1-1. Most recently, two weeks ago, Salt Lake lost at home to Colorado in the Rocky Mountain Derby, with the Rapids scoring two unanswered goals after RSL went up 1-0.

International absences are an element that both teams will have to be aware of in this fixture. For Vancouver, they will be without defensive midfield talisman Andres Cubas, who is away with Paraguay, while last week’s hero, Fafa Picault, is also away with Haiti.

For Salt Lake, they will have to do without two of their most dangerous attacking players. Colombian Andres Gomez and American Diego Luna are each away for their respective nations, though Luna has been called to U-23’s rather than the senior team.

These missing players leave quite a hole up front for Real Salt Lake. While Chico Arango remains the lone striker, Pablo Mastroeni will be forced to find some different pieces to play underneath him. This issue is only compounded by the devastating blow that was the knee injury to Pablo Ruiz in early March, which will see him miss the rest of the season in all likelihood.

Given the missing players, a lot of pressure will be placed on 30-year-old Englishman Matt Crooks, who joined RSL from Middlesborough this off-season. Despite his 6’4” frame, Crooks has played as a no.10 this season in RSL’s 4-2-3-1 system, so he is a player that will be asked to do a lot of heavy lifting in terms of chance creation if Salt Lake can break down what has been a stingy Whitecaps defensive unit.

Turning back to Vancouver, Ali Ahmed looks poised to make his first start of the campaign as he regains fitness following preseason surgery. Without Picault, the Whitecaps will also go back to Damir Kreilach up front, who will get the chance to face his former team for the first time in Whitecaps colours. In the midfield, I would expect Sebastian Berhalter to fill in alongside Pedro Vite for the absent Cubas.

For Vancouver, stressing Real Salt Lake in transition will be key. Fullback is a spot where this Salt Lake team can be exposed at times, so if Vancouver can get the likes of Ahmed, Gauld, and White in space against a stretched RSL defensive unit, it could be a long afternoon for the visitors. Conversely, if Salt Lake can remain compact, we’ve seen that Vancouver can struggle at times, especially with Kreilach starting, to break down a disciplined opposition.

At the end of the day, I think the missing players for RSL hurt their chances more than the absences for Vancouver. Adding that to the home-pitch advantage, and I see Vancouver walking away with a 2-1 win on Saturday afternoon.