The Vancouver Whitecaps will hope a return to the friendly confines of BC Place will get them back on track, as they look to notch only their third league win since April against St. Louis City on Saturday.

Last season, this might have been a somewhat daunting proposition, as the upstart expansion side shocked everyone by over-performing their xG and their expectations to claim the Western Conference title.

Some regression to the mean was expected and it has hit St. Louis hard. St. Louis currently sits out of a playoff spot, six points back of the Caps. And if you thought the Vancouver’s recent form was rough, this is a team that has not won since May 11, when they beat the lowly Chicago Fire. In fact, they’ve only won three matches this season, period (Austin and NYCFC were the other victims).

The stats show this to be a pretty average team. While they are slightly under-performing their xG, they rank towards the bottom in the league in goals per match (just behind the Caps, in fairness) and haven’t been anything special defensively.

They don’t want the ball much but would rather press to win it back — a hallmark of Bradley Carnell and the Red Bulls family tree. But when they do get the ball, they are likely to make a poor pass and turn it over — they’re the least accurate passing team in MLS.

Joao Klauss has once again been their most impactful player, with five goals and two assists. But his availability is in doubt ahead of the weekend’s match. Meanwhile, another important attacker, Samuel Adeniran, was held out of last week’s match over a potential transfer. Injuries in general have really hampered St. Louis this season.

St. Louis do remain a generally tough team to play against, in the sense that they won’t break down easily and will frustrate you at every turn. Vancouver likely provided a road map to beating them, which they did last fall at home, and this could be the type of team that will help the Caps get their transition play back on track.

But Vancouver will be without Damir Kreilach on Saturday, though Ryan Gauld mercifully returned to full training, a sign he should be good to go for Saturday. To give the Caps another body, Nicolas Fleuriau Chateau, one of the standouts of the Whitecaps 2 side, will get the call. Chateau could have a Simon Becher-like moment, as he has been scoring goals in bunches in MLS NEXT Pro and will be eager to show why he should stick around for more than a cup of coffee.

St. Louis are a team that is not as good as the one that topped the west last year, nor are they as bad as their recent form indicates, particularly once healthy. This will really test Vancouver’s ability to play with the ball — a struggle recently — and find opportunities in transition, which has also been a problem lately.

Nonetheless, this is a chance Vancouver has to take to pick up three points and get some momentum going again. With the Caps suddenly at the bottom of the playoff pack, the time is now to capitalize.