Tuesday night in LA, the Vancouver Whitecaps will be at BMO Stadium, facing LAFC to open their Leagues Cup campaign for 2024.

It’s the second year of this competition, and I think it’s fair to say that North American soccer fans are still in the early stages of placing this competition within the realm of what’s important on the yearly calendar.

On the surface, the chance to play against Liga MX teams is an exciting one for MLS sides, especially for those like the Whitecaps, who would like to make a deep run in CONCACAF play at some point. Conversely, the way this competition has been forced upon teams and supporters alike, right in the middle of the summer (and what should be the height of the MLS season), can’t help but leave a bit of a sour taste in the mouth. Anyhow, enough whinging from me, let’s take a look at this matchup.

Vancouver is in a group with LAFC and Club Tijuana this year. There are 15 groups in this competition and two automatic qualifiers for the next round, the round of 32. This means that two teams will come out of each group. Back on Friday, LAFC got the better of Tijuana by a score of 3-0 at BMO, so LA is already in the driver’s seat to make it out of the group, it’s really down to Vancouver and Tijuana to fight it out for that other spot.

LAFC was dominant in that Leagues Cup match against their Mexican opposition, with Dennis Bouanga (LAFC’s leading goalscorer) and Cristian Olivera wreaking havoc in wide areas. If not for the stellar play of Tijuana goalkeeper José Antonio Rodríguez, the match could have easily been 5-0 or 6-0.

This performance matches what LAFC has been doing so far this season in MLS play. The Black and Gold are second in the West, but lead the conference in terms of points per match. LAFC leads the West in goal differential at +18, which is also backed up by their expected total (+19.2). All of this goes to say that LA has been one of MLS’ best teams so far this season at both ends of the pitch.

If anything, Hugo Lloris has not been particularly impressive between the sticks for LAFC this year despite playing every minute of the season so far. Thomas Hasal was on the bench in the opening Leagues Cup match for LAFC, so it would be very interesting if his number was called against his former club. Otherwise, both Mateusz Bogusz (13 goals, 5 assists in MLS) and Eduard Atuesta came off the bench against Tijuana, so they could also have big roles to play in this match.

For Vancouver, they will be without their star Scotsman Ryan Gauld, who suffered a knee injury against Houston, and is expected to return at the end of August. Javain Brown was also waived by the club, so Vancouver has even less depth than before along the backline. Speaking of defensive players, Tristan Blackmon did not make the bench against Wrexham as he continues to recover, so his status is also in doubt for Tuesday night.

All things considered, securing a result in LA will be a tall task for the Whitecaps, who realistically need to focus more on their second match in the group stage to ensure they make it to the next round. That said, Vancouver has had some success down at BMO in the past, and with matches going straight to PKs at the end of 90 minutes, Vancouver should stretch this one out as far as they can, putting the pressure on LAFC. From there, who knows what can happen.