For the second straight year, the Vancouver Whitecaps will have a date with a Mexican giant in the knockout stages of Leagues Cup, taking on Pumas UNAM at BC Place on Wednesday.

Winning their group did the Caps relatively few favours, as they will miss out Austin FC and instead got Pumas, who dispatched Monterrey in penalties on Saturday to advance to the knockout round.

The opposition isn’t quite as formidable as Tigres, presenting a real opportunity for the Caps, but they are getting one of the most in-form Liga MX sides, as Pumas have started the Apertura with a four match unbeaten run.

They have impressively built on a middling Clausura, where they rallied late in the season to sneak into the playoffs before being dispatched by Cruz Azul. The current iteration of Pumas favours a 4-2-3-1 and likes to get a talented group of wingers in space to either feed Rogelio Funes Mori (who equalized late against Monterrey) or go for goal themselves.

All of this means Pumas have the joint-highest average goals per game in Liga MX. Mexican-American youngster Jorge Ruvalcaba has been a revelation, with two goals and an assist in four matches. Cesar Huerta, his counterpart on the wing, remains one of the best at his position in the league.

This is against the backdrop of a solid defence, which plays in a fairly low block and doesn’t require large spells of possession to be dangerous. Their midfield of Ulises Rivas and Jose Caicedo is among the hardest working in the league, the top in all of Liga MX for tackles per match by a wide margin.

Whether Pumas can keep it up remains to be seen. They started the Clausura at a high level before fading in the middle of the campaign but this side seems like a better bet to rekindle the historical success of one of Liga MX’s most popular teams.

The Caps closed their group stage on a high, using a solid second half to brush aside Club Tijuana. Pumas present a somewhat different challenge and, unlike Tijuana, I expect they will take this much more seriously.

The personnel for Vancouver will likely remain largely the same, though I wonder if we will see Ali Ahmed, who was left on the bench against Tijuana, get a run out here. Ranko Veselinovic, if fit, would likely also re-enter the lineup, after Belal Halbouni has played in three straight games (if you include the Wrexham friendly).

This will be a match where both sides will likely not be all that fussed about playing with the ball, which should make things a bit interesting. Vancouver coped with LAFC’s threat on the wings decently well but had slips and they should expect a similar quality of attack here, placing an importance on Mathias Laborda and Bjorn Utvik showing out. It wouldn’t surprise me if we continue to see Seb Berhalter being told to drift wide to help out and to help build out from the back a bit to try and break down a stout Pumas backline.

I stand by my opinion that this is really a win-win. Either the Caps notch a nice win over a high-quality Liga MX opponent or they get a few weeks of well-earned time off. They’ve come close so often against teams of Pumas’ calibre that it would be nice to get one over the line (and the Caps can do it!) but I’m not too fussed either way.