The Vancouver Whitecaps end their regular season with an away trip to Real Salt Lake with a small chance of leapfrogging out of 8th place in the Western Conference standings.

Decision Day usually brings drama but really the only drama in the West has to do with seeding for the playoffs. For the Caps, however, that is a big deal, as they would need to win and get some help in order to avoid playing Portland in a play-in game.

Let’s quickly run down the scenarios at play here. To put it simply, three points is a prerequisite for anything good happening to the Caps. A win and a Minnesota loss would see the Caps finish seventh (Minnesota is playing a St. Louis City side with nothing to play for). A win and a Minnesota draw would mean that the Caps would have to make up a +2 goal differential to finish higher than the Loons.

Anything else and the Caps will be relegated to the play-in game. And given that BC Place is booked out for Oct. 22 and 23, the other main area of intrigue — whether the Caps would be able to host the play-in — is off the table. Win, lose or draw, the Caps are headed to Portland.

Real Salt Lake don’t have a ton to play for in this one, as they have been assured a top four finish in the Western Conference. They could, however, move up one spot from fourth to third and jump Seattle, which would give them a slightly more favorable situation in future rounds of the playoffs (it would also guarantee a playoff date with rivals Colorado). There also is a world in which they could win a CONCACAF Champions Cup berth if other teams lose on Saturday.

While RSL started the year looking like a favorite to win the whole Western Conference, injuries, poor form and the sale of Andres Gomez to Rennes tanked those hopes. Diogo Goncalves and Dominik Marczuk have been decent attacking options but they haven’t been able to fully address the loss of Gomez and the weakened form of Chicho Arango.

In recent matches, RSL have alternated from banging in goals but playing a leaky defense to shutting out their opponents but struggling to score. Arango’s last league goal, meanwhile, came in early July.

This is still a challenging fixture for a few reasons. For one, the Caps haven’t won in Sandy, Utah since 2020. This is a team that has a penchant for scoring late goals and, as we saw against LAFC, the Caps have a penchant for letting promising opportunities slip away. And there are still plenty of quality attacking options here, with Diego Luna finding form to help his struggling team at just the right time.

RSL like to have a good chunk of possession and are methodical with it, building up slowly before striking quickly with lots of shots on target. Their direct play has relied heavily on Arango, both as a goal scorer and as a complete forward who can occupy defenses. That threat is still there, even without Arango’s goal contributions.

The home side will be without Braian Ojeda, who was suspended an additional two games after spitting on Minnesota’s Michael Boxall during their match earlier this month. Everyone else, however, should be available for RSL.

The Caps will return their stars as well after the international break, with Andres Cubas, Ryan Gauld, Pedro Vite, Fafa Picault and Sam Adekugbe all likely to slot right back into the starting XI for this match.

The reverse fixture showed the power of the RSL attack but also showed the Caps could exploit them on the counter attack. Vanni Sartini will not be on the touchline after being suspended but even with Michael D’Agostino in charge, there is unlikely to be any big changes in play style.

This isn’t an impossible mission for the Caps, given their strength on the road this season and the firepower they are getting back from international duty. But their last must win game was against Minnesota when they came out completely flat. That sort of outcome would be completely unacceptable here, particularly given that there is quite literally nothing to lose — if they don’t get 7th, they’ll be headed to Portland either way.

That means the team should go for broke, though I feel like that hasn’t been their MO in a long time. But there is no time to waste with feeling out your opponent and risking going behind early — this needs to be a game where the Caps control the ball and show the same fire and focus that they did in the second half against LAFC from the start. That’s realistically their only hope of avoiding playoff purgatory.