The Vancouver Whitecaps will seek to run back their domination of Austin FC from last month, facing off against the Verde on their home turf Saturday in the return fixture.

The 5-1 pasting at BC Place, capped off with a Brian White four-spot, came on the heels of the Caps’ CONCACAF Champions Cup triumph against Pumas. It set both teams on diametrically different trajectories.

The Caps remain unbeaten since that point and have looked decisive at basically every turn, aside from portions of Sunday’s 2-2 draw with LAFC. They’ve scored 12 goals in the six matches in domestic and continental play since then and remain at the top of the Western Conference, despite having an off match during the midweek when almost every other team in the league played.

Austin, meanwhile, have had only won twice in the last month, a 1-0 win over lowly LA Galaxy (who remain winless) and a U.S. Open Cup win over a USL Championship side. Their defense, which was among the league’s best before the Caps put five past them, have conceded 10 goals in those matches.

A couple key players remain sidelined with injuries for Austin. Their sputtering attack hasn’t been helped by the absence of Dani Pereira and the player they signed to inject some life into things, Robert Taylor, has yet to feature due to a hamstring injury.

Brandon Vazquez has found form, scoring five goals in his last five matches (including a brace in the U.S. Open Cup tie) but he remains the only player on this team with multiple goals, as DP attackers Myrto Uzuni and Osman Bukari have not gelled.

Part of this might be some bad luck. Austin is underperforming their expected goals by a league leading eight goals. That will require some caution on the Caps’ part, even though a regression to the mean would still leave the Verde with a pretty league average attack.

Despite some slipping recently, their strength likely still remains their shape and organization and Brad Stuver remains a match winner.

The Caps will have enjoyed a midweek rest ahead of a busy few weeks, with Canadian Championship action heating up alongside MLS play. That helps heal some injured players as well, with Mathias Laborda resuming training. He seems likely to make the squad, as does Pedro Vite, Sam Adekugbe and Tate Johnson, who have been nursing knocks. Daniel Rios remains out, as does captain Ryan Gauld.

The Voyageurs Cup match will likely mean some rotation, which makes me think Sorensen will go with a basically first choice squad here. Whether that includes Laborda or not will likely be dependent on his fitness but also whether Sorensen sees him as behind Tate Johnson and Edier Ocampo in the pecking order. At the moment, I’d be inclined to say he should ride the hot hands and save Laborda for the flurry of matches that are yet to come.

The Caps will likely keep things rolling with Sorensen-ball and while LAFC showed some signs of countering the high-flying attack, they couldn’t do so for long. Austin will likely try to copy some of the moves LAFC tried to guard against Vancouver’s quick build up.

There is no doubt Austin will be hungry for revenge after what happened at BC Place. And the home side remains a team with plenty of potential, though they have seemingly yet to fully realize it. But Vancouver will be the favorites here and can hopefully put together as high-flying of a showing in central Texas as they did at BC Place.