Saturday night in Southern California, the Vancouver Whitecaps will take on San Diego FC at Snapdragon Stadium, as they attempt to redeem themselves from a 5-3 loss at BC Place less than a month ago.
Vancouver does have some momentum behind them, as they throttled Houston 3-0 in their midweek match. Meanwhile, San Diego surprised midweek with a home loss to lowly Toronto FC by a score of 1-0. San Diego also no longer has Milan Iloski, who scored 4 in the last match against Vancouver, as the American forward has returned from his loan to Nordsjælland in Denmark.
Regardless of this week’s form, these remain the top two teams in the West, as well as two of the top five teams in the league table. With the East being as strong as it is compared to the West, this match could be crucial for either team’s aspirations of remaining relevant in the Supporters Shield race.
Anders Dreyer is continuing to have a remarkable season for SD, as he has already scored 11 goals and recorded 13 assists in 23 matches. Though without Iloski’s 10 goals, more will be asked of remaining forwards Onni Valakari and Hirving Lozano, the latter of whom was injured last time these two teams played.
Something Vancouver should have been able to take from their match against San Diego at BC Place is that while San Diego can bag plenty of goals, they have been prone to falling apart defensively. We all saw how toothless Houston looked in attack midweek, yet that same team notched 4 goals against SD back on July 5th in a 4-3 win. Overall, San Diego has been very hit or miss in their own defensive third, with some dominant performances, but also games where they can’t keep the ship afloat.
The Whitecaps, meanwhile, looked like they found a winning formula against Houston by shifting to a 5-2-3 out of possession, with Edier Ocampo surging forward and joining the attack in possession. The overloads that Vancouver was able to create caused real issues for Houston, as Sabbi and Ocampo ran wild at times. Equally, the extra body in the centre of defense took some pressure off Vancouver’s midfield in terms of tracking back, as that had been an issue in recent matches.
It will be interesting to see if Sørensen builds on this formula or switches things up again against San Diego. The home side leads MLS in possession at 59.8%, so it’s fair to say that both Houston and San Diego are reasonably similar stylistically, though San Diego has much more proven attacking pieces.
In terms of player availability, Andres Cubas and Jayden Nelson both came off the bench midweek, so I imagine they are due for starts this weekend. Tristan Blackmon is also on the trip but did not feature Wednesday, so perhaps Vancouver will keep him rested and run out the same defensive trio once again. Ranko Veselinovic has injury concerns of his own, however, as he picked up a foot issue midweek. It seems like we might know more about the two centrebacks closer to kickoff, with Sørensen playing things close to the vest thus far.
I think Vancouver will have learned from their experience against San Diego and will be much sharper in this match, with some momentum already in their favour. I can see the Whitecaps keeping the winning formula going, picking up a 2-1 win in San Diego.