The Vancouver Whitecaps will head south to Seattle on Saturday night, seeking to claim the Cascadia Cup and cement their position near the top of the Supporters Shield standings.

The second derby of the week will, in all likelihood, decide who claims the Cascadia Cup. With a draw against Portland in the midweek, any sort of result would ensure Vancouver claim the trophy, as would a loss by one or two goals (the first tiebreaker is head to head results, followed by goal differential in those games).

The ‘Caps would surely much prefer three points, however, with the topsy turvy 1-1 against Portland putting them a bit more behind the eight ball in their quest for both the Supporters’ Shield and the Western Conference crowns. They also could wrap up a top four finish and home field advantage in at least the first round of the playoffs with a win.

The heavily rotated lineup in the midweek will hopefully be a thing of the past. Brian White and Ali Ahmed seem good bets to start after making cameos against Portland and Edier Ocampo and Andres Cubas will slot right back into the starting XI upon their return from suspension. Those two players in particular were missed against Portland. The Timbers used a lack of midfield structure to their advantage and isolated Tate Johnson and Giuseppe Bovalina 1v1 with ease. That will be harder for Seattle on Saturday.

Thomas Mueller, meanwhile, is expected to be available for selection on Saturday, though I wouldn’t be surprised if he at starts the match on the bench. And there are rumblings that Ryan Gauld (who has now been ruled out, sadly) could even be available as well, as he has been fully active in training for some time now. That would be a sight for sore eyes.

Seattle has found form since they travelled to BC Place and were obliterated shortly before they began Club World Cup play. Since then, the Sounders have only three league losses and won Leagues Cup. While you can argue whether Leagues Cup is all that meaningful, they dismantled Cruz Azul and Inter Miami in the process, a sign that the Sounders are in a different place than they were early this season.

They have been handed a boost with the return of Albert Rusnak and Jordan Morris, both of whom had lengthy absences due to injury. Cristian Roldan has largely been unstoppable, both defensively and in his patented line-breaking balls, as has Obed Vargas, who is likely looking at a major European move in January. That presents a scary prospect for opposition as the playoffs nears, even though this has largely a conventional Brian Schmetzer side in terms of their play style.

Seattle has done this with a number of injuries (sound familiar), something that has been cushioned by the team getting production from MLS veterans (Danny Muskovski) and homegrown talent (Osaze De Rosario, Paul Rothrock) in equal measure. Their defense has been around league average (as evidenced by the two shaky goals they shipped to LA Galaxy a couple weeks ago, pegging them back to a 2-2 draw) but this remains one of the more formidable attacking forces in the league.

That presents an interesting test for the ‘Caps. Sporting KC never really tested Belal Halbouni and Mathias Laborda and while I don’t think the centerbacks were really the issue in the first half against Portland, we still don’t have a great idea of what this pairing looks like against a better team. A bit better structure in midfield will help (Andres Cubas makes up for a lot of sins), as well cleaner play in possession — we already saw most of the defensive issues get worked out in the second half on Wednesday with better tracking back from the attackers and better passing sequences.

This is one of the biggest matches of the season for Vancouver for all of the reasons highlighted earlier. Both teams have a lot to play for, both love to get on the front foot and attack and both are in good form. As a partisan, I’m pretty nervous but for neutrals this has to be the best viewing of the weekend. We aren’t quite to the playoffs yet but Saturday will be as good of a warm up for the postseason as the Caps could ask for.