Following their crushing 5-2 aggregate victory over Cavalry FC in the Canadian Championship upon their return to action, Vancouver Whitecaps resume their MLS season when they travel to the windy city to take on Chicago Fire in a tough first game after the World Cup.

In case you’ve forgotten about domestic football with all the World Cup excitement, the MLS table currently looks quite good for those of a Whitecaps persuasion. Vancouver currently sit top of the Western Conference on goal difference ahead of San Jose Earthquakes (with a game in hand on their Californian rivals) and only a point behind supporters shield leaders Nashville SC.

Meanwhile, the Fire return to play third in the East having made a huge step up from last season. Gregg Berhalter has got his side in their best form for over a decade, spearheaded by Hugo Cuypers who is the league’s top scorer having bagged 13 from the opening part of the season.

The midseason break effectively splits the campaign in two, meaning both sides will have lost much of the momentum they built before the World Cup. However, Whitecaps boss Jesper Sørensen has proven adept at dealing with these gaps, producing statement results like the 4-1 win at Portland, the 7-0 thrashing of Philadelphia Union, and that Western Conference semi-final shootout victory over LAFC on their returns to MLS action after a long break, and the Dane will be hoping to muster up another result from his charges.

Despite being a game between two Supporters’ Shield contenders and one of the first games back, with the match being played at the same time as the 401 derby and the other part of the Cascadia rivalry, when the fixture list was drawn up this was not initially seen as a match that would draw a lot of attention.

However, that all changed when Chicago announced the signing of former Borussia Dortmund, Bayern Munich, and Barcelona striker Robert Lewandowski.

This move was rumoured for a while, and given Chicago’s large Polish diaspora, Illinois was always a likely landing spot for the forward. The now 37-year-old has been scoring goals for fun for well over a decade, and with MLS looking to take off post World Cup, this is the kind of move that the league needs in order to spark a surge in football support across Chicago and beyond.

Rather fittingly, this clash will pit Lewandowski up against former Bayern Munich teammate Thomas Müller. The pair were a formidable duo in Bavaria, lifting a plethora of Bundesliga titles, the 2020 Champions League, and combining for 80 goals across the 332 games they played together. Vancouver will be hoping that this game ends the same as the last Müller reunion, when his side put James Rodriguez’ Minnesota United to the sword in a 6-0 demolition at BC Place.

Sørensen has offered a blueprint to successfully integrating a star player into the team, and Berhalter will be under pressure to do the same for Lewandowski. His adaptation to an already successful team will be critical to the Fire’s chances of success this season and is one of many tasks that the former USMNT head coach will have to complete if his side are to get a result against the reigning Western Conference champions.

Another of those tasks could have been how Gregg would deal with his son on the other side of the pitch. Sebastian Berhalter has been immense for the Whitecaps this season and played his part in the United States’ run to the FIFA Club World Cup Round of 16. Yet, the two-time MLS All-Star will not be available for this match, taking some of the spice out of the “Berhalter Bowl” on this occasion.

Paraguay’s Andres Cubas, however, has returned to training, and I would anticipate he will be in contention to retake his spot in the starting XI, likely replacing either Oliver Larraz or J.C. Ngando.

Such is the depth of the Whitecaps side, there are questions over who will start this game all over the park. Takaoka will likely replace Boehmer between the sticks, and Tristan Blackmon and Ranko Veselinovic are set to continue their partnership after starting the first leg against Cavalry with Ralph Priso still injured. Moldova international Mihail Gherasimencov impressed starting at left back in the first leg and scored from the bench in the second, but with Mathias Laborda, Edier Ocampo and Tate Johnson all looking for places, the 21-year-old may be pushed out the starting XI.

In attack, captain Ryan Gauld is finally fit after an 18-month long spell out the team. Although the Scotland forward will require some time to get back up to full speed, the prospect of adding him back into this side is a tantalising one for all Whitecaps supporters. However, young talents Bruno Caicedo and Jeevan Badwal impressed over the first part of the season and will feel that they have earned the right to start alongside Müller and Brian White in the frontline.

Football is an unforgiving game, and kicking off the second part of the season against a top side backed by a fervent home support will be a tricky test of Vancouver’s credentials. However, the Whitecaps have shown that they are capable of overcoming tricky tests, and I can see them getting the second half of the season off to the perfect start with three points.