In game two of their three-game MLS road trip, the Vancouver Whitecaps travel to Dick's Sporting Good Park in Commerce City to battle the Colorado Rapids on Wednesday.
These two sides are even on points this season with 18, with the Burgundy Boys losing 3-2 to the San Jose Earthquakes over the weekend, while Los Angeles FC handed the Caps a 3-0 defeat.
Match preview
© Reuters
A fourth victory in their last five MLS fixtures was there for the taking last weekend, but the Rapids let it slip away, squandering a 2-0 lead and losing for the first time this season when netting the opening goal.
Since the beginning of the 2023 regular season, the Rapids have struggled to get results at home, but a victory on Wednesday would match their number of wins at Dick's Sporting Good Park from a year ago (three).
While Chris Armas likes to see them play with more possession, they seem to be more comfortable when they do not have as much, with four of their previous five MLS triumphs this year occurring when the Rapids had fewer than 50% of the ball and three where they had fewer than 40% possession.
Even under new management this season, one thing that has remained a big part of their DNA has been their efficiency on set pieces, with Colorado ranked first in the league for goals in dead-ball situations (eight).
One thing that has drastically improved this season when compared to 2023 has been their attacking quality, tied for the third-most goals in the Western Conference (20) and just six fewer than their joint-MLS low from last season.
Colorado have suffered just one defeat in their last seven regular-season contests versus Vancouver and are unbeaten in their previous three matches against them at Dick's Sporting Goods Park.
© Reuters
Saturday was built up as a revenge game for the Whitecaps, but unfortunately, they will have to wait until the Leagues Cup this summer to try and settle the score with LAFC.
The Caps struggled to handle the Black and Gold in transition throughout the 90 minutes, suffering their biggest defeat of the 2024 domestic campaign.
Entering this month, Vanni Sartini's men were the only side in MLS that had not been held off the scoresheet in an MLS encounter, but on Wednesday, they are in danger of going goalless in three successive league fixtures for the first time since August 2020.
Vancouver have followed up their previous two MLS defeats this season with a victory in their subsequent game and have not lost consecutive matches in this competition since September 2023 (two).
As poor as their performance was on Saturday, though, it was only their first away defeat of the domestic campaign and just the second time in their last 13 regular season road contests that they had failed to find the back of the net.
Vancouver have drawn first blood in three of their previous four visits to Dick's Sporting Goods Park but have only triumphed on one of those occasions (3-2 in 2019).
- L
- W
- D
- D
- W
- L
Team News
© Reuters
On Saturday, the Rapids were without Lalas Abubakar, who had a minor hamstring issue, Djordje Mihailovic was back in the lineup after missing their previous encounter with a heel injury and Connor Ronan came on as a substitute, making his first appearance since March 16.
Michael Edwards made his Colorado debut against the Quakes, replacing Keegan Rosenberry, with the latter surpassing Marcelo Balboa for the fourth-most regular-season appearances in club history (152), while Oliver Larraz became the seventh-ever Rapids home-grown player to surpass 1,000 regular season minutes played in MLS.
Rafael Navarro netted his team-leading sixth of the campaign last week, with Omir Fernandez scoring his first as a member of the Burgundy Boys.
Vancouver were missing Sam Adekugbe on Saturday against LAFC because of a calf strain, and Damir Kreilach was unavailable due to an ankle injury.
After being an unused substitute in their draw versus Austin FC (0-0), Javain Brown got some more playing time, coming off the bench in the second half last weekend, while Luis Martins was also used as a substitute, making his first MLS appearance since the Caps' 2-1 defeat to Real Salt Lake in March.
Brian White has three goals in his career against the Rapids, one of which came in the Whitecaps previous visit to Dick's Sporting Goods Park last season when he and Mathias Laborda found the mark in a 2-2 draw.
Colorado Rapids possible starting lineup:
Steffen; Rosenberry, Bombito, Maxso, Vines; Bassett, Ronan; Cabral, Mihailovic, Fernandez; Navarro
Vancouver Whitecaps possible starting lineup:
Takaoka; Laborda, Veselinovic, Blackmon; Raposo, Berhalter, Cubas, Vite; Gauld, White, Picault
We say: Colorado Rapids 1-2 Vancouver Whitecaps
The Rapids may be a vastly improved side from a year ago, but they are still susceptible to the counter, as they showed last weekend.
Vancouver have plenty of quality attacking pieces like White and Ryan Gauld that are capable of exposing that vulnerability, which is why we project they will return to winning ways.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Joel Lefevre
