Behind Enemy Lines: Scouting Vancouver Whitecaps 🔎

FC Dallas starts another important stretch on the road.

Photo via FC Dallas

After a disappointing effort at home last weekend, FC Dallas gets back out on the road for the start of a two-game road trip as they visit the Vancouver Whitecaps this weekend in Canada.

Vancouver is coming off a solid 1-0 victory last weekend in Austin and are sitting fifth in the crowed MLS Western Conference playoff race that FC Dallas is battling to sneak into here as we begin the month of September.

Key Player: Ryan Raposo

Vancouver will be missing a slew of players in their midfield, which means guys like Raposo will have to step up and find ways to facilitate their attack.

* If Brian White is back from after being out last weekend due to concussion protocols, then expect the Caps’ attack to flow through him here. He leads their team in scoring with 12 goals this season.

Key Matchup: Alessandro Schopf vs Nkosi Tafari

This could easily change if White is available this weekend (but concussion protocols can be tricky to overcome). But if White is unavailable again this weekend, Schopf may be the guy called upon to lead the attack. Tafari needs another strong performance to keep the pressure off Jimmy Maurer or Antonio Carrera in goal.

Availability Report¹:

Suspended: none
Out: Max Anchor (finger), Levonte Johnson (calf), Brian White (head), Édier Ocampo (not out with an injury)
Questionable: none
On Loan: none
International duty: Andres Cubas, Ryan Gauld, Pedro Vite, Sam Adekugbe, Ali Ahmed, Fafa Picault

Quick Notes:

Earlier this year against FC Dallas: The two sides met earlier this season in Frisco with the Whitecaps coming away with a rare 3-1 win in North Texas.

New DP on board: Vancouver did add a free agent signing this week, in Designated Player Stuart Armstrong. No word as of this writing if Armstrong will be available for this Saturday’s match for his debut but the Scottish international midfielder has had a pretty solid career, mostly with Celtic before helping Southampton get promoted back into the English Premier League.

FC Backpass: If you thought FC Dallas was FC Backpass, Vancouver may have something to say about it. The Caps are currently last in MLS in progressive passes forward.

Discipline team: The Caps are currently second in MLS in overall fouls committed this season with 243. By contrast, FC Dallas has committed nearly a hundred more at 335.

Potential Lineup:

Like Dallas, Vancouver will be dealing with some international call ups this weekend that could make for an interesting lineup.

Takaoka, Laborda, Veselinovic, Blackmon; Berhalter, Halbouni, Raposo, Brown; Kreilach, White; Schopf

Keys To Three Points over Vancouver

1. Defend the wings: Last week against Colorado was a good sign that Dallas still needs to figure out how to defend in space better. Colorado had good speed but Vancouver may be a tad quicker in their attack. We saw earlier this season in Frisco what their speed could do.

2. Staying aggressive up top: While the defense has struggled to handle teams as of late, the attack has been pretty good to watch. Now that Petar Musa, Jesus Ferreira and Alan Velasco are all getting minutes together on the field, Peter Luccin will want to push that a bit more this weekend and find ways to frustrate this Whitecaps defense that can be leaky at times.

3. Expose the midfield gaps: The Whitecaps will be dealing with some key players out this weekend, especially Andres Cubas, Pedro Vite and Ryan Gauld. If Asier Illarramendi and Sebastian Lletget can control the pace of the game in the middle of the park and find the passing lanes that Cubas would normally gobble up, it could go a long way in pinning the Caps back defensively in this one.

1. Note: Major League Soccer has introduced a new injury report deadline that will be effective the day before each game.