Match Preview: Vancouver Whitecaps vs Seattle Sounders – So this is actually going to happen?

Now, I don’t think in my years of writing these previews I’ve ever thought “I wonder if this match is actually going to kick off”.

But that’s the situation we currently find ourselves in! As of the time of writing, we’re just over 24 hours out from the Whitecaps taking on rivals (both in geography and in the table) Seattle. Normally, this would be a highly anticipated matchup, but unfortunately these aren’t quite normal circumstances!

This was already marked as the MLS equivalent to a “schedule loss” ages ago, considering that it falls in the middle of a very active international window. The fact that Tate Johnson and Giuseppe Bovalina both even managed to find a way to be unavailable is the cherry on top of a grand total of nine first-team players away to represent their respective countries.

While that was bad enough, now there’s the harsh new reality of a stomach bug that swept its way through the organization this week, affecting a number of the players who are still in Vancouver (as well as some who have gone away).

Given that the ‘Caps were already going to have only 12 first-team outfield players available for Sunday, and now that an unknown number of that small group have been battling illness since returning from Mexico City, one would think that if any game is going to get postponed, it would be under these circumstances.

But as of right now, that’s not yet happened and as the hours and days ticked by it was becoming clear that the game was going ahead. So assuming that the proceedings do, in fact, proceed, what might that look like? The murmurs are that there will be up to seven WFC2 call-ups for the game. How many of those are really MLS-ready? Well we’re going to find out pretty quickly.

It’s not going to look pretty, outside of the backline at least, and even there it all depends who has been hit by the bug. Sure there’s no natural left-back available, but playing one of Mathias Laborda or Édier Ocampo on their opposite side gives you a defensive line and keeper combo that wouldn’t look out of place on any given weekend.

The front six though, that’s another story. In fact, unless Jesper Sørensen starts a WFC2 call-up, or plays Ocampo as a winger, there’s only six options available for those six spots!

Those options are Ralph Priso, JC Ngando, and Jeevan Badwal in the midfield, and Emmanuel Sabbi, Daniel Rios, and Damir Kreilach up front. Pretty bare bones in the best of times, and of course these likely aren’t the best of times for all of them.

Of course, there’s the question of whether this crisis of availability could prompt Sørensen to actually change his formation? Bringing in Bjørn Inge Utvik or Belal Halbouni to play a back three and shifting either Kreilach or Badwal to the bench seems to be the most logical outcome in that case, and it will be interesting to see exactly how married the man on the sidelines is to his 4-3-3 system, especially with how things went against Cruz Azul (which we don’t need to revisit).

It doesn’t help the Whitecaps’ cause that the Sounders enter this weekend with just three international call-ups, who have combined to play less than 250 minutes between them on the season to this point. There’s a trade-off though, as Seattle is battling some key injuries.

Forward Jordan Morris remains out, as do centre-backs Yeimar and Kim Kee-hee (in addition to Paul Arriola’s ACL tear). The men in green have been in good form recently, however, with just two losses in their last 10 outings.

While the ‘Caps still have a clear lead over the rest of the West in terms of points per game, the fact that they’ve now played the fewest in the conference means that there are a number of teams now breathing down their neck in terms of total points.

If the Sounders win, they’ll just be three back of the blue and white. And while I’m often optimistic heading into each game (even before this season) it’s a little hard to see where a victory might come from on Sunday, assuming the teams do take the pitch. But I guess that’s why they play!