Report and Reaction: Jackson action sees Whitecaps get off to winning start in MLS kick off

Vancouver Whitecaps got their 2026 MLS campaign off to a winning start with a hard-fought 1-0 win against a battling Real Salt Lake side at BC Place on Saturday afternoon.

Winger AZ Jackson’s 57th minute winner was the difference between the two side, and while it wasn’t the prettiest performance we’re going to see from a Whitecaps side this year, it was ultimately an effective one and aside from surviving a first half scare for a disallowed offside goal, they didn’t allow the visitors much of a sniff, with RSL very wasteful in their set piece play on the few chances they did get.

A winning start, three days after a match in Costa Rica, was the ultimate goal here and they achieved it, with room for improvements.

Jesper Sorensen made three changes to his starting line-up from the midweek draw with Cartagines in the Champions Cup. Ralph Priso came into the middle of the defence to partner Tristan Blackmon, with Mathias Laborda moving out to right back for Edier Ocampo. Thomas Müller started in the number 10 role, with Jackson coming in at left wing for Kenji Cabrera.

It was a fairly even first half, with the Whitecaps enjoying more of the possession and the run of play, with a low cross in from the right just eluding Jackson, but RSL looking lively and more dangerous on the counter.

The closest the Whitecaps came to breaking the deadlock was when Müller crashed a low shot off the right post in the 16th minute. RSL responded with another quick break that saw Ariath Piol fire into the side netting.

A Tate Johnson free kick caused some chaos in the RSL box in the 25th minute, but no-one could tuck it away for the ‘Caps, before Sebastian Berhalter headed a cross over in the 33rd minute.

Piol, who was proving lively and a handful for the ‘Caps backline, slid in to tuck the ball away for RSL in the 38th minute after a great ball in from Alexandros Katranis to the back post, but the flag went up quickly for an offside in the build up and the ‘Caps had a lucky escape.

AZ Jackson, who had been on the end of a number of hard challenges in the first half, couldn’t get a clean connection on a shot with three minutes of the half remaining, and the teams headed in level.

The ‘Caps started the second half on the front foot and Laborda didn’t miss by much with a neat little back flick off a low Berhalter free kick in the 49th minute.

Zavier Gozo drove just past the far post for RSL four minutes later, before the Whitecaps finally got their breakthrough in the 57th minute in a move started and superbly finished by Jackson.

The winger got the ball on the left, cut inside, and laid the ball off to Andres Cubas, opening up some space for it to be played out to the running Johnson. The left back powered into the box and his cross took a deflection to Jackson, whose sublime finish nestled in the bottom corner and it was 1-0 Vancouver.

The Whitecaps kept the pressure on and Emmanuel Sabbi was blocked by Rafael Cabral at his near post.

Vancouver just couldn’t find the second to put the game to bed and ease any nerves around the stadium, and found themselves playing backwards instead of moving it forward in the latter stages of the match, removed from how Sorensen wants his side to play.

Takaoka made a save from Gozo in the 89th minute, but RSL weren’t really looking like grabbing a point by this stage.

The ‘Caps had struggled to get the ball to Brian White for much of the match, and the striker cut a bit of a frustrated figure out there at times when he was open in space but passes went everywhere but to him. The American finally got a look on goal three minutes into stoppage time after some good work from substitute Jeevan Badwal found him in the box, but his hurried effort didn’t really trouble Cabral, in the last real action of the half.

You take a win to kick off the season, no matter how you get there. Yes, there was a lack of rhythm and offensive cohesion. Yes, White felt on an island at times with a surprising lack of service. And yes, some players were looking a little fatigued already. But after a month of travelling from Europe to Canada to America to Costa Rica and then back to Canada, the team can be forgiven for much of that.

Factor in new players still adjusting to the team and systems, players like Sabbi still getting up to full match fitness, some new players not able to even be on the pitch yet, and trying to balance two games in a week for these first few weeks, there’s going to be some initial teething troubles, but they’re unbeaten, they haven’t given up a goal, and the team themselves are already challenging themselves for a higher level.

Next up is a Toronto side that went down to an opening day defeat. It’ll be a tough test and the ‘Caps will need to be a lot sharper in front of goal and a lot more creative to make it six points out of six to start the campaign. But it’s one win down, 33 games to go. MLS is back.

FINAL SCORE: Vancouver Whitecaps 1 – 0 Real Salt Lake

ATT: 23,546

VANCOUVER: Yohei Takaoka; Mathias Laborda, Ralph Priso, Tristan Blackmon, Tate Johnson; Sebastian Berhalter, Andres Cubas (Jeevan Badwal 87’); Emmanuel Sabbi (Edier Ocampo, 68’), Thomas Müller, Aziel Jackson (Kenji Cabrera, 68’); Brian White [Subs not used: Isaac Boehmer, Oliver Larraz, Sebastian Schonlau, Rayan Elloumi, Jean-Claude Ngando, Mihail Gherasimencov]

SALT LAKE: Rafael Cabral; DeAndre Yedlin (Philip Quinton, 85’), Justen Glad, Sam Junqua; Zavier Gozo, Luca Moisa (Pablo Ruiz, 72), Noel Caliskan, Alex Katranis; Zach Booth (Sergi Solans, 59’), Ari Piol (Jesús Barea, 85’), Aiden Hezarkhani (Dominik Marczuk, 72’) [Subs not used: Mason Stajduhar, Tyler Wolff, Griffin Dillon, Ruben Mesalles]

SCORING SUMMARY:
57’ – VAN – AZ Jackson

STATS:
Possession: VAN 58.2% – RSL 41.8%
Shots: VAN 13 – RSL 10
Shots on Goal: VAN 5 – RSL 2
Saves: VAN 2 – RSL 4
Fouls: VAN 15 – RSL 15
Offsides: VAN 2 – RSL 3
Corners VAN 7 – RSL 5

CAUTIONS/SENDING OFFS:
RSL: Zavier Gozo (Yellow Card – 33’)
VAN: Emmanuel Sabbi (Yellow Card – 50’)
RSL: Sam Junqua (Yellow Card – 75’)
RSL: Alex Katranis (Yellow Card – 76’)
VAN: Andres Cubas (Yellow Card – 82’

REACTION:

VANCOUVER WHITECAPS

JESPER SORENSEN

On tonight’s performance:

“I think it was a very difficult game for us. We started out okay, but we had some difficulties in our pressure, and they played well under us and they ran at us a couple of times where we were a little bit too open. They played underneath the midfield line, so we had to run backwards a couple of times and that maybe stressed us a little bit. We had a couple of good breakthroughs but not as many. I would say that the rhythm with the ball was not perfect. They had an opportunity where it was offside and it was very close, and we got lucky in that situation. And then in the second half, of course we tried to come out strong. I think we were way too loose with the ball. I think we were a little bit easy in a couple of situations, but then we started gaining momentum and scored a goal. After that, I think it was a little bit better. But then it was very nervous and hectic in the end, where we didn’t really have any rhythm, thinking ‘should we attack, should we defend’ and we played the ball more backwards than forward when we had the ball. And that [meant] we’re playing into pressure. We didn’t give away many chances though, and I was satisfied with that. Now that we came out on top of this game, hopefully that will free up some energy. I think it was a very good one for us. It wasn’t the prettiest, but it was a very, very good win.”

On AZ’s debut performance:

“I think he’s a great person, very open minded coming in, very motivated to come to us. And I think overall, he played a good game. He came in pretty late in the preseason, and had to work his way into how we do things. I think he played a good game today and obviously scoring a goal makes it special, playing your first home game. He’s a player where we have to also expect that he can do even more than we saw today. I think it’s always great when you get off to a good start. And I think that he showed today that we can have good expectations for him.”

WINGER AZ JACKSON

On scoring his first goal for Whitecaps:

“It felt amazing. Incredible atmosphere. Great turnout by the fans and [I] was just happy to get [these] three points at home – first game of the season.”

On receiving hard knocks:

“I welcome it all. I welcome it all [chuckles]. The more they keep fouling, the hungrier it makes me to keep it going at them. The more they keep trying to get under my skin, the more I smile. The more I – play with more joy. I consider someone who just wants to play football to make people happy.”

On the whirlwind tour – Marbella, Costa Rica, Vancouver:

“It’s been good. Honestly, a blessing, to travel to all these places, and to play football, what we love to do. And that’s honestly what I don’t take for granted. I just love to play football wherever that is. And, despite – say, not having sleep, or whatever the case may be – it doesn’t matter to me. I’m just happy to be part of the group, and to be part of the Whitecaps.”

On being a part of this team:

“Man, it’s been great. [Teammates] honestly, taking care of me, and just making me feel whole. Just being a part of the Whitecaps, of this group, for a short amount of time, feels like home. Also, my mother’s side of the family is from Seattle, it’s very close. I had my grandparents come out [tonight] – first game they’ve seen me play in person, actually, so it was great!”

DEFENDER TATE JOHNSON

On how he’s improved from his rookie season to now:

“Throughout preseason, and even now, I’m trying to get better every day. I credit a lot to the coaching staff and the guys around me trying to push me to make me a better player. I just feel more confident out on the field, and I just think even just from last year, I’m just feeling a lot better.”

On the set up for the goal from AZ:

“Someone played me a good ball where I was able to take a good touch, then my job is just to put it in the box and let AZ do his thing. It caught a little deflection, but AZ had a great finish.”

REAL SALT LAKE

HEAD COACH PABLO MASTROENI

What did you like? What did you dislike? I think a lot of questions are maybe going to be asked about the final third, so what did you see out of the attack, or maybe not see that you feel like you can work on?

“I’d like to back up and just express how proud I am of that performance today. I think every game has to be taken into context, and…
Again, there was… there was probably 6 different players, that we did not know who was gonna start on Thursday. And so, we had literally a day prep going into this game. And so, I think just starting with that alone, it was a fantastic performance, especially being on the road against last year’s Western Conference champs.

Again, I couldn’t be more proud of the effort. You know, the three guys that got their debuts, their starting debuts, and Aiden, and Luka, and Zach. Again, wonderful performances, full of grit, full of fight, and there was some really good quality in and amongst that. And so, I think we can get to all the particulars, but again, I don’t think this is what this game was about. I think this game was about mentality, about going on the road with, you know, 5 or 6 players that didn’t know they were playing on Thursday.

But stepping up today and performing extremely, extremely well. You know, in the final third, you’re always, again, that piece is gonna be the trickiest piece. I think we had probably three really good opportunities to capitalize. And then it just comes down to decisions. You know, I think there’s one where Ari broke away in the first half, had Aiden and Zach both in the middle of the field, and decided to go at it alone, right?

Second half, we had a good transition where it was a 3v2 or 2v1 with Surge and Ari and Gozo overlapping, and you’d like to see that finished off. And so, I think when you go on the road, you’re not gonna get a lot of clear chances. And then, obviously, the one that was called offside, which to me, was a hairline call. It could have gone either way. And so there’s three good opportunities to find yourself into the match, and then it just comes down to decisions, but that, for me, is real secondary. The primary is, the context of this performance, given what, you know, the hardships that we went through this week, not knowing who was going to be available for this game on Thursday.”