The Vancouver Whitecaps are the most underrated and under-appreciated team in Major League Soccer right now. They currently lead the Western Conference by three points with 32 points overall, and only trail D.C. United by three points for the Supporters Shield with two games in hand. The Whitecaps currently have a three game winning streak, with wins against LA Galaxy, New York Red Bulls and New England Revolution, and oh by the way, those wins came on the road.
No team has played more road games than the Whitecaps and the LA Galaxy (10); however, the six wins by the Caps lead the league with the next closest team, Toronto FC, having four. The team is currently in the midst of a five game road trip as their home stadium hosts the Women’s World Cup, going 3-1 so far on the trip with one more game at Colorado to wrap things up before they return home. The team also has a 5-1-3 record against the top four teams in the East and Western conferences, second best amongst the top four teams in each conference; Toronto FC is undefeated against those teams at 3-2-0.
As a team no one has more shots on goal than Vancouver with 89, five more than the Portland Timbers, while they are level with the Portland Timbers for most shots taken at 247. All those shots on goal don’t always end up in the back of the net, however, as the team is midtable in goals scored (tied for seventh with four other teams) with 22 goals on the season. First year Whitecap Octavio Rivero, the 22-year-old striker, currently leads the team with seven tallies, good for a tie for seventh in the league.
The Caps have flown under the radar for various reasons, mainly, that most MLS fans haven’t had a chance to watch them play since they have yet to play a nationally televised game this season. Every MLS match in 2015 has failed to fall on one of the Friday/Sunday national broadcast dates. The team currently only has two games on their schedule on days with national television coverage, however, the Caps aren’t slated to play in any of those slots, July 26 at 7p.m. at home against San Jose Earthquakes when Fox Sports 1 is scheduled to air a 2:30p.m. game between New York City FC and Orlando City and the final day of the season at home against Houston Dynamo when games will be flexed depending on post-season implications.
The other reason the team has flown under the radar is the fact that they are not an expansion team this year, like New York City FC and Orlando City, they’re not on a team with big time players, such as Toronto FC, Seattle Sounders or LA Galaxy, and they aren’t a team with history and tradition such as D.C. United or the New York Red Bulls or simply not an East Coast based team such as New England Revolution or Philadelphia Union. To show the injustice and pure disrespect being shown by the league and networks, the Union, a team currently in seventh place in the East, has played in five prime time games this season and has three more national games remaining on their schedule.
The fact that most fans are missing out on one of the best teams in the league this season, and one who could end up hoisting the MLS Cup at the end of the season is an absolute tragedy. It is highway robbery that Octavio Rivero’s first season in MLS is being missed by most fans or that goalkeeper David Ousted’s early bid for Goalkeeper of the Year (0.94 goals against, good for second in the league amongst qualifying keepers) is getting lost amongst the storylines of Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard’s debut in MLS. Pedro Morales, Kendall Watson or Darren Mattocks are having solid campaigns, but are virtually unknown outside of Vancouver. Vancouver is also currently tied for the lead in the highly competitive Western Conference, sitting even on points with their Cascadia Cup rivals, the Seattle Sounders, at 32. The Caps also advanced to the Canadian Championship Final this year where they will face the Montreal Impact this August; the winner will qualify for next year’s CONCACAF Champions League.
The Whitecaps may perhaps end up being one of the best stories of the 2015 MLS season, yet no one south of the Canadian border and perhaps out of the Pacific Northwest area will even know or see any of it. Underrated, underappreciated, and perhaps the best unknown club in the league.
Main Photo by Shaun Clark/Getty Images
