The Vancouver Whitecaps have the opportunity to move into first place in the Western Conference when they host the Portland Timbers on Wednesday night.
The Whitecaps (16-6-7, 55 points) are two points behind San Diego FC, who don’t have a mid-week match. Vancouver currently has two games in hand, too.
Yet Whitecaps coach Jesper Sorensen isn’t concerned about the battle for the top spot in the West.
“We are performing at a good level,” Sorenson said. “Throughout the season, we have been focusing on our performance and not too much on the results or the standings.
“Our standard right now is pretty good. … We will look at the standings later on.”
A victory over the Timbers (11-10-9, 42 points) also will give Vancouver its eighth Cascadia Cup title — the annual three-team competition between Vancouver, Portland and the Seattle Sounders.
The Whitecaps routed host Portland 4-1 on Feb. 23 and knocked off visiting Seattle 3-0 on June 8. If Vancouver doesn’t clinch against the Timbers, it gets another chance Saturday when it visits the Sounders.
The Whitecaps are coming off a 2-0 road win over Sporting Kansas City on Saturday. The goals raised the team’s total to 56 in MLS play, setting a new franchise mark. The 2023 squad had 55 goals.
Brian White leads the Whitecaps with 14 goals while fellow All-Star Yohei Takaoka has a league-high 13 shutouts.
The Timbers are in seventh place in the West, two points behind sixth-place Austin FC and three ahead of the eighth-place Colorado Rapids.
However, Portland is just 1-3-2 over its last six MLS matches after losing 1-0 to the host Houston Dynamo on Saturday.
Timbers coach Phil Neville would like to see a sudden turnaround with the regular-season slate winding down.
“The big challenge for this team is we have to deliver in the big games,” Neville said. “You work for 10 or 11 months and you sacrifice and you work hard and give everything that you got for these last four or five games. You have to show up for these last four or five games.”
Neville said that Maxime Crepeau (concussion) remains out. The goalkeeper sustained the injury while with the Canadian national team earlier this month.
Kevin Kelsy and Antony share the Timbers’ lead with seven MLS goals.
Vancouver defender Edier Ocampo and midfielder Andres Cubas will serve suspensions on Wednesday due to yellow card accumulation.
–Field Level Media
