The Vancouver Whitecaps are going overseas to beef up their roster for the home stretch of the MLS season.
Highly decorated defenders Sebastian Schonlau and Joedrick Pupe are headed to British Columbia ahead of Saturday night’s home game against St. Louis City SC, although both will require things like medicals, visas, work permits and a transfer certificate to suit up.
Schonlau has amassed 19 goals and 18 assists in 327 career matches in Germany, according to the Whitecaps. Most recently, he captained Hamburg into promotion to the Bundesliga for the upcoming season. Pupe, who captained Dender to promotion in Belgium’s top league, recorded five assists in 58 fixtures for his club.
Along with German star Thomas Muller, who played his first match for Vancouver on Sunday in a 1-1 draw with Houston, these additions come at the right time. The Whitecaps (13-6-7, 46 points) have lost two key defenders, Ranko Veselinovic and Sam Adekugbe, to season-ending injuries.
“We are in a position to compete for trophies this season, so our goal this window was to provide more options to coach (Jesper Sorensen) and the team,” Vancouver sporting director Axel Schuster said in a statement.
While Vancouver builds toward the postseason, St. Louis (5-15-6, 21 points) remains stuck in 14th place in the West table. It’s coming off a 3-2 loss on Aug. 16 in Chicago, conceding the winning goal in the 87th minute.
Despite another forgettable result, St. Louis interim coach David Critchley found positives from the night.
“I thought the guys’ togetherness and the mentality was the best I’ve seen since I’ve stepped in,” Critchley said. “The way we pressed, the way we defended against a really good team on the ball, was probably for me one of the better games.”
St. Louis has shown more offensive punch in its last six matches, scoring 10 goals, but has lost some of the defensive shape that got it off to a 2-0-2 start before a brutal skid cost coach Olof Mellberg his job.
Joao Klauss leads St. Louis with eight goals on the season. Brian White has racked up 13 to pace Vancouver.
This will be the teams’ second meeting this year. They played to a scoreless draw on April 19 in St. Louis.
–Field Level Media
