Vancouver Whitecaps: 2020 Preview – Rebuild continues

With less than a month to go until the start of the 2020 MLS campaign, we are taking a look at how each team has evolved since last year and their chances this term. This time, the Vancouver Whitecaps.

The 2019 campaign was one of the worst in the Vancouver Whitecaps’ history. They finished bottom of the Western Conference and were better than only FC Cincinnati over the course of the regular season, averaging just a point per game over their 34 matches. For the second successive season, the Whitecaps failed to reach the MLS Cup playoffs, winning just eight times.

It was also a year to forget in the Canadian Championship. Vancouver dropped out at the third qualifying round, their worst performance in the competition, losing to Canadian Premier League side, Cavalry FC. The defeat marked the first time that an MLS side had been defeated by a non-MLS team in a home-and-away series in the Canadian Championship.

Here is how things shape up for the Vancouver Whitecaps ahead of the 2020 season.

Best Performers

Only two members of the 2019 Vancouver Whitecaps squad were able to score an average WhoScored rating of at least 7/10, with one of those being their main shot-stopper for the campaign.

Maxime Crepeau averaged out to a 7.11/10 thanks to making move than 100 saves and keeping five clean sheets in his 26 appearances. The only outfield player to be a part of the seven-plus club was Ali Adnan, the versatile left-footer enjoying a solid debut campaign on loan from Serie A outfit Udinese.

Only two men managed to score more than four goals during the regular season, with Fredy Montero the club’s top-scorer with eight goals. Yordy Reyna bagged seven as the Whitecaps only managed to find the back of the net 37 times, the second-lowest total in the league.