The Vancouver Whitecaps weren’t supposed to be here, perched on top of the Western Conference.
They lost Stuart Armstrong, a key Designated Player, over the offseason. Star attacker Ryan Gauld has missed the last month with a knee injury. They’re still alive in the Concacaf Champions Cup quarter-finals, and Concacaf success and regular season success don’t tend to mix well for MLS teams. And yet, here they are. On top of the West. The Vancouver Whitecaps.
Fresh off a dominant 2-0 win over the Colorado Rapids on Saturday, the ‘Caps are playing at an eye-catching 2.3 points per game pace, not least because new manager Jesper Sørensen has overhauled their tactical setup.
Gone are the days of Vanni Sartini’s chopped-and-changed attacking setup and risky defensive approach. Now we have Sørensen’s hyper-controlled system. With a top-five possession share (55.3%) and a balanced 4-3-3 setup, Vancouver’s attack is in the top third of MLS based on FBref’s non-penalty xG per 90 minutes metric.
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But their use of the ball isn’t just an attacking weapon – it’s a defensive one, too. No team in MLS has allowed fewer shots per 90 than the Whitecaps. With strong rest defense and one of the hardest-working spines in MLS, Sørensen’s team are an elite defensive outlet. That makes them miss Gauld (and his countryman Armstrong) less than you’d think.
The tactics are solid in part because they’ve been effectively taught, with Vancouver far more than the sum of their parts. Players are confident in knowing where to be and when to rotate, which allows the Whitecaps to execute with ruthless efficiency on the field.
“When you have the ball, you can control the game,” Sørensen said shortly after being named the Whitecaps’ new manager. “When you don’t have the ball, you can affect the game, but you cannot control what’s going to happen. In this league, there’s a guy called Messi. You cannot control him when he has the ball, but you can try to affect him. But if you have the ball, you can … better the outcome of what’s going to happen.”
The ‘Caps have bettered their outcomes over and over again in 2025, and don’t look like slowing down any time soon. JL
Minnesota strikes
Minnesota United sit just a couple of points behind the Whitecaps at the top of the Western Conference, having been propelled in that direction by a pair of forwards perfectly suited to the style of head coach Eric Ramsay.
It’s counterattacking, it’s
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