The Seattle Sounders visit the Vancouver Whitecaps on Saturday for their first meeting of the 2019 regular season. Here is everything you need to know:
WHEN AND WHERE: Kickoff is at 7 p.m. PT at BC Place in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
WHERE TO WATCH: The match will be televised on JOEtv and YouTube TV.
WHERE TO LISTEN: The match will air on 950 KJR AM and El Rey 1360 AM.
2019 RECORDS AND STANDINGS: Sounders: 3-0-0 (9 points, 2nd West), Whitecaps: 0-3-0 (0 points, 11th West)
FORM GUIDE (most recent first): Seattle: WWW, Vancouver: LLL
ALL-TIME HISTORY: The Sounders are 10-7-5 all-time against the Whitecaps, including a 5-3-4 mark on the road.
PREVIOUS MEETING: Seattle earned a massive 2-1 win in Vancouver behind a first-half Raúl Ruidíaz brace on Sept. 15, 2018. The Peruvian smashed home a Kelvin Leerdam cross for his first before pouncing on an errant back pass and rounding the goalkeeper for the second. Vancouver pulled one back on the brink of halftime, but the Rave Green held on three points and their ninth consecutive win in league play, which is the all-time record in MLS in the post-shootout era.
Ruidíaz scores the first of his two goals in Seattle’s 2-1 win over Vancouver | Mike Fiechtner
FOR CLUB AND COUNTRY: Sounders players enjoyed plenty of success during the international break. Gustav Svensson played in both matches for Sweden as the Blågult picked up four points in 2020 European Championship Qualifying, while Jordy Delem helped secure passage to the 2019 Concacaf Gold Cup for Martinique. Jordan Morris and Cristian Roldan featured in both matches for the United States, with the former starting against Ecuador and the latter starting against Chile. Nicolás Lodeiro tallied two assists in a pair of starts as Uruguay lifted the 2019 China Cup.
CASCADIA CUP: Speaking of lifting cups, Saturday marks the first time the Sounders will return to the site where they secured the 2018 Cascadia Cup last September. With the 2-1 win over the Whitecaps, the Rave Green lifted the regional trophy for the third time in the rivalry’s MLS era.
NEW-LOOK WHITECAPS: The Whitecaps are nearly unrecognizable from the last time these two sides met. During the offseason, Vancouver shipped off key players like Alphonso Davies (Bayern Munich), Brek Shea (Atlanta United), Efraín Juárez (Vålerenga), Kei Kamara (Colorado Rapids), Nicolás Mezquida (Colorado Rapids), Cristian Techera (Belgrano) and club captain Kendall Waston (FC Cincinnati). Looking to rebuild the roster under new Head Coach Marc Dos Santos, the Whitecaps brought in goalkeeper Maxime Crepeáu, midfielder Inbeom Hwang, forward Joaquín Ardaiz, defender Victor “PC” Giro and MLS veteran Scott Sutter.
WHITECAP WOES: The Whitecaps are one of only two MLS teams without a point so far this season, as Vancouver has dropped all three of its opening matches.
FAMILIAR FACES: Two of Vancouver’s offseason additions, forward Fredy Montero and midfielder Andy Rose, are well-known to Sounders fans. Montero, who is tied for the club’s all-time regular-season goalscoring record (47) with Clint Dempsey, spent four seasons in Seattle, while Rose made 82 regular-season appearances in Rave Green from 2012-15.
CHANCE AT HISTORY: The Sounders could match the MLS record for consecutive regular-season wins in the post-shootout era (9), which they set the last time they faced the Whitecaps.
KOREAN DERBY: Saturday will likely be the first time in league history that players from South Korea have played against each other, as Inbeom Hwang and Kim Kee-hee are key players for their respective sides. Dating back to 1996, there have been just four South Korean players in MLS.
SUPERMAN SVENSSON: Defensive midfielder Gustav Svensson could reach 5,000 MLS regular-season minutes for the Sounders if he plays just 12 minutes on Saturday.
