Big soccer weekend ahead at BC Place with Whitecaps, Canada playing

Anne-Marie Sorvin-USA TODAY Sports | Canada Soccer

It’s a big weekend at BC Place. Summer kind of weekend. Even if Mother Nature doesn’t agree.

BC Lions final preseason tune up on Friday, then soccer takes over Saturday and Sunday with the Vancouver Whitecaps taking on Real Salt Lake, and then Canada hosting Panama.

Panama fresh off a 2—nil win over Costa Rica.

Tickets are on sale NOW for our Men's National Team International match vs. Panama at BC Place in Vancouver! 🍁

All Lower Bowl Tickets are only $30, so act fast!
👉 https://t.co/72Id5Kzba8 #CANMNT #WeCAN pic.twitter.com/HumzQmKDQf

— Canada Soccer (@CanadaSoccerEN) June 1, 2022

Make no mistake, while the excitement may be biggest for that Canada match, as the men’s team makes its return to the stadium following a qualifying stage that avoided BC Place, the Whitecaps match is by far bigger than any conference friendly.

The ‘Caps can feel a whole lot better about themselves following the month of May that they just had. But a big part of that good news were the results in the Canadian Championships. There’s still a whole lot of heavy lifting that needs to be done on the MLS side of things, and Real Salt Lake is no slouch this season, currently sitting third in the West.

Vancouver will be without their MVP so far in Lucas Cavalini, as he’s with the squad playing on Sunday. That means Brian White has to jump into form after a bout with COVID, and means the Whitecaps have to hope Ryan Gauld shows well enough in training to get the call as well, as he comes back from injury.

This is a game in hand for the Whitecaps against most teams around them at the bottom of the Western Conference, and a win here puts them squarely in the playoff mix, and who would have thought that a month ago?

And with Canada’s mens team likely in the house to take in all the action, perhaps some inspiration to get the job done.

There’s a big break coming after this one. Ten days till the next match in Seattle. And that one could even feature new defensive midfielder Andres Cubas. But there can’t be the letdown as they wait for the reinforcements, or get excited about a break.

Lots of road left for the Whitecaps this season, but they need to make sure they can still see the tail lights of the cars in front.

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