The Vancouver Whitecaps are heading into the offseason feeling optimistic about the future despite a first-round MLS playoff exit to LAFC for a second consecutive year.
The core of the team is expected to return when players report to training camp in January.
Head coach Vanni Sartini, who has one year remaining on his contract, met with the media this week to discuss what happened in 2024 and where the team is headed next year.
Lessons learned
Selecting a healthy player over a banged-up player with high potential to produce is a tough call for a coach. Sartini wants to take what he learned this season about players’ conditions and apply it to next season to make better decisions.
“You always need to choose condition over potential and a couple of times I didn’t do it,” Sartini admitted. “I regret it. I chose the lineup probably with potential but not with players in top condition, going a little bit against what I would have done and that was hurtful when you don’t follow your philosophy.”
While Sartini would not provide any examples when pressed on the topic, he did admit this past summer that he was convinced to start Ryan Gauld at Montreal on July 6, three days after a win over Minnesota United, when he originally planned to rest Gauld in Quebec.
Whitecaps need to be better at BC Place
The Whitecaps won just six of 17 MLS regular season matches at BC Place this season (6W-7L-4D). In order to secure a home advantage in the playoffs next season Sartini knows his team need to improve their results at home and avoid another late-summer slide in the standings.
“During the regular season, we were so close to achieving something special to arrive in the top four,” Sartini told reporters. “Three or four games at the end didn’t go the way we wanted them to go. Our fault. The playoffs were the same, they were very close to get to the next round.”
There is a sense that the 2024 season was a missed opportunity for the Whitecaps. It ends on a sour note that leading goal-scorer Brian White doesn’t want a repeat of in 2025.
“Definitely a bit of frustration,” White said. “You think back at opportunities missed. You think about what could have been if you had done this better in this game or that game. It’s always going to be that way if you don’t win the ultimate prize. It’s definitely frustration.”
Love for Whitecaps fans
MLS playoff wins have been few and far between for the Whitecaps and Sartini appreciates the support.
The Italian manager expressed that as only he can.
“The fans want to support the Whitecaps first of all because it’s an act of love and there’s nothing better than an act of love in life,” Sartini said. “We need them and without them we’re nothing. They can have the assurance we are going to give 1,000%.”
If the Whitecaps hoist the MLS Cup one day, Sartini wants to be there no matter what.
“I don’t know if it’s going to be in 10 years,” Sartini said. “It will come the day when we are going to do a parade in Robson Square because we won the MLS Cup. I don’t know if I will be there to be the coach, a fan, or an old man. Hopefully it doesn’t come that late.”
Goalkeeper duo
Yohei Takaoka has started in all but two MLS regular season matches since he joined the Whitecaps last year. That could change next season with the emergence of Isaac Boehmer.
“If Yohei is here and Isaac is here, I think we have a number one and one and a half,” Sartini said. “In the sense that we will evaluate and put Isaac in more rotation in some games during the season.”
The Whitecaps have a club option on Takaoka for the 2025 season, but he may have let the cat out of the bag when he spoke to the media.
“I’m really excited to come back here next season,” Takaoka said. “Next season is going to be different. We need to be better than this year. It’s going to be hard, but I’m looking forward to it.”
Family vacation
Sartini celebrated his 48th birthday this week. He plans to spend his time off with his wife, Barbara, visiting Italy later this month before a trip to the beaches of Fiji in December.