A Cross-Country Trip With Real Stakes
D.C. United are flying nearly 2,300 miles for a game that could decide a lot. They land in Vancouver on Saturday to face the Western Conference-leading Whitecaps, who need only a win, plus a little help elsewhere, to become the second club to clinch an MLS Cup playoff spot this season.
D.C. sit 11th in the East on 29 points, four back of the playoff line, with the eighth-place New York Red Bulls and ninth-place FC Cincinnati both sitting on 33. Nine matches remain. For Rene Weiler’s group, simply being in the conversation counts as progress after finishing dead last in the East a year ago with an MLS-worst 26 points.
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Servania: “Finishing Out Strong”
“I think the biggest thing is just finishing out strong, putting ourselves in a good position,” D.C. midfielder Brandon Servania said. “I think if we focus on our performance, what we can do better, what we didn’t do well, what we want to repeat, it will give us the best possible chance to keep getting results.”
The travel itself is a factor. D.C. left Thursday for the 5 1/2-hour flight west, a deliberate head start Servania welcomed. “It will definitely help getting there a day early and kind of adjust,” he said. The trip gets harder without leading scorer Tai Baribo, who is away on international duty, and D.C. carry just a 2-3-6 road record into a venue that has been brutal for visitors this year.
Vancouver Barely Pausing for Breath
The Whitecaps are 9-4-1 at home with the best goal differential in MLS at plus-33, and they arrive off a 3-0 win in Sandy, Utah. That result closed out a stretch of ten matches in 34 days, including two Canadian Championship fixtures, and gave the squad a rare breather this week. “It’s been an exhausting time with a lot of games the past four weeks,” coach Jesper Sorensen said. “Some players we had to play even more minutes than we might have wanted to, but people look good, and we’re ready to move forward.”
Vancouver holds a five-point cushion over Houston, St. Louis City and FC Dallas in a congested Western Conference chase, while Nashville SC remain the only club to have already locked up a playoff berth.
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