Vancouver Whitecaps chasing MLS glory in stunning breakout season

The floodlights of BC Place illuminate the pitch like the sun on the water on a summer morning. Players breathe heavily, fans cheer and sing. As the man makes his first steps onto the pitch, the atmosphere is one of love and excitement. Any nerves he had are washed away. Thomas Muller has arrived.  

The Vancouver Whitecaps have not been taken seriously by most Vancouverites for years.  Bad season after bad season with no hints of change left fans frustrated and bored, and many stopped going to games at all. With the owners looking to sell in 2024, the conversation was opened to possibly move the club out of Vancouver. 

But then, around six months ago, a light switched on within the team. Suddenly they could not stop winning. Now in October, the Caps are top of the MLS Western Conference and are going into the playoffs as strong favourites. This run of form is outstanding, and Caps fans can only hope that it continues. 

So, how did we get here? 

The Whitecaps have always been consistent in being painfully average. They have never finished first in the West and have only gotten as far as the conference semifinal in the playoffs. Their first season in the MLS in 2011 was especially bad, they finished in last place with 18 losses, 10 draws, and a measly 6 wins. Though they’ve improved since then, they have never been a top competitor like they should be. 

Granted, coach Vanni Sartini led the team to 3 consecutive Canadian Championship victories from 2022-2024, but the team was still not reaching its potential. Vancouver is a huge city with a population of over 750,000, Metro Vancouver having over 3 million. The club should be big enough to compete with American teams, not just beat other Canadians. The board, seeking some real change, fired Sartini in November of 2024. 

The sacking of the coach was just the start of the transformation of the Whitecaps though, as it was around this time that it was announced that the owners of the club were interested in selling. The main problem with this for the fans is that the new owners could choose to move the club out of Vancouver. The franchise was not exactly thriving, and moving to a more sports-oriented city in America could be something a would-be-buyer might want. Luckily, this discussion was put to rest relatively quickly, so the fans did not have to worry for long. Now the owners have pivoted from wanting a full sale to looking for a new partner to invest in the team.  

Danish coach Jesper Sorensen, hired in 2025, has been partly credited with turning the team from a reliable loser to potential champions. With no playoffs for the Caps and the regular season not starting again till February, there was plenty of time to find the right replacement for Sartini. The man chosen was Jesper Sorensen, someone who had spent his entire career, playing and coaching, in Denmark. It seemed crazy to hire someone with no experience in the American league to bring the Whitecaps success! In his first press conference the Dane gave some insight into why he wanted the job and his plans for the team.  

“From what I see from the squad right now is that you have a lot of quality, you have experience, but you also have potential, you have younger players that can maybe take the next step,” Sorensen told the media. The coach had big goals for the upcoming season, and his confidence made the fans optimistic. 

Sure enough, as the 2025 season began, it was like a new team stepped onto the pitch.   The opener was a 4-1 victory over Portland on February 23rd thanks to a masterclass from young star Jayden Nelson. This was followed by a win in the Concacaf Champions Cup, a tournament that runs at the same time as the season between teams from all over North and South America.  

It took a whole month for the team to have their first loss of the season, 3-1 against Chicago at home in mid-March, coming off captain Ryan Gauld’s injury.  

By this point, they were already in the quarterfinals of the Concacaf Cup. After 2 gritty legs of football against Mexican side Pumas, the teams were tied 3-3, thanks to a last-minute heroic volley from defender Tristan Blackmon to equalize. Luckily, the caps were able to progress to the semi-finals due to having more goals away from home. It was at this time that they learned that in order to advance to the final, they would have to beat Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami.  

In 2023, Inter Miami was able to sign superstar Lionel Messi who was then quickly followed by the signing of Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba in July 2023, and Luis Suarez in 2024. These players were all part of the legendary Barcelona 2015 team.  

Facing Inter Miami, the Whitecaps certainly had their work cut out for them.  

The first leg was to be played at BC Place, but Vancouver was still the ultimate underdog. The Caps rolled over Miami 2-0 with an early header from Brian White paired with a late goal to secure the first win from Sebastian Berhalter. The semifinal was not concluded though, as the second leg would be played in Miami. A goal from Miami’s Jordi Alba in just the 9th minute showed that it would not be easy for the Caps. Both teams fought hard for the rest of the first half, but the second half was all Vancouver. They simply outclassed the American side and scored 3 goals in 20 minutes to win the match and bring the score to 5-1 on aggregate. 

This semifinal was a wakeup call to the rest of Concacaf that the Whitecaps were not to be overlooked.  

The team continued to show this and going into the Concacaf Champions Cup final, they were unbeaten in 15 matches. Now June, the final was against Cruz Azul, a Mexican club that had won the trophy six times, the last being in 2014. It was sure to be tough, but with the form that Vancouver was on, it was looking really good for the Whitecaps to pick up some silverware. All the team’s hard work seemed to lead to this moment; a win was going to mean the world.  

Cruz Azul crushed the Caps in an embarrassing 5-0 defeat. 

Vancouver fans and players were devastated. The next two months were a rocky road of losses and a few wins. It seemed as if the Whitecaps had cracked under pressure and now were right back to their old ways. Something needed to change, and fast, or else the team’s comeback story was going to end as quickly as it began. 

The Whitecaps’ signing of Thomas Muller was this change.  

Muller is one of the greatest midfielders of all time. He has amassed 34 trophies in his career, including a World Cup, 2 European Champions Leagues, and 13 German league titles. Truly one of the best to ever play the beautiful game, most fans thought he would retire at Bayern, the team he had played for his whole career.  

Thomas, however, wanted a new challenge, and by some miracle, he was interested in the Whitecaps.  

Fans could only look to Alphonso Davies, a player who came up through the Whitecaps and had been playing for Bayern since 2019. On August 6th, it was confirmed. The German legend was coming to Vancouver to play for the Whitecaps. Muller said he is “Looking forward to coming to Vancouver to help this team win a championship,” and that he has “Heard great things about the city.”  

He was met at YVR with a flood of screaming fans and ticket sales at BC Place surged. His debut game? Sold out.  

Maybe, just maybe, Thomas Muller is the missing piece to the Whitecaps puzzle. 

If you want to bake a cake, you need a baker to teach you how. If you want to win trophies, you need someone with experience to guide you along the way. The Whitecaps haven’t lost a game since Thomas Muller debuted on August 17th, and the team picked up their 4th consecutive Canadian Championship title in September. The team is currently battling for first place in the league, something absolutely nobody could have predicted a few years ago.  

With no sign of slowing down, the world is wondering, how far will the Vancouver Whitecaps take this incredible run, and what will they do when Muller’s contract runs out at the end of the season.   

Cover Image: Vancouver Whitecaps-whitecapsfc.com