Caps set to battle Canadian foes, but schedule then becomes murky
The Vancouver Whitecaps are back. Again.
Major League Soccer will resume north of the border this month, when the Whitecaps and their two Canadian rivals will play a home-and-away series, with each club hosting three games, starting when the Caps visit Toronto FC on Tuesday, Aug. 18.
The Caps play the Reds three days later (5 p.m.) before heading to Montreal to visit the Impact at Saputo Field on Tuesday, Aug. 25 (5 p.m.).
The Whitecaps return home to host TFC on Saturday, Sept. 5 at 6:30 p.m. at B.C. Place Stadium, before welcoming Montreal for a pair of games on Sunday, Sept. 13 (6:30 p.m.) and Wednesday, Sept. 16 (6:30 p.m.).
All Vancouver games will be broadcast on TSN and TSN 1040 AM.
The points from the Canadian rivals series count in the MLS regular-season standings, but also determine the team that will qualify for the 2020 Canadian Championship final. The other team will be the winner of the Canadian Premier League’s Island Games tournament, currently underway in Charlottetown, P.E.I.
The date and location of the Voyageurs Cup, which determines the next qualifier for the CONCACAF Champions League, is still to be determined.
The next phase of MLS play hasn’t been announced yet, but the league has released three other
key dates. The regular season ends Nov. 8, with playoffs starting Nov. 20 and concluding with the MLS Cup on Dec. 12.
FC Dallas fell 1-0 to Nashville SC on Wednesday, the day after the MLS Is Back Tournament in Orlando finished with the Portland Timbers beating Orlando City, marking the return to regular-season play in the United States.
Nashville and Dallas both pulled out of the MLS Is Back tourney after having close to 20 players and staff between them test positive for novel coronavirus.
Those two teams meet again Sunday, while the rest of the league gets back to action next week, as MLS has plans for each team to play another 18 regular-season games before Decision Day on Nov. 8.
The reduced schedule caused by COVID -19 prompted the league to expand its playoff bracket, with four more teams — 18 in total — making the post-season.
The strict cross-border quarantine requirements have made any play in the U.S. unfeasible for Canadian teams, but several media reports have Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver relocating to American cities — New York,
Foxborough, Mass., and Portland, respectively — for the remainder of the regular season.
The league has said it will announce its plans officially by early September as officials continue to work with infectious-disease experts, league and club medical personnel, and government officials in all markets across the U.S.
America currently has 5.25 million confirmed cases of COVID -19, with the death toll now at 167,000. The states with the most active cases are California (600,000), Florida (557,000), Texas (531,000) and New York (428,000), home to a total of seven MLS clubs.
The MLS Is Back tourney was a hub city format, with the players in a protective bubble and isolated from the outside world. The NBA and NHL have seen success with their versions, without a single case of transmission inside their bubbles. But MLS and USL, two leagues both attempting to resume intercity play, have been hammered with positive cases and forced to cancel games.
In college football, several conferences have cancelled the fall season.
The Whitecaps had five players miss the MLS Is Back tourney in Orlando due to issues that ranged from opting out, to medical exemptions, to visa complications. Should the pandemic not be brought under control by then, four of those players (Lucas Cavallini, Tosaint Ricketts, Fredy Montero, Andy Rose) who either opted out or had medical risks in playing may not participate.
Georges Mukumbilwa has visa issues, and is currently unable to travel to the U.S.
ESPN’s Jeff Carlisle reported that the MLS and MLS Players Association are nearing an agreement on a protocol for players to opt out of the remainder of the season, possibly even by the end of the week.
Whitecaps coach Marc Dos Santos has yet to have those discussions with his players.
“Not yet,” he said Wednesday. “The reason why we didn’t do that yet is because nothing ’s confirmed. We don’t need to create anxiety or to come with the ‘maybes’ of this world. One thing that’s pretty much sure is that our players are ready … we’re going to go to the east to play Toronto and Montreal. So we’re getting ready for that.
“And the way things have gone with the U.S. with COVID, we don’t know what the world’s gonna look like in one month. So I don’t want to be putting players in a position of, ‘Oh man, are we leaving or what am I going to do if I have to go away for two months?’ For us, (that decision) to go is two months away.
“I don’t know, you don’t know, if the numbers go so high in the U.S. and then the league’s gonna stop in September. We really don’t know. Nothing is confirmed right now. MLS is really taking it one step at a time, because that’s the reality we’re facing right now. It’s hard for sports; it’s a really hard world for sports right now. It’s sad, but it’s how it is.”