Vancouver will need to be razor sharp against Revs

Vancouver Whitecaps vs. New England Revolution 4 p.m., Gillette Stadium TV: TSN; Radio: TSN 1040 AM

KEY MATCHUP Yordy Reyna vs. Jalil Anibaba

Yordy Reyna has been the lone cylinder firing in a sputtering Vancouver Whitecaps engine. The Peruvian forward has three of the team’s last four goals from open play, dating five games back to June 22. He’s been the only one providing consistent offence and defensive pressure in the final third, and will be a focus for the Revs’ defence, including centreback Jalil Anibaba.

FIVE THINGS TO WATCH

1. Tick tock There are 13 games remaining in the MLS regular season for the Whitecaps (4-9-8), and they’re nine points behind FC Dallas for the final playoff berth, with four teams between them and the Toros.

If there was a chance to make a statement, it was last Saturday against Sporting Kansas City at home, but getting dominated in a 3-0 loss wasn’t the kind of message they wanted to send, as they stumbled to a third consecutive loss and now have just one win in their last 10 league games.

2. Maxing out manpower With five games in the next 17 days, including a July 24 Canadian Championship match against Calgary, there will be much rotation for Vancouver.

The good news: everyone is healthy and available for today’s match, save left back Ali Adnan, who’s suspended for yellow card accumulation.

There’s a chance Scott Sutter could play on his off side — he filled in there against Real Salt Lake this season — to fill in for Adnan, or Brett Levis could also make an appearance. Fredy Montero is back in the lineup, but how will he be deployed? Will the Caps return to a 4-3-3 with the recent struggles in the 3-5-2? Or will he be relegated to the bench in favour of the Reyna-Lucas Venuto/Theo Bair partnership?

3. Besting the west

Those Bahstan brawlers have been particularly unkind to the Western Conference this year, as the Revs are unbeaten at Gillette Stadium (3-0-0) and overall (5-02) against the west.

New England is also unbeaten in the past three games with Vancouver, beating the Caps in 2016 and 2017, as well as tying last year at B.C. Place Stadium in a wild 3-3 game that featured a Cristian Techera hat trick.

The Revs are 3-1-1 overall against Vancouver in their MLS history.

4. Teal is the colour

The traitorous Teal Bunbury (relax, people — it’s a joke), whose dad Alex is third all-time in Canadian men’s scoring, said he’d never play for the United States, but the dual citizen was cap-locked to the Yanks after suiting up for them in 2010. He scored against the Caps in last year’s game, cracked 50 goals all-time in his MLS career that started in 2010 with the K.C. Wizards, and scored all four of his goals this season during the Revs’ unbeaten streak.

5. DP debut

Expect to see New England’s Gustavo Bou in today’s game. The Revs have 24 goals on the season — fourth-lowest in MLS and only two more than Vancouver — and the Argentine striker was signed to help boost that offence.

The 29-year-old Bou had 10 goals in 16 games before being signed from Liga MX side Tijuana for $12 million in transfer fees and salary.