Photo Epic: Decision Day - Whitecaps FC vs Dallas FC, Oct 18, 2025

VANCOUVER - It all comes down to this.

It's hard to pin this season on a single moment. It's hard to say "this player made the most impact", or "this game was the turning point". This team, bought into the idea that they can fight for the MLS Cup and have been determined to get there. "Next Man Up" mentality has kept this team going through some pretty heavy injuries. Brian White is still out, Tristan Blackmon is still out, Ranko Veselinovic is still out. Ryan Gauld returned from injury, Thomas Müller was on a brief injury leave, and various other injuries or illnesses have forced Jesper Sörensen to put some pretty interesting starting 10 combinations out on the pitch.

The Whitecaps lead the west, fighting for the top seed going into the playoffs. Their odds were good. All Vancouver had to do was force a draw, or take a win to secure the spot. San Diego had to win otherwise they would have no chance of leap frogging the Whitecaps for 1st.

What would follow was one of the most chaotic matches we might have experienced in front of an absolutely sold out crowd of 26,741. Even our Tim Ford match this season seemed tame in comparison. 11 minutes in Laborda was alleged to have denied a clear opportunity at a goal, and the incident held the match for review for minutes. Laborda would be sent off on a red card, and the Whitecaps were forced into an 80 minute battle for survival.

Dallas would obviously capitalize on the mis-matched personnel on the pitch scoring a goal minutes later, but the Whitecaps seemed determined to hang on to the hope of taking the west. Vancouver, despite being down a man, would retain possession across 68% of the match, would take more shots (17-11), more corners, more crosses, less offsides, and less overall yellow cards. With 10 men on the pitch, Vancouver had momentous opportunities that they either were unable to capitalize on, or were denied by saved or blocked shots. Multiple post and cross bars, balls that would deflect inches wide, the ball seemingly negatively magnetized to avoid going in the one space they needed it to go.

Despite the better efforts of the football gods, the Whitecaps nearly pulled out a draw. Sabbi took a long ball, and subsequent run towards Willie's corner when Lalas Abubakar made absolutely no inteention of playing the ball and took Sabbi down inside the 20 yard box. Müller stepped up to take the point kick, and put the cherry on top of Sabbi's effort. The argument for what could have been a reciprocal red card for FC Dallas is certainly debatable. Yohei Takaoka stood on his head, and gave the Whitecaps the best opportunity he could, denying a 1 on 1, and multiple other high danger goal chances.

With the Whitecaps being unable to capitalize on their chances, it seemed inevitable that the match wouldn't go their way. Whether or not they were aware that San Diego were up 4-0 over the Portland Timbers or not, the Whitecaps continued to push, but would fall 2-1, to take the 2nd seed in the west.

The Whitecaps begin their 2025 Audi MLS Cup Playoff campaign with a Round One Best-of-3 Series rematch against FC Dallas at home on Oct, 26th at 4:30PM.

All Words & Image Credits: Alex Bowen / Cascadia FC