Photo Epic: MLS Cup Playoffs - Vancouver vs FC Dallas, Game 1 - Oct 26, 2025

VANCOUVER - Revenge is a dish best served with a clean sheet.

Decision Day was a day that most Whitecaps fans will not remember fondly. By some accounts, the Whitecaps were nearly guaranteed to win the Western Conference and take the top seed, and guarantee home field advantage all the way to the Western Final. All they had to do was tie or win, and it wouldn't matter if San Diego won their match or not. A loss would mean they would have to hope that San Diego also lost their match, which is where the probabilities fell apart.

Although the outcome of Decision Day was not what fans and experts had predicted, it provided a unique opportunity for redemption, as the playoff seeding meant that the Whitecaps would face off at least twice more against FC Dallas. This opportunity was palpable, you could feel the energy not only from the team, but radiating throughout sports media and fans in the city. Vancouver has a history of "almost getting there" in the playoffs across it's professional teams that call this city home, and yet, for the first time in what feels like eternity, not only has a Vancouver team made the playoffs, they're legitimate contenders.

I'll do a more in depth season recap later, but for now, lets consider that the Whitecaps season has been plagued with consistent and rotating injuries, and yet the "next man up" mentality has kept everyone focussed on the job at hand. All hands on deck to make sure that players are in position correctly, set pieces are executed as practiced, and that points are taken wherever possible. Adding key pieces to the team in Thomas Müller, and his energy to force this team into winning, has bound this group into determination to send this team deep into a playoff run, which they're fully capable of.

You could feel the tension in the opening minutes of the match, a stadium packed full and into the upper deck with over 32,000 fans on edge with ever Whitecaps advance, of which there were many. At full strength the Whitecaps took a dominant control of the game pace;

64.4% Possession - (35.4%)
22 Shots, 10 shots on target - (1, 0)
10 corner kick opportunites - (1)

The opening goal felt like a collective breath of fresh air, when Daniel Ríos put away a header from Ali Ahmed in the 43rd minute, a definitive stamp to the first half.

Emmanuel Sabbi drew a penalty in the 60th minute when a Dallas defender made no attempt on the ball, and Thomas Müller converted the penalty to double up the lead at 2.

Late in the 83rd minute of the match Rayan Elloumi took a ball deep into Dallas territory. Inches from the edge of the field, and while being dragged down by a jersey pull from a defender, he managed to get a touch into the box and Kenji Cabrera was able to put a foot on it with a sliding finish to seal out the match at 3-0.

Yoehi Takaoka earned his third postseason clean sheet, and didn't face a single shot from FC Dallas the entire match.

(Update) - By now game two is in the books, and the Whitecaps are through to the next round, where they will face a heavy matchup with LAFC on November 22nd at 6:30pm, with a current unofficial estimates at over 42,000 tickets already sold, there's enough wind in these sails to potentially sell upwards of 50,000+ tickets well in time before kickoff on November 22nd.