Photo Epic: Whitecaps FC Home Opener vs Real Salt Lake - Feb 21, 2026

Welcome back, Southside, re-united. (Image Credit: Alex Bowen / Cascadia FC)

Welcome back, a fresh season, a chance to reset but also build on the success of 2025. After nearly going the distance in the MLS Cup Final, it felt like a short turn around, the guys went through training camp in Spain, pre-season matches, and made minimal roster changes overall, and now BC Place opens it's doors for the first MLS regular season match at home.

The first march of the Southsiders and Rainy City Brigade. (Image Credit: Alex Bowen / Cascadia FC)

Some old faces, and some new; new on the field: Aziel Jackson (AZ), an American Attacking Midfielder on loan from Jagiellonia Białystok (Poland) makes his MLS debut. While we didn't see them play, the Whitecaps have added a few more players to the roster: Cheikh Sabaly, Oliver Larraz, Bruno Caicedo, and promoted from the Whitecaps 2 roster Mihail Gherasimencov. Transferring Ali Ahmed to Norwich City FC was tough for the fans to see, his on-field contribution on the wing was something that kept the transition portion of the Whitecaps attack so deadly. Joedrick Pupe, Giuseppe Bovalina, and Nelson Pierre, are all loaned out, and Andrés Cubas and Tristan Blackmon both re-signed contracts on multi year deals.

New and familiar faces. (Image Credit: Alex Bowen / Cascadia FC)

(Image Credit: Alex Bowen / Cascadia FC)

"THIS CLUB MEANS SO MUCH TO SO MANY, THE WHITECAPS BELONG TO VANCOUVER." (Image Credit: Alex Bowen / Cascadia FC)

A strong message from the fans pre kick off: "THIS CLUB MEANS SO MUCH TO SO MANY, THE WHITECAPS BELONG TO VANCOUVER." Amid speculation surrounding the club's future home stadium, the fans rally for a pre-match banner essentially demanding that the club and the Province of BC (who own BC Place under a Crown Corporation called PavCo) come to some kind of terms to allow the team to continue to reside at BC Place with a higher revenue share. While the team remains for sale, any potential buyer would likely want to secure grounds to build a new dedicated home for the Whitecaps. This past season saw a consistently full capacity crowd; building a stadium in Metro Vancouver with a 25,000-30,000 person capacity comes with extremely limited location options, none of which seem to be viable possibilities at this time.

Battles for the ball. (Image Credit: Alex Bowen / Cascadia FC)

The match itself got off to a slow start, the first half ending 0-0 with no real push from either side. The lone goal of the match came in the 57th minute from Aziel Jackson (AZ) with his first MLS goal in his first MLS match. Not a bad way to close out a home opener. A full crowd, an MLS first goal, and a win.