The Canadian Championship winner will be decided Tuesday, and, yet again, it will come down to a battle between teams in Major League Soccer. An MLS team has won the competition every year since 2009. The Montreal Impact were the only non-MLS team to win when they took the trophy while they were an NASL team in 2008. Toronto specifically has dominated in the competition, winning eight times in 14 tries. Vancouver would need to pull an upset to hoist their first title since 2015.
Things got a lot harder for the Whitecaps with Toronto’s new designated players debuting on Saturday. Lorenzo Insigne and Federico Bernardeschi only played a half over the weekend, but Toronto scored four goals against Charlotte FC to show the impact their new star attackers can have. While it won’t always be that easy for Toronto to score, it shows the danger that Andres Cubas and the Whitecaps will have to prepare for.
The Whitecaps have improved as well with the arrival of Cubas improving the defense but the attack hasn’t been up to par with some of the stronger teams in MLS. This led to the acquisition of Julian Gressel from D.C. United to create chances as a wing back but they’ll need to play perfectly to get a victory, even though they’re backed by home support at BC Place.
Here’s our storylines, how you can watch the match and more:
How to watch and odds
- Date: Tuesday, July 26 | Time: 10:30 p.m. ET
- Location: BC Place — Vancouver, British Columbia
- TV: None | Live stream: fuboTV (Try for free)
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Storylines
Vancouver Whitecaps: Winless in their last four since defeating Los Angeles FC, Vancouver have allowed 10 goals during the stretch while only scoring five. They’ve also only scored more than one goal once during the winless streak, which doesn’t bode well against a high scoring Toronto side. Cubas and Gressel will have quite a lot of work to do to lead Vancouver to a victory as they’ll need to take a defensive approach while hoping that Toronto makes mistakes.
Toronto FC: With Insigne and Bernardeschi on the pitch, recent history is out the window for Toronto but the player who can’t be forgotten when discussing new additions is Mark Anthony-Kaye. Acquired from a trade with the Colorado Rapids, the Toronto native has a high enough work rate to allow the attackers to stay forward while linking defense with the attack. With Anthony-Kaye and Michael Bradley in midfield, it won’t be a surprise at all to see the reds wrap up their eighth Canadian Championship.
Prediction
Vancouver will have their hands full trying to contain Toronto and while they’ll put up a fight, it won’t be enough to see things out. Pick: Vancouver 1, Toronto 2
