The Vancouver Whitecaps just experienced a week that might turn out to be a turning point in the franchise's life. Thomas Müller's signing was the city headlines, incited the crowd, and focused MLS notice in BC Place. The 35-year-old German blessed by his trophy and record treasure from Bayern Munich started his official debut on Thursday and took the first training with the team on Friday.
Now the highlight all comes down to Sunday's contest against the Houston Dynamo, when Vancouver will attempt to take that off-field excitement and do something with it on the pitch. No word yet officially on whether Müller will appear for his debut, but it's obvious enough that even having him in the building changes the atmosphere.
Vancouver seeking consistency and confidence at BC Place
The Whitecaps enter the match with good numbers and with a comfortable position in the table. They sit second in the Western Conference with 45 points and benefit from having plenty of games at home to finish out the season. They have six of the last nine regular-season games at BC Place. Recent home form is also good: seven wins to this point, improvement from how they performed through all last season.
Adding to that, 43 goals have been registered by the team, second-best in the West, and spearheaded by Brian White, whose personal benchmark was surpassed last week when he scored his 100th goal of his career. He's already up to 12 to date in MLS action this season, and Pedro Vite and JC Ngando share the load as primary distributors, with six assists each.
The memory of that 3-0 road win in Houston in July will serve them well as well. What Vancouver is in need of right now is to break the trend of blowing leads, which they literally paid so expensively for in their loss to San Jose when they went down to ten men and lost. Müller's experience would bring that which had been lacking — composure and game sense under pressure.
Houston over Olsen's experience and Ponce's firepower
The Dynamo are out of shape but they require some steadiness. They are in mid-table with 37 points and finding it difficult to secure a playoff spot. They displayed resolve in last week's 2-2 tie at Austin by coming from behind with two late goals by Jack McGlynn to gain a point that looked lost.
But Ben Olsen's squad has the pain of losing 12 points in matches that they'd gone and won, and in a competitive league, it is something that gets to you. Olsen, who needs only one win for 150 MLS regular-season wins, will rely on experience to tune those aspects.
In the scoring department, Argentine forward Ezequiel Ponce leads the way with nine goals total, seven in league play, and the top playmaker is Griffin Dorsey with six assists. Houston's road record this year is not so good, just three wins, but the fact that they are unbeaten in their last four on the road suggests that they can make it happen.
And the recollection of their edge-of-the-seat 4-3 win in 2023 at BC Place might be an added motivation to expect another victorious result on home soil in Canada.