What a season it has been for the Vancouver Whitecaps.
Written off by many media pundits at the start of the 2025 MLS regular season, the Whitecaps proved them wrong by finishing second in the Western Conference and fifth overall in the league.
Vancouver enters the MLS Cup playoffs as the only Canadian club looking to join Toronto FC (in 2017) as the only clubs north of the border to win the Philip F. Anschutz Trophy.
Here's what you need to know about the Whitecaps' first-round playoff series against FC Dallas.
How this playoff series works
The first round of the MLS playoffs in the Western and Eastern Conferences consists of best-of-three series (rather than single-elimination competitions). In the best-of-3 format, no game can end in a draw. If the match ends in a draw at the end of normal time, a penalty shoot-out is immediately awarded. The first team to win two games advances to the conference semifinals.
Game 1: Sunday, October 26, 4:30 pm PT at BC Place, Vancouver, BC.
Game 2: Saturday, November 1, 6:30 PM PT – Toyota Stadium, Frisco, TX.
Game 3 (if applicable): Friday, November 7 (time TBA) – BC Place, Vancouver, BC
In the Western Conference semifinals, Vancouver/Dallas will meet the winner of the Los Angeles-Austin series. Vancouver will host this match if Dallas wins.
Whitecaps proves critics terribly wrong
The MLS website gave the Vancouver Whitecaps plenty of motivation ahead of the regular season when a panel of league experts including writers, TV commentators and former players offered their predictions for the campaign. Eight of the nine panelists predicted the Whitecaps would fail to make the playoffs, with one saying they would finish last in the Western Conference.
How wrong they were! The Whitecaps eventually finished second in the Western Conference, setting club records for most points in a single MLS season (63), most wins (18), most away wins (eight) and most goals scored (66). Vancouver also led the league in 2025 in goal differential (plus-28) and finished with the fewest losses (seven).
The lack of respect shown to the Whitecaps this season has been shocking and has fueled them throughout the campaign, particularly during an eight-match unbeaten run from August 17 to October 11, which included a 7-0 win over Philadelphia Union, who won the Supporters' Shield as regular season champions. Winning the MLS Cup will make everyone who wrote Vancouver off at the start of the year eat their words.
Whitecaps player to watch: Thomas Muller
As if they weren't strong enough, the Whitecaps pulled off a major coup in August when they acquired free agent striker Thomas Muller in one of the biggest player acquisitions in MLS history.
Müller's reputation precedes him as an icon at Bayern Munich, where he is the German club's third all-time leading goalscorer with 250 goals and has won a record 13 Bundesliga titles, six German Cups, eight national Super Cups and two Champions League titles. He also helped Germany win the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil, where he won the Golden Boot, and is among the top 10 all-time goalscorers in the tournament's storied history, with 10 goals in 19 matches.
Any thoughts that the 36-year-old would be coming to Vancouver for a paid vacation were quickly dispelled. The German veteran hit the ground running in MLS, scoring seven goals and adding three assists in seven games (six starts), earning praise from coach Jesper Sorensen.
“He couldn't have played at the level he's played throughout his career without his amazing quality. The way he sees the game, the way he strives to help his teammates all the time. By setting high standards for everyone around him, he's very easy to coach,” Sørensen said.
Whitecaps is more than just Thomas Muller
Thomas Mueller grabs most of the headlines, but it's hardly a one-man show in Vancouver. The Whitecaps team is one of the most balanced teams in MLS with great depth and genuine quality at every position.
In goal is Japan's Yohei Takaoka, who led the league with 13 clean sheets and was named a finalist for the MLS Goalkeeper of the Year award. Tristan Blackmon, a Defensive Player of the Year candidate, was a defenseman who allowed just 38 goals during the regular season (the second-best defensive mark in the league).
Sebastian Berhalter led the team in assists with 11, starring a solid midfield core that also includes Canadian internationals Ali Ahmed and Jayden Nelson, Ecuadorian Pedro Viete and Ryan Gauld (2023 league MVP finalist). Striker Brian White has scored 16 goals this season, tied for the third-highest scoring offense in MLS (66 goals).
What ties it all together is Jesper Sorensen, who is in the running for MLS Coach of the Year. Little was known about the Danish coach before he was hired in January, but the Whitecaps have proven forward-thinking.
Vancouver can't afford to take Dallas lightly, especially after everything the Texans have been through this season. Dallas hit a brick wall when it posted just one win in 12 games from May 3 to July 16 and fell to 13th in the West. The company also sold former league MVP Luciano Acosta to Brazilian club Fluminense in August after acquiring the Argentine midfielder in a blockbuster pre-season deal with FC Cincinnati.
But coach Eric Quill's team managed to turn the situation around and entered the playoffs with full confidence, suffering only one defeat in the last 10 games of the season (five wins and four draws). Croatian forward Petar Musa is coming off a sensational regular season in which he scored 18 goals and recorded six assists (both team highs).
Former MLS star Dax McCarthy, now a TV commentator, has chosen Dallas as one of his dark horses for the playoffs.
“Vancouver is the favorite in the first round of the series, but we just saw Dallas move up at BC Place. [and win last weekend]. The early red card certainly helped. But this result will do wonders for their confidence and Dallas may be ready for an upset.” McCarthy said.
Vancouver vs Dallas: A Brief History
Dallas leads the all-time series against Vancouver with a record of 13 wins, 11 losses and nine draws dating back to their first meeting in the 2011 MLS season when the Whitecaps were an expansion club.
One of Dallas' 13 wins over Vancouver came in the 2014 playoffs, with the Texans scoring a 2-1 home win over the Whitecaps in the first round.
Vancouver is 7-4-6 at home against Dallas and has a 4-8-3 road record against its Western Conference opponent.
The teams split the 2025 regular season series. On 15 March, the Whitecaps secured a 1-0 away win thanks to Tristan Blackmon's 54th-minute goal. Dallas earned revenge on the final day of the season last weekend with a 2-1 win over Vancouver.
Editor's note
John Molinaro is one of Canada's leading soccer journalists, having covered the game for more than 20 years for several media outlets, including Sportsnet, CBC Sports and Sun Media. Currently he is the editor-in-chief of the magazine TFC Republicwebsite dedicated to in-depth coverage of Toronto FC and Canadian soccer.
