Staff Predictions: Vancouver Whitecaps vs. Toronto FC

We predict whether Toronto FC will walk out of BC Place with the Voyageurs Cup.

Toronto FC will play their biggest game of the season when they take on the Vancouver Whitecaps, hoping to win the Voyageurs Cup in hostile territory. While Toronto is leading 1-0 on aggregate, the Whitecaps are no strangers to dramatic comebacks, as they overcame a 2-0 deficit against Ottawa to get to the Canadian Championship Final.

Prior to this match, Toronto FC lost a very controversial game against Orlando City. Not only do they feel the result was unjust, they also lost Clint Irwin who, at the time, had played in every game this season. They were also hoping to welcome back Michael Bradley, but he will be out with a knee injury.

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The odds were already stacked against Toronto, with it being a road game and having to rotate their squad. But their injuries will keep their rotation options limited, and Irwin’s back-up, likely to be Quillan Roberts after Alex Bono gave up two goals in the last 20 minutes against Orlando, is a significant drop-off.

An away goal will be critical for Toronto, and they will get one, but it won’t be enough as Vancouver will be too much to handle on the day. They will ultimately impose their will on the rookie goalie, and race out to a three-goal lead before winning the Voyageurs Cup on home soil. Under different circumstances, I might have favored Toronto FC to win, but their injuries will be too much to handle, and Toronto always finds a way to collapse on the big stage.

Predictions:

With that in mind, let’s see how the rest of our staff envisioned this match playing out:

Markus: 2-1 Vancouver. Toronto FC will look to set the tone and score an early goal, but Vancouver will strike back with 2 more later on in the game. Expect TFC to park the bus for a majority of the game if they remain up on aggregate. TFC win on away goals.

Matt: 2-1 Vancouver as well.. Carl Robinson knows very well our team is hurt by injury and will try to exploit our weakness at the back.. Like Markus said, we’ll end up taking silverware home by having more away goals.

While we all predict losses, I’m the only one who believes that Vancouver will walk away with the silverware. It’s very likely that, regardless of the outcome, Whitecaps fans will riot over the away goals rule. Toronto will be dealing with lots of adversity, but here’s hoping they can overcome it en route to a Voyageurs Cup win. Come on you Reds!

We predict whether Toronto FC will walk out of BC Place with the Voyageurs Cup.

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