MARBELLA, SPAIN – Fafà Picault scored his first goal in ‘Caps colours on Tuesday as Vancouver Whitecaps FC wrapped up their preseason camp in Marbella, Spain with a 1-1 draw against Norwegian top flight side FK Haugesund.
The ‘Caps now turn their attention to their first competitive match of 2024, the first leg of the Concacaf Champions Cup versus Mexican giants Tigres UANL next Wednesday, February 7 at Starlight Stadium in Langford, BC. Kickoff is at 7 p.m. PT and limited tickets remain available at ticketmaster.ca/whitecaps.
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Picault had the first chance of the match after Alessandro Schöpf forced a turnover, but his shot went high five minutes in.
On 34 minutes, FK Haugesund and Norwegian national team goalkeeper Egil Selvik was shown a straight red card after handling the ball outside of the box to prevent a goal from Brian White.
The ‘Caps opened the scoring on 54 minutes. White beat the goalkeeper to the ball in the box and fed Picault in front of an open net to make it 1-0.
Whitecaps FC had an opportunity to double their lead on 71 minutes as Ryan Raposo was taken down in the box. Ryan Gauld stepped up to take it but saw his strike ricochet off the post to keep it at 1-0.
The Blue & White kept the pressure on, but after a series of substitutions, it was FK Haugesund who would find an equalizer in the dying minutes, scoring on a penalty kick after a questionable call in the box.
The ‘Caps now return to Vancouver on Thursday, continuing preparations to face Tigres before departing for Vancouver Island on Monday, February 5.
Only 32 days remain until the club’s MLS season opener on Saturday, March 2 when they host Charlotte FC for the first time at BC Place. The upper bowl is open and more than 25,000 tickets have already been sold. For more information on tickets, visit whitecapsfc.com/tickets.
MATCH DETAILS
Scoring Summary
54’ – VAN – Fafà Picault (Brian White)
87’ – FKH
Ejection
35’ – FKH – Egil Selvik
Vancouver Whitecaps FC
18.Yohei Takaoka; 2.MathÃas Laborda, 4.Ranko Veselinović (23.Javain Brown 66’), 6.Tristan Blackmon; 27.Ryan Raposo (53.Buster Sjöberg+ 75’), 20.Andrés Cubas (59.Jeevan Badwal^ 39’), 14.LuÃs Martins (16.Sebastian Berhalter 56’); 8.Alessandro Schöpf (26.J.C. Ngando 66’); 25.Ryan Gauld © (28.Levonte Johnson 79’), 24.Brian White (52.Nicolas Fleuriau Chateau+ 79’), 92.Fafà Picault (19.Damir Kreilach 56’)
^ WFC2 & Academy camp invitee
+ Unsigned SuperDraft selection or trialist
