BRIDGEVIEW, IL – A young 'Caps side fell to Indy Eleven 2-0 on Saturday afternoon in the back half of a final preseason doubleheader at SeatGeek Stadium.
After a 3-2 victory over Chicago Fire FC in the opening match, the second contest featured a starting lineup with nine products from the Whitecaps FC BMO MLS Academy, and 10 total academy products playing. The young squad found a number of attacking chances throughout the match, but were unable to finish during a rainy afternoon south of Chicago.
As with the first match of the day, the scoring started early, this time in favour of the opposition as Indy’s Jordan Hamilton settled a low cross into the box, spun and sent it into the back of the net at close range in the fourth minute. For the remainder of the shortened half, the ‘Caps created chances but still sought a breakthrough; while on the other end of the pitch, Evan Newton made a number of solid saves to thwart the Indy attack.
After the break, Indy Eleven doubled the lead. In similar fashion to his first goal, Hamilton slotted another close ball beyond Newton in the 40th minute to give the USL Championship side a 2-0 advantage with just under half an hour of play remaining. Despite late attempts to alter the outcome, the 2-0 Indy lead would last the duration of the shortened 65-minute match.
With preseason coming to an end after wins over Real Monarchs and Chicago Fire FC, the 'Caps first team now looks ahead to the start of the 2021 MLS season. Vancouver has just over a week to prepare for their first regular season action as they welcome Cascadia rivals Portland Timbers to Utah's Rio Tinto Stadium on Sunday, April 18. Kickoff will be at 7 p.m. PT and the match can be seen on TSN1, TSN3 and heard on AM 730.
Stay tuned to whitecapsfc.com for the latest news and updates.
MATCH DETAILS
Scoring summary
4' - IND - Jordan Hamilton
40' - IND - Jordan Hamilton
Vancouver Whitecaps FC
12.Evan Newton; 34.Gianfranco Facchineri, 61.Matteo Campagna, 23.Javain Brown, 65.Keishean Francois; 55.Michael Baldisimo, 32.Patrick Metcalfe; 57.Amir Batyrev (92.Jay Herdman* HT), 62.Damiano Pecile, 47.Kamron Habibullah; 14.Theo Bair*
Substitutes not used
1.Thomas Hasal*
*BMO Academy System player
