Vancouver Whitecaps clinched their playoff place at the weekend, and Vanni Sartini does not want his players to play differently against Seattle Sounders.
The Whitecaps may be winless in their last three matches, but their 1-1 draw with Portland Timbers on Saturday was enough to secure their place in the postseason for the third time in the last four seasons.
They are currently seventh in the Western Conference, but Sartini is hopeful they can return to winning ways to push higher up the table.
"We have the luck to be already qualified, so even though it's not like a do or die, we can't be scared," Sartini said.
"Now it's all about the prize that is in front of us. And the prize will hopefully make us perform in a way that is with no restraint, with no fear, with a lot of confidence and going there to try to win.”
"It's all about trying to get into that [postseason] kind of mentality and habits of being a team that can play and win games. We want to try to become playoff winners."
Meanwhile, Seattle, who are unbeaten in four, sit three points and two places above their opponents ahead of Wednesday's meeting.
They ground out a 1-0 victory over Houston Dynamo last time out, and now Brian Schmetzer is aiming to find consistency after securing their own playoff place.
"We're going to play our best team against Vancouver and then Colorado," he said.
"There's no more experimenting. We need to get some consistency and make sure the 11 players I believe are the best continue to grow together as a group."
PLAYERS TO WATCH
Vancouver Whitecaps – Brian White
Brian White has scored 15 goals in back-to-back seasons after only Camilo Sanvezzo (22 in 2013) hit that mark in the Whitecaps first 12 MLS campaigns.
White joins Denis Bouanga and Cucho Hernandez as the only three players with 15 goals in each of the last two MLS seasons.
Seattle Sounders – Paul Rothrock
Paul Rothrock's goal in Seattle's 1-0 win over Houston on Saturday was the 23rd by an American player for the Sounders this regular season.
Only Colorado Rapids (30) have had more goals scored by American players in 2024.
MATCH PREDICTION: VANCOUVER WHITECAPS WIN
The Whitecaps have lost only one of their six meetings with Seattle since September 2022 (W3 D2). Prior to that, Seattle had won 10 of the previous 14 meetings (D4) between the sides.
Vancouver have lost only two of their last 12 regular-season matches (W6 D4) dating back to late June. The Whitecaps conceded eight total goals in the two defeats (four in each match) while allowing nine total goals in the other 10 matches in that time.
Meanwhile, Seattle have won seven of their last 11 away matches in all competitions (D1 L3), including a 4-0 win at Columbus Crew in their last away match. The Sounders had won just seven of their previous 34 on the road prior to this run.
OPTA WIN PROBABILITY
Vancouver Whitecaps – 41.2%
Draw – 26.7%
Seattle Sounders – 32.1%
Barcelona 5-0 Young Boys: Lewandowski brace leads Blaugrana to five-star win
Robert Lewandowski scored twice as Barcelona thrashed Young Boys 5-0 on Tuesday, bouncing back from their opening Champions League defeat at Monaco.
Hansi Flick's team were beaten 2-1 by Monaco in their first game in the competition's new-look league phase, but there were no surprises when Young Boys visited Montjuic on matchday two.
Lewandowski gave the hosts the lead in the eighth minute by tapping in a low Raphinha cross, following good combination play between the Brazilian and teenage sensation Lamine Yamal.
After the hosts squandered some decent chances, a quickfire double from Raphinha and Inigo Martinez gave Barca a 3-0 lead, the Brazilian netting a rebound in the 34th minute and Martinez scoring with a towering header less than three minutes later.
Lewandowski got his second and Barca's fourth shortly after half-time, nodding a Martinez corner home from inside the six-yard box, then Young Boys defender Mohamed Camara bundled the ball into his own net while trying to clear Alejandro Balde's cross late on.
Data Debrief: Lewandowski level with Messi
As well as helping Barca to a crucial victory following their matchday one defeat, Lewandowski's double saw him draw level with Lionel Messi as the most ruthless finishers in Champions League history.
He now averages 0.79 goals per 90 minutes in the competition, a figure only matched by Blaugrana great Messi among all players to play a minimum of 50 matches.
Cristiano Ronaldo (0.77 goals per 90), Ruud van Nistelrooy (0.77) and Karim Benzema (0.59) trail Lewandowski and Messi for that metric.
The Poland star has also now scored 51 Champions League goals after turning 30 years old, becoming just the second player to accomplish that feat after Ronaldo (68).
Slovan Bratislava 0-4 Manchester City: Guardiola's men up and running in Champions League
Manchester City got their Champions League campaign up and running with a 4-0 rout of Slovan Bratislava on Tuesday, with Ilkay Gundogan, Phil Foden, Erling Haaland and James McAtee scoring.
The Premier League champions set up camp in Slovan's half and laid siege to their goal for the duration of the contest at the Stadion Tehelne Pole.
They only needed eight minutes to make the breakthrough as Gundogan scored his first goal since returning to the club after a single season at Barcelona, with his shot deflecting in off Kyriakos Savvidis.
Foden then doubled City's lead with his first goal of the season in the 15th minute, latching onto a pass from Jeremy Doku and curling a strike into the bottom corner.
Haaland killed the game as a contest just before the hour mark, sprinting onto Rico Lewis's pass then stepping around goalkeeper Dominik Takac before slotting into the empty net for his 42nd goal in Europe's premier club competition.
Foden then added an assist to his earlier goal in the 74th minute, teeing up youngster McAtee for his first ever City goal with a dinked pass.
City, winners of the 2022-23 Champions League, opened this season's campaign with a 0-0 draw with Inter and now sit fourth in the standings. Slovan, meanwhile, are 35th after also losing 5-1 to Celtic on matchday one.
Data Debrief: City equal United record
City's victory saw them stretch their unbeaten run in the Champions League to 25 matches, with a penalty shoot-out defeat to Real Madrid last season the only blot on their record since the start of the 2022-23 campaign.
It is the joint-longest streak in the competition's history, alongside Manchester United's run between September 2007 and May 2009, which included them lifting the trophy in 2007-08.
City have won 17 and drawn eight of their matches in that run, plundering 64 goals to just 38 by United on their streak.
They will have the chance to overhaul their neighbours outright on matchday three, when they host Sparta Prague.
Borussia Dortmund 7-1 Celtic: Adeyemi scores first-half hat-trick in rout
Karim Adeyemi scored a first-half hat-trick as Borussia Dortmund hammered Celtic 7-1 in the Champions League on Tuesday, scoring their first five goals in the opening 42 minutes.
The 80,000-strong crowd started the celebrations early at the Westfalenstadion, with Emre Can scoring from the spot in the seventh minute after Celtic goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel upended Jamie Gittens and was booked.
Celtic momentarily hushed the deafening Yellow Wall two minutes later when Daizen Maeda bundled in a cross from Arne Engels but Adeyemi restored the lead with a shot deflected in off Auston Trusty in the 11th minute.
The Germany winger extended the hosts' lead just before the half-hour mark when he lashed a shot into the top corner past a diving Schmeichel, then won a 39th-minute penalty for Serhou Guirassy to tuck away before completing his hat-trick three minutes later.
Guirassy grabbed his second goal of the night midway through the second half for last season’s Champions League runners-up.
BVB substitute Felix Nmecha then completed the rout with 11 minutes left, with Celtic having Schmeichel to thank for keeping the sobering scoreline to seven.
It is two straight wins for Dortmund to start this season’s competition, while Celtic have been brought emphatically back down to earth after putting five goals past Slovan Bratislava on Matchday One.
Data Debrief: Adeyemi matches Gomez feat
Gittens was Dortmund’s star man in their opening win against Club Brugge, but it was Adeyemi who came to the fore here, becoming only the second German player to score three goals in the first half of a Champions League match.
The only other such player to achieve the feat was Mario Gomez for Bayern Munich in 2011 against Napoli.
Guirassy, meanwhile, has joined Gittens and Adeyemi in making a fine start to the tournament, racing on to three goals with his double.
Dortmund were rewarded for their attackers' accurate finishing, getting 13 of their 16 attempts on target and vastly outperforming their xG total of 2.91.
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