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On March 12, 2020, a day after Utah Jazz player Rudy Gobert crowned COVID’s Prince Clown, his NBA team became the first domino to fall into a cascade of sports league cancellations around the world.
Vancouver Whitecaps central defender Derek Cornelius and fullback Jake Nerwinski were in Cornelius’ car on their way to practice on Thursday when major league soccer was known to postpone the game.
“I think we had like the update that the NBA will cancel because some players contracted COVID. And then it went one after the other,” Cornelius said. ” Then it was the MLS . . . then the NHL . . . and it was like, ‘What’s going on here?How long is this going to last?”And (a) year later, we’re still in this pandemic. “
At the time, the Whitecaps had a 1-1-0 record after a big away win over Chicharito and L. A. Galaxy, and to host their game of the season at home at the time. The Colorado Rapids.
This week, the Whitecaps will host their game of the season in the house of the moment. Your opponent? The Colorado Rapids.
“Hey, thank you, thank you for reminding me. Now I’m afraid for this week,” Whitecaps coach Marc Dos Santos joked Wednesday when asked about it through new media reporter Maxim Fossey.
“I the day. It was Thursday (and) we got the news of COVID and the cancellation of the game. We were, of course, in a smart moment. We felt very confident with the victory in Los Angeles, and they were returning to British Columbia. Ubicación. La organization was confident, the organization was motivated, education week was going well. And then that day greatly replaced the world, didn’t it?We live in another sporting world. “
The Whitecaps’ new home for 2021 is Sandy, Utah, where they are roommates at Rio Tinto Stadium with Real Salt Lake. Last season, the most of his schedule was spent on tour in Orlando or Portland, where the Caps made their way home by the time of the year.
Tickets are sold for Sunday’s Whitecaps game as opposed to the Rapids, but are for RSL games. COVID-19 regulations in Salt Lake allow up to 10,000 spectators inside the outdoor stadium.
This leaves Dos Santos a little worried.
“It’s very much for me to watch the MLS games, watch the Miami game full of other people or Kansas City full of other people,” he said. “It’s strange that we’re in a league with so many teams, and all the teams turn to be on some other planet. That’s what replaces the maximum for us. That has replaced since (March 2020).
“When other people communicate about house games, it makes me laugh. (Utah), this is not the house. This isn’t the house. When you’re not in your stadium, with your fans, in your city, sleeping at home, he’s not home.
“So those are things that have replaced a lot. We want intellectual strength, to be a Canadian club more than any other . . . That’s what we’ve learned to the fullest in the last 18 months, it’s about being tough, intellectually in one position and not crying over things, without making excuses. “
The Rapids played a leading role in some other unfortunate facet of the Whitecaps’ 2020 season: with two games to play, Vancouver in the playoffs with a total of problems, and Colorado, which had missed five games due to positive COVID cases, no. the league replaced the qualifying procedure with game-consistent issues, consistent with allowing the Rapids to defeat Vancouver and the San Jose earthquakes.
sunday
Colorado Rapids vs Vancouver Whitecaps
7 p. m. , Rio Tinto Stadium (Sandy, Utah). Television: TSN1. Radius: 7:30 a. m.
But the credits go to Colorado, which won three consecutive games in the final stretch, knocking down Seattle, Portland and Houston, in their 1-0 win over Portland, earning his first place in the playoffs since 2106.
Vancouver, who won the most wins among MLS groups for not qualifying for the playoffs, lost 1-0 to Portland in his penultimate game, then saw San Jose take last place with a victory over LAFC, another postponed COVID-19 game that the league would catch up at the last minute.
Part of the Caps’ mindset has been to focus on the here and now. Cornelius rejected any concept that this weekend is a rematch game.
“To be honest, I avoid that. I like to leave the afterlife in the afterlife. We focused on fainting and acting well and letting everything else happen as planned. We know that if we do what we plan to do, we will. “We are passing to have a smart chance of adding up the 3 points,” said the Canadian central, who missed the entire preseason after injuring his knee against Honduras with the Canadian national team.
“I don’t think a lot of guys think about what happened last year or how (Colorado) got into the playoffs. What we’re running into, that’s the existing situation and how we can have 3 problems this weekend. “
Colorado has not won to start the season, opening 2021 with a goalless draw against Dallas, then wasting 3-1 to expand Austin FC, a game he led to the 60th minute when the Greens scored 3 times in 11 minutes.
“The 3-1 win over Austin is a very complicated result when you watch the game again. We felt the result didn’t reflect everything that happened in the game,” Dos Santos said of a team the Caps haven’t faced since 2019. and never under Robin Fraser, who is the most successful coach in the team’s history with his first 25 games.
“Colorado is an experienced team . . . a team that in transition is very damaging to the type of players it has. The problems (between us) are very close . . . only 3 themes separate the two teams. be again, like all the games we see on our calendar, hard. “
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