The Vancouver Whitecaps certainly aren’t an expansion team, as they joined Major League Soccer for the 2011 season. But the roster overhaul under first-year head coach Marc Dos Santos sure has expansion vibes, with nearly the entire squad rebuilt.
To chronicle the new culture permeating the Cascadian club, the Whitecaps’ digital team went behind-the-scenes on the overhaul. The video starts with Dos Santos, a former Sporting KC and LAFC assistant, being hired and carries through Vancouver’s preseason trips to Hawaii and Los Angeles.
Roster discussions between Dos Santos and Greg Anderson, vice president of soccer operations, are featured. Fans also get an inside look at the intensity of Dos Santos’ training sessions, as well as locker-room discussions with players. There’s even a cameo from ‘Caps part owner, and former NBA star, Steve Nash.
Perhaps most poignantly, Dos Santos says: “What you’ll understand quickly is that we’ll hold ourselves as a staff to very, very high standard. We hold ourselves accountable every day, so don’t take it in a bad way if for any reason I’m hard on a guy because he shows up late. I’m hard on the guy because he decides that he could miss treatment or he could do something half *expletive* in training. I’m hard in those moments, because I’ll tell you this: The only way you win … is if you show up every day. So we just ask that from you, guys.”
In its season-opening game vs. Minnesota United FC, Vancouver fell 3-2 at home.
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