Whitecaps are the best team in Canada... not that Toronto or Montreal are trying | MLS IN REVIEW, Matchday 8

Matchday 8 of the 2024 Major League Soccer season saw the Vancouver Whitecaps put up a statement 4-0 win over Toronto FC, while CF Montréal also succumbed to a pretty brutal 5-0 loss of their own against the Seattle Sounders. So is it truly west coast, best coast in Canada? 

Here are a few Canadian takeaways from this past week of action:

Whitecaps do indeed rule the roost in Canada

Talk about making a statement.

If there were any doubts about the Canadian club pecking order in MLS this season, let them be dispelled: The Vancouver Whitecaps made short work of Toronto FC this weekend and no amount of pointing at the turf or issuing reminders about the 2017 MLS Cup on social media will change the very simple fact that these days, Canada's power rests firmly in the west.

1-2-3-FOUR!!! #VWFC pic.twitter.com/R57fPOT91A

— Vancouver Whitecaps FC (@WhitecapsFC) April 7, 2024

But rather than focus in on head coach Vanni Sartini's post-game comments about OneSoccer, I think there's a bigger question to ask here: Just how high is the Whitecaps' ceiling? They're playing wonderful football, have potency and depth in equal measure, and have (maybe too quietly) gone about creating what many are starting to regard as a genuine MLS Cup contender.

They sit comfortably first in the MLS Western Conference, second overall in the league, and when asked by Alex Gangue-Ruzic about his team's strong start, Sartini offered that his team does "two things much better than last year" – They are stronger defensively (true) and they're finishing chances much more effectively (also true).

Successful teams go through 3-4-year cycles and it looks like the Whitecaps have the potential to reach the peak of their powers in 2024. This project has been ongoing for about that period of time now so there's also a bit of now-or-never for Vancouver to play through, too. And, of course, there's the fact that this Toronto FC team may have been a touch (or significantly?) overhyped, and that the Whitecaps have only played against outright bad to not so great teams so far this season (except Real Salt Lake, whom they lost to).

But I don't think either of those factors matter much. There's still something special brewing here. Let's see how far these 'Caps can fly.

Back to the drawing board for CF Montréal?

Every team can have a really bad day.

But it's hard to see the silver linings from what was genuinely one of Montréal's worst-ever performances in recent memory. A 5-0 loss to a Seattle Sounders team in the midst of their own slump in form may have alarm bells ringing, but it was the way that Montréal lost that is more concerning: Outshot 24 to 5, silly yellow cards and a red card to Nathan Saliba, and goals conceded from literally every attacking outlet meant Montreal had no answers to anything Seattle were putting up over 90 minutes.

Waterman : Non, le coach n'est pas fautif! Nous le sommes tous. Nous avons perdu les seconds ballons. Ça ne doit plus arriver de nouveau #IMFC #CFMTL

— Hady Raphaël (@SoccerenFolie) April 7, 2024

Joel Waterman put his hand up and said he and his teammates didn't do a good enough job of winning second balls – an oversimplication, I think, of what's hampering the team at the moment, having now lost three in a row. He also tried to take the heat off his head coach, Laurent Courtois.

Like I said... every team can have a really bad day. And for Montréal, there's a lot of unlearning that needs to take place before a "return" to Nancy-ball can take place (if that's even still the plan, of course). It's at around this time that managers have a choice to make: Do they stay the course and go through what could genuinely be a brutal rough patch, or change things up to try to salvage something of the season to come? It's a risk-reward gamble of sorts, but one that may come to define Courtois' time with the club.

No matter what he chooses, though, one thing is clear: These growing pains are going to be exactly that – painful.

The Canadian in Minnesota (you may not know)

Dayne St. Clair has been representing the maple leaf in Minnesota for quite some time now, but these days, he's got a Canadian teammate you may not have heard of just yet.

Introducing... Tani Oluwaseyi.

Tani Oluwaseyi brings @MNUFC level late 🔥 pic.twitter.com/oFgnA3J9t9

— Major League Soccer (@MLS) April 7, 2024

The Nigerian-born prospective Canadian international forward was first drafted in 2022 and spent the last couple years out on loan in MLS Next Pro and the USL Championship, but this year? He's become something of a rotating option for Eric Ramsay's side. He's made six appearances for the Loons in 2024, scoring twice and assisting two more, all in under 150 minutes of total action.

It's early days, but Tani may be worth keeping an eye on.