It will be a relaxed and well-rested Vancouver Whitecaps side who take to the pitch against the New England Revolution Saturday night (7:30 pm ET, TSN2 in Canada, MLS LIVE in US).
The Whitecaps are looking to make it three straight away victories in what will be the fourth match of a five-game, Women's World Cup-enforced road stretch for the team.
Vancouver followed up their win at LA on June 6 with a 2-1 victory at New York last Saturday. With a trip to New England following a week later, head coach Carl Robinson made the decision to keep his full squad out east for maximum rest, weather and time-zone acclimatization and a bit of team bonding.
"It’s trying to find the right balance," Robinson told reporters on a conference call this week. "There isn’t a right way and wrong way of doing it. We could have flown back to Vancouver straight away on the Sunday and flown back out east on the Thursday. I thought that was a little bit too much traveling for them, so I made the decision to stay out east and travel up to Boston on Thursday."
To add to the whole working vacation feel for the Whitecaps, Robinson decided to make the journey to Massachusetts by luxury coach instead of flying. Logistically, the travel time between going by bus and travelling to and from, and hanging around, two airports was the same.
Robinson sees this week as a key bonding session for his squad, with a number of sightseeing excursions factored in to their training schedule in Hoboken.
"We’ve trained hard," Robinson said. "But they got to go out and do some activities together. We went to watch [the] Red Bulls' game vs. Salt Lake, because obviously Salt Lake are in our conference and I think it’s important that players watch games in Major League Soccer. They went as a group to watch the Yankees play the Phillies the other day, which was an experience for some of them.
"We’re just using it as a positive that we get to spend time with each other and bond a little bit because it's important. Not everyone is going to be best friends, but it's important that you treat each other with respect and get along, because any successful team needs to get along with each other on and off the pitch and that's what we're using it for."
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The Whitecaps certainly seem happy on the road this season. They've already recorded a club-record five road victories this year, and Robinson hopes the week spent together will spur the 'Caps to add to that number against what he expects will be a very tough New England side.
"They’re a very good team, they’re very physical, and they’re very strong at home," Robinson said. "They’ve had one or two indifferent results recently, but that’s the way the league is. Their front three, with Lee Nguyen and Diego Fagundez underneath, is arguably one of the strongest in MLS.
"We’ve got to be on top form with that, but if we’re organized and disciplined then we’ll get our opportunities at the other end of the field. Then we’re very much confident we can go there and get a result."
