His homecoming didn’t quite go as planned and Toronto native Lucas Cavallini is looking forward to tonight’s second of back-to-back meetings with Toronto FC at BMO Field (8 pm ET | TSN 4/5 in Canada; ESPN+ in US) to prove Tuesday’s “embarrassment" of a 3-0 defeat was a one-off for the Vancouver Whitecaps.
For the ‘Caps DP forward, it goes beyond the defeat. It’s the manner in which they lost that irked Cavallini and his teammates.
“(Tuesday) was really frustrating. Nobody likes to lose,” Cavallini told The Province. “But not just losing, but also to put a performance like that, for me … it was an embarrassment. I know we can do so much better. It’s just a game where we learn from our mistakes and, we can only get better. You can’t get worse from that last performance. It was just a big mess and we have to be better.”
Cavallini, who was one of several Vancouver regulars to opt out of the MLS is Back Tournament, would love to get his first Whitecaps goal at BMO Friday night. But most of all, he and his teammates are hoping to show the type of soccer on display in Orlando that got the shorthanded group into the knockout rounds.
“It’s such an important day to bounce back, a big test of character going against the same group we obviously struggled against the other day,” Andy Rose said. “It’s really important that we come out with energy, with desire to improve, to be better, make much better decisions on the ball especially. And do anything we can to make it as difficult a game for them as possible.”
