The Seattle Sounders will play a short-handed and possibly weakened Vancouver Whitecaps team in a match with significant Cascadia Cup and Western Conference implications tonight at 6 PM Pacific.

The Whitecaps returned from their Concacaf Champions Cup final loss to Cruz Azul, reporting “gastrointestinal symptoms” for about half of the 16 players who came back from Mexico with the team, and have only been able to train sporadically this week.

Their availability report lists 18 players as either out or questionable due to a combination of national team duty and illness, and they’ve reportedly called up seven players from their MLS Next Pro affiliate to fill out their roster.

Here’s what you need to know:

Injury news

Sounders

OUT: Paul Arriola - Knee; Reed Baker-Whiting - International Duty; Osaze De Rosario - International Duty; Yeimar Gómez Andrade - Hamstring; Kim Kee-hee - Calf; Jordan Morris - Hamstring

QUESTIONABLE: Stuart Hawkins - Quad

Whitecaps

OUT: Sam Adekugbe - International Duty; Ali Ahmed - International Duty; Sebastian Berhalter - International Duty; Giuseppe Bovalina - International Duty; Andrés Cubas - International Duty; Ryan Gauld - Knee; Tate Johnson - International Duty; Jayden Nelson - International Duty; Pedro Vite - International Duty; Brian White - International Duty

QUESTIONABLE: Jeevan Badwal - Illness; Tristan Blackmon - Illness; Isaac Boehmer - Illness; Édier Ocampo - Illness; Ralph Priso - Illness; Emmanuel Sabbi - Illness; Bjørn Inge Utvik - Illness; Ranko Veselinović - Illness

Opposition players to watch

Tristan Blackmon: The centerback has quietly become one of the top defenders in the league and is a major reason the Whitecaps currently lead the league with just 12 goals allowed. Blackmon is basically their backline quarterback, starting many of their attacks with both an impressive passing and dribbling ability.

Daniel Rios: It’s not that the forward has been so prolific, it’s that he will be one of the most experienced offensive players that the Whitecaps have available after their attack was decimated by international call-ups. The journeyman has 20 career goals spread out over parts of five MLS seasons — a strike rate of about .42 goals per 90 — in which he’s played for four different teams.

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Stats to look smart

7 — What makes this game so hard to predict is the reality that even before illness struck the Whitecaps, they were going to be playing without the services of seven likely starters and nine players overall due to international duty. Their lineup is likely to be chock full of reserves and maybe even some Whitecaps 2 call-ups.

+1.1 — The Sounders’ results have been pretty middling on the road — nine points in nine games — but the underlying numbers suggest they’ve been quite a bit better. At +1.1, they have the fourth best road expected goal-difference in the entire league.

Tactics to impress

• One thing that has been so impressive about the Whitecaps’ play under Jesper Sorenson is how they little they alter their gameplan from one match to the next. No matter who they have on the field or where they’re playing, they like to possess the ball and hit a lot of progressive passes. Of course, they’ve never been quite as short-handed as they will be today, so it will be interesting if they stick to their guns.
• The Sounders have established themselves as a team who wants to press opponents and this would seemingly be a game where they’ll lean into that extra hard. The Whitecaps will be missing most of their starting attackers, which means they’ll either be trying to play their traditional style with lots of new faces or trying something different. It’s certainly an opportunity to potentially exploit.

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