Why the Vancouver Whitecaps attacking depth can be a secret weapon heading into 2025 MLS Cup playoffs
It’s unfortunately been a familiar sight for the Whitecaps in past years - often, in their biggest games, they’ve been left to lament a lack of goals.
For example, in the last three times they were eliminated from the MLS Cup playoffs, they scored a combined one goal in those elimination games, as their attack has gone dry in the biggest moments.
Because of that, the Whitecaps will be encouraged that heading into the 2025 playoffs, they’re coming off a season where they scored a season-high 63 goals in 34 MLS games, which is eight goals more than their high watermark of 55 that they set in the 2023 season.
Sebastian Berhalter drops a dime to Rayan Elloumi. 🎯@WhitecapsFC strike first against San Jose. pic.twitter.com/QSDR1hVCfc
— Major League Soccer (@MLS) October 5, 2025
Not only that, but they were only held scoreless in just six of those 34 MLS games, and in just seven out of 48 games they played across all competitions, too, as they tended to leave each game with at least one goal in their pockets (if not more). Plus, even more encouragingly, the Whitecaps haven’t been kept off the scoresheet in a game since July 12th, so they enter the playoffs having been as consistent as ever offensively to end the year.
That’s huge, as another hallmark of this Whitecaps team has been their defensive play - they conceded just 38 goals in 34 games, which was the second-best mark in the league. 
To be fair, that’s been the story of the 2025 Whitecaps - this team can lay claim to being the most complete side in the league, which is evidenced by the fact that they’re first in MLS in both expected and actual goal differential.
At the end of the day, though, goals win games, and these Whitecaps will feel they’ve got the firepower to get the job done in the playoffs, helping them take advantage of their solid defensive record (which will be put to the test given some of the injuries they’ve dealt with at the back lately).
One big reason for that offensive success in 2025? They’re not overly dependent on any one player to score. Brian White has shouldered most of the goalscoring load, scoring an impressive 22 goals in 33 games across all competitions, but he’s one of many who have found the net - in total, the Whitecaps have had 23 different goalscorers across all competitions.
Impressively, 14 of those players have scored at least three goals, and seven of them have scored at least five goals, too, just to add further context to that number - it’s not as if most of the 23 scored just one goal and called it a day.
Of course, there are some caveats to note with those who have scored five goals - two of them, White and Tristan Blackmon, are in a race to be back and fit for the playoffs as they return from injuries, while another, Pedro Vite, left the club in the summer.
At the same time, with the midseason arrival of Thomas Müller, who already has eight goals in nine games, he’s more than made up for that - and don’t forget what someone like Ryan Gauld, who has played just 10 games in 2025 (scoring three times) as he’s dealt with injuries, as he was fantastic last year in the playoffs (scoring five goals and adding two assists in four games), which is worth remembering.
Yet, when speaking about the 2024 Whitecaps, Gauld fittingly represents the difference between this year’s group and last year’s.
GOAL 🔵🔵🔵🔵
— OneSoccer (@onesoccer) October 2, 2025
IT JUST HAD TO BE. Ryan Gauld scores on his return from injury to seal the Voyageurs Cup title for @WhitecapsFC 🏆🏴
🔴 Watch TELUS #CanChamp on OneSoccer & TSN 4/5 pic.twitter.com/CRRvA9JAkJ
Last year’s team certainly had firepower - Gauld had 17 goals and 16 assists across all competitions, White had 17 goals and three assists, and Fafà Picault had 10 goals and eight assists, giving the Whitecaps a decent three-headed monster to throw out against teams.
The problem was, though, that the firepower stopped there - no other player on the 2024 Whitecaps had more than three goals, and there were just five other players not named Gauld, White or Picault who hit that three-goal mark.
Now, though, as seen by the earlier totals, this team has a lot of options to lean on that aren’t named White or Gauld. As a result, they’re a lot more dangerous from the start of games, and are even scarier later in matches, where they can bring in options that last year’s team would’ve loved to have when they were down 1-0 away to LAFC in game #3 of last year’s first round series, for example.
Of course, the improved personnel is just a part of the Whitecaps' offensive success - another big factor is their system, as new head coach Jesper Sørensen has brought a high-octane tactical approach into the fold.
On the ball, this Whitecaps team is expected to create overloads all over the field, before flooding the box with numbers, and that allows them to create chances at a high rate. As a result, they were third in MLS in xG for, sixth in shots, third in average shot distance, fourth in xG per shot and third in passes into the box, giving an idea of how dangerous they are when they have the ball.
Through that, it’s made them more dangerous as a team, as that creates chances for everyone to get involved - it’s not an uncommon sight to see the Whitecaps defensive midfielders and full backs to sometimes make runs - which in turn allows the Whitecaps attackers to get more chances in and around goal, hence the high number of goalscorers (and it doesn't hurt that the Whitecaps are also quite good at set pieces, too).
“It’s great, it’s something that our style of play allows. Guys have a bit of freedom to go forward, and make dangerous runs,” midfielder Sebastian Berhalter, who has been one of the big beneficiaries of this style of play with an eight-goal, 13-assist season, said this week. “It’s super important to be able to have guys step up when we’ve needed them to.”
Then, as a bonus, the Whitecaps also do a good job of wearing down teams with their style of play, which helps their substitutes become even more dangerous, and makes the Whitecaps a team you can’t ever write off, even when they’re trailing.
As a result, they’ve been able to produce special moments such as their recent late winner against Orlando City, which came because they did such a good job of wearing down their opponents that they eventually had no answer when it came to stopping the Whitecaps’ late push for a winner.
“The mentality is really good,” Müller, who scored that winner vs. Orlando, explained. “There’s a belief in the playing style, a belief in certain situations, so there is trust in our habits. As a group, in the last 10 games, we’ve fought our way back in many games, so the mentality is not a problem.”
MÜLLER SAVES US AT THE DEATH 🤯#VWFC | #ORLvVAN pic.twitter.com/nhvl8lxuHZ
— X - Vancouver Whitecaps FC (@WhitecapsFC) October 12, 2025
Now, the big challenge for the Whitecaps will be to figure out how to best deploy their attack from game to game these playoffs, as they look to keep the goals flowing.
One of the other intricacies of their attack is that they’ve got a variety of different profiles that can help them approach a game quite differently, depending on what their opponent likes to do, which is always nice for a coach to have.
For example, out wide, Ali Ahmed, Jayden Nelson, Emmanuel Sabbi and Gauld will all be batting for minutes, and they can all offer the Whitecaps extremely different things - Ahmed is direct on the ball but a huge asset off it, Nelson is a speedster that keeps full backs honest, Sabbi plays like an inside forward who can make great late runs, and Gauld operates as more of a second #10.
In theory, the Whitecaps' 4-2-3-1 only allows for two of those four names to start, so it’ll be up to Sørensen to figure out which two can bring what his team needs from the start, and which two can come into the game and make a difference. 
And the same goes across the rest of this roster, especially as the team gets healthy.
Therefore, while the likes of Müller, Berhalter and White will attract most of the attention heading into the playoffs, don’t sleep on the importance of the other attacking players on this team - as many who have followed this Whitecaps team this year will tell you, that depth has been one of the secret weapons that has powered this team to the heights they’ve been able to hit.
Now, they’ll hope that it can spark them on an unprecedented run, one that they’ve usually fallen short of making due to shortcomings in the attack, something they feel they’ve put behind them now.
“We have a lot of good players who can play different positions,” Sørensen explained. “We’ve changed our shape, so that we now play with more of a true #10, Thomas, and then we also play with two wingers and a striker.”
“We’ve got a lot of good players, so we have different solutions for different opponents and different tasks. That’s a good thing, we have a lot of competition throughout the team, so everyone has to perform well, not just in games, but also in training sessions, to be able to play.”
