PORTLAND, Oregon — The Vancouver Whitecaps have relocated to Portland and they’ll be here for at least six weeks.
Their first game is Sunday against the Portland Timbers at Providence Park in what will be a road game for Portland.
“For myself personally, it’s not a home game, and that’s fine," Vancouver defender Jake Nerwinski said of Sunday’s matchup. "We’re going to have to deal with that for the rest of the season, especially against Portland. They’re not thinking of it as an away game so we’re not going to think of it as a home game.”
Travelers to Canada must be quarantined for 14 days before they can move around the country. That would make it impossible for visiting teams to play games in Canada without missing other games scheduled in the United States.
The Whitecaps has six home games remaining including Sunday’s game against Portland.
“This year is a year of a lot of challenges so you have to embrace it and you have to take it as a huge experience in your life,” Whitecaps coach Marc Dos Santos said.
Dos Santos said he enjoyed being in Portland for Vancouver’s exhibition game in February but said it’s different here now because of protests and fires that have hit the state.
“Right now, it looks like a city that’s very hurt," Dos Santos said. “It doesn’t look like the times that I’ve been here before. It’s understandable.”