‘We’re not defined by our past’: Expectations high as Vancouver FC kicks off season

Vancouver FC's Matteo Campagna, left, Kunle Dada-Luke, right and Vancouver Whitecaps' Thomas Muller, centre, vie for the ball during the first half of the Canadian Championship final soccer match, in Vancouver, on Wednesday, October 1, 2025. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Ethan Cairns

Vancouver FC are beginning their 2026 campaign with a monumental task — slaying a giant.

After finishing last season at the bottom of the Canadian Premier League standings, VFC will start this year against Liga MX heavyweights Cruz Azul in CONCACAF Champions Cup action.

The two-legged series kicks off in Langely, B.C., on Wednesday before shifting to Puebla City, Mexico, on Feb. 12.

“It’s going to be a big challenge. But it’s good that we get to play them at home first,” said Vancouver’s head coach Martin Nash. “Hopefully we can catch them off guard a little bit.”

Cruz Azul come in as the winners of last year’s tournament and have a 3-0-1 record in Liga MX play this season.

The CPL doesn’t kick off until April 4, and, in a bid to get up to speed ahead of Wednesday’s game, VFC headed to Phoenix, Ariz., for training camp on Jan. 21.

The matchup will be a good challenge for Vancouver, said captain Callum Irving, and an opportunity to see where they’re at tactically and test how willing they are to compete.

“From there we can kind of gauge where we’re at, where we need to improve, what’s lacking, what are we good at,” he said. ”And then prepare for another month and a half for the CPL season.”

That doesn’t mean the team isn’t pushing to win and progress to the next round of the 27-club tournament.

“We know how difficult it is, we’re not unrealistic about that,” Irving said. ”We’re going to put everything we can into getting to the next round and beating Cruz Azul. And whatever the results are, we’ll kind of take stock and move forward.”

VFC earned its Champions Cup spot via last year’s Canadian Championship, where they ousted fellow CPL sides Pacific FC, Cavalry FC and Atletico Ottawa before coming up against Major League Soccer’s Vancouver Whitecaps in the final. The ‘Caps downed VFC 4-2 for their fourth straight title.

The run gave Vancouver an opportunity to see who’s up to competing when the stakes get high, Irving said. Now they need to take that taste of success to another level.

“I think it’s about time that we took another step forward,” said the goalkeeper, who’s heading into his fourth season with the club. ”We’ve learned from our mistakes, learned from our hardships, but we also need to build on the positives.”

Though VFC ended last season with a 4-15-9 record in CPL play, the final stretch saw the club go 2-0-4 under Nash, who was named interim head coach in July. The interim tag was removed on Jan. 14, when the former Canadian international signed on to coach through 2027.

Having the group for a full season, including training camp, makes a big difference, Nash said.

“Now I have time to prepare the team and how I want to play from the start. Whereas coming in partway through the season, you’re trying to change ideas and mindsets and other things. So it brings different challenges,” he said.

Over the off-season, Nash has also reshaped his roster, bringing in several new faces, including Burundian forward Mohamed Amissi, English left-back Tom Field and Burnaby, B.C., midfielder Marcello Polisi.

VFC should be an aggressive team that out chances its opponents and dictates the pace of games, and the new players will help with that, Nash said.

“We’ve put a squad together to help us finish the highest we’ve ever finished as a club in the league,” he said. “We should be pushing for a playoff spot, with the players that we brought in and our goals.

“We’re not turning around, saying we’re going to finish in the top one or two, but we feel we have enough quality to finish in a playoff spot and, definitely, that’s our aim.”

In order to make that jump, the team will need to move past last season’s disappointments, Irving said.

“One thing is that we need to kind of rid ourselves of any scar tissue that we may have from years past here at VFC,” he said.

“This is a new group, this is a new staff, this is a new season. So we should look at it with fresh eyes and not be dwelling on past mistakes or habits that we had.

“We’re not defined by our past.”

This report by Gemma Karstens-Smith, The Canadian Press, was first published Feb. 2, 2026.