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The Whitecaps second-largest crowd of the season turns out for an exhibition game against Wrexham AFC
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Published Jul 27, 2024 • Last updated 16 minutes ago • 3 minute read
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Wrexham co-owner actor Ryan Reynolds arrives to watch the team play an international friendly soccer match against the Vancouver Whitecaps in Vancouver July 27, 2024. Photo by DARRYL DYCK /THE CANADIAN PRESS
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You knew, or at least I did, that The Man himself was in the house. You could feel it. The energy.
That, and the vest-wearing, gun-toting police escort that quickly led Ryan Reynolds from the locked-off media elevator directly into his guest suite at B.C. Place.
‘Welcome to Wrexham’ had been welcomed to Vancouver.
The fans, too, sensed his presence before the exhibition game between the Vancouver Whitecaps and documentary darlings Wrexham AFC, swarming up the stands like reverse lemmings, clamouring for selfies and autographs from below the suite before security descended and cleared the section.
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Reynolds looked clearly tired from the busy press junket that had him criss-crossing the continent as he promoted his latest Deadpool movie, but he would have had to have been dead to miss his team’s return to his hometown and obligingly took cellphones for selfie pics. He stuck around long after the final whistle and the rest of the stadium had emptied out for pictures with fans.
Reynolds was heartily cheered by the massive 34,738-strong crowd when he was flashed on the Jumbotron, and B.C. Place announcer Don Andrews cheekily announced “his friend” Rob McElhenney was also in attendance, and the Wrexham co-owner also got his share of love from the crowd, as did Alphonso Davies.
From a game standpoint, Saturday’s match was entertaining. There was no truly comparing levels of play between Major League Soccer and England’s League One, with both sides missing key players to injury — Ryan Gauld for Vancouver, the famed Paul Mullin for Wrexham — and Vancouver scattered some youth call-ups and depth players in their starting lineup.
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Wrexham manager Phil Parkinson made liberal substitutions at halftime, deploying as many players as he could as they prepared for the regular season in their penultimate pre-season game.
Seb Revan put the home side — that would be Wrexham — in front 31 minutes in after some poor marking from the rag-tag defensive back three left him alone at the back post to power a shot past Isaac Boehmer.
Vancouver Whitecaps’ Ralph Priso is upended by Wrexham’s Sam Dalby during international friendly soccer match in Vancouver July 27, 2024. Photo by DARRYL DYCK /THE CANADIAN PRESS
Guiseppe Bovalina pulled the Caps level 10 minutes into the second half with a bar-down strike from 20 yards out, but the youth-heavy 11 Vancouver ran out in the second began to show their inexperience, and the Red Dragons took advantage of the defensive miscues with goals from James McClean, Elliot Lee and Jordan Davies to see it out.
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Final score, 4-1 in favour of the most popular third-tier soccer team in the world.
The game wasn’t about the result, but the show. Documentary cameras scoured the concourse and stands, taking B-roll footage for the next season of the documentary. There were far more red jerseys in the stands than Vancouver colours, and the usual drone of drums and chanting from the Southsiders was absent, with the supporters’ SECTION given over to general sales. There was but a single “You fat bastard” off a goal kick the entire game, a half-hearted effort from a few dedicated Whitecaps fans.
The lineup for the Wrexham merch on the concourse was longer than the beer lines, and the cheers and chants for the Welsh side were frequent, including a “We want Ollie” chant before fan favourite striker Ollie Palmer checked in with 20 minutes left in the game.
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They circled the pitch after the game to acknowledge the fans who came to watch, while the Whitecaps meandered piecemeal into the locker-room. A few stuck around for jersey swaps, like Bovalina, Levonte Johnson and Liam Mackenzie, but most departed for the sanctity of the locker-room.
It will be a well-rested Whitecaps team that flies to Los Angeles to take on LAFC in the first group stage game of the Leagues Cup game on Tuesday, while Wrexham has one more friendly versus Fleetwood on next Saturday before their regular season begins the following weekend.
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Courtesy : https://theprovince.com/sports/soccer/international-soccer/reynolds-and-wrexham-walk-away-as-winners-on-and-off-the-pitch