With an eye for finding top local talent, along with a strong network of contacts throughout North America and Europe, Koch's teams played attractive, attacking football, banging in record-breaking amounts of goals along the way.

It was no surprise then that when the Whitecaps decided to launch their own USL side in 2015, Koch was the man they wanted at the helm.

Appointed just weeks before the season got underway, it was a tough first year for both Koch and his young WFC2 side. A squad was hurriedly put together, team chemistry had to be built on the road, and the Whitecaps themselves had a steep learning curve around just what they wanted their team to be and how it was to operate.

Finishing second-last of the Western Conference that first season, with only eight wins, was a predictable outcome, but Koch's side played some exciting soccer along the way, while being let down by an inexperienced and struggling defense.

"I got into this job quite late and didn't really have much time to prepare for the first season and I think it showed," Koch told USLSoccer.com during last year's playoffs. "Our first game [that first] season, our group of players, our team, we weren't ready to play. We got better as the season went along. We managed to win a few games, but I think we finished where we deserved to finish."

Koch took it as a valuable learning experience, and the hard work for the club’s second season started as soon as the first wrapped up, with an intense November training camp to identify which players would stick around and identify new recruits.

With his identity finally able to be stamped onto the team, Koch transformed WFC2 from playoff outsiders to USL Championship contenders, taking his young Whitecaps side on a 10-game unbeaten start to the season and eventually on to the Western Conference Final of the 2016 USL Cup Playoffs before the Swope Park Rangers proved to be one mountain too far to climb.