



This piece is part of our “State of the Team” series, previewing each MLS squad ahead of the 2020 season. Read the other teams’ stories here.



When Russell Teibert first joined the Whitecaps in 2010, the team shared a locker room with the University of British Columbia’s wrestling squad. ‘Caps players didn’t have their own individual training gear. That was all communal, and they dug shirts and shorts out of a pile in the middle of the room prior to each session. Team meals after practice were spartan by professional sports standards.



“Back then,” Teibert said, “it was just a big jar of Nutella, a big jar of peanut butter, and bagels. That was the recovery.”



Teibert said all this to provide context to the club’s progress over the course of the last decade. The curly-haired 27-year-old midfielder was standing in a spare room of the Whitecaps’ $32.5-million training facility...