One quick bus ride across the border to Seattle. Again. One long, 12-hour flight to Honduras, the murder capital of the world.

The Vancouver Whitecaps first CONCACAF Champions League experience will be both routine and eventful after they wound up in a three-team group for 2015 with Cascadia rival Seattle Sounders and Club Deportivo Olimpia, the most decorated Honduran side of all time and the champions of the 2014-2015 Clasura.

The Caps will play home-and-home with the Sounders and Olimpia, winners of the CONCACAF Champions League in 1972 and 1988, beginning in August. The winner of the group, plus seven other group winners will advance to the quarterfinal stage next spring.

“There is some benefit to it being Seattle, it’s a bus ride,” said Caps’ president Bob Lenarduzzi after the draw held in Miami. “At the same time, it’ll be extremely competitive

“We’ve definitely got the most difficult group of the stage, with the Honduran champions and the (2014 MLS) Supporter’s Shield champions.”

After Olimpia was first drawn with the Caps, the third club in the group could have been any one of four Mexican clubs, or any one of four MLS clubs, including D.C. United, Los Angeles Galaxy or Real Salt Lake. It turned out to be Seattle.

Earlier Monday, before the draw, Caps’ head coach Carl Robinson cracked that “we’ll probably end up down the road (playing Seattle) knowing us.”

“I’m sure it would be easiest. (But) I’m sure they don’t want to see us again for two more games, and we don’t want to see them. But if it is, we’ll deal with it. We always match up well and have good games against them.”

The Caps were a heady 4-0-1 against Seattle until the Sounders came into BC Place on May 16 and spanked Vancouver 2-0. The Caps have two more regular-season games against the Sounders – Aug. 1 at CenturyLink Field and Sept. 19 in Vancouver.

The CONCACAF home games against Seattle and Olimpia will be mid-week fixtures, with the actual dates to be set within the next week to 10 days. The Honduran side is likely to have a significant and loud cheering section.

“They’re a good central American side,” Lenarduzzi said of Olimpia. “When I was coach of Canada and we played Honduras at Swangard (Stadium in Burnaby), a number of Hondurans were there from Vancouver or from close enough to make an effort to get there.”

The televised draw had a strangely sexist, game show look to it, with a quartet of women in tight black dresses pulling colored balls from hoppers to place teams in the groups.

DIEGO DAYS: After playing the first half in WFC2’s 2-0 win over Arizona United on Sunday, centre back Diego Rodriguez looks like he’s going to finally get back into the senior team’s starting lineup Wednesday in Montreal.

Head coach Carl Robinson wants to rest veteran Pa-Modou Kah, giving Rodriquez, one of the club’s key off-season signings, the chance to line up alongside Kendall Waston in the middle of the back line.

The 24-year-old Uruguayan, who has missed eight games with a groin strain, and two to a suspension after a solid game in Orlando back on March 21 in his MLS debut.

“It was tough. Always I was healthy (in my career) . . . but sometimes things happen.”

Rodriguez said he’s comfortable with all the Caps’ centre backs – Waston, Kah, Tim Parker and Christian Dean. “But with Kendall, we speak Spanish, we come from a culture that is like the same. It’s very good for us.”

SOCCER CHEATERS? The Caps spent at least 35 minutes of training on Monday engaged in spirited, ultra-competitive games of two-on-two soccer tennis. Although, with three touches aside, it could be called soccer volleyball.

The young Uruguayan duo of striker Octavio Rivero and winger Cristian Techera prevailed in the final over 34-year-olds Robert Earnshaw and Pa-Modou Kah. Although, there was some question as to whether Earnshaw and the vocal Kah got there fairly.

“I think it’s important to put smiles on faces sometimes,” said head coach Carl Robinson. “With this two-game trip that we’ve got – Wednesday in Montreal, Saturday in Los Angeles – today was the right day.

“Interesting to see the boys. They’re a very competitive group. They cheat to win, which is incredible in a little head tennis game.”

Canadian midfielder Russell Teibert, who was paired with American fullback Jordan Harvey, felt his team should have been in the final.

“In my mind we won, so that’s all that matters. Pa and Earnie, they’re experienced, they talked their way into the final. I don’t know if they paid the referees or something. They don’t even play. They just make their own calls, they pay the referees and somehow they make it to the finals.”

gkingston@vancouversun.com