VANCOUVER — So as I sit with increasing anxiety in front of a blank laptop screen, here’s the thing about being the new guy on the soccer beat.

My editor wants an insightful preview of the season ahead for the Vancouver Whitecaps, which begins Saturday at BC Place against arch-rival Toronto FC. I know the Reds are hated because I watched MLS and Voyageurs Cup games on TV last year and I’m a voracious reader of newspapers.

But, I didn’t see a single minute of the Whitecaps eight pre-season games this month except for some grainy goal-scoring video highlights online.

New midfielder Daigo Kobayashi? He plays soccer? I thought he was that internationally acclaimed hot-dog eating champion.

English Premier League veteran Nigel Reo-Coker? Not sure I’d ever heard of him before last week. Now, if you’d told me Ryan Giggs or Frank Lampard was going to be a Whitecap, I might have had a chance of sounding halfway intelligent discussing soccer, or football, of whatever we’re going to call it.

Cripes, I was still asking observers at practice on Tuesday, ‘Who’s that guy there in the blue pinnie? Who’s No. 32? Who’s that at left back? The short-haired guy at forward, that Herzog?’

I’m just being brutally honest, here. And here’s a warning to the rabid Southsiders and the rest of the Caps cognoscenti – lay off. Give me a couple of months before flashing a red card. Or asking me if I know the difference between an on-field dummy and a press box one.

Okay, with that out of the way, here’s my take on a club that started decently, went 1-6-1 down the stretch, snuck into the playoffs at 11-13-10 and lost in the first round, 2-1, to eventual champion Los Angeles Galaxy.

A raft of in-season changes – trading striker Eric Hassli, selling popular midfielder Davide Chiumiento to a Swiss club, benching central defender Martin Bonjour and then adding U.K. imports Kenny Miller, Barry Robson (who has since departed) and Andy O’Brien – clearly affected chemistry. But they were changes, head coach Martin Rennie insisted, he had to make.

“We took over a team that was the worst in MLS,” said Rennie, a young man of faith whose positive, confident, control-your-own-attitude approach seems perfectly suited to the job at hand.

“They had lost a lot of games, given up a lot of goals. Players were despondent. When we took over that team, we knew a lot of work had to be done just to get to the playoffs and it’s rare to go from last place to the playoffs.

“As the club developed further, there would be less need to make as many changes. We’ve got a good group of players we can work with now going forward and, hopefully, for seasons to come. It’s a good mix. If we have to make changes (this year), it’s only going to be one or two, no more than that and, hopefully, less than that.”

The starting backline returns intact, as do the goalkeepers. They’re all at least 30, with central defenders O’Brien and sore-legged Jay DeMerit both 33, right back Y.P. Lee turning 36 in April, and ‘keeper Joe Cannon hitting 38. Still, there is something to be said in any sport for continuity and experience.