Wrexham Get Welcome on Vancouver

Vancouver Whitecaps 1-4 Wrexham AFC

VANCOUVER, BC–Native son Ryan Reynolds and his friend Rob McElhenney brought their team Wrexham AFC to BC Place and they put on a show against a makeshift Whitecaps side with a 4-1 win before 34, 738 at BC Place. Reynolds and McElhenney have done most of the right things since taking ownership of Wrexham as they have gone from the fifth-tier National League to the third-tier League One in the English Football League in a short amount of time.

The club has also been buoyed by the FX reality show “Welcome to Wrexham” while details Reynolds’s and McElhanney’s ownership of the club. Through that, Wrexham has enjoyed immense popularity in North America and they are once again on tour in North American for their adoring public. Indeed, there was more Wrexham red than Whitecaps blue and white in the stands.

“This tells you the power of storytelling,” said Whitecaps head coach Vanni Sartini. “Wrexham tells a story with the documentary … how people get behind something, even if they’re so far apart (geographically), even maybe they’re not soccer fans or whatever.

“As a team, we put our story, our identity out every time and that (should be) a reminder to us … we are not certain kinds of clubs. We are kind of a working club that doesn’t pay a player $100 million to come here. … We need to stick to the story and to be proud to do it. Because that’s what I think in the long run brings fans — like it did with Wrexham.”

The Whitecaps fielded six players from their MLS NEXT Pro side (WFC2) and rested a lot of regulars in the match. Wrexham were also missing one of their top players in Paul Mullen. Also makeshift was the surface as it was grass over the BC Place turf.

The sole highlight for the Whitecaps as a goal from Giuseppe Bovalina in the 55th minute which was the Whitecaps’ only score. Sartini managed to get sent off for throwing his water bottle onto the pitch after a call had gone against the Whitecaps and it resulted in a Wrexham score.

Wrexham would get goals from Seb Revan, James McClean, Elliot Lee Ryan, and Jordan Davies.

Again, it was more about the show than the actual result in this friendly.

The Whitecaps enter Leagues Cup play on Tuesday at LAFC. Kickoff is at 7:30pm PT. Wrexham start their League One campaign on August 10th against Wycombe Wanderers at the Racecourse Ground with a 9:30am PT kickoff time.

For more Gerrit te Hennepe’s photos from the day at BC Place, please click on the link to his gallery.