One of the most surprising soccer stories this year is the success of the Vancouver Whitecaps. Until August 21, the Whitecaps played their “home” matches in Rio Tinto, Utah due to Canadian COVID-19 restrictions, and they fired head coach Marc Dos Santos on August 28, replacing him with previous U-23 head coach and academy “director of methodology” Vanni Sartini. Well, the team put together a great run under Sartini, and they reached the MLS playoffs for the first time since 2017 thanks to a 1-1 home draw with the Seattle Sounders Sunday. Due to a scheduled international break, those playoffs don’t start for at least a week and a half, and Sartini was quite happy about that in a post-game press conference.
"I'm glad the game is in two weeks, because tonight we're getting so drunk, we cannot play."
— #VWFC coach Vanni Sartini on getting a break before the playoff game with #SKC, the first for the Whitecaps after missing out the last three season.— J.J. Adams (@TheRealJJAdams) November 8, 2021
That is just a top-tier head coach quote. But this isn’t the first indication that Sartini has a good sense of humor. This past week, actor Will Ferrell appeared on a LAFC broadcast of a game against Vancouver (Ferrell is a part owner of LAFC, and regularly appears on club media), and compared Sartini to Mr. Bean actor Rowan Atkinson (also known for Blackadder, Rat Race, Johnny English, and much more). And Sartini took it well:
Will Ferrell on #VWFC coach Vanni Sartini: “I didn’t realize they had Rowan Atkinson as their coach.” 💀 😂 https://t.co/L2Ttz6LyZH pic.twitter.com/Ay3PEdDPue
— J.J. Adams (@TheRealJJAdams) November 3, 2021
Vanni Sartini has seen the Will Ferrell video and he’s a good sport pic.twitter.com/qpkTFbKsO6
— Rob Williams (@RobTheHockeyGuy) November 4, 2021
At any rate, Sartini certainly has gotten great results from this team. And now the Whitecaps will face Sporting Kansas City in the first round of the playoffs. That match’s date and time is yet to be determined, but it won’t be any earlier than Nov. 20. So Sartini and his team can certainly go out and celebrate tonight.
[J.J. Adams on Twitter, The Province; photo from Anne-Marie Sorvin/USA Today Sports]
