Final thoughts:

A real game of two halves then, as Vancouver utterly lost their way in the second half, while Toronto, having weathered the storm and kept in the game at the half, looked the much more mature team as they eased into control in the second 45.

That fact as much as the result might please Greg Vanney the most as he considers his side’s performance, for all the individual bright spots from his key players. The defense is still a work in progress, but game management wise this is a sturdier looking Toronto team than those of recent vintage. There’s a long way to go but this is a great road win to start this seven game stretch before they head home. Columbus next.

As for Vancouver, Carl Robinson was correct to see that the first half tempo was unsustainable but he can’t have expected such a precipitous second half drop off — and his substitutions did nothing to galvanize a team who were ultimately out-thought at home. Plenty of homework for him before they too head out on the road, their nemesis last year, for next week’s game against Chicago.

I’ll be back tomorrow with live coverage of Orlando City vs New York City. For now, thanks for joining me this evening. Good night!

90 mins +5: Altidore chasing down from the front to the end of the game. And now boos ring out around BC Place as the final whistle goes!

90 mins+4: Vancouver scrambling willingly, though without much art, as they chase a lost cause. They’re screaming for a penalty now as Mattocks stumbles under pressure in the box, but it’s just a corner. Waston’s header from said corner drifts harmlessly wide.

90 mins +2: Five minutes to be added on and almost immediately Vancouver are nearly given a lifeline as a looping cross is powered goalwards by Rivero’s head. Bendik’s behind it though. Most direct Vancouver have been all half, when it’s surely too late.

88 mins: Bendik has to get up bravely to grab a floated free kick into the box, but he comes up with the ball. Vancouver were unbeaten at home against Eastern opposition last year, but that record is threatening to disappear on the opening day.

86 mins: Vancouver resort to a hopeful long ball forward, but it runs straight through to an untroubled Bendik whohoofs the ball back into Vancouver territory, as if to say, “Try again”. This game petering out in a manner that will suit Toronto down to the ground.

84 mins: Vancouver have a man over for a moment as Creavalle hurt himself in that last incident. Nothing comes of that though and if anything it’s the Whitecaps who are under pressure as a three red shirts press Kah inside his own box. Vancouver clear their lines but the ball is not where they want it to be.

82 mins: So we’ve drifted into the last ten minute and there’s a hopeful yell for a penalty by the Vancouver fans behind the Toronto goal as Rivero falls over in a tangle with Creavalle on the edge of the six yard box, as he tries to reach a dangerous looking low cross from the right by Manneh. Erik Hurtado about to come on for Vancouver, who need inspiration from...somewhere. He replaces Laba.

80 mins: Vancouver try to force a break and Creavalle picks up a yellow card as he runs across Harvey’s run. Luke Moore will be coming in in a minute for Giovinco, as Vanney makes his adjustments to hold his team’s lead. In fact that switch is happening now...with Toronto reshaping into a 4-4-2. Still Vancouver 1-2 Toronto

78 mins: Koffie has not done much except foul since coming on and after another adventure in clattering he picks up a yellow card. Toronto use the pause for the free kick to bring Collen Warner on for Findley, who as it stands has scored the winning goal.

76 mins: Vanney is about to bring on Collen Warner, as Vancouver just show some faint stirrings of mounting a late comeback. Beitashour has Morrow scrambling to block his cross at the expense of a corner. It’s headed clear then hooked forward by Giovinco. Findley earns a free kick as he’s bundled over in the center circle vying for the loose ball and again Toronto interrupt the flow of the game.

74 mins: Bradley and Cheyrou just beginning to string together those short exchanges that help their side squeeze some life out of the midfield battle. Vancouver getting frustrated and Koffie kicks out at Altidore who has dropped deep to pick up a predictable free kick and further run down the clock. The Whitecaps being made to look naive so far in this half. And time beginning to run out.

Now they do find a slight crack of space as Morales looks to have space wide left in the box for a shot, but said shot is poor and as it turns out he was offside anyway.

72 mins: Beitashour commits a handball near the left corner of the box as he tries to deal with Altidore on an aerial ball. Giovinco’s free kick is charged down to the relief of the home fans, who aren’t being given much to cheer about at the moment as their side’s play fizzles out in this second half.

70 mins: Rivero tries to pressure Bendik who’s forced into a loose clearance and Vancouver press for a moment. Now it’s Toronto’s turn to counter and Laba makes a late tackle on Giovinco to break it up. Not that Toronto will be troubled by the flow of the game being interrupted as things stand.

68 mins: Altidore is furious as he shrugs off Koffie only to be dragged down in the center circle as he looks to turn and run at goal. From the free kick an awkward looking dipping cross almost connects with a diving Findley, but Vancouver are able to clear their lines.

66 mins: Snap shot from Giovinco almost catches Ousted out, but he grabs it at the second attempt. Giovinco growing in influence as the game goes on. Manneh goes over the the right while the fresh legs of Mattocks will try to work the first half stress point of Creavalle down the left.

64 mins: Kofie in for Teibert, Mattocks for Rosales, as Robinson tries to inject some pace to disrupt an increasingly comfortable looking Toronto side.

62 mins: Beitashour scoops a tempting chip over the top as Vancouver try to react, but Bendik is off his line quickly as Manneh tries to race onto it. A few seconds later Manneh touches the ball just inside to Teibert on the edge of the box, but his shot loops up and over, for what will be his last action of the game by the look of it. Robinson making his first subs shortly.

58 mins: ...Giovinco whips the ball up and over the wall but it’s straight at Ousted, who pats the ball down and collects it.

Vancouver stride forward but they’re looking less sharp in this half and Morales ends up losing the ball in frustratingly straightforward manner. Robinson may be thinking about some subs to recover the urgency of the first half’s counter-attacking.

56 mins: This is a decent little spell for Toronto (he typed...as Teibert intercepted a poor Toronto pass to launch a counter-attack). Cheyrou and Bradley putting their feet on the ball a little more to try and control the tempo a little more. And now they have a dangerous free kick central, and 35 yards out after Giovinco was checked...

54 mins: Toronto probing a little now in the Whitecaps half, but when they finally push the ball near the box, Giovinco’s shot is poor.

52 mins: Vancouver take a quick throw near the corner flag, but Laba, Rosales and Morales combine to lose the chance of getting a cross in.

First second half cameo from Giovinco at the other end as he combines some short passing to help advance Toronto and with the Whitecaps stretched the ball breaks to Bradley on the edge of the box, as he drives forward to whack a shot that’s always drifting slightly wide. But that’s a decent move for the visitors.

50 mins: Morales scuffs a very poor low shot well wide of the goal from outside the box. Not really a shot befitting his undoubted talent. Now Morales finds Beitashour overlapping on the right with an altogether simpler touch, but the full back’s cross loops high and straight to Bendik. Still Vancouver 1-1 Toronto.

48 mins: Robinson also mentioned that with players tiring on opening day, this may a be a game for his bench to help decide things.

Whitecaps still trying to stretch the slower Toronto defense with pace and width as they move the ball from flank to flank early. No immediate look at goal though. Instead we have a few scrappy throws, interceptions and general faffing around in the opening minutes of the second half.

Nearly ready for second half

“We’ve just got to keep doing what we’re doing,” say Carl Robinson of his Vancouver side, on the sidelines. “I don’t think we can play at this tempo for 90 minutes,” he adds - urging his team to be smart with their decision making. Teams coming out now...

Canadian soccer gif of the week:

The winner has to be Montreal coach Frank Klopas celebrating the last minute goal that took his side into the Champions League semi-final this week, in the style of Kevin Bacon in Footloose / a sex ninja in chinos.

Red card. One match ban. Klopas is expected to try and counter this by moving the semi-final to a grain warehouse across the county line. THIS IS HIS TIME TO DANCE.

Half-time thoughts:

In the bigger scheme of things both coaches might be pleased with the blueprints for success for their teams they’ve seen sketched out in this first half.

Vancouver already look to have more dimensions to their attack with the addition of Rivero, and the maturing of Manneh, who tormented Creavalle throughout the half. Having Kah on set pieces is a plus too.

Toronto meanwhile can’t ask much more of their designated player debutants than them combining for a goal when their side was under the cosh. Giovinco began to settle into exploiting pockets of space in advanced positions as the half went on and Altidore took his chance when it came.

There are still problems for both coaches in this game, with Greg Vanney possibly the more concerned with his team’s defensive discipline in giving the ball away in dangerous spots or standing off the swarming Vancouver runners. And Carl Robinson’s midfield need to be on their guard for the damage Giovinco and co can do from just outside the box by protecting their defenders better. Vancouver look the more dangerous, but Toronto have shown they have the capacity to nick this.

45 mins +1: Some patient approach play by Toronto ends in Giovinco accelerating into the box near the byline and earning a corner of Beitashour. Giovinco will take the corner...it’s low and pulled back towards Cheyrou but the Vancouver defense read the corner and momentarily look like breaking dangerously. They have to settle for a free kick wide left, that Morales rather makes a hash of, and that will be that for the half...

44 mins: Another Vancouver steal, this one by Laba, who goes down the right after robbing Cheyrou. The looping cross is met with an acrobatic volley by Morales from the edge of the box, but his shot doesn’t have the power to trouble Bendik. Toronto enjoy a little spell of holding on to the ball in the wake of that incident, which is frankly something of a novelty in this half, and something they’ve dearly needed to do at times.

42 mins: Manneh again...steals the ball in dangerous territory then sends a tempting low ball in towards Morales from the left, only for Bendik to scoop it up at a low stretch. That pocket down the Vancouver left and the space just in front of their own defenders looking like the potentially decisive areas of the game right now.

40 mins: The fifth Vancouver corner is cleared but only as far as Morales who sends a sputtering shot well wide. At the other end Giovinco tries to pick his way through on the edge of the box, only to be dispossessed and yet again it’s a fast Vancouver break and another slaloming run from Manneh, who evades Caldwell and gets a solid shot off, that’s blocked by Bendik.

38 mins: Half-time looming then and Toronto beginning to find themselves facing up defenders in the Vancouver final third, but there’s that break again — Morales sends a ball over the top for Manneh to chase, and Perquis just cuts out his attempted square ball to Rivero in the box. Corner.

36 mins: Toronto looking understandably more confident now as they move forward, but they’ll have to be wary of being caught out by those speedy Vancouver counters, while their new defense learns their line(s).

34 mins: Toronto’s BMO Field is being renovated and they won’t play a home opener until May. That seven game road run could of course prove to be a blessing in disguise if they’re not completely adrift when it starts (and the league being structured how it is backloading your home games towards the playoff end of the season is maybe no bad idea). This would be a good result to start a seven game road stretch if it holds

30 mins: So that pre-game prediction of Creavlle possibly being a target looks like coming true. Manneh running at him again and forcing another corner and a rise in volume in the stadium. Bendik punches the corner clear, but he’ll have to face another corner now as Vancouver turn the screw. Deep outwsinger eventually reaches Manneh, who drives a low shot across Bendik’s goal and just past the far post, with the keeper watching it wide. Still Vancouver 1-0 Toronto.

28 mins: Osorio touches the ball to Findley who tries a shot from distance that’s always flying over. First contribution of any significance we’ve seen from Findley.

At other end Manneh hassles Creavalle to earn another corner. Rosales will swing this one in...no he won’t — it’s a short corner that leads to a fierce Russell Teibert shot from the edge of the box. Bendix slaps it clear and is relieved to see no white short following up, as that could have gone anywhere...

26 mins: Rosales gets clattered by Bradley as the Vancouver man jinks past him, but no yellow card, much to the disgust of Carl Robinson on the sideline.

Vancouver continuing to press high and they seem to be succeeding in unnerving Toronto, who are giving the ball away repeatedly in dangerous areas.

24 mins: Giovonco picks up the ball deep and runs at the heart of the Vancouver defense, twisting and turning to make space for the shot, then thinking better of it and squaring to Altidore. Bradley is arriving on the scene too but Vancouver are regrouping now and the move breaks down without a clear shot. Interesting test of Toronto’s character now. Down on the road in the first game of yet another new incarnation.

22 mins: Rivero gives the Whitecaps the lead on his debut then, and as it stands this is a repeat scoreline of the last time these two met in this stadium in MLS play, just over two years ago.

19 mins: First look at Giovinco’s set piece threat as he sends an inswinging free kick into the Whitecaps box. It’s headed clear but Vancouver can’t clear their lines and eventually a smashed Bradley shot is deflected almost perfectly into the path of the unmarked Giovinco in the box. His first time shot squirms wide. Toronto may regret that...

18 mins: Creavalle has to cover at the other end as Manneh finds Teibert on the overlap. Creavalle does just enough to stop Teibert picking his spot with the cross. And now he has to scramble again as Vancouver force a turnover in Toronto’s final third and Creavalle’s last ditch tackle is necessary with Manneh about to race clear.

16 mins: Giovonco dinks a little ball just behind Harvey in the Vancouver left back position, but Creavalle can’t get forward fast enough down the Toronto right to pick it up. Just a glimpse of the danger posed by Giovinco though. He’s been quiet thus far.

14 mins: Another decent chance for Vancouver as Manneh chases a ball over the top and beats the offside trap, but in waiting for the bounce off the artificial turf is forced to check back to shoot. Nonetheless he forces Bendik to palm the ball clear from his shot on target. Vancouver knocking on the door right now.

12 mins: Fair amount of speed, and not a lot of shape to this game early on, though Toronto are beginning to get a little creaky as Vancouver try to pick their passes around them. Perquis just had to stretch to cut out a through ball down the right channel.

10 mins: Morrow steps up from left back and pushes the ball wide to Altidore, but the Toronto approach play just looking a little pedestrain at the moment and the move soon breaks down. Still 0-0, though another warning for Toronto at the other end as Manneh very nearly splits the Toronto defense with a ball at an acute angle intended to free Rivero. Just intercepted.

8 mins: Toronto yet to really settle here — a few sloppy touches early on. Vancouver looking marginally sharper but no clear chances as yet...ooooooh, I stand corrected. Teibert just slipped a ball across the six yard box that invited a tap in from Rivero, but he seemed to believe he was offside and hesitated. No flag and a relieved Toronto get it clear.

6 mins: Kah’s popped up in attack in defense early for Vancouver - he’ll add another dimension in both boxes for the Whitecaps this year. Here he heads clear. Now we have a short break in play as Caldwell clatters his own player Creavalle, who’s back on his feet now.

4 mins: Vancouver inch forward down thee right and try to work some space. they earn a corner as Rosales pressures the last man on a ball that squirms over the top. He takes the corner, looking for Kah, but Toronto force it clear. They have to face another aerial ball a moment later, but Waston heads wide under pressure.

2 mins: Early free kick for Toronto just inside Whitecaps half. They work it wide, but Giovinco gets caught in possession and the Whitecaps forestall any threat.

Your choice of games has now ended

Conor Casey just missed a chance to snatch an injury time win for Philadelphia after his header from a free kick drifted just wide. Lots of blood and thunder and not a lot of ball control in that season opener, which has just ended 0-0.

Moments away now

Just watching the dying moments of the Philadelphia vs Colorado game, where the ten man Rapids are defending stoutly. Mastoreni’s mustache is twitching forlornly now however, as it’s just been revealed there’ll be six minutes of time added on...

Canadian soccer comes of age

“Hang on”, say the pedants who bothered to read my intro, “What do you mean by claiming this is the only meeting between these two this season? What about the Canadian Championship? Surely the toughest route to Champions League qualification known to humanity, with its whopping five team field? Won’t these two be meeting there?”

Well, probably, sort of. With the Gold Cup and Women’s World Cup happening this year (the latter in Canada), the championship decider has been shunted to the summer, by which time it will be too late for it to determine the Canadian representative in the Concacaf Champions League. So all teams have agreed that the Canadian team that finished with most points in MLS last season will represent Canada in the CCL this year. So that’ll be Vancouver then. Not Montreal. Montreal are currently in the semi-finals of this year’s tournament, which is actually the continuation of last year’s one, which they entered by being Canadian Champions last year. That’s as opposed to the US-based MLS teams who entered the competition by dint of their achievements in 2013. That much should be clear.

This year’s Canadian Championship will still be played, and with nothing further at stake expect one of the non-MLS sides in the competition (Ottawa or Edmonton) to walk it, as that’s the sort of sod’s law that governs footballing fortunes.

Anyway, it’s all the sort of admirable scheduling tangle, with bonus points for unforeseen consequences, that the big boys at FIFA would thoroughly approve of. By that measure Canadian soccer has truly come of age.

CBA

Of course this game, like every other game this weekend, was in doubt until just a couple of days before the season started. But with neither MLS or the players really able to afford a strike over free agency, a collective bargaining agreement was put in place that seems to do what a good deal should do i.e. please nobody.

MLS management and owners were forced to concede the thin end of the wedge on free agency, while the players were left consoling themselves with the thought that said wedge might be mighty thin at the moment (free agency for players over 28 and with 8 years service in the league), but it’s something to build on in five year’s time. That, and bringing the minimum wage up to a level that won’t have the average college player torn by the attractive trainee manager starting salary at The Gap, is progress. Simon Evans tracked the negotiation process and you can read his take here.

Some day the dramatic tale will be told of the dramatic twists and turns of the collective bargaining agreement between livebloggers and Guardian management that reached its dramatic conclusion this lunchtime (“free agency anytime you want it — there’s the door, and send up the next typing monkey on your way out…”). Today is not that day however.

Twitter stirs

Possibly mildly optimistic tweet to get us underway...

Other games are available...

Last night LA Galaxy kicked off the defense of their title with a 2-0 win over Chicago Fire. D.C. United beat Montreal 1-0 earlier this afternoon, and as I write Philadelphia and Colorado are tied 0-0, though the Rapids have just gone down to ten men, with Bobby Burling seeing his second yellow (much to the chagrin of Colorado coach Pablo Mastroeni and his magnificent 19th century villain’s mustache).

Preambling…

Afternoon all, and welcome to another season of MLS coverage by your super soaraway Guardian. (note the “another” dropped in there in beautifully passive aggressive fashion to welcome Sky TV’s brand new coverage of the league…we’re not proud).

Veteran status established, it’s time to idly scratch our DeRo tattoos, and get down to some serious Canadian soccer musing. Yes, there may be a very intriguing game tomorrow between new boys Orlando City and New York City, featuring the likes of Kaka and David Villa, but we here at the Guardian are proud to have made the bold decision to mark opening weekend by covering the only meeting this season between Vancouver and Toronto (with possibly a teensy bit of liveblogging of the Orlando/New York game tomorrow to cover our backs).

In the white corner, Carl Robinson’s Vancouver Whitecaps, they of the speedy attack that sometimes goes too fast for its own good, and in the red corner, Toronto FC and their enduring touching belief that playoff spots are secured in January.

For Vancouver fans it’ll be intriguing to see if Octavio Rivero can carry his three goal pre-season form into the season, allowing the speedsters of Kekuta Manneh and Darren Mattocks to run off him, and there’ll be another goal threat with the addition of Pa Modou Kah on set pieces. The big defender got a couple of goals in pre-season. Indeed ten Whitecaps players scored in the preparations for this campaign, which is good news for Carl Robinson, whose team only scored 42 goals last year.

Meanwhile, it’s been another overhaul for the perennially underperforming Toronto team, who acquired Jozy Altidore from and dispatched Jermain Defoe to Sunderland (as a Sunderland fan for going on four decades I have little to add to this but to advise all parties concerned to be careful what they wish for…), while also landing another coup with the addition of Sebastian Giovinco. Michael Bradley has been made captain and given a decent midfield partner in Benoit Cheyrou to help him go about his business — and while this year’s off-season has lacked the blockbuster hype that accompanied Toronto into 2014, that’s probably no bad thing. Frankly, a slightly more circumspect entry into 2015, followed by the team finally, finally, landing a playoff spot, is the only sort of “Bloody big deal” likely to impress Toronto fans at this point...

In fairness, Toronto’s changes look very good on paper, but as Vancouver can remind them, the game isn’t played on paper. It’s played on artificial turf.

I’ll be back shortly with a little more build up and team news, but for now get your tweets coming in to @KidWeil or email graham.parker@theguardian.com

Graham will be here shortly. In the meantime, why not read Richard Whittall’s previews of Toronto and Vancouver:

Toronto FC

It’s become something of an old joke among hardened Toronto FC fans: their club is the only team in the league that knows how to win the MLS Cup in January. That’s because at this same time last year, the team rolled out a major PR campaign involving the unexpected signing of two bona fide stars in Jermain Defoe and Michael Bradley, which featured a double-decker bus blazoned with the words “A Bloody Big Deal” parked outside their unveiling at a downtown Toronto press conference.

A year later, Toronto FC have still yet to make the MLS playoffs since their inaugural season in 2007, Defoe has moved back to Sunderland and the Premier League after injury and rumours of disquiet derailed the second half of his season, and Bradley never quite hit the heights many expected he would in a World Cup year.

If you thought, however, that this would pressure the club to go for a quieter, 2014 DC United-style rebuild, you would be incorrect. Though the media fanfare has been dispensed with this time around, Toronto FC have had another banner off-season, pulling in Jozy Altidore in return for Defoe, picking up the playmaking midfielder Benoit Cheyrou from Marseille, adding a strong defender in Poland’s Damien Perquis, and somehow nabbing Sebastian Giovinco from Juventus.

The latter deal in particular turned heads throughout the league. While Defoe was a known commodity, he was 31 years old when joined MLS. Giovinco is in his prime at 28, with 21 caps for the Italian national team. If he follows through on his incredible promise – always an open question for Toronto – along with Bradley, Altidore and Cheyrou, TFC should have one of the more threatening midfields in MLS.

Indeed, if this were literally any other club, most would predict Toronto to easily make the playoffs. And yet we’ve been down this road before only for the inevitable collapse, round of firings and hirings, and plenty of promises it will be better next time. After eight seasons – eight – of disappointment, it’s hard to tell how much goodwill the club has left to burn.

Vancouver Whitecaps

One of the more entertaining battles in the dying stages of the 2014 regular season in MLS was the tussle for the final playoff spot between the two Cascadian rivals: the Portland Timbers and the Vancouver Whitecaps. Despite an overall lack of goals last year – Vancouver only managed to net 42, fewer than the Colorado Rapids and Toronto FC – Carl Robinson’s Whitecaps played some adventurous football in the final month of play, with Mauro Rosales’ adroit passes complimenting the speed and skill of Kekuta Manneh and Pedro Morales up front. The Caps won four of their five final matches to steal the final playoff spot from Portland, only to lose against FC Dallas in the play-in. Though the signs of life were brief, Vancouver ended the season with the promise of better things to come in 2015.

The biggest challenge for the club however will be to score a lot more often, and this is where Robinson has made some interesting additions. One of his innovations last season was to bring in the 6ft5in Costa Rican center-half Kendall Waston from Saprissa in August, which added some guile to Vancouver’s set-piece play. He’s now doubled his advantage by acquiring the Timbers’ defender Pa Modou Kah – the player has already impressed in pre-season warm ups – with Uruguayan defender Diego Rodriguez poised to help fill the gap left by out-of-contract defender Andy O’Brien. Vancouver will need to preserve their impressiv defensive record if they want to have any hope of making to the playoffs in a Western Conference that now features two of the traditionally stronger sides in the East: Houston and Sporting KC.

However as a rule, teams shouldn’t rely on well-executed set plays to survive the season, and this is where Robinson still has some work left to go as kickoff draws near. His only major acquisition up front so far in the off-season has been the 23-year-old Uruguayan forward Octavio Rivero, who scored 10 goals in 16 appearances last season for Chilean club O’Higgins FC. Rivero needs to play a significant role in helping out Morales up front if Vancouver hopes to make solid progress on last season. Apart from that, with the successful midfield pairing of Gershon Koffie and Matias Laba, and Steven Beitashour and Jordan Harvey as starting full backs, Vancouver have a very good, if not great, team.