FC Dallas vs. Vancouver Postponed over Whitecaps Travel Delay After COVID Tests

Major League Soccer announced Saturday a match between FC Dallas and the Vancouver Whitecaps, which was scheduled to take place July 9 as part of the MLS is Back Tournament, has been postponed because the Whitecaps' travel was delayed by inconclusive COVID-19 tests.

Vancouver and Dallas are both in Group B. The match will get shifted to later in pool play. Further details about the fixture will be released at a later date.

The Whitecaps' inconclusive tests later came back negative. MLS previously announced six Toros players tested positive for the coronavirus after their arrival in Florida.

All 26 MLS teams are taking part in the tournament scheduled to kick off July 8 in Orlando, Florida.

The league is utilizing a similar "bubble" approach to the NBA, which also selected Orlando to serve as its host city before a recent surge in coronavirus cases in Florida.

MLS' schedule calls for group play to run through July 23. The knockout stages begin July 28 en route to crowning a tournament champion Aug. 11.

Both Dallas and Vancouver are now slated to begin play July 15 when the Toros take on Seattle and the Whitecaps battle San Jose.

Restart plans call for the tournament's group stage matches to count toward the regular-season standings. The league is hoping to shift back into traditional play after the event concludes and then finish the campaign with a standard playoffs to determine the 2020 champion.

"Our goal is to play the season in 2020," MLS president Mark Abbott said in June. "There's an opportunity to go into even deeper December than we were before ... I don't think we're looking at playing any of the regular season in 2021—possibly some playoff games. But the first choice is to complete it in calendar 2020."

MLS' season was halted March 12 because of the pandemic.

The Sounders are the reigning league champions. Four teams—Atlanta, Colorado, Minnesota and Sporting KC—had won both their first two matches this season before the delay.