{"id":320219,"date":"2025-12-02T09:20:34","date_gmt":"2025-12-02T09:20:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/320219\/"},"modified":"2025-12-02T09:20:34","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T09:20:34","slug":"vancouver-whitecaps-cb-belal-halbouni-out-for-mls-cup-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/320219\/","title":{"rendered":"Vancouver Whitecaps CB Belal Halbouni out for MLS Cup final"},"content":{"rendered":"

Belal Halbouni has been ruled out for the rest of the year after suffering a left-knee bone contusion in extra time of the club\u2019s Western Conference semifinal win over LAFC on Nov. 22.<\/a> The club expects the London, Ontario native to make a full recovery within five to seven weeks, but the timing brings an abrupt end to what had become a breakthrough stretch for the 25-year-old defender.<\/p>\n

Halbouni\u2019s injury added to the chaos of a dramatic semifinal finish. Moments earlier, Tristan Blackmon had been sent off, and with head coach Jesper S\u00f8rensen having already used all five substitutions, Vancouver were forced to finish the match with nine men. Halbouni attempted to continue after going down in the second half of extra time, but ultimately could not, leaving the Whitecaps to protect their lead with a makeshift defensive shape.<\/p>\n

Related Read: MLS Cup final \u2018not about Messi vs. Muller\u2019 says Whitecaps\u2019 German star<\/a><\/p>\n

The setback comes after a strong season in which Halbouni started 14 of his 19 appearances across all competitions. He became a reliable option in the final third of the campaign, starting nine of Vancouver\u2019s last 11 regular-season matches along with both games of the Round One best-of-three series against FC Dallas. <\/p>\n

The former Canadian youth international also scored his first goal for the club in March against CF Monterrey during the Whitecaps\u2019 CONCACAF Champions Cup run.<\/p>\n

In Halbouni\u2019s absence last week against San Diego, and with Blackmon suspended, S\u00f8rensen turned to Ralph Priso and Mathias Laborda as his centre-back pairing\u2014an arrangement that may now have to carry the Whitecaps in Fort Lauderdale on Dec. 6.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Belal Halbouni has been ruled out for the rest of the year after suffering a left-knee bone contusion…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320220,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-320219","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-soccer","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-soccer","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320219","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320219"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320219\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320220"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320219"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320219"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320219"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}