The Whitecaps are on fire — and giving Vancouver sports fans some cheer after Canucks 'season from hell'

In a sports market where the Vancouver Canucks have long been king, the ascendant Whitecaps are putting up a pretty good challenge for the crown.

Bound for the CONCACAF Champions Cup final and sitting top of the table in Major League Soccer, the exciting Whitecaps have been a balm for local sports fans feeling burned by the sad state of their NHL team.

Witness the scene both in Miami and at watch parties around Vancouver Wednesday night, where excited soccer fans could barely believe their eyes when the Whitecaps made history by dispatching Lionel Messi and his star-studded Miami squad in the Champions Cup semi-final.

Whitecaps slay Lionel Messi’s Inter Miami to reach CONCACAF Champions Cup final

"It's really a dream come true, especially to beat a player the class of Messi," said young fan Miles Mollard. "It's completely something else, a bit euphoric!"

"I don't think anyone thought this would happen, ever," said Nicholas Naughton-Rumbo, creative director with the Southsiders supporters group.

It wasn't long ago the Whitecaps were mired in a gloom of their own; the team put up for sale and potentially on the move, lovable coach Vanni Sartini sent packing after another season ending disappointment. 

But all that seems a distant memory because, as the saying goes, winning has a way of fixing everything.

It could be that easy — or that hard — for the Canucks, whose season of negativity started early with the mysterious feud between stars Elias Pettersson and J.T. Miller. 

Missing the playoffs dealt a further blow to faithful fans, with any shred of remaining optimism stripped away when it was announced that popular head coach Rick Tocchet was effectively divorcing the Canucks to size-up sexier NHL teams with more to offer.