Depth Makes Vancouver a Dark Horse in M.L.S. The absence of relegation in Major League Soccer means that a team can become champions one year after finishing at the bottom of the pile. Landon Donovan and Dwayne De Rosario sparked the San Jose Earthquakes past the Los Angeles Galaxy in the 2001 M.L.S. Cup final a year after the Earthquakes finished last. Donovan almost repeated the feat with Los Angeles. No team ended the 2008 season with fewer points than the Galaxy. A penalty shootout loss to Real Salt Lake - including a rare Donovan miss - was all that prevented the ultimate turnaround in Bruce Arena's first full year in charge in 2009. It is a tall order for second-year Vancouver Whitecaps to emulate San Jose. The betting site Bovada issued initial odds of 66 to 1 on the Canadians lifting the Philip F. Anschutz Trophy - rank outsiders along with the expansion Montreal Impact (who the Whitecaps host Saturday night. A host of soccer pundits have been predicting an eighth-place finish for Vancouver in the Western Conference. That belies the fact that Whitecaps" Coach Martin Rennie has built his team into solid play-off contenders within months of arriving from the Carolina Railhawks of the North American Soccer League. Astute roster moves during the off-season have added significant firepower and depth to what was a flimsy expansion team last year. Vancouver failed to win on the road in its debut season and accumulated just 28 points from 34 games. Teitur Thordarson was relieved of his head coaching duties last May with the director of soccer operations Tom Soehn taking over until Rennie's arrival on Nov. 1. Rennie, a 36-year-old Scot, has an impressive track record of creating winning teams. Carolina had never finished higher than eighth in the second tier before Rennie's appointment in 2009. The Railhawks missed out on the regular-season title to the Portland Timbers by two points in his first year before winning it in 2010 and 2011. Rennie had first come to prominence by leading Cleveland City Stars to the United Soccer Leagues Second Division championship in 2008. "We have to challenge everybody we play against and make sure every single team knows they're in a game," said Rennie during last week's Walt Disney World Pro Soccer Classic tournament in Kissimmee, Fla. If we do what we can do, we can compete against most of the teams in the league, if not all of them. Vancouver looks particularly strong in attack with Rennie implementing a 4-3-3 formation to maximize his squad's talents. Te French striker Eric Hassli occupies center backs with his strength and lateral movement, creating space for the team's speedy wings and withdrawn forward. The Chinese striker Long Tan provides the alternative of sharp turns off either foot, bundles of energy and the pace to run behind defenses. Sebastien Le Toux will compete with the Swiss playmaker Davide Chiumiento for the deep-lying role while Camilo Sanvezzo, Atiba Harris, Michael Nanchoff and Russell Teibert give strong options on the wings. There is also Darren Mattocks, the No. 2 pick in this year's M.L.S. draft, and Omar Salgado, last year's No.1 pick, pushing for a starting place. The Whitecaps can break down their opponents with a possession-oriented approach or a direct route. Hassli, Harris, Le Toux, Salgado and Tan are all listed as at least six-feet tall on the club's Web site. The Scottish international midfielder Barry Robson is expected to arrive from Middlesbrough of the English Championship (second division) in the summer to bolster a position tat includes Jun Marques Davidson, Gershon Koffie, John Thorrington, Matt Watson and the standout former Canadian under-17 captain Bryce Alderson. Vancouver does not look as deep defensively. Jay DeMerit's fitness is key after he missed 13 games last year. The United States international should form a solid partnership with the Argentine center-back Martin Bonjour if he can remain healthy. Still, the Whitecaps defending starts further up the field. "You see Hassli working so hard to win the ball back when you know he's a great player on the ball," Rennie said. When there's competition in the squad and they see everybody else working, they all work. And if you get that work ethic and attitude, you're always going to have a chance to do well. The Whitecaps won four straight games against M.L.S. opposition on the way to the Walt Disney title without conceding a goal, hinting that Rennie and his coaching staff are already instilling a winning attitude. "We're not getting carried away," the assistant coach Paul Ritchie said during the tournament. We're under no illusions we're going to go from being the worst team in the league last year to the best. If we can have everyone fit and playing to their full capabilities, there's going to be a difficult decision to make. That's a fantastic position to be in.