Growing up on Long Island, Tim Parker made countless pilgrimages to the Bronx to cheer on Derek Jeter and his beloved New York Yankees.

But he never dreamed that one day he’d get the chance to play on the same field as his hero — in a soccer game, no less.

The 23-year-old Whitecaps defender estimates he will have about 300 family and friends in attendance at Yankee Stadium on Saturday afternoon when the Vancouver Whitecaps visit New York City FC.

“It’ll be amazing. As a kid in New York, Yankee Stadium is kind of this godsend,” said Parker. “So many greats came out of there.

“It’ll be amazing to get the opportunity to play there.”

A native of Hicksville, N.Y., Parker said he didn’t even bother trying to handle ticket requests — “I told them to do it themselves” — and seemed a little embarrassed about the situation when talking to reporters in Vancouver earlier this week.

“It’s exciting and maybe a bit overdone,” he said with a smile. “But I think it will be fun.”

Whitecaps head coach Carl Robinson, meanwhile, is looking at Saturday from a different perspective. The pitch at Yankee Stadium is extremely narrow because of the facility’s dimensions and can present problems for visiting teams.

“I watched a baseball game there when I was playing for New York Red Bulls,” said Robinson. “It will be different going in for a soccer match, but it’s a great environment to go and play in. They’ve got a fantastic organization there, fantastic players.”

The game will be the third in eight days for both Vancouver (3-4-2) and New York City (1-3-4). The Whitecaps beat FC Dallas last weekend before tying Sporting Kansas Ciy on Wednesday in back-to-back home contests, while Saturday’s hosts are coming off a road loss to the Philadelphia Union and a draw with the Montreal Impact in the Bronx.

Vancouver — which got embarrassed 4-0 by D.C. United in its only other trip to the East Coast this season — is looking for some consistency after an up-and-down start to the Major League Soccer schedule.

The Whitecaps have had a player sent off in three of their nine games, and will be without defender Kendall Waston this weekend after he was shown a second yellow card against Sporting.

Robinson admitted after the mid-week draw, one where his players displayed both offensive flair and maddening defensive miscues, that he still doesn’t quite know what he has with this group.

“In the last three games we’ve shown a little bit of everything — good and not so good,” he said. “It’s important teams get into a rhythm. I think it’s happening to everyone, not just with us, but we know we need to be better.

“We’ll try and get a little bit more focus and rhythm to our play.”

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