Good Monday morning Caps fans and hope any religious holidays you all have celebrated or been celebrating went well. Or, if you’re just excited about the arrival of spring, I hope that has been lovely as well.
Vancouver made it two wins on the bounce, comprehensively beating Portland 1-0 on Saturday night in a match the Caps controlled from start to finish. The Timbers somehow conjured up .8 expected goals and I’m at a loss for where they came from in all honesty — the only Portland player who looked like he wanted to be on the pitch was keeper Aljaz Ivacic, who was superb to deny the Caps several more likely goals.
It was another strong performance and there were a couple particularly encouraging signs. Julian Gressel and Ryan Gauld were good, as expected, and Ali Ahmed continues to dazzle. Gressel sits at the top of the league in big chances created and is making a strong case for the Caps to back a Brinks truck up to his house in a bid to sign him to a long-term contract renewal, but for the fact that the team has whiffed on every big-money extension seemingly in recent memory.
In less obvious forms of good news, however, this was by far the best performance we have seen out of Mathias Laborda, who has somewhat surprisingly struggled for minutes.
But thrust back into his slightly unnatural right back position, Laborda shone. A sponge defensively, I think he made something like seven interventions and really locked down the right side of the pitch. Going forward, he’s unlikely to swing in a pinpoint cross but had a couple really nice chances off headers at the back post.
This team has proven that it has the capacity to be sound defensively. I’m not sure we want to take games against potentially bad opposition as confirmation that it will never let in a goal again but there have been real positive signs.
Basically, every time Portland took a touch in the box, they were swarmed by Laborda and the two centerbacks. Sebastian Berhalter tracked back to win the ball back around his own penalty area multiple times and was an excellent replacement for Andres Cubas. I gave him high marks in the report card largely on the basis of him being called into duty unexpectedly and more than rising to the occasion.
The result certainly makes the midweek letdown to LAFC more frustrating. They could have gotten more out of that game. But the Caps are finally showing signs of being the team we thought they could be.
Shameless Self Promotion
We have our post-match recap breaking down how the Caps are (through one match anyway) kings of Cascadia. And our report card looks pretty, pretty good.
Best of the Rest
MLS is investigating a racist remark, allegedly from New York Red Bulls striker Dante Vanzeir, during their match with the San Jose Earthquakes, with the away side nearly walking off the field in protest
The Vancouver Whitecaps 2 side remains unbeaten, dominating North Texas SC (never an easy task) on the road Sunday night
Pressure on the LA Galaxy organization will only increase further, after the team melted down in a 3-0 loss to Houston. It could be worse y’all!
A good primer on the big additions for each of the Canadian Premier League sides, as the season inches closer
Dave Johnson ‘nails it on the head’ as to what has been a disappointing time in MLS – THE OWNERSHIP GROUP which has made multiple millions on expansion and tv rights, has seen their investment- on paper- rise 10-15x greater than when it entered MLS and yet will not get us a striker with any hint of offensive talent to score in the 15-18 goal range- if they would agree to do that, then this team rises to the top 4 in the West Conference and a possible Cup top 6 team
all we get are the rivero, ardaiz, blundell and cordova type of offensive players that take the Club nowhere – with our highly effective MF (even moreso with Ahmed) and a reasonable defence/goalie, fans would come back if we score – its all about excitement and entertainment — you have to invest and trust that the payment will come back in spades
Ryan Gauld had a really good game. Ali Ahmed continues to impress early in his MLS career. Gauld just proves what many have said about cheap ownership; if you invest in a salary at that level (which in his case is just a nudge above 2 million), you get an impact player. If we had 3 good signings with salaries at that level (including one striker), this squad is good enough to move up the ladder. Without it, the cheapness and lack of ambition shines through!