Good Monday morning Caps fans, hope you all had a restful and enjoyable weekend — and that the transition back to the office isn’t too painful.
I have been telling myself and anyone who will listen that I am not going to get invested in Leagues Cup and, well, the Caps are close to getting me to do it. Their 2-2 draw against Leon on Friday night exceeded my expectations — and not just because of the marathon penalty shootout to close the night out.
The last time Vancouver took on a Mexican team in a competitive match, it was against Tigres in the CONCACAF Champions League in 2017. Granted, that team was far and away better than Leon (and the Caps were quite a bit worse) but the difference is still remarkable.
In that match, the Caps basically tried to get a goal and hang on for dear life — the first 30 minutes or so of Friday’s game on steroids. But after that first dodgy half hour or so, Vancouver ramped up to find life and after that point they looked like they belonged and the match felt like it was two decent teams going back and forth.
Credit should go to Vanni Sartini for a tactical tweak at halftime, bringing on Brian White and Tristan Blackmon and changing the formation to deny Leon quite so much space in the midfield and allowing the Caps to break through and find those counter attacking opportunities they dearly love.
Luis Martins, Mathias Laborda and J.C. Ngando all looked much better in the new formation and contributed (though Martins was solid even when things were in a three-at-the-back formation; its a shame he missed twice in the penalty shootout). Sergio Cordova continues to be on a roll and had two well-taken goals, though the real show stealer on his second was Ryan Gauld’s phenomenal individual effort.
Leon too clearly took this seriously, rolling a game plan at the beginning that clearly knew how the Caps liked to break and doing their best to deny them entry into those spaces. The chippiness at times underscored that neither side was going to phone it in, something I figured would be natural for both MLS and Liga MX teams given their fixture congestion.
I’m still skeptical this is a competition that will remain viable or relevant long term and I still regard winning the trophy as somewhere on the level of a U.S. Open Cup. But the Caps/Leon match showed how far this team and this league have come in recent years and it was a favorable comparison for Vancouver.
Shameless Self Promotion
More from our Leagues Cup blogging debut from Friday, including our match report and player grades
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We should not underestimate the economic hurt that interest rates and inflation have inflicted on our fan base. As saltyBugR3 notes, promotions will be critical. Also, how about a sustained outreach on the lively Mexican fan base that came to see Leon? New immigration to Vancouver is now strongly Latin American in provenance and this comes with preloaded “love of football software”! Again, however, promotions will be critical as well as outreach in the relevant communities. I have really been enjoying watching the team lately and it certainly deserves the loud support of a more extended fan base.
it was a game worth investing money and time in- in 2023, the Caps- after many years of misery- have become an entertaining team to support- how to get the lost 6 000 fans back seems to be a very difficult task, but i think its the right time to do some special promos
seeing cordova run 50 meters to link up with gauld amazed me as – and i have said multiple times- he has been a major disappointment… but now, its like a whole new player
welcome to vancouver, Sergio — can you keep it going ??
Cordova’s work rate and speed have been there but his finishing was just snake bitten for half a season. If this is his real form then he is worth a DP slot. We’ll be able to tell if it’s real or blip by the end of the season.
For now he’s scoring and that helps us on the field and increases his value if we decide to trade him.