Good Friday morning Caps fans, hope you all are having a lovely week. Things are pretty winter-y at the moment here — hoping you all are staying safe and warm these days.
The Whitecaps have touched down in Spain for their pre-season and we now have the name of another attacking player who will be joining them for the occasion: winger Fafa Picault, who was out of contract after playing for Nashville SC this past season.
The 32-year-old Haitian is well traveled and has a reputation has a hard-worker and a fan favorite. And looking at his Football Reference shows a guy who is quite good at progressing the ball, taking defenders on and tracking back and putting in a shift defensively. His five goals last year comes out to about .28 goals per 90 minutes, which is around his career average but marks a notable decline from where he was a couple of seasons ago.
I’m not a huge fan of this move but I can see why it happened, as it checks two boxes. One, it gives Vanni Sartini a guy whose profile meshes will with what Vanni looks for in an attacker. Two, it basically is a replacement for the role Junior Hoilett was expected to play down the stretch — a depth piece with experience who can put in a shift off the bench and maybe start once the fixtures start piling up. Because it seems unlikely that Junior will be back, voila.
Picault is fine depth but that’s about it. He takes up an international spot and also comes on the heels of the Caps’ signing of another aging forward. And, the thing that I find the most baffling, after a half-season where Hoilett seemed to be a weird fit tactically, the Caps are now bringing in a guy who also typically plays on the wing (I know he can play at striker but I don’t get the sense that’s where he would be used here).
Now, Vanni is making noise about another change in formation and it seems Fafa fits that a bit better. And there is certainly something to be said for adding guys with MLS experience. I just would rather see those types of pieces added where the Caps need depth: centerback. Still, it seems as if Vancouver isn’t done in the transfer market so hopefully we’ll have some more exciting moves to chew over soon.
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The podcast dives into all the offseason action so far.
Best of the Rest
The latest on the possibility of a contract extension for Ryan Gauld
It is once again mostly 7:30 p.m. kickoffs for the Caps at BC Place this year, minus a handful of 4:30 starts
MLS and Apple are still declining to make public their numbers from the first season of Season Pass. Meanwhile, the league will be getting a “Drive to Survive” style show this year
Denis Bouanga and LAFC are locked in a standoff over their star forward’s possible desire to return to Europe — or a new contract
UNDERWHELMING off-season- nothing to get excited about, what with 2 experienced MLS free agents (Whitecap special) with tired legs that will add some depth, but will do NOTHING to take us to the next level- and PLEASE, no last minute desperate signings like Cordova in order to appease the fans- we arent stupid when it comes to quality and sergio was a sub-MLS striker which was obvious after watching his first 30 minutes
at this point, it looks more like a rehash of 2022 and out of the playoffs- hopefully, Axel surprises us with at least 2 significant, quality signings- we all like surprises !
no taller experienced goalie (hard on defenders on cross balls where takaoka is very weak and places a lot of pressure on the CBs on set pieces, our achilles heel); no upgrade at CB or AMF or striker/pacey winger
with 7 weeks to opening MLS, we are going backwards and i can see why Gauld and Cubas wont be happy- they want opportunities to compete for the MLS Cup and Concacaf
in MLS, if you stand pat, you go back-