Good Friday morning Caps fans, hope you are having a good week and that those of you who made the trip over on the ferry had a good trip.

The Caps outperformed my wildest expectations and still found a way to disappoint, once again going toe to toe with Tigres. But despite some nice second half chances — and a goal ruled out — they conceded a late equalizer off an Andre-Pierre Gignac worldie, underscoring how good you have to be to beat a team of this caliber.

The 1-1 result isn’t bad at all in a vacuum, particularly given that the Caps were down three starters that would have raised their level pretty considerably. There also were plenty of moments where Vancouver was pretty clearly rusty, reminding everyone this is their first competitive match in several months.

This doesn’t change the fact that they will be up against it in Mexico, though I don’t doubt for a second that they will turn in a resolute performance and play wide open in hopes of pulling out a shock result.

But if we consider this as a peak into what we could expect in the MLS season, things remain pretty rosy.

You see pretty clearly the vision for how things will go in league play, if everything goes according to plan. Either control possession and have methodical build up through the middle (which the Caps surprisingly grew into as the night went on) or press and hit on the counter after winning the ball in the opposition half, looking to overwhelm with numbers. Damir Kreilach had a couple miscues with Gauld early but was lethal on his goal and, generally speaking, you can see pretty clearly how he will fit with Gauld and White as the season goes along. I feel much better about this signing after Wednesday, though the worry about the number of minutes Kreilach will be able to offer persists.

Fafa Picault similarly was bright, albeit in limited minutes, fitting in nicely with the press and serving as a real nuisance to Tigres as legs started to tire. He looked like what the Caps were hoping they’d be getting with Junior Hoilett and, once again, you can see the vision for how he will fit in with the broader tactical strategy.

Not everyone shone quite as brightly — Alessandro Schopf and Luis Martins struggled to cope — but that’s to be expected when you are missing some key players. The defense was solid and Yohei Takaoka was stout, though his positioning on Gignac’s wonder strike could draw some criticism. But he made some key saves to get the Caps to that point and looked well rested and confident, both of which are excellent signs.

Given the difficulty of their assignment, I think the Caps put a lot of people across the league on notice with their performance on Wednesday. Not every match will look that pretty (some of the breaks the Caps pieced together in the second half were liquid) and the team will need to finish off games a bit better — but not every match will be against Tigres, either. 

Shameless Self Promotion

For a more thorough recap of Wednesday’s performance against Tigres, the venerable AGR has you covered. Meanwhile, our podcast looks ahead to both legs of Champions Cup and looks way, way ahead to the 2026 World Cup.

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