Good Friday morning Caps fans, hope you all are having a good week and are ready to relax this weekend.
Well folks, get your MLS Season Pass logins ready for the official start of the season because, like it or not, it is that time again.
Even better than the start of the regular season (for everyone but the Whitecaps, anyway) is the return of my annual attempt to do the impossible: predict how the season will end up. It leads to such gems as me predicting Dante Vanzeir will win the golden boot. What could go wrong?
This year was tough to predict. On the one hand, you have an uber competitive Eastern Conference. Inter Miami is one of the toughest teams to predict in recent memory. Obviously everyone and their mother is predicting Messi and Friends to win everything under the Florida Sun. On the other, you’re asking for a lot of aging players to hold up in a lot of different competitions to make those dreams come true.
On the flip side, the West is tough to predict. Beyond Seattle, things are a total crapshoot and most every team aside from them and Austin you could tell me will finish 2nd or 11th and I would believe it.
So, here goes.
Eastern Conference
- FC Cincinnati
- Columbus Crew
- Inter Miami
- Atlanta United
- New England Revolution
- Orlando City SC
- Philadelphia Union
- New York Red Bulls
- NYCFC
- Chicago Fire
- Nashville SC
- Montreal
- DC United
- Charlotte FC
- Toronto FC
Western Conference
- Seattle Sounders
- FC Dallas
- LAFC
- Minnesota United
- Vancouver Whitecaps
- Real Salt Lake
- St. Louis City SC
- Sporting KC
- Colorado Rapids
- Houston Dynamo
- LA Galaxy
- Portland
- San Jose Earthquakes
- Austin FC
Golden Boot: Cucho Hernandez, Columbus Crew
Goalkeeper of the Year: Daniel, San Jose
Defender of the Year: Jackson Regan, Seattle Sounders
Newcomer of the Year: Luis Suarez, Miami
I struggled with where to put the Caps but “above the playoff line but not a nailed on home playoff team” seems to be a good bet for really any team in the Western Conference. I think the ceiling for Vancouver is anywhere in the home playoff spots (aside from winning the conference) and the floor is probably in the 9th/10th place range. That makes them a lot like anyone else.
Barring an injury crisis or a massive drop off in production from Ryan Gauld and Brian White, this seems like a playoff team. If the new additions stay healthy, Vanni Sartini’s tactical genius clicks and there is a summer signing that takes this team up a level, I think we could be looking at the best Caps team in a long, long time. If one or more of those things don’t happen, well, then it will probably be more of the same.
The Caps did get some disappointing news on Friday, with Richie Laryea officially not returning to Vancouver. That’s not a shock. What did surprise is that he’s headed to MLS, just to his former club Toronto FC, on a permanent transfer.
It is too early to say if this is a case where Vancouver didn’t want to go where Nottingham Forest wanted them to go (problematic) or if it was Laryea who was iffy on returning to the Caps and wanted instead to go to a more comfortable environment, playing for his former national team coach, and that was the final push needed for Vancouver to end their interest. While its a bit of a kick in the teeth to see him go to a rival, presumably the front office has been preparing for this. With Ali Ahmed out for awhile, I still think the two-legged tie against Tigres underscored the need to bring in cover at the wingback position, as neither Luis Martins nor Sebastian Berhalter were great in the game of musical chairs between the right and left wingback spots.
Where did I go wrong? Who do you all see as contenders this season? Tell me why I’m an idiot in the comments below.
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I don’t think Sartini deserves the tactical genius. I think he gets out coached rather than vice versa. He’s stubborn with his christmas tree formation even when it’s not working. There’s lots of teams still using 4 at the back. It’s a tried and true setup. Also, Sartini, IMO, is too slow to make subs. When the wingbacks can no longer attack or defend Sartini seems to take 10-15 minutes trying to decide what to do. It’s so easy. Get Raposo off after 55-60 and get Brown in. Wait why is Raposo starting over Brown is bigger, faster, stronger and the off shore interest is in Brown not Raposo. Not having your best players playing the majority of the time is a problem. Sartini also botched Simon Becher’s season. He hardly played at all in the 2nd half of the season. But still, when we needed a goal against LAFC, who came on for the last 15. It was Becher, but he just wasn’t the player he was earlier in the season and what would you expect from a player who had little opportunity to play himself into form. Sartini should have known that at some time in a crucial match that we would need an opportunistic goal scorer. And that player needed confidence and be in form to make that happen. So that’s my worry with the Caps
I don’t have any problems with the Whitecaps not bring back Laryea. He was fine but overhyped.
2024 Predictions:
since upgrading always occurs year-over-year in MLS, we can state at this point that the Caps havent- 1 C, 2 C- and 1 D signings just dont cut it – disappointed – so we will struggle until a big upgrade happens in the MF where we only have Cubas and a healthy Ahmed (seems fragile to see him playing on a regular basis when he returns… SIGH… from a hernia operation) as the best we have
and i dont see kreilach being a regular option as a striker- aging and injuries has and will show up
as usual we will be a competitive team, but counting on Gauld and White to do a repeat from 2023 is a gamble– Axel had best have a solution coming in for the MF
so if things go well- 6th to 8th place; if problems occur, 9th to 11th- why is it always this way ?? we know the answer