Good Monday morning Caps fans, hope all of you had a lovely weekend and, for the Irish among us (and aren’t we all Irish this time of year), a happy St. Patrick’s Day.

Remember last week when I said the Caps needed to find a more sustainable attacking strategy? Well, I was possibly a bit premature in my anxiety.

It was a resounding win again for the Caps on Saturday, as Vancouver went down to Dallas and left with all three points on the back of three well taken goals and game in which the home team never really looked into it, aside from a 10 minutes spell in the second half.

The headline here was a first start for Fafa Picault, who made good on his opportunity by notching a nice assist and goal. More broadly, however, the front three looked much more fluid, more able to press and better positioned to get into wide spaces and create overloads thanks to Picault’s pace and technique. I don’t think it is a secret that Brian White, who has been quiet to date, finally roared to life under this new arrangement and it was a pretty clear indication that Picault fits better in that third attacker spot, with Damir Kreilach better positioned as a backup to Ryan Gauld.

But it was Alessandro Schopf who I thought quietly flew under the radar as a strong performer. I was rolling my eyes at the attempt to continue to try and make Schopf into a wingback but he really seemed to relish the role, finding himself in a bit more space and almost at times playing as more of a wide midfielder than a wingback, with the defense accounting for this in their positioning. That gave Schopf a bit more time on the ball and presented a more creative outlet to stretch the defense — it all worked quite well and while I suspect this experiment will only last as long as Sam Adekugbe remains out but it is nice for Schopf to finally have a chance to find his feet after a fairly trying and unremarkable time in Vancouver to date.

The upshot of the Caps’ win on Saturday is they now sit on seven points — at total it took them six weeks to eclipse in 2023 — with a four game homestand upcoming. You never want to get ahead of yourself but for a team that have started quite slowly in recent years, it is very encouraging to see them building up a cache of points early on in the season. There will almost certainly be a more turbulent patch down the road but, for now, things are humming along quite nicely.

Shameless Self Promotion

Caleb has a nice recap of the Caps’ triumph on Saturday and also sings the praises of our Austrian midfield-turned-wingback. For the report card grades from the win, look no further.

Best of the Rest

On the flip side, it’s been a disappointing start to the season for FC Dallas, who I had high hopes for entering 2024

The new Canadian national team kits are certainly interesting. The white kit looks half decent to me. The red? Not so much.

A chat with new Canada Soccer General Secretary Kevin Blue on where things go from here for the embattled federation

The Caps again had a decent replacement ref but one thing has become clear — they’ve got to go

FC Cincinnati is in hot water (deservedly) for revoking a media members’ credentials because they didn’t like her coverage — shameful