Good Friday morning Caps fans, hope you all are having a good start to your May and that your weekend plans are coming into focus.
The Caps have a date with red-hot Austin FC this weekend, despite the fact that basically everyone (myself included) had them near the top of the race for the wooden spoon and a near-lock to finish at the bottom of the Western Conference. MLS is weird man.
One area in which MLS has gotten modestly less weird is the decision by the league to provide a lot more transparency about the roster status of each of the 28 teams. Fans will still be on the outside looking in when it comes to information about the salary cap but, for the first time, sickos like us can have a clear sense of DPs, U-22 players, international roster spots and other player roles.
This is no small matter — many MLS teams (though not the Caps) purposefully obfuscate their DP situation. In other cases, it just is frankly limiting to the debates or banter that nerds or pundits enjoy, wargaming out the transfer window and talking about what a team should be doing in terms of its roster building.
In Vancouver, there isn’t much drama. The DP and U-22 situation has been pretty clear for some time, with Pedro Vite the only guy in-house who happens to be a U-22 player. Deiber Caicedo still counts but from looking at other teams, it seems possible to fill the U-22 spot of a player on loan. With the evolving roster rules, this might not even be necessary but could provide Vancouver some additional flexibility. The other nugget of interest is that Giuseppe Bovalina is waiting on his visa and won’t be available just yet. Given that the Aussies and Canadians typically play nice, you’d hope this wouldn’t stretch into Ali Adnan levels of waiting.
If you’re a real nerd, you’ll probably want to dive into the full document here. The only downside is it’s not clear that the roster details will be updated super often, though the fact that the transfer window has slammed shut means we likely won’t see much change for the foreseeable future. But for now? Go hog wild. This has been a change hardcore MLSers have been waiting years for and it’s worth the wait.
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Best of the Rest
Taylor Twellman makes a case for the Caps as a Western Conference contender. Always nice to see some pundits put some respect on Vancouver’s name.
The midweek Voyageurs Cup matches featured Atletico Ottawa yamming on Valour FC and Pacific FC limping by a strong TSS Rovers side to advance.
The U.S. and Mexico have pivoted away from bidding on the 2027 World Cup, dropping their effort to focus on 2031 instead.
Columbus Crew bossed Monterrey at Estadio BBVA to cruise into the CONCACAF Champions Cup final. One of the most impressive results in MLS history, IMO.