Good Friday morning Caps fans, hope you all are gearing up for a weekend of summer fun.

Before Inter Miami comes to town, however, the Caps had to dispense with their Voyageurs Cup tie, which they did — with great difficulty.

It was a remarkably poor performance on Tuesday night as the team continues to be mired in a bit of a mini-tailspin.

It is always difficult to cobble together a lineup of squad players and have them work as effectively as a first team that plays together week in and week out. But it wasn’t so much the squad cohesion as the fact that nearly every player turned in a stinker of a performance.

This is probably one where the vibes were much worse than the performance, as Vancouver probably should have had a goal or two and were unlucky that Cyprien Kachwele was barely denied his first senior goal just a few minutes into the match. Had that gone in, the tone of this column is probably much different and Vanni possibly doesn’t even need to bring on the starters.

And sure, a couple guys had positive showings. Isaac Boehmer turned in a good performance and probably was the sole reason Vancouver advanced and I thought Giuseppe Bovalina had a decent enough debut. But beyond that it was a lot of poor touches, lazy passes and guys who felt like they had already booked a ticket into the next round. Credit to Cavalry for pushing them to the brink and, possibly, deliver a wake up call.

Given that the best team in the league is coming to town, it is encouraging that Vanni Sartini let the team have it, both presumably in the locker room after the match and in the media.

But when the effort is so poor and so many players aren’t delivering, you have to wonder if a change in tactics is required to get things back on track. Teams are opting to just give the Caps the ball and let them try to break them down, which they can’t do, and then pounce on a mistake to open them up.

This works well because this was the fifth straight match where the Caps haven’t scored from open play and it seems that everyone has the shanks at the moment. Brian White even elected to try and square a cross for Ryan Raposo … despite being seemingly played in, with only the keeper to beat. The old strategy isn’t working and while new squad reinforcements are needed, Vanni will probably need to figure something out on the fly.

This is as lost as I’ve seen this team looking in some time. And while the Caps are not as good of a team as they seemed after the first handful of matches, I have a hard time buying that they are as bad as they’ve been recently.

Vancouver will get a boost, as they avoid Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Sergio Busquets in their weekend tilt against Inter Miami. Until they start scoring goals again, I’m hedging against a turnaround but this is a come to Jesus moment for the team to try and get some more buy-in from what is currently a complacent and low-energy side. Here’s hoping that happens quickly, otherwise I’m a bit worried about what Saturday might have in store.

The match will be a disappointment for those who wanted too Inter Miami’s big stars and while the Caps can’t predict the lineup decisions of the other teams, they are deservedly catching heat in all this. When you set ticket prices quite high, people are going to want to get their money’s worth and it is unfortunate that this is ruining a chance to showcase soccer in Vancouver. I agree with a statement published by the Southsiders — hopefully ticketholders don’t bail and instead come out and root for the Caps. But what was supposed to be a major moment for the club has turned a bit sour.

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Our post match recap and podcast episode break down the near-disaster from the midweek. The pod also gets you prepped for some Canadian Premier League action over the weekend

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