Good Monday morning Caps fans, hope you all had a lovely summer weekend and that it hasn’t been too painful getting up and running with your workweek.

It was a painful performance from the Whitecaps on Saturday, as Vancouver traveled across the country only to fall flat against one of the worst teams in the league, the New England Revolution.

There was a large dose of good fortune for the Revs, who profited from a banger from Noel Buck and a very fortunate deflection to go 3-1 up at halftime and a good keeping performance helped blunt Vancouver in the first half.

But any claims of “oh, it was unlucky” can be waved away and dismissed in light of the second half, where the Caps not only struggled to get good looks at goal but ultimately were chasing the ball and struggling to even string together spells of possession.

After a bright start, this was another match in which the attacking band, aside from Ryan Gauld, was largely non-existent. The Caps can’t figure out a way to get Brian White consistent looks at goal that don’t involve floated crosses and Damir Kreilach and Fafa Picault were largely passengers.

The midfield, meanwhile, had some good moments but largely looks lost without Andres Cubas. Sebastian Berhalter had a good run of matches and hopefully can reclaim that form because it will be another month at least before Cubas will return from Paraguay duty.

But ultimately, this was another data point that shows how broken the game model is for the Caps. Yeah, it wasn’t really the defense’s fault to concede two of the three goals. But a more competent and clinical team would have gotten a fourth in the second half based on the number of chances the Revs were able to create.

Any gameplan that involves ceding so much of the ball to one of the worst teams in the league is fundamentally broken. And while the Caps showed a lot of promise early on by overwhelming New England in wide areas, the Revs adjusted well to nix that tactical strategy and the Caps had no backup plan.

Given that Vancouver largely is playing mediocre teams between now and Leagues Cup (and the start of the summer transfer window), they might be able to paper over some of these gaping holes. But unless things change in a hurry, this remains a show driven by one man — Ryan Gauld — and not much else.

Shameless Self Promotion

More on the ill-fated road trip to New England and possibly the worst lost of the season yet.

Best of the Rest

An outlook for Copa America Group A, which Canada and Argentina will kick off on Thursday night. Meanwhile, shoutout to Ali Ahmed for making the final roster cut.

There are rumors linking Porto midfielder and Canadian national teamer Stephen Eustaquio with an MLS move. Could we be so lucky?

It didn’t take long for Caps nemesis LAFC to find themselves back as a frontrunner in the Western Conference.

It was another good weekend for Pacific and another meh weekend for Vancouver FC in CPL action.