Good Monday morning Caps fans, hope you all are doing well and ready for the week ahead. It was a turbulent weekend in the world at large and I hope you all are taking care.
It was a strong performance from the Whitecaps on Saturday night in St. Louis, with the away side taking care of business against a City team that are fully in free fall at the moment. But the truth in MLS always remains that good teams take care of business against bad teams and Vancouver deserve full credit for doing so.
The front three will get most of the headlines in this one and deservedly so. Brian White can’t stop scoring, Ryan Gauld can’t stop assisting and Fafa Picault turned in a performance reminiscent of the start of his season and it marks a welcome return to form for him after a rough patch.
But what really stood out to me on Saturday was the strong performances from Mathias Laborda, who was a creative engine from the centerback position and effectively had an assist on the Caps’ second goal with an inch perfect long cross. Ryan Raposo also impressed, putting himself in dangerous positions in the right side channel and presenting an attacking threat that we haven’t seen in awhile from the wingback position.
Ryan Gauld and Brian White have been awesome as of late, no one will dispute that. But what separates the Caps from other, more consistent teams in the league is the fact that, aside from Andres Cubas and perhaps Ranko Veselinovic, there is a lack of consistency from some of those other guys in the lineup. If Laborda and Raposo can hit on something here, that would go a long way to providing a lift to the Caps’ fortunes.
In fairness, this was against St. Louis, who have decidedly not gotten a new coach bump since sacking Bradley Carnell and instead seemingly have regressed. Their pressing was half-hearted, giving the Caps chances to break and while they had a few promising forays forward late in the first half and early in the second, the Caps broke their resolve pretty easily.
But a date with a similarly struggling Sporting KC side awaits on Wednesday, before a key match against Houston at BC Place on Saturday. Four points from those games would be awesome and a fine close to the first half of the regular season before Leagues Cup. After a run of OK performances, the strong showing on Saturday makes me feel a bit more optimistic heading into the stretch run of the first half of the season.
Shameless Self Promotion
If you missed any of the action from Saturday night (and, in fairness, a lot was going on) our post match has you covered.
Best of the Rest
More on the chemistry between Ryan Gauld and Brian White — on and off the pitch.
Uruguay pipped Canada to third place in Copa America in a penalty shootout but it was another fine performance from the Canadians.
It was a chaotic night in the Supporters’ Shield race, as Cincinnati, LAFC and Real Salt Lake all lost.
Could Kelowna be getting a Canadian Premier League team?
I find the comment regarding the “struggling” SKC side and then a “key” match versus Houston amusing, and both ‘Caps-narrative biased and coming across as unaware.
SKC has taken three wins and 9 pts from it’s last four matches, and Houston has taken 7 pts in it’s last four, while Vancouver has taken 10. That’s fairly similar form, teams that at the minute appear to be matched up well against each other.
Two wins needs to be the goal, four points will be well-earned and three or less will sting but it will be points dropped against in-form sides and that should be respected in the narrative. Losing to an in-form side brings no shame.
Four points against SKC and Houston is only fine if the goal to finish above the playoff line. If the goal is to be a top four team in the West, then four points against the 8th and 12th placed teams at home is decidedly not fine. If it was LAFC looking at the schedule we have this week, they would consider six points to be automatic and anything less to be a shock.
That’s the mentality we need to be a top team, we can’t accept dropped points against poor teams at home. The announcers against STL made a very accurate statement about the ‘Caps: we can beat anyone on our best day, and we can lose to anyone on our worst day. We need to become a team that’s able to consistently go out and take care of business against the bottom of the table if we want to compete with the top in the shield race.