Good Monday morning Caps fans, here’s to a good week for all of us — given that it’s now August, summer is slipping away before our very eyes.
One thing that didn’t slip away was a late lead for the Whitecaps, with Vancouver actually turning around a halftime deficit to bury Club Tijuana 3-1 and book their passage out of the group stages of Leagues Cup without a ton of difficulty.
I didn’t see this one live but the highlights showed what seemed to be a quality performance, particularly in the second half. I was particularly happy to see Levonte Johnson earn redemption after missing a 1v1 that would have won the match against LAFC. His goal and an assist off the bench on Saturday reminds everyone (hopefully) that he is a real asset for the Caps and not a Canadian Premier League level player. Johnson may never develop into a starter in Vancouver but his numbers in limited minutes this year have shown a step forward and he has helped spell an aging Fafa Picault, who also continued his scoring ways on Saturday.
Tijuana isn’t exactly one of the top dogs in Liga MX but they are a team that has shown promise in the fall season and any win over Mexican opposition is always a feather in your cap. Beating Liga MX opposition has been a tall task for Vancouver (admittedly, they’ve been asked to beat far better teams than Tijuana) so it’s nice to change the narrative a bit.
Advancing out of the group stage will mean the Caps avoid embarrassment and they will have a real chance in the next round as well. Pumas are a solid team, one of the Grandes of Liga MX, but they aren’t as stiff a test as the team they pipped to advance out of the group stages, Monterrey.
The ideal would have been a date with Austin, who inexplicably won their group. But given that the Caps will get Pumas at BC Place, you have to think they are as well positioned as you could have asked headed into the knockout rounds.
In my mind, this is all a win-win. Any loss would buy them a bit more time to rest; a win sees them notch a quality performance in a knockout competition to help steel them for the playoffs. I’m still not terribly invested in what happens next but, either way, the Caps will benefit.
Shameless Self Promotion
We run down the performance from Saturday night against Tijuana.
Best of the Rest
The Whitecaps 2 side nabbed a point against Sporting KC II on Friday, continuing their solid run of form.
Marseille is becoming the new home of Canadians abroad, signing Derek Cornelius over the weekend.
Canada’s Olympic adventure ended on Saturday with a shootout loss to Germany but the players believe the result should be secondary to a resilient display.
For some reason, people are still listening to what Zlatan thinks about MLS.
You’ve got that right Salty. Those heady days of the late ‘70’s and early ‘80’s were something else! The Caps owned this town! I will never forget the atmosphere at Empire the night the Caps beat the Aztecs twice to advance to the semifinals against the Cosmos. Absolutely electric!
If all you saw was the highlight package, then I’m not sure if you saw Johnson’s miss – 90% of the net to shoot at, and he shot it in to the keepers face. Shot it so hard it knocked the keeper out, and I wasn’t seeing replays of it. But’s why the comments on his goal were along the lines of “placement > power”. As well, he missed an incredibly simple pass on a 3 on 2 breakout – Picault was wide open about 15 yards away, there was no defender there, and Johnson’s pass was so weak it didn’t even make it halfway. Very poor. I’m pulling for him, but he needs to pick it up a bit.
well, obviously the comment about Johnson being a CPL-level player is a shot at me– even a blind squirrel can sometimes find a nut or do some things well, when overall, they never do find the nuts
but, a goal and an assist is good news- i really dont see much progress in his performances, but maybe you have better eyes than i do — lets hope you are more right than i am
maybe its just feeling jaded all the years for Caps never doing anything significant in MLS to really capture the City/Province which i was able to experience 45 years ago… and i long for that back again- you had to be there to understand