Good Friday morning Caps fans, hope you all are having a good week and are nearing a well-deserved break.

It has been a busy week in Caps, as the club bowed out of the Leagues Cup with a 2-0 loss to Pumas on Wednesday. That, combined with the close of the Canadian transfer window, gives us plenty of fodder for this column.

Let’s start with a brief discussion of the loss to Pumas. I didn’t have much investment in this one and the rest of the fanbase clearly didn’t either, as the team had one of its worst attendance nights in recent memory. I’m chalking this up to the quick scheduling required of the knockout stages, as well as the lukewarm reception to the second iteration of the tournament more broadly.

The performance on the pitch was vintage Caps: Some good moments going forward but the team was made to pay by a superior opponent on paper when they couldn’t finish those chances and committed defensive errors. Both of Pumas’ goals came due to an individual mistake by the backline (Bjorn Utvik’s turnover on goal one) or some sloppy collective defending.

This has been the story against superior teams all season, dating back to the Tigres tie to start the season in CONCACAF Champions Cup. I don’t think anyone really cares about exiting Leagues Cup (I would rather the break, in all honesty) but it is a bit of a concerning trend that will need to be addressed in the playoffs. Otherwise, this team won’t be taking any meaningful steps towards winning anything this year.

Alright, onto the transfer news. The Caps finally (finally!) finalized the deal to sign Edier Ocampo from Colombian side Atletico National. We’ve discussed this at length here before and my colleague Caleb has a far more insightful piece on this move so I won’t belabor any analysis here.

Suffice to say, my take remains the same: This is good business for a young player who could play a couple of different positions on the pitch but who could strengthen at wingback and allow Mathias Laborda to return to being a centerback (a good thing!).

There was probably never going to be a high volume of moves this transfer window, both because it’s the Caps but also because of the weirdness with the window slamming shut a week early for the Canadian teams.

But this marks two consecutive windows that have been pretty light on the incomings, even as Vancouver clearly need another attacking piece. It seems like they are going to roll with Fafa Picault/Levonte Johnson/Ali Ahmed as a third attacker. And given the form of all three this season, you might be able to get away with that. But given that most of the club’s rivals in the Western Conference standings made significant additions in attack (or did so during the winter), the team is starting to fall dangerously far behind in terms of investment. Ocampo should help and could even wind up being a pretty savvy investment. But I can’t help but feel underwhelmed once again by transfer business — maybe I should be used to that feeling by now.

Shameless Self Promotion

A run down of the Leagues Cup exit is here. And we give you a deep dive on the latest member of the Caps, Edier Ocampo.

Best of the Rest

Canadian politicians have now gotten involved in drone-gate, just what the whole controversy needed.

A look ahead to the Caps’ participation in the League 1 Inter Provincial tourney.

In a bizarre move, MLS has terminated FC Cincinnati’s Aaron Boupendza’s contract after he blew off training. Hope we can get this for our next failed DP!

A look at the stylistic differences between the MLS and Liga MX sides in Leagues Cup.