Good Monday morning Caps fans, hope you all had a restful weekend and that your week ahead is a lovely one.
It was a lovely weekend at BC Place, where the Caps avoided any sort of embarrassment against San Jose Earthquakes and saw out a professional 2-0 win, where the home side dominated the affairs.
I would grumble about the Caps playing with their food for too long before getting a second, decisive goal (which saw Stuart Armstrong open his Caps account with a nice finish off a lay off from his countryman). But in this case, Vancouver was simply kept at bay by a masterful performance in goal from Daniel, who has found his form for San Jose, despite the meager support from the rest of his team.
It was another spectacular performance from Fafa Picault, who delivered the opening goal and would have had a hat trick on any other night. It also was his relentless energy, driving the team forward, that helped them maintain nearly 60% possession in the match. His goal came off a brilliantly executed set piece, where Gauld had pinpoint delivery and some nice movement from Tristan Blackmon left Fafa completely unmarked.
Picault putting together one of his best career seasons is a somewhat bizarre, yet beautiful thing. He currently sits on nine goals and needs to get to 11 in order to match his career best, which certainly sits within the realm of possibility. Doing so would unlock his option for next season and he showed on Saturday why they might want to do so, as his 33-year-old legs look like they have plenty of juice left in them. I’m not convinced this is repeatable but I’d love to be proven wrong.
Aside from an equalizer canceled out for offsides, the defense didn’t have a ton to do. And it marks a third straight clean sheet in the league for the Caps.
That’s the good news. The bad news is they will have a tall task in order to keep that going, as they will play two teams in the next seven days that scored four goals on Saturday: Houston and LA Galaxy.
The Houston match is particularly consequential, as the Dynamo sit squarely behind the Caps in the standings. They have found form after a sluggish and injury-marred start to the season and are looking to get in the mix for home field advantage in the playoffs as well. Vancouver went toe-to-toe with them at BC Place but came up losers — and that was without Exequiel Ponce. The Galaxy, meanwhile, remain an infuriating, yet entertaining team, and sit atop the West, deservedly so after scoring four straight to beat LAFC.
Four points would be a dream for the Caps from these two matches. Two or three would be satisfying and there is a world where they get zero. This is probably the toughest week of the season (and that’s even before considering the Canadian Championship looming beyond it) and the uncertain availability of Brian White and Andres Cubas will mean guys like Ralph Priso, who have stepped up when called upon, will need to continue to do so. Buckle up folks, things are about to get interesting.
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More on a big night for Fafa Picault and the Scottish connection. The podcast also runs down the latest in MLS and CPL action.
Best of the Rest
The Caps signed Nicolas Fleuriau Chateau and Jeevan Badwal to MLS deals, big moves for the two youngsters and a coup for the Caps academy and their scouting department.
Meanwhile, Vancouver have loaned Jay Herdman to Cavalry FC. Is this a sign of a possible departure in the offseason?
Carlos Vela and LAFC have reportedly reached a deal to bring the Mexican midfielder back for the stretch run, as if they needed another piece.
Pacific FC blasted their Salish Sea rivals 3-0 over the weekend, a big result to get their season back on track.