Good Friday morning Caps fans, hope you all have had a lovely week of fall colors and playoff smackdowns — here’s to more of the same this weekend.

In my wildest dreams, I didn’t envision the type of display the Caps hung on the Portland Timbers on Wednesday night. I was hopeful that getting the band back together would mean the Caps could be competitive but I feared Portland’s high octane offense would be too much. Plus, I felt like I’ve seen this script before.

I needn’t have worried. The Caps merely managed their best performance of the MLS era (in my opinion) and won their first knockout match since last year’s CONCACAF Champions Cup.

No Caps fan is tiring of reliving Wednesday so allow me to bask in the glow of a result that we’ll be able to hang over the heads of Timbers fans for, well, ever.

First, let’s look at Ryan Gauld, who had four goal contributions and, of course, a hat trick. Portland have never had a hat trick in the league, meaning Gauld is the first home player at Providence Park to do so. Making history for both Vancouver and Portland at the same time — the Scot really can do it all.

Gauld’s four goal contributions put him on a plane that only two other MLS players have other reached in a playoff match. And, had Vanni Sartini left him on, he would have assuredly had more, as would have Stuart Armstrong, who looked exactly like the Designated Player the Caps hoped he would be when they handed him a $2 million-plus contract.

We’ve run out of flowery adjectives to describe Gauld’s play. But on a night when Evander was pocketed by Sam Adekugbe and the midfield shut down anything Portland was offering from an attacking perspective, Gauld’s quality stood out even more. Evander was getting MVP shouts (including from me) but there was no question who the finer player was on Wednesday. And the work rate of the entire front line, which caused tremendous problems for a lethargic Portland side, stood out as well.

Full credit, however, does need to go to the defense. Moving to a back four (though the exact shape was fluid at times) gave a bit more stability and gave the Caps a more reliable shape. It is telling that Portland’s lone chances came either a) from long range shots or b) off a broken corner, where a 4v3 was wasted. They had little space to create anything of substance, even before they were mentally defeated.

Vanni Sartini made what was (in my opinion) an overdue change by moving back to the 4-3-2-1. But I give him credit — he isn’t afraid of being bold and making those types of changes in a do or die match and he got this one totally right.

Simply put, for all the trash I was talking on Twitter against Portland on Wednesday, this result was more a relief than anything else. This was exactly how we all hoped this team could look at full strength when Armstrong was signed — it is nice to know that the ceiling for this team isn’t as low as it might have seemed during the run in.

Is the ceiling high enough to beat LAFC? Well, that’s a different can of worms. Denis Bouanga and Co. pose problems that the Caps have not consistently been able to figure out (but you already knew that if you’ve watched this team for more than a minute).

But the highest compliment I can pay to this team is that, despite everyone writing the Caps off, they fought like hell to turn the ship around. And, with the talent level we saw Wednesday, I don’t think LAFC is going to be relishing yet another matchup with Vancouver — and that is not something I saw coming.

Shameless Self Promotion

Relive the glory of Wednesday night in our astute post match report.

Best of the Rest

The Caps appear to have actually broken the Portland Timbers, who are mired in a contract dispute with their star player.

Things didn’t go as well for Pacific FC in the postseason, as they fell to York United in the first round of the CPL playoffs.

MLS is considering changing to a fall-summer calendar, with a month long winter break. A bold move that would probably crater support in every cold-winter market.

The MLSPA salary dump is out, with Stuart Armstrong slotting in as the Caps’ second highest paid player. He certainly played like it on Wednesday.