Good Monday morning Caps fans, hope you all had a lovely weekend and that you are gearing up for a pleasant work week ahead.
For some reason CWTC for Friday didn’t publish. I’ll chalk it up to me screwing something up in WordPress but I’ll repeat parts of it here, as the discourse on Matthew Hoppe (which was my Friday column) overlaps a lot with the discourse on Jayden Nelson (which was to be my Monday column).
In addition, we had Vancouver’s first friendly in Marbella, Spain, with the team falling 3-2 to Polish side Raków Częstochowa. Tristan Blackmon and Ranko Veselinovic got the goals. There’s a recap here.
And Vancouver have finally confirmed their first real, honest-to-God signing of the offseason and its Nelson, who moves back to MLS from Rosenborg, though he was most recently on loan at 2. Bundesliga side SSV Ulm.
There are reasonable questions about Nelson’s production in the final third (he has only one MLS goal to his name). I think there are also other things he does well that could be unlocked in the right system, though I’m truthfully not sure where he fits in with the 4-3-2-1 the Caps are likely going to deploy.
One imagines that Nelson isn’t going to be on a terribly high salary, which would make me OK with this deal. The Caps fundamentally have three attacking players they need to replace: Levonte Johnson, Deiber Caicedo and Fafa Picault. Realistically, Nelson is going to replace Johnson more than Fafa as a cheaper, domestic player who is able to play in the Voyageurs Cup, does a couple things very well (and other things not so much) and can eat some minutes. The Caps needed some senior players and are up against it from the standpoint of international spots so you can see the logic here.
Still, it is a bit concerning that the team is targeting attackers who, well, aren’t the best at scoring goals. That fits in with Hoppe, who Transfermarkt reported had joined up with the team in Marbella as a trialist.
More reinforcements could be on the way. This week, it was reported by Transfermarkt that the Whitecaps have another new teammate (at least temporarily), with former Schalke/Mallorca/San Jose Earthquakes forward Matthew Hoppe coming aboard as a trialist.
The thinking, seemingly, is that Hoppe, the former Schalke/Mallorca/San Jose Earthquakes man, would be another domestic depth piece. Both have the mark of a reclamation project, something the Caps have used to decent effect over the years (Derek Cornelius comes to mind).
The issue is, Hoppe hasn’t played regularly since his turn in MLS with the Quakes in 2023, where he had an OK return (two goals in nine appearances) but never really found his feet. Accordingly, the Quakes never picked up his buy option.
Then the trouble continued, when he couldn’t play at all in 2024 for his parent club, Middlesbrough, as he wasn’t registered. His contract was terminated earlier this month, hence him landing with the Whitecaps on trial.
The consensus seems to be that Hoppe wasn’t as bad in MLS as his numbers indicated and it is clear he is not nearly as good of a player as he seemed to be after going on a heater for Schalke in 2021.
My feeling on this mirrors my feelings on Nelson: I guess you could do worse, though I’m not really convinced Hoppe offers you anything Nicolas Fleuriau Chateau doesn’t. But it ultimately also is fair to feel a bit underwhelmed when other teams (admittedly with more cap leeway) are doing more this offseason. I think if Anderson Duarte is the level of player the team is targeting for the U-22 initiative spot, this will ultimately be a bit of a moot point. And the team’s talent ID for guys who have washed out of European leagues and return to fill depth roles is pretty good.
Maybe Hoppe and Nelson will come in and show a lot in preseason or will shine in a different system, hungry to redeem themselves after hitting rock bottom. Plenty of people thought the Ralph Priso trade was a head scratcher, after all. But these moves probably won’t affect the trajectory of this season much.
Best of the Rest
The Caps have a new training kit sponsor in BMO, money that I’m sure will be used to bring in a U-22 initiative signing.
Canada is too poor for a January camp but Jesse Marsch is going on a road show to try and drum up interest ahead of the 2026 World Cup.
The Whitecaps stack up quite well in terms of DP production when compared with the rest of the league.
A sad week, as MLS’ Extra Time Radio had its last podcast. A silly decision by the league to kill off the show and it will be greatly missed by legions of fans, including myself.
I’ve been following Matthew Hoppe for many years and don’t understand why nobody will give him a chance. He’s got the size and the instinct and can be very dangerous around the net. I’m limited appearances and with little consistency in terms of minutes, he’s still managed to score for club and Country. Give him some consistent minutes and I’m sure that he will perform. The added intangible is that you’ll pick up viewers/fans in the US. I’ll be watching and I’m sure I won’t be alone.
That’s my hope as well. It seems a lot of young MLS players need time to adjust and integrate into European football and it’s not easy, especially if their team isn’t doing well. If Hoppe was good enough for a usmnt call up then he’s potentially a good player. And he’ll have fellow American Brian White to hopefully provide some mentoring and remember White knows what it’s like to be expendable and look how he bounced back. Same goes for Nelson. This makes me cautiously optimistic
Just to summarize all the the players gone: Fafa, Raposo, Johnson, Schopf, Caicedo. I’ll mention Brown as he would have been valuable now that we’re seemingly back to 4 at the back. He walked for nothing. RSL re-signed him, which should tell you something. IMO Blackmon or Halbouni would be 1st choice right backs. Berhalter played quite well there in his short stint during the playoffs. Of all the players leaving I don’t think it’s a huge loss. No one knows for sure if Fafa would be able to repeat his 2024 season. Schopf and Raposo were useful subs and good for the odd start but Schopf was too expensive to keep in this role. I have a bit of optimism for this season in that our new coach purportedly is good at developing younger players. And that we have: Ocampos, Bovalina, Nelson, Hoppe and the 2 new draft picks. Remember Alistair Johnston? So our core group remains, a core group that played really well in the playoffs. No doubt a bona fide striker or attacking midfielder would help. Maybe under the new coach and system, Cubas, Vite and Berhalter can get further up the field into scoring positions. Berhalter has a fine long range shot. Cubas rarely got up the field far enough to do much shooting last seson. And while Vite did get into some good shooting positions, his shots were usually high and wide (maybe the new coach can have a chat with Vite to just put his laces thru the ball and keep his shots low). If we can just get a bit better in all aspects/fundamentals of the game then maybe we’ll finish 6-4th place. LA Galaxy are a cut above. LAFC and Seattle are probably better than us. So that leaves in the mix with the rest. I’m looking forward to this season and will probably attend more games.
bovalina, priso, maybe hoppe, and nelson will NOT make us stronger in our depth- IMO, loosing raposo was a serious loss- gritty, could play many positions and could have some offence; we will be pushing for a playoff spot, but dont expect more than that unless we get better depth- i dont see the outgoing Ownership group adding more $$$$$$$$$$- keeping their wallets closed – so it will be #7-12 position… as usual- a lot will depend on Gauld, White, Cubas and Armstrong
what the heck were axel and the scouts doing over the last 3 months to find us depth? its another ‘smoke and mirrors’ off-season
Yes, we should have kept Raposo. I think overall Nelson is a better player. A little bigger and faster. He has been called up to the CMNT while Raposo has not. At this stage I don’t see much in Priso but he is young and it’s never easy coming back from knee surgery. I don’t think anyone really knows the potential of Bovalina and Ocampo. They joined the team when the caps were in must win situations and Sartini didn’t have any time to experiment with young players. Playing wingback in Sartini’s system was very challenging. The amount of running required meant no one could play effectively for more than 60 minutes. That is attacking play would dry up and also the wingback would become a defensive liability. Hopefully these games in Spain give the coach a good opportunity to assess the young players. The immediate question for me is, does the coach continue to experiment in the concacaf games giving the young players some real tough game experience or does he pretty much go with last years core to try and advance in this competition.
if you’re waiting for signings https://thethirdsub.ca/2025/01/08/when-signings-actually-happen/
No one else in MLS wanted Raposo (as yet), so I think he needs to keep his contract expectations within reason.
none of the other subs have the ability of Fafa and Raposo – we are a weaker Team
another off-season of lacklustre signings — Priso, Hoppe (if they do sign him) and Nelson will not elevate this Team, something which Axel Schuster keeps alluding to is his ambition– certainly he knows that these signings dont cut the mustard for upgrades- the Caps will be quite a solid average Team with their top 11, but YIKES #12-20 are barely passable as MLS quality (Boehmer and Ocampo might be the exceptions)
signing Priso, Hoppe and Nelson sends a message to the Academy players that the Caps see their potential playing time as very, very limited
one always thinks you can believe Schuster- but in reality, you cant- he has limitations from a trying to get-out-the-door Ownership group- and the Team in its present form, are weaker heading into the MLS season- injuries, national team call-ups, fatique and any personal problems from the main top group of 8 players will really hurt our results… and they will happen
not renewing- pissed off
it’s not even february 1st lol
i will have more free saturday nights – a game takes up 6 hours of my day- YAWN