Good Monday morning Caps fans, hope you all and a lovely, restful weekend and that your work week is starting off well.

We are only a few days out from the first competitive Whitecaps match of the season, as the team travels to Costa Riva to take on Saprissa, one of the mainstay teams in continental competitions and one who is always a tough out for MLS sides.

Indeed, keeping expectations low for this tie is probably a good idea. It would be great if the Caps were able to bury things on the road but realistically securing an away goal and a draw or narrow win would leave them in a good position. That isn’t an easy task at all and this Caps side seems to have the hallmarks of a team that could get upset in continental play. Hopefully I’m wrong but I’ve seen this film before.

The Caps will have another reinforcement for that away trip, however. As we alluded to on Friday, the team had signed MLS veteran Daniel Rios on loan from Chivas, where he moved after putting in a solid bench shift for both Charlotte and Nashville.

As Rios is Mexican-American he helps both his parent club and his loan club (Chivas only sign Mexican players and the Caps are of course down bad from an international roster spot perspective). And while Rios has never really gotten a serious run out in Liga MX, he has a proven track record of scoring goals off the bench for mediocre MLS teams. Thus you can see the Caps’ interest.

Case in point: Rios had seven goals and three assists for Atlanta United last year in around 1,300 minutes. That is roughly the same pace Simon Becher was on before being sold in 2023, though these two are somewhat different players. Rios is a more effective passer and moves quite well in the final third, even when he isn’t scoring goals. Becher is better at actually carrying the ball and taking guys on.

This is pretty much the perfect Brian White backup signing. No offense to Levonte Johnson, who I wanted to see work out, but when you brought him off the bench, you weren’t terribly confident he was going to be able to get you a goal if you’re chasing the game. Rios has a proven track record of doing exactly that and is at a high enough level where you can feel better about resting White or navigating any injury problems he might encounter.

The one thing that is a bit confusing about this is where it leaves Damir Kreilach. The Caps are paying Kreilach a lot of money to … not do much. And the arrival of Emmanuel Sabbi means the Caps have three, pretty high level strikers. Kreilach checks the box as a veteran piece but his goal scoring output to salary ratio left quite a bit to be desired. This team’s salary cap position is such that they can’t afford much dead weight so I’ll be interested to see if they try and find a new home for Kreilach (or buy him out) at some point.

Shameless Self Promotion

Caleb Wilkins goes into his patented deep dive on Daniel Rios and what their arrival means. Meanwhile, meet Kian, one of our new reporters this year at TTS. He has a nice season preview on what to expect for Vancouver’s Cascadia and Canadian rivals.

Best of the Rest

Adrian Zendejas has officially signed as the Caps’ third keeper after trialing with the club in Marbella.

Canada officially has qualified for the U-17 World Cup after they clinched Group A in the CONCACAF tournament with a 7-1 win over Bermuda.

Who has the best kits heading into the 2025 season? Let us know your sartorial opinions in the comments.

A nice look at how MLS is trying to reach more TV eyeballs this season and beyond.