Good Monday morning Caps fans, hope you all are having a lovely start to your week and that your weekend was an enjoyable one.
Well, Saturday is proof that a team struggles when they lose six of their starters. Who knew! I don’t think anyone will be too fussed about losing 3-1 to the Chicago Fire, who have been in good form and simply had too much top end talent to overwhelm a patchwork midfield and backline.
All things considered, however, I give Jesper Sorensen a lot of credit for keeping the team’s style of play intact, even without over half of his starters. And, truth be told, the Caps did enough to win. Some better finishing could have given them another late equalizer and it was some spotty midfield play that helped the Fire break the deadlock midway through the second half.
The good news for the Caps: Daniel Rios got off the mark (though he still doesn’t look totally comfortable up top), Sebastian Berhalter continues to be excellent and it was fun to see Liam MacKenzie get his debut, a fitting reward for a solid preseason camp.
Emmanuel Sabbi also made his debut, which is encouraging, though there is still quite a bit of rust there to shake off. Still, his movement opens up chances, either for himself or other players, and I think the sharpness in terms of finishing (he had a couple of chances he could have done better on) will come with time.
The Caps will rue the frustration of international breaks but they will be in much better shape to take on Toronto FC, who dropped another match, next Saturday afternoon in Toronto. The fact that this team hung in there in a match most everyone had written off ultimately bodes well for the season, even if Vancouver is undefeated no more.
Shameless Self Promotion
We analyze what to make of the Caps’ first defeat of the year and which of the fringe players stood out.
Best of the Rest
The Canadian Men’s National Team defeated the U.S. in the Nations League third place game but Brian White made a cameo for a reeling U.S. side.
Matt Doyle with his takeaways for the Fire and the Whitecaps after Saturday.
Laurent Courtois is out in Montreal, as their winless start to the season continued over the weekend.
MLS didn’t stop play for international break but Inter Miami curiously got a bye week. Must be nice!
after Ali Ahmed got 2 assists vs USA, i can see why Marsch had him starting both games- if only Ali had some finish on his own, well, then, the europe doors would surely open WIDE
Salty
we can never be surprised when MLS HQ make special allowances for InterMiami- it isnt a coincidence that they didnt have a game this past week/weekend so they didnt have to put out a weaker squad- the Caps had 6 starters missing and chicago had just 1
and that is unfair… except for Miami and New England who didnt have any games
It also puts MLS in a bad light, being the only major league that doesn’t break for internationals. It’s like they consider themselves not good enough to have high level players for national teams.