Good Monday morning Caps fans, hope you all had a lovely weekend as we firmly enter into springtime.
Vancouver muddled through to grab a 0-0 draw in St. Louis on Saturday night. It was far from the sharpest performance from the Caps but they did just enough defensively to keep St. Louis at bay.
While the home side wasn’t exactly dominant, the Caps will probably be happier with the result. And, in general, not conceding a goal away in MLS isn’t a bad outcome, even though St. Louis have one of the most anemic attacks in the league.
Going forward this just wasn’t a sharp enough performance in terms of touches and passing in the final third. Ali Ahmed ended the match with a golden opportunity 1v1 to give his defender the slip and set up a massive chance and he couldn’t quite do it. That basically sums up Vancouver’s night.
A team like St. Louis isn’t in a position to make Vancouver pay for those errors but Inter Miami certainly is and this match was as much about building momentum for the continental tie midweek than anything else. Poor first touches or weak passes into touch won’t get the job done there, though this team has shown an ability to rise to the occasion in CONCACAF play, no matter what their league form is like. A sellout crowd at BC Place should give them plenty of encouragement.
The good news is this had some promising performances from the backline, Edier Ocampo, Yohei Takoka and a great sub appearance for Ralph Priso. All of those guys will be important if the Caps are to keep Lionel Messi and Co. at bay.
Saturday was the appetizer for Thursday’s main course. And it is still surreal that the greatest player of my (or any generation) is coming to BC Place in a cup semifinal. Drink it all in — and expect a much better showing then.
Shameless Self Promotion
We run down the takeaways from a scoreless evening in St. Louis.
Best of the Rest
The Whitecaps 2 side smashed Austin FC 2 4-0 on Saturday and announced a new defender for the reserves.
Longtime Caps nemesis Steve Cherundolo will step down at the end of the season, opening up a plum manager’s job at LAFC.
A good round up of the latest transfer news from around the league.
What the arrival of the Northern Super League means for supporters in Vancouver and across the country.