Good Monday morning Caps fans, hope you all are safe and well and that your week is off to a good start.
We start this week with heavy hearts following the tragedy on Saturday night at the Lapu-Lapu celebration. Our thoughts are with all those impacted and the entire Filipino community in Vancouver. Fair play to Minnesota for the classy gesture of a moment of silence before Sunday’s match.
The Caps prevailed 3-1 against Minnesota, in a match that will comfortably send them top of the Western Conference. Heading into the match, the Loons were on a nine match unbeaten run and had one of the top defenses in the league. Vancouver made short work of both of those things.
It was a Jesper Sorensen masterclass. Minnesota have struggled with putting the ball in the back of the net and the plodding first half was a testament to that. Vancouver didn’t create much but that seemed to be part of the plan, with Seb Berhalter and Tate Johnson immediately lifting the quality of play upon entering the match.
Berhalter scored possibly the goal of the week and the Caps were on their way. Pedro Vite and Ali Ahmed further cemented that. Vite will steal the show with two well taken goals (his first, the team’s second was sublime) but Ahmed was excellent, combining with JC Ngando to shred the Loons’ defense on the right hand side.
All in all, this was exactly the match needed ahead of Wednesday in Miami. Sam Adekugbe and Jayden Nelson got a chance to find form, and the team’s central pieces got a chance to stay sharp. I thought Emmanuel Sabbi in particular was quite good and will be interested to see if he gets rotated out come Wednesday.
Sabbi was at the center of a much more concerning moment. MLS Season Pass, in its wisdom, never bothered to show a replay but it was later confirmed MLS is investigating an alleged instance of racial abuse by Joseph Rosales towards Sabbi, who was immediately comforted by Sorensen after the final whistle. I’m glad the team stood up for Emmanuel so fiercely and we all stand with him as well, as this has no place in the game. Stay tuned here for more updates as things progress.
Shameless Self Promotion
We take a look at how the Caps shone in the second half in St. Paul with our post-match analysis.
Best of the Rest
More on where things sit with the Rosales investigation.
Vancouver Rise fell to an unbeaten Montreal Roses in match 2 of the NSL season.
Nelson Pierre continued his fine start to the season but it couldn’t help the Whitecaps 2 win on Sunday night against Ventura County.
A good look at how every Western Conference team fared during the winter transfer window.
Ryan Reynolds had a good weekend, with Wrexham getting promoted. Hey Ryan, any interest in an MLS team?
Recognition- the Ryan Reynolds story came from GlassCity
Salty
do you think the Ryan Reynolds and his buddy, Rob McElhenney, have truly put in a bid of $546 mill CD ? if they have, there probably must be hooks, such as SSS at Hastings Park where the horse racetrack is – its interesting to note that the horse racing track’s lease ends in 2026 and Langley have offered a racetrack in their community; probably another detail would be a Skytrain link to the North Shore which has been proposed near the IronWorkers bridge next to Hastings park
personally, i do think this has some legs, but…. its a lot of money- we have some hope of local, visible, ambitious owners with deep pockets – wouldnt surprise me if there are more in the group besides Ryan and Rob
as far as the Minnie game goes, the Caps could have won by 4 or 5 goals based on the second half- Jesper’s subs were terrific (i think Tate Johnson was the biggest surprise, what with his energy and skills- he truly was a gem of a draft pick by the scouts and Axel; and in 2024, they signed Edier Ocampo)
it will be interesting to see how Jesper sets up the Team when Ryan Gauld returns and Adekugbe is fully fit
Salty