Good Monday morning Caps fans, hope it was a good weekend and that the heat wave plaguing our neck of the woods doesn’t head your way.

We sit and wait for Wednesday’s match but Canada’s drab 1-1 draw with Curacao on Saturday night did feature Jayden Nelson and Ali Ahmed. Unfortunately, it also saw another Whitecaps player withdrawn due to injury. Ali Ahmed’s ankle injury doesn’t seem as serious as what sidelined Sam Adekugbe for the remainder of the season but it is making me increasingly think that we should ban international football forever, just as a precaution. Hopefully the injury is a short term one and we get more news soon. In the meantime, get better soon Ali.

Reports out of Australia are suggesting that Brisbane Roar are kicking the tires on a move for Giuseppe Bovalina — a player I didn’t expect us to be getting transfer rumors about but here we are.

Bovalina has not been able to find the field much, though the current situation at fullback could open up a few more minutes. He has shown promise when he has played as a more dynamic, attacking minded fullback and, at 20 years old, I’d have a hard time seeing the Caps moving him on at a loss. Brisbane are apparently broke so I doubt they’d be able to offer much of a fee at all, much less one improving on the $135,000 Vancouver paid for him.

There will, however, remain the niggling fact that the Caps are using an international roster spot on, effectively, a third string player — generally not a sign of good roster management. Unless Mathias Laborda gets moved on at some point, it is hard to see that change anytime soon given how strong Edier Ocampo has been. In an ideal world, a loan back to the A League would make sense but they’re not playing at the moment and, given that is contract is up in 2026, the timing is a bit tough for figuring something out (unless it is a USL or CPL type move, like we saw for JC Ngando last year).

Two straight managers have yet to truly give Bovalina a shot, which is a bit odd. And, setting aside the injury to Adekugbe, fullback is an area where there is some quality depth at the moment. Hopefully there is a plan with Bovalina, as it would be a shame to waste a quality player who could, at the very least, be developed and sold on for a profit. The next two transfer windows will likely be determinative on that front.

Shameless Self Promotion

With a week off from MLS action, we take a moment to look at how things are going over in the Canadian Premier League.

Best of the Rest

The Whitecaps 2 side moved up the table in MLS NEXT Pro on the heels of a 4-3 win over North Texas SC.

Is the Club World Cup a success attendance wise? Probably not but it depends who you ask.

More on Canada being held in check by Curacao on Saturday night, thanks to a late equalizer.

On the women’s side, here’s who will suit up for friendlies against Costa Rica and the U.S.