Good Monday morning Caps fans, hope you all had a lovely weekend and that the heat didn’t get to you.

It was an infuriating match on Saturday, with the Whitecaps somehow emerging victorious after one of the worst penalty calls you will ever see.

I suppose this is the flip side of Tim Ford stealing points against San Jose but fair is fair: Mathias Laborda wasn’t fouled in the box in the dying minutes and I cannot fathom why VAR wanted another look at the play. I do think there was contact but it was glancing and not enough to warrant a foul. The fact that Fotis Bazakos and the VAR team whiffed on a stonewall penalty in the first half, only to give a questionable one moments later, will further layer on the scrutiny.

Officiating is a talking point in every league and I’m not convinced there are more refereeing problems in MLS than the Premier League or European leagues more broadly. But Saturday night doesn’t help that argument and I am sure that was not how Jesper Sorensen wanted to secure three points.

The Caps were the better side on the balance but not comfortably so, even though St. Louis City have been among the worst sides in the conference. The Caps looked disconnected and defensively lost for much of the first half, only to dominate the second and suffer from the same finishing woes as they did against Houston.

This team has a lot of work to do in the three week break they’re about to get. Mathias Laborda punished the Caps with his positioning, getting stranded too far up the pitch and letting St. Louis attack with ease down the left hand side in transition. Laborda certainly can be an asset in the attack but by and large his job is to balance out Edier Ocampo. He’s been playing with fire with these sorts of forays forward for weeks and this time Vancouver was punished.

He wasn’t the only one with a poor match. Thomas Mueller doesn’t look on the same page, which is understandable yet led to either sloppy passes from the German or times when he was in a dangerous space and was simply missed by his teammates. Sebastian Berhalter had some promising moments but also more than his share of giveaways and there will be a lot of little passes, especially in the first half, that Sorensen will want to clean up. Brian White exiting with a hamstring injury could only serve to compound the problem.

But that mini break will be a welcome reset. Much of the attacking woes I believe can be cleaned up and the next three weeks can help get the new defensive reinforcements up to speed. Saturday was infuriating largely because the glimpses of promise were there but so were the problems that are still holding this team back. The penalty call papered over some of that but the team will know as well as anyone that won’t last.

Shameless Self Promotion

We run down what went right — and wrong — for the Caps on Saturday night. Meanwhile, Caleb takes a look at the profile of the new centerback signings.

Best of the Rest

Apparently Tristan Blackmon is getting a USMNT call up — something we know thanks to a slip up from Thomas Mueller.

The Caps will officially take on Orlando City on October 11.

Tajon Buchanan’s first match as a permanent Villareal player was a memorable one.

A nice interview with Jayden Nelson if you’re looking for some podcast listening.