Good Monday morning Caps fans, hope you all had a blissfully relaxing weekend and that your week is off to a good start.

The Caps found plenty of joy in Kansas City, punishing a poor Sporting KC side with a 2-0 win. The first half was dominant, the second merely mediocre but they did more than enough to pick up a crucial three points.

The win pulls them ahead of Minnesota (with two games in hand) and within striking distance of San Diego, after both of their adversaries dropped points over the weekend. And with Seattle also losing on Sunday night, a win in the midweek against Portland would seemingly lock in a top four finish and home-field advantage in the first round of the playoffs.

The first half in Kansas was the same sort of liquid build up play that we’ve come to expect, albeit with a new face — Kenji Cabrera — helping to make it happen. It was a great night for all of the wide players, plus Edier Ocampo, and SKC were absolutely pushed to the brink trying to keep a lid on things during that first 45 minutes.

Even still, Cabrera was a standout. I said in the post match recap that he feels like a player made for Jesper Sorensen and while he won’t get to go against a league worst defense every match (their defending on Cabrera’s goal was, um, less than ideal), his comfort with quick interchanges, dribbling ability and smoothness in transition make me think Sorensen will have no problem continuing to give him real minutes down the stretch.

Ali Ahmed continued to be constantly dangerous and the Caps were looking to play him in behind every single time they won the ball back — and they generally did. He struggled a bit more when he moved to the right in the second half but he was still the most consistently dangerous player out there for Vancouver.

The second half wasn’t ideal, as SKC got a couple of licks in. But the backline deserves credit as well and this was about as good a performance as you could have asked for from Mathias Laborda and Belal Halbouni.

The Caps head into the midweek tilt with Portland on a four match winning streak. They will, however, be without Andres Cubas and Edier Ocampo, however, due to yellow card accumulation. Cubas’ booking was Charmin soft, while Ocampo got a yellow for delaying the restart of play, an annoying trend the Caps need to sort out. It is an unfortunate reminder that we can’t have nice things but, for now, this is a run of form to savor.

Shameless Self Promotion

Our post match analysis has the low down on Cabrera’s first start, a dominant first half and what it all means for the Caps.

Best of the Rest

The win on Saturday also clinched a franchise points record — with plenty of time to build on it.

The roster freeze kicked in a couple weeks back, meaning we have updated salary numbers and roster profiles across the league.

News I missed — the Whitecaps recalled Max Anchor from a largely uneventful Pacific loan.

Speaking of Pacific, the lore behind them being put up for sale certainly thickens the plot, with unpaid bills and an angry local government.