Good Monday afternoon Caps fans, hope you all are having a lovely start to your week. Apologies for getting caught up in the Thanksgiving holiday and missing Friday’s column but I trust this weekend left you satisfied with all things Whitecaps.
Indeed, the dream season marches on after another fabulous display from the Caps, who avenged their regular season struggles against San Diego and won the match that really matters.
It was a brilliant tactical setup from Jesper Sorensen, who perfectly calculated how to play through San Diego’s press and find Ali Ahmed and Emmanuel Sabbi ample space 1v1 — space they took full advantage of. They were helped on their way by Brian White putting on a vintage Brian White performance with two poacher’s goals, a fantastic display in the middle of the park from Andres Cubas and the quality that we’ve come to expect from Mathias Laborda and Ralph Priso on the backline. Plus Ryan Gauld came on and made a real difference, finally looking like himself for the first time since his return from injury. He baited a red card from Pablo Sisniega and should have created and finished goals of his own. Whether he starts in the final or not he will be in a position to make a huge difference.
San Diego had a valiant season and deserved to get to the conference finals. And I give them a ton of credit to fight to the bitter end in this one, forcing Yohei Takaoka into a couple of big saves late. But I think that, on the balance, the Caps merited their spot in MLS Cup and a rematch with Inter Miami. The moxy on the ball, the defensive solidity, the next man up philosophy — it was all on display Saturday night, even though the Caps no longer had a home field advantage.
I struggle to avoid repeating all the clichés that I’ve been blabbing on about to date but it is truly remarkable what this team has done. To think that we entered the season with a genuine fear that this team might not even be staying in Vancouver. Instead of packing it in, the team has now been to three finals and is one win away from history.
This will be an MLS Cup for the ages, even for neutrals. Win or lose on Saturday, this team will have done us all proud. But if there’s one team that can dethrone a red hot Inter Miami, it is this one.
Shameless Self Promotion
We have complete coverage of the Western Conference Final, including a match recap and analysis of how it all went down.
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Meanwhile, the Canadian women’s national team fell 3-0 to Japan in the first of two friendlies.
as far of what i have read, the present Whitecap ownership group headed by billionaire and living-in- West Vancouver, Greg Kerfoot, have stated that they are not selling the Club, but instead are seeking new investors- its a MAJOR SHIFT- and a new stadium to pitch to the potential new investors so the Club has control over all that happens there, including revenue streams and usage
its founded on the premise that a new 25K-30K soccer stadium at Hasting Park can be accomplished as part of developing that part of the Park as an entertainment hub (First Nations Casino, Hotel, Businesses, Canuck practice facility at the Agrodome.. and as a side note, a new outdoor 10 000 seat concert facility just opened at the Park, the Pacific Coliseum has been renovated for a womans’ professional hockey team and the horsetrack being located to Langley who have offered land to build a new facility; north Hastings Park would be serviced by a Skytrain link from Waterfront to the North Shore, maybe a future link from Metrotown and Brentwood Malls Skytrains) – MLS Commissioner, Don Garber, was in Vancouver 3 weeks ago and, as was reported, met with City and BC government officials about this very issue of an outdoor, Whitecap-owned stadium- the only way for the Caps to stay in Vancouver is with them having control over their own stadium in order to make sense for their investment
IMO, i think this is close to a deal, but there might be other things going on before being announced – its a lot of money involving a lot of people and a lot of different organizations
Salty
Wow amazing and informative article. Keep up the good work. Vamos CAPS!!!