Good Friday morning Caps fans. Hope you are all having a good week and that the weekend is beckoning ever closer.

The squad appears to be enjoying their preseason in Marbella, which is marching on ahead of their first friendly. The photos on social media make me jealous that I am sitting in the frigid Upper Midwest, rather than sunny Spain. The benefits of being a professional soccer player, eh?

There was some good news for Vancouver from a roster-building standpoint this week. MLS has continued its trend of releasing each team’s GAM amount, and the Caps check in at around 5.5 million in Garberbucks. For comparison, that is the ninth-highest among teams in the league. The total likely got a nice little boost from the Ali Ahmed and Jayden Nelson sales, leaving the Caps sitting pretty.

One imagines that this will be the chief use of these funds will be either to reward Sebastian Berhalter and Tristan Blackmon with new deals, to leave the door open for buying down Andres Cubas, or both. The Ahmed and Nelson moves, while a bit painful, did seem to achieve their primary goal of giving them some room to breathe from a salary cap perspective.

It also gives them some funds for incoming transfers. Reports have linked Vancouver to at least four transfer targets in recent days, though their level of interest in some of these guys has been conflicting. But given that Axel Schuster promised more signings, it seemingly is only a matter of time.

In past years, I was a bit antsy to get those deals across the finish line. But given that any newcomers will be rounding out the depth of this team, the fact that the core of the roster is together in Spain gives me a lot of confidence. Things are in a good spot, as the Caps don’t have to make moves for the sake of making them, but can wait for the right player, at the right price. That’s a big improvement over where they’ve been in past years.

UPDATE: Some late-breaking news, with reports from Europe indicating that Joedrick Pupe will return to Belgium with KV Kortrijk on loan. This makes sense, as one of the names the Caps were linked with recently has been a CB, which they obviously had a glut of with Pupe around.

I’ll have a more drawn-out response on Monday, but I think it is a bit harsh on Pupe to judge him based on his lackluster showing in the final. Simply put, his injuries may have prevented us from really seeing what he could offer the Caps. It is possible he simply is not of the required level for MLS (the coaching staff has much more context than the fans did from his two appearances), but it also wouldn’t surprise me if he simply wanted to be closer to home, and Vancouver saw an opportunity to open up an international slot. That slot could be used on another position, particularly if Belal Halbouni is retained, or used to bring in another CB. Hopefully, this is a sign that Tristan Blackmon will be sticking around as well.

Shameless Self Promotion

Caleb takes a deeper dive into the one signing Vancouver has made this season, Oliver Larraz.

Best of the Rest

The Caps acquired 125k in GAM from New England, plus a draft pick, for Griffin Yow’s discovery rights. Discovery rights taketh away, discovery rights giveth.

The 2026 summer transfer window will be better aligned with European leagues — for both American and Canadian clubs.

A wild must-read on a harrowing experience for former MLS manager Adrian Heath.

The Whitecaps can now proudly say they were the answer to a Jeopardy question.