Good Monday morning Caps fans. I hope you all had a lovely weekend and are gearing up for a good week ahead.
The Whitecaps got a badly needed win on Saturday night against an RSL team that is fully in free fall. Typically, this is a no-win sort of matchup: RSL has been in such bad form that winning doesn’t get you much credit, while a loss would be catastrophic. But after a brutal week, the Caps needed something to go right. And, sure enough, it did.
The second half was not quite as sharp as Jesper Sorensen will want, but it was largely academic, as the first 50 minutes or so were the type of performance we all have come to expect from this team.
Credit to Yadaly Diaby, who tallied his first goal and assist as a Whitecaps player, capping off a bright start to his time in Vancouver. The assist was a beautifully chipped lay off for Thomas Müller, while his goal came from a brutal turnover from RSL. Still, Diaby had a lot of work left to do to score, taking on three defenders before unleashing a thunderous strike. The clinical nature of that goal will be a relief after a couple of weeks of struggles in front of goal from the wide players. Diaby seems to have chemistry with Müller (and the pair have clearly been working on their goal celebrations) and is showing signs of being a competent MLS player, with the potential for more. This is showing early signs of being another Axel Schuster coup.
Everything else was humming on Saturday night as well. Yohei Takaoka was called upon for a couple of big saves, but otherwise, the defense looked buttoned up. Oliver Larraz turned in an excellent performance in a deeper-lying role, and Müller was industrious. You wouldn’t have known the German went 90 minutes in the midweek, as he was putting in crunching challenges late in the second half. That type of mentality was sorely missed in recent weeks but was back in full force on Saturday.
The mentality will need to remain strong, as the Caps will be without several key players next week against DC United due to the international break. Brian White, Ryan Gauld, Müller, and Tristan Blackmon will all be around, but there will still need to be rotation — something that has caused problems in recent matches. This is a key opportunity, however, to create some breathing room at the top of the Western Conference before a tougher stretch. Houston and FC Dallas dropped points on Saturday, meaning the Caps’ win over RSL was even more important. Picking up another win would be crucial to rebuilding the momentum that had gone out of Vancouver’s sails in recent weeks.
Shameless Self Promotion
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