Good Monday morning Caps fans. I hope you had a lovely weekend and that the start of your week is going well. October is somehow among us.
Well, any neutrals who watched the Caps draw DC United 3-3 on Saturday were rewarded with one of the more entertaining MLS games in recent memory. For us partisans, however, it was another bout of frustration against an inferior opponent.
DC played hard and deserved the point they ultimately got. But this was another case where the Caps beat themselves, conceding two set piece goals and a preventable third goal from open play that saw Kimito Nono streaking through the defense unmarked.
The backline has looked a bit out of sorts for awhile and this was the most extreme example. There were definitely cases where players made things hard on them with a bad giveaway or not tracking back. But DC looked dangerous pretty much every time they burst forward — without their two best players. Given that the Caps’ defense was at least first choice XI adjacent, that is concerning. Ralph Priso and/or Ranko Veselinovic will help but this is starting to be a worry.
The attack, thankfully, looked much better and it was a strong performance from both Emmanuel Sabbi and Bruno Caicedo. Oliver Larraz was generally good in midfield and I thought it was a promising full debut from Aleksa Cvetkovic, who seems to intuitively understand Jesper Sorensen’s system and played some nice passes. And Thomas Müller did basically everything he could to drag the Caps over the line, with a fabulous long-range goal that even my non-MLS watching friends were talking about.
A point over the international break is generally fine but anytime you take the lead (twice!), three points is a must. This is another example of the Caps struggling to get results at home, which is starting to become a real issue. The good news (I guess?) is that Vancouver is about to start a season-defining road trip that will likely dictate whether they win the west. Dropping points in this one will make that job even tougher.
Shameless Self Promotion
Our post match report from a wild and wooly Saturday night at BC Place.
Best of the Rest
The real loss from the tighter than expected match on Saturday was missing out on seeing Valter Sedin’s Caps debut.
LAFC has sacked Marc dos Santos after an uninspiring campaign, a result that every Caps fan could have predicted.
A reflection on Canada’s somewhat wild friendly win over Chile.
Vancouver Rise fell to last place Calgary in a 3-1 defeat on Sunday.