20 goals this year? I think he has the talent to do it but our midfield is not great so he may see a lot less than he expects.
the piper will be paid by the summer if we don't have a better MF - cava cant be the only one able to score in the box- he needs servicing and none of our MFs- including in-beom- can do that - reyna is a question mark as he often is a solo runner; Milinkovic is an outside the 30 yard line winger without pace to pass defenders; and dajome does show some ability to penetrate but again outside the box; and our super sub is a 30 minute player having said that, I like this team a LOT MORE than 2019- if Owusu pans out at DMF and if we get the south Korean, lee, then maybe out MF wont be the weakest in MLS
apparently the STs sold are under 9 000, a drop of 6 000 STs-- a loss of over $2 mill in guaranteed revenue- the owners better hope for a good start to the season in order to draw individual game sales - an average of 18 000/game- and that means a larger than usual gate walk-up- is entirely possible unless something magical happens on the field the Club will bleed millions when compared to the days of an average of 22 000- the owners are paying for their indifference, cheap wallets, PR disasters and poor FO, along with dismal, boring on-field performances
Well that sucked. Losing 3-1 at home for your home opener with Hurtado scoring the third against us. Sigh. Okay here is the deal. Russ and InBeom COMBINED are NOT a DM. For goodness sake can we get ONE LABA LEVEL player? Both just get bossed around in midfield because they are too light. You don't need to be the hulk but at least Gersh was wiry and tough, Laba was a pitbull. We totally suck because of it. One less attacker and both combined can't get the job done. ARRRGGGG. Our passing in the opposing half was 66%. Put Owusu in next week because he can't be worse than what I saw tonight from those 2. FFS. Depressing start to the season. There, rant complete. More beer.
pass me the beer also- year 42 for me (not a STH this year) doesn't offer much more hope than 2019 I give MDS and his staff 6-8 games to show improvement- how MDS thought that a MF combo of teibert and in-beom would endure a SKC team is beyond me; and it looks more like dajome is the second coming of venuto; having 3 signings (Owusu, bikel, veselinovic not show for preseason, after 6 months to recruit, is just not acceptable- no excuses, PLEASE!!) but it wont really matter unless the owners change and I don't see in-beom being a big transfer draw in Europe- he doesn't do enough to warrant that; adnan (aka THE MOUTH) might draw more attention
Looking forward to the p.r. spin coming out of the team's coaching staff and management in the coming weeks. Hard to stomach that performance with a starting group that has been together the entire preseason. I don't think the next fixture is a "must win" but it is definitely a "must perform better" one.
a good crowd, some hype with cava and the same mistakes as 2019 the most surprising thing to me was that MDS made no team adjustment in our MF to counter the dominant SKC MF and no, I have no regret at seeing robo fired- MDS has to go with a 3 MF, doesn't he ???
To be honest I don't know how you can have 2 players trying to do a DM role when neither is a DM. One is an attacking mid and one is a high energy back checker. Both pass good but neither individually or combined do they do justice to the DM role. A 4-1-4-1 would work and requires a Laba level DM. I don't see the 4-3-3 as viable with our players. MDS has talked about teams with 3 box to box mids in the second row but I'd be happy to have 1 right now.
apparently- and according to GC and contributors- yordy reyna is not even in LA - he isn't injured sooooo: IS A TRADE COMING?? I have suspected that yordy might be trade bait as he is more of a loan wolf on his attacks, even though he can make some creative plays talented - YES quality team member - MAYBE NOT rubs the coaches and teammates the wrong way- YES he has never appeared to be happy playing in vancouver it wouldn't surprise me
Okay that was the team I was looking to see last week. A road win against a divisional rival who happen to be a high spending team. We played well all over the pitch. Either we channeled our inner Havant & Waterlooville or LAG suck.
well, I deserve to be flogged after my rants this past week- I can only please for MERCY from the few who didn't give up will it last or was it an aberration ? maybe somewhere in between WELL DONE, MDS AND COMPANY
That is the real question. We've been a Jekyll & Hyde team before and it can be very frustrating. That said the team I saw last night was the one I thought we'd see last week. At least we know they are capable of playing that way. I think a lot of it was switching to the 4-4-2 with Rickets up top. He's still got it in the cardio, speed and scoring categories. Russ played farther back and Inbeom was forward more which worked much better than the 4-2-3-1 we played last week.
A road win is a road win and the Caps worked really hard to earn it but if you watched the match from a neutral perspective, it wasn't very good. A lot of poor decision making and some poor technical skills on display. LAG lacked energy, movement, and any kind of attacking ideas once Bikel started shutting down Pavon and the Caps took advantage, with key contributions from guys who are usually the whipping boys. Good to see a win but I've seen this movie way too many times before, so a little perspective is needed.
So season on hold for 1 month. 30 days to integrate the new players. Damn this virus thing might just work in the Caps favour. Provided that the Caps players and staff can actually train during this month.
Based on the complete panic here and everyone and everything trying to shut down in order to look like they are in control, I think this will go more than 30 days. I would predict they resume with a reduced schedule as any more than 30 days and they wont be able to fit in a full slate.
you must be a prophet or church-goer tapped into God-- FIFA is recommending cancellations until May I like the idea of all-conference games when play starts- say a total of 24 games (12 home, 12 away), plus a 1 game bye, taking the season to mid-October- some 2 games/week; and then the playoffs- MLS Cup in late November previous points from the opening 2 games will start the condensed season
doubt this will happen- the Caps owners would have to pony-up millions in transfer fees (Transfer Markt have him listed at $7.5 mill euros- his contract goes until june 30, 2022)- all the davies transfer $$$ of $13 mill euros is almost gone unless Bayern has had to send more $$$ b/c Phonsie has been a regular starter for 17 straight games)- no way that this ownership does a deal to spend millions out of their own pockets from GC: @MLS club has advanced significantly in negotiations for Emanuel Reynoso. I don’t think he’ll feature again for Boca once the league gets back underway. This club is NOT @MNUFC .” @JulioPavoni on @showdeboca
A sordid story on Blondell has been made public. It seems the Caps kept it hidden and didn't reveal it beyond letting the league know.
pretty scummy behavior by Carl and the Caps revealed in some news pieces about the Davies deal with Bayern. Fills in some of the blanks with questions I had bout the deal 1 - MLS CBA says that a player who is transferred outside the league gets 10 percent of the transfer fee. The Caps, with a teenage player who was born in a refugee camp with parents who worked their asses off to raise him in Canada, was told he had to waive that 10 percent and let the Caps keep it, or the deal was OFF. Just let that sink in for a second as to what they were saying to this kid. Think.... about.... this.... 2 - Talks broke down over that, and Bayern came back and increased their transfer fee offer by a sufficient amount so the Caps could get what they originally agreed too and pay the 10 percent to Davies. Yes, Bayern increased their offer because the Caps did not want to pay what was mandated under the MLS CBA to this teenage player. Think... about.. this... 3 - Carl cut out Davies agent for the bulk of the Bayern process, blocked a training session with Man U, and was able to keep a higher offer from PSG out of the picture. No hard evidence of wrong doing but if you connect some of these dots....... This is all very much part of the behavior we saw from the Caps under the Kerfoot ownership so it's not shocking, and we know that the whole Carl/Baldwin agent stuff is shady; but it is a bitter pill to see this come to light so clearly. Anyways, good for Alphonso for all he has done. A true budding superstar and when I saw him play at 15 I said "he could become a top 25 player in the world". I may have under estimated that.
The Caps ownership group and few of the left-over FO staff are getting a reputation for being untrustworthy people- anyone or Club negotiating with them should have their wallets safe-guarded luckily, it has worked out well with Phonzie and Bayern must be hugely delighted as he has defied their expectations in such a short time- he is rated in the top 3 left back defenders in euro and is well on his way to being a world class player-- and I like the fact that he and his family have kept their friend and Phonzie's agent in the picture, something that robo tried to extricate him from Integrity and honor do matter and I don't see the Whitecap owners and some staff learning that- so more BS and underhanded happenings will continue
Whitecaps are a shit organization. Well, that's one place Alphonso Davies won't finish his career... Lots of fans are saying that a CPL mainland club would draw a lot...if the Whitecaps keeps this up, there might be some truth to that. Last I heard, Langley seemed the most ahead to get a club
my son and I would seriously look at supporting a CPL team in the lower mainland- we had a lot of fun and have good memories from 1987-2010 at swangard- I have little hope that things will change and I wouldn't be surprised to see 1 or both of the new FO staff leaving - they must now realize that the owners and other long-term staff cant be trusted and lack integrity and honor BTW- just watched a great special on Phonzie with Bayern Munich- terrific tribute to him, his family, his agent and his academy coach in Edmonton- they rarely mentioned the Whitecaps which tells us a lot about how the Caps are viewed in Europe and Bayern- he is getting a lot of press in such a short time frame - he is turning heads and will go down as a steal of a deal, regardless of how Greg Anderson tried to screw Bayern, Phonzie and Phonzie's agent
I would be buying tickets for a CPL club in a heartbeat now. If its in Langley I wouldnt make it to all the games but I would still pay for the season ticket to support them. I can be a supporter of the pro game and development in my home market without it having the "whitecaps" name on it. The "support always" crowd seem to be forgetful that the club also has to live up to some level on the other side to be worthy of such support (and that has nothing to do with win loss records, I can support a club that loses) I find this Davies story repugnant and not as bad as the women's issues that came up last year, but it is bad nonetheless. Honestly, I would think our two new execs may not be around within 2 years from today. Reason being Rachel Lewis is still implementing Kerfoots financial direction and Anderson is still in there being their contract guy with his knowledge of all the wacky MLS rules. That is a lot of dirt that the new guys can't clean out and it wouldn't surprise me if they would stooge on Pannes if it saved their neck somewhere. If Pannes ever wants to take this club beyond what it is, the cement ceiling of Kerfoot will be there and he won't want his reputation being soiled. The Caps hired two good executives; but how on earth will they be able to do their best with Kerfoot and his two long time managers in the mix. I mean, they already were told their finances outside of Davies and MLS money will be close to zip. That will be difficult for these professionals to take beyond a year or two.