Post Match - Caps edge LA at Stubhub

Well, that was something. Felt smash and grab, reminiscent of the way the 2015 early season Caps. Outpossessed and outplayed, it almost felt as half the team wasn’t there and relied on 3 major saves by Ousted to bail them out.

Fielding a weakened lineup because of Gold Cup absences (Waston, Davies, Teibert, deJong and Adekugbe) which saw Jacobson in central defense again, partnering with Parker while being flanked by Nerwinski and Harvey, Laba and Tchani sitting right in front of the back 4. With Reyna not quite ready to start, Robbo inserted Mezquida into the starting 11, being flanked by Techera and Bolanos with Montero in front of them.

When the Caps did stride forward, it was usually via the long ball or the wing play where the Caps were able to exploit the LA backline. The breakthrough came via a dead ball situation, once thought to be the death of the club. Bola stroked a ball into the box where Tchani managed to get his head on it, and one bounced it into the net, after Rowe managed to get a touch on it.

The most critical of Ousted’s saves was a goal line clearance at the near post off a Romney header, which was placed perfectly by McBean, roughly 15 minutes before Tchani’s strike.

Was this result expected given that LA had only 1 home win? Given the history of the Caps at Stubhub (including the days of Chivas USA), any points at that building should be considered a win.

Onward and upward towards Sunday, and a Cascadia derby match against the Portland Timbers.