Coffee with the Caps, Friday December 4

Good Friday morning Caps fans, hope you all are gearing up for a relaxing and restorative weekend, perhaps one with a little soccer mixed in.

Well, Vancouver must be a fan of our Team Takeover series because they dropped their player option decisions the other day and had few, if any surprises. Lucky for us because we can keep the series going without disruption!

Most players in question will for sure be back in a Caps’ jersey next season. The exceptions were, unsurprisingly, Fredy Montero and Andy Rose, who management appear to continue to be in discussions with about a return on more favorable terms.

You would imagine discussions with Rose have to be more advanced than those with Montero (heck, Rose was doing a charity appearance for the Caps the other day) and I’m still pessimistic Fredy will be back. I think you probably could find someone to fill that role who is cheaper and/or younger, although it is hard to say the team should move on the player who was most in form over the last several months of the season. This was maybe the most hotly contested decision in Team Takeover.

Bottom line here is stay tuned folks.

Bryan Meredith will not be back in Vancouver, with his option being declined. It was hardly a surprise after the Evan Bush trade relegated Meredith to the backup job following a shaky couple of starts. One imagines Bryan will be OK, as I think he could find work as a starter for a USL team somewhere, or maybe even grab another backup role in MLS.

And perhaps the only real surprise was the decision not to re-up Georges Mukumbilwa, with the Academy product now eligible for the Re-Entry Draft.

It was a disappointing end to things for Georges, who was generally well regarded before graduating to the first team, at which point his development largely hit a brick wall under Marc dos Santos.

The fact that he could only muster one MLS appearance on a team with serious questions at right back probably sealed his fate, although I think Mukumbilwa is the kind of player who could find himself back on an MLS team after a stint in the Canadian Premier League, where one assumes he will likely be hunting for work.

I actually think that if the team had elected to hang onto Georges he could have seen some time in whatever the Caps’ entry in the new MLS reserve league looks like, although one would suspect that this would have been an unsatisfying option for both player and team.

Mukumbilwa will join the list of former Caps’ Academy prospects who weren’t able to find their footing in the first team and, given the success of some of these players in the CPL, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

But it will frustrate fans who felt like they might have had something promising on their hands, especially as the team hunts for a right back or two this offseason. At 21-years-old, however, the Caps just couldn’t wait around much longer.

Shameless Self Promotion

Want to read some of the aforementioned Team Takeover stuff? We got you covered. This time around, our writers take a look (largely in agreement) at the team’s young Canadian defenders. Stay tuned next week for the final installment in the series!

Best of the Rest

Between the Sticks is embarking on their own season recap series that is worth your time

More on the team’s roster moves from earlier this week

You’re going to be shocked when I tell you that Alphonso Davies was named Canada’s top male soccer player for this last year

Minnesota United smashed an Alan Pulido-less Sporting Kansas City to win a date with Seattle in the Western Conference Finals

Greg Vanney has departed Toronto FC and their are a long list of potential options to replace him