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Good Friday morning Caps fans and happy Friday the 13th — hope the spooky vibes don’t come your way today.
In light of the auspicious date, I’m going to keep my column short and sweet today. But it will be a busy soccer weekend with plenty to discuss on Monday — including Caps/Quakes later tonight, where #MLSAfterDark (and two bad teams) could create some chaos.
The Caps will be without striker Lucas Cavallini, who is set to miss the next six weeks with a knee injury sustained during the team’s 1-1 draw with LA Galaxy last weekend. This isn’t really a surprise to those who watched — Cava immediately knew something was amiss and signaled for a sub. Now we know the severity of the situation.
Lucas Cavallini has been ruled OUT approx. six weeks after suffering a left knee injury in last Sunday’s match against LA Galaxy. Cava is working with medical staff aiming to return in late September. The Club has an official statement coming out soon.@WhitecapsFC | #VWFC
— Sarita Patel - 'Caps Club Reporter (@VWFC_reporter) August 11, 2021
This is not the news the Caps were looking for after loaning out two strikers, meaning they are down to Brian White and Tos Ricketts as the like-for-like replacements for Cava up top, unless they want to experiment with Cristian Dajome as a lone striker or a similarly outside-the-box plan.
The likely move will be to proceed with their Gold Cup contingency plan and roll with Brian White, who has looked solid in many respects (hold up play, etc.) but still has only one MLS goal to his name in Vancouver.
I’m not sold on him based off his showing thus far but there are a couple points to consider: White has gotten better during his time in Vancouver and also there is the not insignificant factor of Ryan Gauld potentially entering the starting XI, which will be a lift to all of the attacking players.
Will this strategy work? Well, at this point it probably won’t matter anyway but no Cava will be a blow for the dying embers of hope the Caps have at mounting a playoff run. This would have been an ideal time to recall David Egbo and get him some MLS minutes but Marc Dos Santos has poured cold water on that idea. In any event, the Caps won’t bore you — even if this was the kind of excitement we didn’t all need in our lives.
Onto the links ...
Shameless Self Promotion
Get caught up with the San Jose/Vancouver match preview. Then, once you’re all previewed-up, get your predictions in for the starting XI
Best of the Rest
More on the Caps’ options to replace Cava up top
Canada sits just outside the top 50 of the FIFA rankings (for whatever they’re worth) after a strong Gold Cup; the U.S. has cracked the top ten
In what will probably be more entertaining than the All Star Game, we have the rundown of players participating in the skills’ competition
A tough 2-0 loss for the Philadelphia Union in the CONCACAF Champions League semis means a likely all Liga MX final
Meanwhile, MLS teams mostly got railed (except for Seattle) in the Leagues Cup — the “totally not made up competition that everyone is absolutely not doing for a quick cash grab”