It was as if the Doctor had taken us back in time in his TARDIS to 2011 in New England on Saturday night.
After seven clean sheets in all competitions so far this season, the defence seemed to have forgotten how to defend and had reverted back to last season's team. And we all remember how horrible that was at times.
If there was a song to accompany the match highlights on the Caps website it would have to be The Libertines' "Horrorshow".
It all started so well too!
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
If the Whitecaps are going to lose games this year, it would appear that they're going to lose them big time. And if we're going to lose, I'd much rather it was to an eastern team.
No team is really going to go through a season without stinking the place out at times. It's how you respond from it that shows the mark of a team.
The defensive tinkering obviously played a part. As did the head knock to Carlyle Mitchell for one of the goals.
But let's take nothing away from New England here. They played very well, were worthy winners, scored some nice goals and have some pretty fast guys in their team that will prove to be a handful for a lot more defences than the Whitecaps one.
When Young-Pyo Lee has a nightmare night, you know it's going to be a bad one. The Korean uncharacteristically lost possession several times and was sloppy with passes.
I much prefer Alain Rochat at left back, but pairing him with Mitchell in the middle made sense since they played together there in Edmonton. They didn't have the best of nights, but I felt Mitchell had a better game than Rochat all things considered. I think I might be alone in that one though.
One final comment on the defence. We HAVE to work on defending throw ins better. We go to sleep far too often and it's cost us at least three times now.
Jun Marques Davidson was posted missing for the game. I forgot he was even playing till he got subbed off.
Omar Salgado was equally as invisible. Not even sure how many touches he had in the first half but it felt like none. I would have liked to have seen him taken off at half time for Darren Mattocks, as it just wasn't happening for him in this game.
It happens. He's done well since coming in to that left wing role and everyone is going to have games like that. It's important he keeps his head up.
Now, I love Sebastien Le Toux. His commitment and non stop running is exemplary but please, please, please don't let him defend. He was terrible back there. Keep him up the field or, at the very least, out of the final third.
Ok, nothing more to say about individual players. Bad game. Let's move on. At least we won the possession battle. Just a shame we couldn't transform that into goals.
What I liked most about the aftermath of the loss was Martin Rennie's honesty that he made mistakes with the line up.
I would much rather see a coach put his hands up and admit he got it wrong, than trying to make excuses.
It's now all about how we move on from that as a team. How we bounce back.
It hasn't hurt us too much in the Western playoff quest. We didn't lose by giving points to any of our playoff rivals.
What is most important now are the two games coming up against Toronto.
There definitely seems to be a bit of a split in the Caps support, with a surprisingly large number of fans not caring about the Voyageurs Cup and just wanting us to concentrate on the League.
It's good to see and hear Rennie and Lenarduzzi say that the Caps aren't thinking that way. They want the Cup. We want the Cup.
We need to take at least a two goal lead from the first leg at BC Place to make me feel comfortable heading east, and a clean sheet is a must.
If they continue to defend like they did in New England, I'm not that hopeful of the latter, but I still can't see us not lifting our first Voyageurs Cup.
This IS our year. And yes, I'm prepared for the slagging that will follow if it turns out not to be!
'Mon the Caps.
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Now this is a tough one this week. We always try and give the points out to someone, but it is difficult after performances like this one!
Interested to see your thoughts on it, but here's what we're going with...
3 points - DAVIDE CHIUMIENTO (he tried, often with little support)
2 points - ERIC HASSLI (had some really nice build up plays and passes in the first half and a good finish for the goal)
1 point - DARREN MATTOCKS (just because he ran around a lot!)
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