If you'd offered pretty much everyone involved with the Caps seven points out of the first three games this season, we'd have bitten your hand off.
It took us nine games to reach that mark last season.
That said, we weren't sitting too far away on four points from our first three games last year, and we all know how that ended up.
The points on the board are great. The performances, not so much.
With one game left to be played this MLS weekend, Vancouver Whitecaps not only sit proudly on top of the Western Conference, but the whole of Major League Soccer.
"Tell everyone you know, that we're top of the League and you're no", as we say in Scotland.
[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]
Last night's performance in the 0-0 draw against DC United though left me feeling like we'd lost. Football's a funny old game Saint (my old time quote for this month).
Ruined by expectations!
And of course football fans are hard buggers to please.
You can read my match report of the game over on <a href="http://www.prostamerika.com/2012/03/24/whitecaps-keep-third-clean-sheet/60421" target="_blank">Prost Amerika</a>. An unselfish pass here, a different offside decision there and we could have been talking about the Caps being three for three. A slower Joe Cannon or less alert Davide Chiumiento and we could have been talking about our first loss. A draw was certainly the fairest result for the fare that was on offer from both sides.
Three games of the Renniesance in, but realistically we can't really read too much into anything that's happened so far in 2012. It's still far too early days, but what has become clear in the last two games is that the Caps aren't firing on all cylinders yet and a lot of improvement is needed in certain areas of the park if the team is to make a serious playoff push this term.
If we can get points in the bag whilst playing badly, then that's fantastic and will really help. This simply will not last though, as other teams find their groove as the season goes on.
We need to find <i>our</i> groove and we need to find it pretty quickly.
I'd much rather be sitting on seven points of course than Montreal's one or Toronto's big fat zero.
The positives from last night first.
Another clean sheet. Three in a row and the defence looks pretty solid. The injury to Alain Rochat is worrying, but Jordan Harvey is capable cover, if maybe not the same attacking threat on that flank. Y-P Lee had another great game and the partnership between Jay DeMerit and Martin Bonjour is getting better every game.
Joe Cannon was a beast between the sticks and once again earned us some points, well, one in this case.
And that's where the plaudits end.
Very few of the other players earned pass marks last night.
The midfield creativity and ultimate depth there is already starting to be a worry and July can't come quick enough for Barry Robson to appear.
I thought Matt Watson did well again. Jun Marques Davidson, I didn't really notice. Maybe that's a good thing for your defensive midfielder, or maybe I just wasn't paying attention and focussing too much attention at the other end of the park.
Davide Chiumiento had a good game tracking back defensively and his header off the line in the second half contributed to us earning a point. Offensively, he was missing.
The problem we have with flair players like Davide and Camilo is that they never seem to do the easy thing. They hold on to the ball a little bit too long, Camilo especially, and there's always a back heel or clever flick when the simpler ball could have been better. They look great when we're winning of course and I could watch them all day.
I find it hard to knock Camilo for last night. He was easily our most creative attacker and the only player that looked like providing the spark we needed to break the deadlock.
Yes, he tried to do too much himself. Yes, there was that moment in the break after the goal-line clearance that he selfishly kept the ball and ran out of space, when he could have played in Eric Hassli, who was in acres of room. Hassli was pissed.
But, Hassli wasn't on form last night himself, especially after he picked up his first half booking and lost any aggressiveness.
Eric Hassli's MLS goal drought increased to 13 games and 853 minutes. He hasn't found the net in the League since his brace against Chicago on August 7th and has officially registered just two assists in that time, one against Seattle in September and one in this season's home opener against Montreal.
Now as much as I love Eric to bits, this isn't the production we need to have from our top striker, never mind a high earning DP. Sure he's working very hard in other areas of the park, but he's ultimately a striker and all his hard work elsewhere isn't contributing to goals.
Still not exactly panic stations, but it is becoming a concern.
He's not alone. Our star studded attack just hasn't gelled yet.
Sebastien Le Toux was just not in the game and should have been taken off with a good 20 minutes or so to go. I would have liked to have seen Long Tan get a run at the DC defence, who performed resolutely it has to be said.
The lack of earlier substitutions by Martin Rennie was worrying, but he explained why he felt this was the route to take in his post-match presser:
<i>"The thing is, today is a classic example. We don't have Atiba, we don't have Etienne, we don't have Darren Mattocks. So there's three guys that can come on and really impact a game like that. Make a difference in a game like that and change up what we're doing.
Those guys should be back for us soon and I think they'll make a difference. Even if it's not starting, and coming on, you can change the game and we didn't really have enough options to change the game today."</i>
So with who was available, we can take it that he didn't really have the faith in them to get the job done. The question then, is what role these guys can actually play at the club? I think Tan could certainly have added some pace to the attack, which was badly missing.
There is no doubt that the bench was weak, and you had Michael Nanchoff out injured and Russell Teibert doing Canada proud. Once we have all these guys fully fit and back, then we'll know what kind of squad we have. Then we can judge.
And if we can keep picking up points until they are, then that's no bad thing.
Some of the fringe players will have a chance to show Martin Rennie what they could add to the current team in tomorrow's reserve game against Seattle. The line up is going to be a mix of second and third stringers and some Residency guys like Ben Fisk.
Two away games are next up for the Caps, including what should be a tough one against a winless, and no doubt very hungry, Philadelphia Union, followed by San Jose.
These are two teams that will punish a lack of offensive fluency or midfield dominance.
Last week's Whitecaps training was very low key, very light hearted. I think we're going to see a different management team this coming week and the players that aren't performing need that kick in the right direction, because if they keep underperforming, when the squad is back at full strength, there's going to be a number of guys that want to come in and take their jobs.
For Whitecaps fans, that can only be good.
'Mon the Caps
<center>********************</center>
<b>AFTN 3-2-1 :</b>
3 points - JOE CANNON (a beast between the sticks and another 'Save of the Week' contender)
2 points - YOUNG-PYO LEE (can't fault the guy so far this season)
1 point - JAY DEMERIT (won the official 'Man of the Match' award. Was solid, but certainly not the top performer on the night)
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