What can you say about this Whitecaps defence?
Four games, four clean sheets, and now, just 62 minutes away from taking New York Red Bull's record for the longest start to the season without conceding a goal.
As we said in our <a href="http://www.canadiansoccernews.com/content.php?3017-Caps-Remain-Undefeated-And-Unbreached" target="_blank"><b>match report</b></a> yesterday, what a difference a season makes. Or should that be, what a difference a decent coach makes?
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And of course the players. All of the defenders came out of yesterday's match with pass marks and Y-P Lee, Martin Bonjour and Joe Cannon were simply outstanding.
A clean sheet record is nothing major in the grand scheme of things, and going forward, all the clean sheets in the world aren't going to help us too much if we can't put the ball in the net at the other end of the pitch.
We are most certainly a team of two halves, trying to make a whole. One half is solid and in full flow, the other is stuttering and trying to find its way.
But let's just bathe in the positive moments whilst we can.
When you look around MLS, and especially the Western Conference, the top teams are leaking goals left, right and centre, so every point won and every goal not conceded could prove vital at the end of the season.
The Caps remain unbeaten and are the only western side that can boast that.
We ground out a result, but that is to be expected, as Martin Rennie came with a reputation of putting out strong defensive teams that are especially hard to break down on the road.
We're already only one point away from matching last season's away point haul and that's after just two games!
It would be foolish not to think that we haven't had a fairly easy start to the season. Our first two games were against the sides many feel will be propping up both Conferences come October, then the next two were against sides looking for their first win.
The latter is always a dangerous proposition, no matter who it is, and I think we'll find at least DC United in the playoff mix at the end of the season. Their 4-1 demolition of Dallas on Friday night should show Caps fans just how good last week's scoreless draw against them was.
There is no doubt that next week's game against San Jose Earthquakes will be the Whitecaps biggest test to date.
And if they are to come through it, they need to play a lot, lot better than the past three games and get some kind of attacking threat going. It's simply not there at the moment and you can't just write it off to this week's injuries, as it's been the case for every game bar the season opener so far.
When a defender like Y-P Lee is our biggest attacking threat and creative danger in a match, you know you have issues.
At some point we're going to come up against a good team and they're going to crucify us. An Easter meeting at Buck Shaw Stadium has an ominous foreboding about it!
If we can have pretty much everyone back healthy over the next week, then we may finally see the real 2012 Whitecaps in operation.
None of this should be taken as doom and gloom, especially when you look at some of the shock results this MLS weekend. It just reality and I still say, if we can play poorly and remain unbeaten, that'll do nicely.
We can only develop, gel and get better. And we will.
The Philly match was the Caps first foray east this season and Martin Rennie decided to keep the players on Pacific time, with wake ups, breakfast and training all being held later in the day.
After all of our woes on the road last year, I'd take anything that can improve that and I personally love this idea. It's so simple and you have to wonder why we never thought of doing that last season.
Something else we didn't seem to think of doing in a lot of games last season was to keep our discipline, but that focus helped us grind out a point yesterday. 13 fouls conceded to Philly's 20, and only one yellow card to Philly's three.
All the attention going in to the match was on Sebastien Le Toux. Although he didn't get his fairytale moment back in Philly, despite numerous chances he could have/should have taken, he put in one hell of a shift. It will be interesting to see just how much grass he covered as he was all over that pitch, often popping up at the back when you least expected to see him there.
His finishing is still a little off though, it has to be said. That chance in the 82nd minute wasn't easy, but you expect him to bury it more often than not.
It was good to see both John Thorrington and Atiba Harris back in the line up. In a healthy squad, I would want to see Thorrington starting, but Harris is more a bench player for me.
Yes, we did better last season when he was in the team and he had some good assists and goals in the few games he did play, but I also remember some of the chances he should have buried and didn't. For me, he is not a striker and is much better trying to create the chances than trying to score them.
Thorrington did well at times, but was coming up short in a number of passes. Too many seemed to be going astray all round, whether that can be blamed on the apparently long grass or just sloppiness, who can say?
The official stats say just three unsuccessful passes, which is nothing compared to Jun Marques Davidson, who had 17 unsuccessful passes.
I thought Davidson had his poorest game for the Caps so far, trying to force passes and looking long instead of continuing with the short passes that had worked well to date.
All of the midfield were poor. It's our biggest weakness in the team right now and a big factor in the strikers not producing goals, along with their poor finishing.
Barry Robson can't come quick enough to bolster this department, but in the meantime, Martin Rennie needs to look at freshening things up there.
We need a bit of creativity and pace, so it may be a case of having Thorrington move to DM, giving Davidson a break, and maybe giving Russell Teibert a run after his impressive displays for the national team (albeit as a left back).
Saturday's other games were interesting, as two midfielders stood out for me as players that could really help the Caps at this moment. Lee Nguyen impressed again for New England and Philippe Davies for Canada. There's not been many of Martin Rennie's decisions that you would query so far, but letting both of these guys go are two of them.
I would much rather have one, or both, of them in the Caps squad than Floyd Franks, who frankly hasn't impressed at all to date (no pun intended).
There's certainly going to be some work to do in training this week to try and generate some spark in the midfield and striking areas.
A final word on the TV coverage of yesterday's game.
I don't know who was responsible for the camerawork at the match, whether it was Sportsnet or a local station, but it was awful and all over the place at times. Focussing on the crowd, players and the benches instead of the action on several occasions.
It's bad enough having to listen to Craig MacEwen for ninety minutes (although he wasn't as dreadful this week to be fair and was tolerable), never mind having to put up with motion sickness as well.
This feels like it's one giant moan this week, but it's not meant to be. I'm very happy and positive about not only how the season has gone so far, but what lies in store in the weeks and months to come.
We need to be aware of what isn't working though, and you can bet your bottom dollar that Martin Rennie and his management team most certainly are and will be constantly working to improve on the weaknesses and flaws we currently have.
It will be interesting to see what the make up of the team is in San Jose next week. Not only who plays, but what formation and tactics are chosen to go with.
It's our first real test. Let's hope we pass with flying colours.
In Rennie We Trust.
Mon the Caps.
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<b>AFTN 3-2-1 :</b>
3 points - YOUNG-PYO LEE (The Caps best creative player on attack. Whipped in some great crosses, whilst still managing to be in all the right places at the back)
2 points - MARTIN BONJOUR (A couple of little lapses but basically a rock back there and wasn't afraid to put himself about against a robust Union side, something we missed there last year)
1 point - JOE CANNON (Did everything you could have asked of him. "You'll never beat Joe Cannon" indeed)
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