Good Monday morning Caps fans. I hope you all are well rested and having a good start to your week.

The Whitecaps are off the mark with three points. Though they won’t get any bonus points for style, it was a professional display against Real Salt Lake on Saturday, combined with a bit of luck that helped the Caps see out a 1-0 win to get their season underway.

RSL and Pablo Mastroeni deserve credit for a strong game plan that frustrated a Caps team that may have had some tired legs from the midweek. The away side had numbers in the midfield to deny the Caps space in the buildup, and Emmanuel Sabbi and AZ Jackson were forced to try and create out wide while building chemistry with a makeshift pair of fullbacks.

Moments after Sabbi dodged a sending off, the Caps fired their way in front and continued to build some semblance of momentum from there. The second half version of Vancouver resembled what we were used to seeing last year, but it still wasn’t quite as smooth as you’d like. Yohei Takaoka and Mathias Laborda had some hiccups (I’m good not seeing Takaoka try and turn...