Thank goodness for the international break.
We all need time away from this Whitecaps team as their start to the season continued to be drenched in debilitating ennui as they lost 3-1 to LAFC on Sunday evening.
There are only so many times a human being can watch Jake Nerwinski be just off the pace or struggle to control a simple pass before the yearning for endless night envelopes them.
There are only so many times a human being can watch Russell Teibert receive the ball in space and simply play the ball back to a central defender thus putting the hapless colleague in a world of trouble before the very nature of existence itself becomes tenuous.
There are only so many times a human being can see Ryan Raposo be introduced for the last ten minutes of a game that is beyond repair before Good and Evil dissolve into a formless shadow and become one.
On a more mundane level, the Whitecaps may have been hit by injuries but there was nothing more injurious to them than their inability to execute the basics in all areas of the pitch. But mostly in defence.
They need to go away and have a good think about what they have done.
We all need to go away and not think about it at all.
Time for the Soccer Shorts player ratings!
Hasal-5, Brown-3, Godinho-3, Blackmon-5, Veselenovic-3, Nerwinski-2, Teibert-2, Berhalter-5*, Vite-4, Dajome-3, Cavallini-5
Soccer Shorts (The Director's Cut) 