Hello!

I find it surreal that we're only one issue of the newsletter from the 50th! I've given it some thought the past few weeks if I had the means to something special, and did kick around a few ideas, yet with the current state of uncertainty of our club I'm not certain anything would be appropriate.

Additionally, I learned some tough personal news these past few days - my employer advised me that due to the staffing reductions a result of a "zero-means-zero" budget that my time will come to a premature end in one month.

So if any of you know of a company that's looking for Canadians with a knack for training & enablement in a remote capacity... I know a guy. Me.

With all of this heavy news hitting me hard, I reached out to contributor Jordan to see if he could tap-in on my behalf and ensure y’all had something to read and consider. And with Jordan as top-notch of an individual as they come, he agreed.

So Jordan, take it away.

The View

Chris tapped me yesterday afternoon to pinch-hit on this week's newsletter, and I've been waffling quite a bit on topical alignment for the content. Last week's newsletter touched on the launch of the #SaveTheCaps campaign from the supporters' groups, and we saw a lot of their effort funneled into the pre-game tifo and widespread call for those in the supporters' sections to help with the display of pre-printed signage for it. Unfortunately, give a bunch of random people who don't really care about the team some loose-leaf paper, and it's inevitable that paper airplanes are going to be made and thrown.

I had a brief debate about this in the From 231 Discord (if you haven't joined yet, why not?) and I'm in Camp No-Fun - largely because A) throwing stuff on the field is juvenile and B) should be punished with paying the league fine to the club + eviction and banning from the stadium. There's no reason for anyone to be doing this, especially in the face of why those papers are out in the public domain.

I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of people starting the airplanes were paid actors there to make the effort look bad.

Anyway - I can only bring the vibes down so much before I have to pivot and talk about the football. Normally, if I know I'm going to be contributing to the newsletter, I'll re-watch the game and take notes to feed off of, but on short-notice, we're going with "what do I remember?"

The Caps came out, thankfully, with a load of energy - one might say, like a house on fire, threatening with an early chance, and then subsequently converting an early chance into a 1-0 lead via a pretty slick sequence started by a through ball up the right wing to Edier Ocampo, then a beauty of a cross back-post to Thomas Müller, who one-timed another cross back in front for Emmanuel Sabbi to tuck home. This gave the Caps a bit more of a lift, and they started tilting the field towards the Colorado goal, piling on chances before Brian White would find the 2-0 goal in the 24th minute (Try as I might, I cannot remember this play now).

Unfortunately, the Caps could not find the 3-0 breakthrough in the first half, and worse yet, would concede a 2-1 goal to Rafael Navarro under somewhat controversial circumstances, as a scramble on the goal line would see the ball pushed over the line and ruled a good goal on the field. VAR had a long look at this for a potential handball, and while the in-net camera angle really seemed to show the ball entering the goal off of Navarro's arm, it wasn't "Clear and Obvious" enough of an error to warrant intervention, and the goal stood.

A note from Chris: there are reports that VAR had an angle that clearly showed the contact was on Navarro’s knee. Haven’t seen this angle, and I await PRO to provide their typical “VAR Report” on YouTube to see if this is actually the case.

This would take us into halftime, and there were rumblings in the building. You could just sense the tension growing among the supporters - especially with a sold-out lower bowl at BC Place - with all of the rumblings off-field, would they finally spill over and potentially affect the team on-field?

The second half felt a bit more in the balance - Colorado looking for ways over the top of our press, and the Caps generating fewer chances until substitutions brought a fresh look and feel to the attack. Chris's favourite player Bruno Caicedo would come on around the 60 minute mark to start terrorizing the right side of the Colorado defense, and pretty much almost immediately had a huge impact. The game started to open up as Colorado pushed for an equalizer, leaving huge reams of space in behind for Bruno to run into - which led to what was surely the 3-1 goal, as Bruno took a through ball in against 2 defenders, somehow found a seam through them, got taken down, and STILL kicked the ball in while on the ground, sending the BC Place faithful into raptures.

Except no. An inexorably long VAR check indicated handball. "FOR WHAT" screams the crowd. Everyone is fixated on the collision where Bruno went down in a heap with the defenders - where is the handball there? I actually had to go back and watch the highlights from the TV feed to get the full picture - the handball actually happens PRIOR to Bruno going down, when he gets challenged by the defenders. The ball kicks up, hits his arm, and then the collisions happen. Handball in the buildup. Hard to argue with that on second review, but let me tell you - in a match that already felt like the referee was losing control (Colorado was leaving a foot in on almost every tackle), having a goal overturned by VAR on what seemed like something they let go earlier? Kinda set off a powder keg in the stands.

Thankfully, Bruno got another chance, from a glorious through ball, and he laid out a perfect cut-back to Brian White for his second of the match to make it 3-1. Which almost wasn't the final score, because Bruno, on the final kick of the game, forced a fingertip save out of the Colorado keeper.

So, the Caps end their 8 of 9 at home to start the season with 8 wins and a loss, the only loss a narrow 1-0 decision against - checks notes - current Supporters' Shield leaders SJ Earthquakes. You read that correctly, dear readers - the San Jose Earthquakes lead the MLS standings in the year of our Lord 2026. I don't know what's happening either, except that Bruce Arena is going to win Coach of the Year over Jesper. It's fated, at this point.

This now leaves us with the Caps On Tour for the next 3 months (mind you, with the World Cup break in the middle of that) and the lingering taste of bitterness over the state of sports these days. The battle to #SaveTheCaps has just begun, and it feels like a referendum on the soul of futbol in this part of the world.

The soul of the game is alive in Europe, though. At least if you watch PSG or Bayern München these days. Especially if you caught their UEFA Champions League match on Tuesday - do yourselves a favour, find the highlights package, and find a way to watch the return leg next Wednesday. Might be the highest-scoring UCL semifinal of all time.

Until next time, From 231 subscribers! #SaveTheCaps

As the title says, we will fight for our club and we will win!