Beyond the Lens - Striking the Right Balance

Let’s face some facts: The Caps are 6 weeks into an 8 week stretch where they are the only professional sports team playing in Vancouver. After having spent over a month on the road, they finally returned home to a busy stretch that concludes on Saturday after playing Saturday-Tuesday-Saturday-Tuesday with the last Tuesday match a trip to Montreal. Sure, the two Tuesday games saw heavily rotated squads but it’s still games that supporters and fans will watch.

For the average fan, their knowledge of Atlanta United will be from the internet and whatever news outlets provide them with. Either way, that team is driven by attacking midfielder Miguel Almiron. Yes, I’ve talked about him on my own Twitter feed and on Facebook as being “the real deal” Not only can he distribute the ball like a proper #10, but he can also score goals too. As far as the overall makeup of their roster, their biggest name is probably Kenwyne Jones, a name that English soccer fans will know and some Caps fans might know as well. Jones played for Central FC last season and featured in the CCL fixture at BC Place last September. As for the rest of their roster, it’s sprinkled with names that Caps fans might recognize from years gone by.

Now, when it comes to a preview from the home team, I would expect to see Almiron as being the centrepiece of that story. Is a clip of every goal Atl has scored really necessary? Perhaps not every goal, just the highlight reel ones. Now, that clip has enraged a number of people, most of whom are members of one of the three supporters groups. Now, I would also question whether any of those have watched any of Atlanta’s matches as if they are true football fans (not just Caps supporters) they would realize that Almiron is something special. To get that worked up over something, that’s happened before, and I can say with decent certainty, it will happen again, that these people should think about taking things into their own hands, more so by controlling what content they get exposed to.

As for the home team, I think most fans and supporters pretty much know what to expect by now. As one suggested, highlight that stats where the Caps are prominent. Okay, I don’t disagree with that, but how is that going to get anyone excited about a 4th home game in 2 weeks. I would think that fatigue is setting in for Caps fans and perhaps some are getting a little punchy. Had one of the times the Caps sent a ball that crashed off the post and out, gone in, including the penalty, they’re singing a completely different tune.

I have no issue with the way the Caps FO does their match previews. One focusing on the opposition, as most fans won’t know one player that plays for Atlanta. The other one being a more generic look at the matchup.

I don’t want to call it fake outrage, but it almost comes across as turning a molehill into a mountain just for the sake of doing so. If it is legitmate, may I suggest that you go back and look to see how the Caps prepared for the first visit of bona fide superstarts (Villa and Pirlo, Gerrard, Beckham and others) and think is this really all that different. I would also recommend looking at certain features built into your social media platforms of choice to see if there is any way to keep this sort of stuff out of your feed.

That’s enough rambling from me......for now