Coffee with the Caps, Friday July 19

These are dark days, Caps fans—there’s no doubt about it. I’m having a hard time mustering up much emotion at all about the season at this point, although I’m sure the team will still do their best to boil my blood Saturday against San Jose.

In the meantime, I would like to announce something that will a) hopefully take our minds off the doom and gloom that characterizes Whitecaps world right now and b) let us all have a little fun.

I am, of course, announcing the first annual Coffee with the Caps Trivia Extravaganza (TM)!

[cue wild applause]

That’s right, next Friday in this very space you will be able to test your knowledge of the Caps and MLS against your fellow readers. I have not yet come up with all of the questions but, rest assured, they will vary in difficulty and scope in an effort to make it as fun for everyone as possible. Fabulous prizes* will be on offer for the winner.

*I don’t yet have any physical fabulous prizes but victory will give you immense personal satisfaction and that’s a pretty good prize, right?

Now, logistics. I initially was going to have people reply with their answers in the comments but I realized quickly that cheating was quite possible (not that I’m that concerned about cheating in this but its the principle of the matter). Also it requires a lot of scrolling and that doesn’t sound fun does it.

Instead, I will put a Google form in next Friday’s CWTC. You are welcome, of course, to take the quiz at any point but only submissions between publication of July 26th’s column and July 29th’s column will count towards the fabulous prizes*

*Yeah I still don’t have any physical prizes

In seriousness, I love trivia and I’m hoping this will give us all a chance to chat about something that isn’t the tumultuous, burning wreck that this team has become. So, sharpen those (virtual) number 2 pencils, hit the books and study up for next Friday. Any feedback on the idea and its execution (or whether its just plain dumb) would be welcomed as well :^)

Now, onto the links!

Shameless Self Promotion

We are still producing content and have a variety of pieces taking in the aftermath of Wednesday’s 4-0 loss to New England. Ian sits down with our SB Nation Soccer fam over at the Bent Musket to debrief and Sam Rowan takes the entire team to task in his report card.

Meanwhile, we have a fascinating point-counterpoint between Caleb and our fearless leader AtlantisB on the state of affairs. Caleb argues that the performance of the Caps and their transfer failures are actually far worse than it initially appears (and it appears pretty bad). Atlantis counters that there is hope yet going forward. Go read them if you haven’t already and weigh in with your take.

Oh and get your lineup predictions in for San Jose!

Best of the Rest

NBA star James Harden is an MLS owner now, buying a minority share in the Houston Dynamo. Harden’s presence probably won’t make the Dynamo relevant but I really hope it does.

In a time honored tradition, Zlatan trashed MLS ahead of tonight’s El Traffico, something I find hilarious because the only person really comparing MLS to the elite European leagues is ... Zlatan

Matthijs de Ligt has finally ended his transfer saga by signing for Juventus, where he will be paid quite handsomely for a 19-year-old

USL may drop MLS reserve teams from the Championship to League One for the 2020 season, something which has ruffled a few feathers