Coffee with the Caps, Friday March 13

Good Friday morning Caps fans and what a week it has been.

Obviously the spread of the novel coronavirus has reached historic proportions worldwide, with the threat intensifying in North America and Western Europe. Currently, there are 46 cases in British Columbia with one death, numbers that are likely to rise over the next few weeks.

The effects have been felt throughout society. Here in the U.S. and throughout Europe, schools have been closed, mass gatherings restricted and folks have been urged to limit movement (i.e social distancing) as much as possible.

That has obviously had major impacts for the world of sport. MLS has suspended its season for 30 days, a move supporter by the Caps and anyone with an ounce of intellect. The CONCACAF Champions League, USL, NWSL and both U.S. National Teams are following suit and te CPL said it is monitoring events to see whether it will do the same once its season officially gets underway.

Worldwide, basically every major soccer league has halted play after the English Premier League, Ligue 1 and UEFA announced their competitions would be put on pause. The EPL was going to attempt to play this weekend, which anyone with a modicum of common sense would tell you is a remarkably stupid idea, but just minutes after that announcement was made Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta tested positive for coronavirus. Chelsea midfielder Callum Hudson-Odoi also tested positive later that evening and the fate of the league was sealed.

The European Championships, initially scheduled for this summer, appear unlikely to continue, with the domestic leagues hoping for a best-case scenario that would allow them to finish up over the summer.

Obviously sport is important to my life and it is important to the lives of all the people who work on this blog. But there are clearly bigger things at play and we all need to stay safe, either to protect ourselves or to protect friends, neighbors and loved ones who are older or immunocompromised.

So we’re not sure what the content on this site will look like in the coming days and weeks—the main things we cover have been put on pause. But we will do our best to come up with some things to help you all pass the time and engage with the games we all love.

In the meantime, the most important content we can offer is this: frequently wash your hands for 20 seconds, stay home if sick and call a doctor if you’re experiencing flu-like symptoms. Check up on your friends and neighbors too—we’re all in this together.

With that, here are a few links

Shameless Self Promotion

Well it perhaps goes without saying that we won’t need tomorrow’s match preview/lineup contest. But if you want some fresh content to read while social distancing, Mats is back at it with the second edition of Thinking Caps and, hey, if the Caps end their season on the 1-0 win at LA that ain’t so bad is it?

Best of the Rest

There aren’t a ton of non-COVID-19 news items at the moment but I did my best:

First, a look at what the virus might do to the European game

A roundup on the impact of all other sports, ranging from March Madness to the PGA Tour

US Soccer Federation President Carlos Codeiro is out after a turmoil-filled week where the USSF filed an utterly shameful, sexist screed in the ongoing legal battle over the USWNT pay dispute. The USWNT protested by covering up the logo during the warmups ahead of Tuesday’s SheBelieves Cup match against Japan

Both Atlanta United and NYCFC got thrashed in the quarterfinals of the CONCACAF Champions League. Feels like Groundhog Day...