Good Friday morning Caps fans, hope you all are having a lovely week and that you’re gearing up for a well deserved break to enjoy some (sort of?) summer weather.

The wounds of the 5-0 schellaking on Sunday have not begun to heal quite yet but the plot thickens after the drubbing in the CONCAChampions final.

The Whitecaps announced on Thursday that a significant number of players and staff have some sort of GI issues after the trip to Mexico City, resulting in training being cancelled on Wednesday and sharply curbed on Thursday.

We’ll spare you the potty jokes that this news will likely create. There aren’t signs (at least as of yet) that this was a factor in the poor display, though that scenario obviously played out last year, when Columbus’ entire team effectively was ill in their defeat to Pachuca. From Axel Schuster’s comments, it sounds as if it is related to the postgame meal and travel back to Canada, as those who traveled separately from the team (to meet up with their various international teams) did not get sick.

The news is a touch surprising merely because the Caps seemingly had implemented some safeguards in place (consulting with the Crew in the process) to try and prevent a repeat of last year’s final. This team also made two trips to Mexico, including one prior match in Mexico City, without issue.

There is no real point in dwelling on what role this could have had on Sunday. But it certainly raises questions about what will happen this coming Sunday, when Vancouver was scheduled to take on the Seattle Sounders.

Of course, the Caps were already going to be down [checks notes] basically they’re entire team (nine players, but who is counting). Losing any more to illness would leave them a step or two away from calling up one of you all to play. From Schuster’s comments, it sounds like there are certainly still players and staff who are symptomatic and, having had GI issues before, I certainly was in no shape to play professional soccer even as I began to recover.

MLS should have bagged this game before now anyway. Seattle and Vancouver have a lot riding on this match and allowing one team to have to play without basically its entire starting XI is obscene. To do so now, given the circumstances, would be silly and would devalue the end product that fans are ultimately paying for.

There will be plenty more twists and turns to this before Sunday. But, at the moment, we can all be glad we’re not glued to a toilet in the Whitecaps training facility. Small victories!

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