Good Monday morning Caps fans. I hope you all had a lovely fall weekend and that your week is off to a good start.

We got a break from the Whitecaps this weekend, but that hiatus won’t last much longer, as they will travel to Chicago to take on the Fire on Tuesday. Apple TV executives must have been jubilant when Robert Lewandowski was suspended for yellow-card accumulation, meaning he is headed back to Chicago and will likely feature against his old teammate, Thomas Müller.

The matchup will be catnip for neutrals but will be a mere sideshow for the teams involved, who both have a lot riding on this game. The Caps need to put some distance between them and a streaking St. Louis City ahead of a tough road trip, while the Fire are trying to hop back into the top four of the East and ensure themselves home-field advantage in the first round of the playoffs. While the Caps’ struggles at BC Place have been well-documented, they have won their last three road games, meaning they will not be an easy out over their next five matches away from Vancouver.

This road trip will likely determine the trajectory of the rest of the Caps’ season (and, potentially, the playoffs as well). Four of the next five games are against playoff teams, including Chicago, and they will largely be playing two matches a week. For a team that has struggled when they don’t have their full, first-choice XI, that is no small thing. The mentality has started to suffer for the Caps but this is the perfect chance to change that and get some momentum going again.

Shameless Self Promotion

Canada has made a few roster tweaks ahead of their final friendly against the U.S. Meanwhile, the players currently in camp saw off Peru with a 2-0 win over the weekend.

Jesse Marsch wants to re-litigate Folarin Balogun’s red card-gate.

The Vancouver Rise played AFC Toronto to a 1-1 draw in Sunday’s championship rematch.