"Please please win. Meow meow meow." was one of the chants of choice over the weekend down in Portland.
The Caps didn't quite manage it on Saturday night, but they did get the job down in the Reserves game on Sunday, so we thought we'd keep the Portlandia theme going for our ITCLOD title this week.
Now that everyone should have pretty much recovered from their travels, let's look back at what we can take from Saturday's game.
Well it wasn't a Cascadia Cup classic. The drama and action of last weekend's clash with Seattle may have been missing but at least it threw up an exciting conclusion for the travelling blue and white hordes.
We also got our first MLS points against the Timbers.
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It was a poor first half in terms of us trying to get on the scoresheet.
We may have done a good job at holding the hosts at bay, but to only have one shot in the first half was poor. Even more so when you consider it was in the 45th minute.
It improved in the second half but it was far from a great overall performance.
You can blame tiredness, the schedule, travel, tactics or the team selection, but we were a bit jaded out there for parts of the match.
I was a bit surprised by the team that Martin Rennie put out there.
Eric Hassli was always going to be on the bench but I also expected at least Camilo or Sebastien Le Toux to be there with him, and either Darren Mattocks or Omar Salgado to start.
We badly needed some width out there and got it too late.
Camilo and Le Toux don't work that well together. I know we've been saying this for a few weeks now, but just who does work well together up front? Could Hassli and Mattocks be the new go to guys?
They have at least shown some understanding together and Darren's pace would be just what Eric's little flick ons are needing.
Once again I was frustrated by the lateness of Rennie's substitutions.
The starting eleven could have been out there all night and struggled to find a goal.
A double substitution of Hassli and Mattocks around the midway point of the second half could have been magical for us. We'll never know, and it's all just speculation, but you need to give Mattocks more than eight minutes to torment tired defences.
Darren's great strike aside, what was perhaps the most pleasing aspect of the match was that once again the team showed fight and spirit to come back from going a goal down to grab something from a game.
It didn't quite get the full three points like they did against San Jose but Mattocks' goal was the fourth time that the Caps have scored in the last fifteen minutes of games this season.
A far cry from conceding them in the closing minutes of matches last year.
The atmosphere at the game was tremendous. From all my trips down to Portland these last few years, I think this was the best and most unified I've ever seen the travelling support.
This only bodes well for moving fan culture in Vancouver forward. I know from talking to a lot of fans who made the trip south for the first time that they were blown away and can't wait for more.
Good job we have both Seattle and Portland to look forward to in back to back weekends in August.
The team now have a break. There will be no training until Thursday and Rennie remarked post-game that he'd like the players to go and relax and just not think about football for a few days and to come back refreshed and raring to go.
What lies in store for the next part of the season? We'll take a little look at that tomorrow.
In the meantime, the Caps have got through one of the hardest stretches of their schedule (July could also be a killer).
It's not been a fantastic reward from the last five matches. No Voyageurs Cup and only two League points has seen the team fall to the fifth and final playoff spot in the West.
The real hard work now lies ahead, so let's hope the players make the most of that rest.
'Mon the Caps.
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<b>AFTN 3-2-1:</b>
3 points - JAY DEMERIT (I've been waiting for over a season to see a performance like this from the Caps captain)
2 points - JOE CANNON (some tremendous stops and agility in that second half to keep us in the game)
1 point - JOHN THORRINGTON (was surprised to see him in the starting line up and not an offensive midfielder, but he proved to be a key cog in the middle)
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