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I was watching the U.S. vs. Barbados game yesterday and the commentators mentioned something about Donovan Landon getting his "100th cap (or CAP)". Evidently it has something to do with scoring in international games but I didn't get much more sense out of it than that. So what does "cap" (or "CAP") mean?

And how about that Turkey vs. Czech Republic game?! Down 2-nil they come back to score 3, after already being the only team in the UEFA tournament to come back after being down 1-nil in an earlier game.

I belive it represents the number of games a player has played for the national team in international tournaments

earendel wrote:I was watching the U.S. vs. Barbados game yesterday and the commentators mentioned something about Donovan Landon getting his "100th cap (or CAP)". Evidently it has something to do with scoring in international games but I didn't get much more sense out of it than that. So what does "cap" (or "CAP") mean?

And how about that Turkey vs. Czech Republic game?! Down 2-nil they come back to score 3, after already being the only team in the UEFA tournament to come back after being down 1-nil in an earlier game.

I know it has nothing to do with scoring, otherwise there would be very few caps awarded. And I think you have to actually play in a game for your country and not just be on the squad. Here is what I found:

http://www.darrenbarefoot.com/archives/ ... -caps.html


And I await aj or snaxx to clear things up. Oh, appa may know too.

Y'all got it.

A soccer player gets a "cap" for each senior international game played for the national team. Originally it meant you were picked for a select team sort of like an all-star team in England. Today it applies only to international matches. Cricket and rugby also use "caps" but with slightly different rules.

Landon Donovan has played for the U.S. Men's national team 100 times so 100 caps. He got his first cap in August of 2000 at the age of 18. That was in a game against Mexico and he scored in his debut. The U.S. national team only plays 15 or so matches a year so for Donovan to have reached 100 in about 8 years means that he has played in almost every match for the U.S. since he joined the team.

Cobi Jones has the most caps in U.S. men's history with 164. 11 players in U.S. men's history have hit the 100 mark.

Donovan has 36 goals in those 100 games which is a very, very good rate. Donovan is already the all-time leading men's U.S. scorer and with a lot of career ahead of him at 26 he will probably put that record pretty much out of reach.


Other cap notables:

Kristine Lily, U.S. Women's national team - 340 caps, most ever for any soccer player
Mohamed Al-Deayea, Saudi Arabia - 181 caps, most for any male player

earendel wrote:I was watching the U.S. vs. Barbados game yesterday and the commentators mentioned something about Donovan Landon getting his "100th cap (or CAP)". Evidently it has something to do with scoring in international games but I didn't get much more sense out of it than that. So what does "cap" (or "CAP") mean?

And how about that Turkey vs. Czech Republic game?! Down 2-nil they come back to score 3, after already being the only team in the UEFA tournament to come back after being down 1-nil in an earlier game.

That Turkey-Czech game was crazy. To score 3 goals in the last 15 minutes was amazing. And to do it when they had to or get eliminated was even more amazing.

We were watching in a bar with no sound and when the Turkish goalkeeper got kicked out we thought the Czechs were going to get a penalty kick. That would have been even crazier if the Czechs had tied it up again. Turkey is going to miss that goalkeeper against Croatia in the next round. If you get kicked out of a game you are suspended for the next one.

In the U.S. game, Brian Ching had two goals and almost a hat-trick a couple of times. He is a Houston Dynamo player and we really missed him in our game on Thursday but to see him scoring for the Nats sort of made it worth not having him for our game.

The U.S. has the return match in Barbados next Sunday but I can't see Barbados overcoming an 8 goal deficit even at home. So the U.S. should be off to the next round of World Cup qualifying this fall.

andrewjackson wrote:Y'all got it.

A soccer player gets a "cap" for each senior international game played for the national team. Originally it meant you were picked for a select team sort of like an all-star team in England. Today it applies only to international matches. Cricket and rugby also use "caps" but with slightly different rules.

Landon Donovan has played for the U.S. Men's national team 100 times so 100 caps. He got his first cap in August of 2000 at the age of 18. That was in a game against Mexico and he scored in his debut. The U.S. national team only plays 15 or so matches a year so for Donovan to have reached 100 in about 8 years means that he has played in almost every match for the U.S.

Cobi Jones has the most caps in U.S. men's history with 164. 11 players in U.S. men's history have hit the 100 mark.

Donovan has 36 goals in those 100 games which is a very, very good rate. Donovan is already the all-time leading men's U.S. scorer and with a lot of career ahead of him at 26 he will probably put that record pretty much out of reach.


Other cap notables:

Kristine Lily, U.S. Women's national team - 340 caps, most ever for any soccer player
Mohamed Al-Deayea, Saudi Arabia - 181 caps, most for any male player

What's not clear is whether you have to actually play or if you are named to the squad.

andrewjackson wrote:Y'all got it.

A soccer player gets a "cap" for each senior international game played for the national team. Originally it meant you were picked for a select team sort of like an all-star team in England. Today it applies only to international matches. Cricket and rugby also use "caps" but with slightly different rules.

Landon Donovan has played for the U.S. Men's national team 100 times so 100 caps. He got his first cap in August of 2000 at the age of 18. That was in a game against Mexico and he scored in his debut. The U.S. national team only plays 15 or so matches a year so for Donovan to have reached 100 in about 8 years means that he has played in almost every match for the U.S.

Cobi Jones has the most caps in U.S. men's history with 164. 11 players in U.S. men's history have hit the 100 mark.

Donovan has 36 goals in those 100 games which is a very, very good rate. Donovan is already the all-time leading men's U.S. scorer and with a lot of career ahead of him at 26 he will probably put that record pretty much out of reach.


Other cap notables:

Kristine Lily, U.S. Women's national team - 340 caps, most ever for any soccer player
Mohamed Al-Deayea, Saudi Arabia - 181 caps, most for any male player

What's not clear is whether you have to actually play or if you are named to the squad.

ulysses5019 wrote:

andrewjackson wrote:Y'all got it.

A soccer player gets a "cap" for each senior international game played for the national team. Originally it meant you were picked for a select team sort of like an all-star team in England. Today it applies only to international matches. Cricket and rugby also use "caps" but with slightly different rules.

Landon Donovan has played for the U.S. Men's national team 100 times so 100 caps. He got his first cap in August of 2000 at the age of 18. That was in a game against Mexico and he scored in his debut. The U.S. national team only plays 15 or so matches a year so for Donovan to have reached 100 in about 8 years means that he has played in almost every match for the U.S.

Cobi Jones has the most caps in U.S. men's history with 164. 11 players in U.S. men's history have hit the 100 mark.

Donovan has 36 goals in those 100 games which is a very, very good rate. Donovan is already the all-time leading men's U.S. scorer and with a lot of career ahead of him at 26 he will probably put that record pretty much out of reach.


Other cap notables:

Kristine Lily, U.S. Women's national team - 340 caps, most ever for any soccer player
Mohamed Al-Deayea, Saudi Arabia - 181 caps, most for any male player

What's not clear is whether you have to actually play or if you are named to the squad.

You have to play to earn a cap.

Appa23 wrote:

ulysses5019 wrote:

andrewjackson wrote:Y'all got it.

A soccer player gets a "cap" for each senior international game played for the national team. Originally it meant you were picked for a select team sort of like an all-star team in England. Today it applies only to international matches. Cricket and rugby also use "caps" but with slightly different rules.

Landon Donovan has played for the U.S. Men's national team 100 times so 100 caps. He got his first cap in August of 2000 at the age of 18. That was in a game against Mexico and he scored in his debut. The U.S. national team only plays 15 or so matches a year so for Donovan to have reached 100 in about 8 years means that he has played in almost every match for the U.S.

Cobi Jones has the most caps in U.S. men's history with 164. 11 players in U.S. men's history have hit the 100 mark.

Donovan has 36 goals in those 100 games which is a very, very good rate. Donovan is already the all-time leading men's U.S. scorer and with a lot of career ahead of him at 26 he will probably put that record pretty much out of reach.


Other cap notables:

Kristine Lily, U.S. Women's national team - 340 caps, most ever for any soccer player
Mohamed Al-Deayea, Saudi Arabia - 181 caps, most for any male player

What's not clear is whether you have to actually play or if you are named to the squad.

You have to play to earn a cap.

I sorta figured that was the rule.

Appa23 wrote:

ulysses5019 wrote:

andrewjackson wrote:Y'all got it.

A soccer player gets a "cap" for each senior international game played for the national team. Originally it meant you were picked for a select team sort of like an all-star team in England. Today it applies only to international matches. Cricket and rugby also use "caps" but with slightly different rules.

Landon Donovan has played for the U.S. Men's national team 100 times so 100 caps. He got his first cap in August of 2000 at the age of 18. That was in a game against Mexico and he scored in his debut. The U.S. national team only plays 15 or so matches a year so for Donovan to have reached 100 in about 8 years means that he has played in almost every match for the U.S.

Cobi Jones has the most caps in U.S. men's history with 164. 11 players in U.S. men's history have hit the 100 mark.

Donovan has 36 goals in those 100 games which is a very, very good rate. Donovan is already the all-time leading men's U.S. scorer and with a lot of career ahead of him at 26 he will probably put that record pretty much out of reach.


Other cap notables:

Kristine Lily, U.S. Women's national team - 340 caps, most ever for any soccer player
Mohamed Al-Deayea, Saudi Arabia - 181 caps, most for any male player

What's not clear is whether you have to actually play or if you are named to the squad.

You have to play to earn a cap.

So why is it called a "cap"? It has nothing to do with headware, I presume.

ulysses5019 wrote:

andrewjackson wrote:Y'all got it.

A soccer player gets a "cap" for each senior international game played for the national team. Originally it meant you were picked for a select team sort of like an all-star team in England. Today it applies only to international matches. Cricket and rugby also use "caps" but with slightly different rules.

Landon Donovan has played for the U.S. Men's national team 100 times so 100 caps. He got his first cap in August of 2000 at the age of 18. That was in a game against Mexico and he scored in his debut. The U.S. national team only plays 15 or so matches a year so for Donovan to have reached 100 in about 8 years means that he has played in almost every match for the U.S.

Cobi Jones has the most caps in U.S. men's history with 164. 11 players in U.S. men's history have hit the 100 mark.

Donovan has 36 goals in those 100 games which is a very, very good rate. Donovan is already the all-time leading men's U.S. scorer and with a lot of career ahead of him at 26 he will probably put that record pretty much out of reach.


Other cap notables:

Kristine Lily, U.S. Women's national team - 340 caps, most ever for any soccer player
Mohamed Al-Deayea, Saudi Arabia - 181 caps, most for any male player

What's not clear is whether you have to actually play or if you are named to the squad.

You have to appear in the game. Just being on the squad or even as an available substitute is not enough.

The tricky part is usually whether or not a match counts as an official match. Games have to be full senior internationals to get a cap. One of Donovan's caps came from a game with Denmark where Denmark didn't officially announce if the team they brought was their full senior roster. They had a lot of younger players on the team but it was scheduled as a full international. There was some debate about whether that match should count for Donovan or not. In the end FIFA announced that it was a full international and Donovan got to count the game.

earendel wrote:

Appa23 wrote:

ulysses5019 wrote: What's not clear is whether you have to actually play or if you are named to the squad.

You have to play to earn a cap.

So why is it called a "cap"? It has nothing to do with headware, I presume.

It was in my link:


In the “old” days (e.g., 1900), when a team would go (i.e., sail) to another country to play, the hosting team would give each member of the visiting team a brimmed hat as a symbol of goodwill. Today, caps are not exchanged, but the term “cap” continues to represent games against foreign teams, where you represent your country. There are no formal rules that say you must be playing on foreign soil when you represent your country or that you must be a member of the country’s national team in order to get “capped”.

earendel wrote:

Appa23 wrote:

ulysses5019 wrote: What's not clear is whether you have to actually play or if you are named to the squad.

You have to play to earn a cap.

So why is it called a "cap"? It has nothing to do with headware, I presume.

Yep, actual headware. Originally in England players picked for select teams got actual hats to wear to signify that they were on the special teams. This was back in the days before uniforms were standardized and teams would often be identified by wearing matching hats. In 1886 England started giving players a special hat if they were picked to play in international matches.

After a while, they just kept saying a player won a cap even though the actual caps were no longer given out.

ulysses5019 wrote:

earendel wrote:

Appa23 wrote: You have to play to earn a cap.

So why is it called a "cap"? It has nothing to do with headware, I presume.

It was in my link:


In the “old” days (e.g., 1900), when a team would go (i.e., sail) to another country to play, the hosting team would give each member of the visiting team a brimmed hat as a symbol of goodwill. Today, caps are not exchanged, but the term “cap” continues to represent games against foreign teams, where you represent your country. There are no formal rules that say you must be playing on foreign soil when you represent your country or that you must be a member of the country’s national team in order to get “capped”.

Or Uly's theory. One way or the other, there were originally actual caps.

I changed my avatar so that, like Uly, I could be pertinent to a particular thread.

Lizbit hasn't yet been awarded any caps, but she has collected a few shoes.

silvercamaro wrote:I changed my avatar so that, like Uly, I could be pertinent to a particular thread.

Lizbit hasn't yet been awarded any caps, but she has collected a few shoes.

Caps are better. You can really be stylin' if you follow my lead.

silvercamaro wrote:I changed my avatar so that, like Uly, I could be pertinent to a particular thread.

Lizbit hasn't yet been awarded any caps, but she has collected a few shoes.

But the problem is that "some" think they become impertinent for all the other threads.