Jim Doyle (Endwell, N.Y.) asks: I understand the term CAPS used in soccer refers to the number of international matches a player has been in. Is CAPS an acronym? If yes, what do the letters stand for? Mike Woitalla: Indeed, a cap refers to a playerÆs appearance in a full international game. That is, playing for your nation against another. When a national team plays a club team, the national team players donÆt get caps. Nor does one get a cap for Olympic team games. But the word ôcapö is not an acronym. It refers to the caps (as in head covering) that were once presented to English national team players as an award each time they saw action for their country. The idea came from N. Lane Jackson, the assistant secretary of the English Football Association, in 1886. The first caps were blue and had a rose emblem. Subsequent ones had tassels and the logo of the three lions. In the case of American players, like Tab Ramos who retired with 81 caps, the cap is merely a fictional prize. But IÆve seen pictures of English legend Bobby Charlton surrounded by his large collection of caps. (If you have a question for a Soccer America Magazine editor, click “Q&A with SA Editors” in the left column of the home page under “Interactive.”)