14 Teams In (7/22)

HUMP DAY, CA -- Sporting Kansas City secured their spot in the Round of 16 with a 2-0 win over Real Salt Lake.  SKC currently leads Group D and as the 3rd team in, the Colorado Rapids are the fourth team eliminated.  So while COL could win 10-0 tonight and have the best goal differential of all the 3-point teams, they can't quality since they will finish in 4th place.  Group of Death indeed.  

Another 3-point team won't make the Round of 16 as the New York Red Bulls got shut out 2-0 by FC Cincinnati propelling the latter into the Knockout Stage.  CIN, which lost their first match 4-0 to Columbus Crew SC, have beaten ATL and NY in back-to-back matches.  CIN just had 2 shots on goal and benefited on a CK that hit the GK in the face and into the net for an own goal.  NY has 3 points but with a -3 GD, only 3 3rd place spots are open (MIN or RSL have 4 pts) and they will fall behind MTL (-1) (who now advance to the Round of 16) and NYC (-2) who have completed play and would fall behind either VAN (if beats CHI, would have at worst a -3 but better GF) or CHI (already 3 pts) if either team finished 3rd in Group B with 3 points.

After a wild scoring blitz, there have just been 14 goals scored in the last 9 matches (1.56 per match) with 9 teams shut out (before MIN-COL tonight).  The 18 matches before that saw 67 goals (3.72 per match) and just 8 teams shut out.

The last match saw an entertaining 2-2 draw between Minnesota United FC and the already eliminated COL.  MIN finishes 2nd in Group D.  So 14 of the 16 spots are accounted for as even the LA Galaxy control their destiny and a 3-goal win over Houston Dynamo (yes, I realize it's even a stretch for LA to just win) would get them in the Knockout Stage.  Houston gets in with a win.  

Chicago Fire FC gets in with just a draw or even a one-goal loss if LA does not win by 3 goals or more.  Vancouver Whitecaps FC need a 2-goal win (to overtake CHI for 3rd) and LA to not win by more than 3 goals or a 3-goal win to qualify outright.  NYC gets in if LA beats HOU by only one or two goals or LA-HOU draw.  

A 1-0 VAN win over CHI would give both NYC and CHI 3 points, -2 GD, and 2 goals for.  If HOU wins or LA wins by 3 or more, then NYC and CHI would come down to the nowhere published disciplinary points tiebreaker for the final 3rd place spot.  Not including any subsequent discipline or takeaways, NYC has 42 fouls and 7 yellow cards for 63 disciplinary points (42 + 7*3).  CHI in two matches has 33 fouls and 6 yellow cards for 51 DPs (33 + 6*3).  The less DPs wins tie tiebreaker so CHI has a small 12 point cushion.  Sheesh.  Luckily CHIvVAN play first so a lot of this hopefully goes away.  But watch VAN win 1-0.

Oh, boy.  Welcome the 7th (of 28) FC City or City FC team. 9th if you include City SC.  Geez, Charlotte FC.  We waited weeks for this?  Nothing creative or exciting?  I do love the colors and the font and like the added "Minted" in the crest.  I don't know why they put a slightly modified Microsoft Clipart of a crown the middle.  At least the four spires mean something but originality is not CLTFC's strongsuit.

As for the pool, a whopping 21 points were up for grabs with three matches and six teams that qualified from completed Groups D and E plus the 3rd place team from completed Group C.  8 got SKC's win, 2 CIN, and 4 picked the MIN-COL tie.  Two went 2-1 and three went 0-3.  For the Round of 16 teams, 13 got SKC, 9 MIN, 11 RSL, 10 CLB, 3 CIN, and 9 MTL (3rd place C).  10 got 4 of the 6 teams and Super League got just two of 6.  Overall, BigRedMessy got 14 points while Super League got just 7.  8 others got 13 points.  Bobby Cee Racer is now alone at top with 34 points and has the most R16 teams thus far (8 of 10).  Super League is last with 23 points and has the fewest R16 teams (5).