Crazy Endings (7/23)

AT WORK FOR ONE 15-MINUTE MEETING, CA -- An electrifying, pun intended, match as lightning paused the Chicago Fire FC and Vancouver Whitecaps FC match for more than 90 minutes in the 63' while scoreless.  When play resumed, VAN came out strong and scored twice in the next 8 minutes to not only prevent a potential crazy tiebreaker between NYC and CHI going to disciplinary points but the 2-0 win was enough to get into the Knockout Round, eliminating CHI and putting NYC's hopes on hold.  Both teams did a complete 180 with CHI starting with a convincing victory over the defending champ Seattle Sounders FC and VAN blowing a 3-1 lead to lose to the San Jose Earthquakes.

CHI pulled within one on a scramble but VAR reversed the goal and called the handball which was harsh.  But apparently, in trying to make it more black and white, any handball leading to a goal is called back.  The one reversal helped send CHI home in dramatic fashion.

But not as dramatic (and not talking about the ref injury and substitution in the 20') as the Houston Dynamo-LA Galaxy match where HOU took the early lead and watched LA blow opportunity after opportunity.  As time wore on, it was obvious LA was not going to score much less get the 3-goal win they needed.  But eventually, luck runs out, and HOU was called for a soft foul in the box (similar to how LAFC got a PK in their El Trafico match, so I guess this was payback?) in the 90' and Cristian Pavon converted sending HOU home with the 1-1 draw.  HOU needed a win and New York City FC needed HOU to draw or lose and that stoppage time penalty sent NYC into the Round of 16 as the 16th and final team.

LA does know that Zlatan does not play for them anymore, right?  At one point LA had 28 crosses to HOU's 6 (ended 34-12).  So LA is unlucky, untimely, and just poor.  HOU's goal where LA GK just stood there on the free kick was embarrassing.  LA blew a late 3-on-1 breakaway which would have given LA a boost in the regular season standings but the perfect Pavon open cross went to no one because LA stopped running.  It's a roller coaster watching this team.

In the first match, LA missed a PK that would've opened scoring and dictated the match.  LA had two goals called offsides by a foot or so in losing to POR 2-1.  In their second match, the soft PK call enabled LAFC to tie it at 1.  LA thought it took a 3-2 lead but Pavon was just offsides.  LAFC soon scored and then added 3 more.  LA had four goals but two were PKs and one was an own goal.  Sigh.  But I still love LA.

Speaking of  Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Football Club continued to score without Carlos Vela.  Two more goals gave them a tourney-high 11, including Bradley Wright-Phillips scoring in his third straight match (taking out camera on wicked strike) with LAFC, but the Portland Timbers pulled the equalizer in the 81' to win Group F with a 2-2 draw.   Unlike Group D, where the loser (runner-up) got two extra days rest, in Group F it was worth playing to win the group to get 2nd-year FC Cincinnati rather than the defending champ Seattle Sounders FC.  So with the draw, LAFC finishes 2nd and will try to get revenge from their playoff loss last year to SEA in the Round of 16.

So to recap:  VAN scores the two needed 2nd half goals after a 90-minute weather delay to edge out CHI for 3rd, LA scores a PK in stoppage to eliminate HOU, and POR scores in the 81' to get the draw that wins Group F.  Whew.

In the pool, Bobby Cee Racer extends his lead to six points with an even 50 so far.  Three are tied for 2nd (44) and four are tie for 5th (43).  Bobby Cee Racer was the only one to pick the LA-HOU tie and Carseroni (9th, 42) and Deutschland = Koenig (5th-T) were the only two to pick the LAFC-POR tie.  No one got to pick the rescheduled CHIvVAN match.

Six teams were awarded points today and all 15 got NYC, 3 got SJ, 14 got SEA, 13 got VAN, 9 got POR, and all 15 got LAFC into the Round of 16.  9 entries got 5 of the 6 while the other six got 4 of out of 6.  Overall, Bobby Cee Racer, Carseroni, and Duetschland = Koeing got 16 (out of a possible 20) points today and six got just 12.

As for the Round of 16, Bobby Cee Racer got 13 of the 16 while twelve got 11.  Super League (15th, 35) got just nine.  Everyone had RBNY and ATL but both failed to qualify.  14 had CHI who failed to qualify.  There were six teams picked to win the tournament and four are eliminated (ATL (5), LA (3), HOU (1), and COL (1)).