One Way Traffic (7/18)

FORMING NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH, CA -- The Portland Timbers clinched a spot into the Round of 16 with a 2-1 win over the Houston Dynamo.  POR becomes the 4th team to make the Knockout stage and leads Group F. 

In the 7th El Traffico, the LA Galaxy got news that Javier Hernandez won't be in the lineup due a calf injury which mean both he and Jonathan Dos Santos were out.  Despite being huge underdogs, LA managed to score twice, one on an own goal and one on a retaken penalty (when LAFC GK went off his line too early to make the save - but no yellow card like in the Women's World Cup, just a retake).  With a 2-1 lead heading into halftime, the wheels began to fall apart.  Diego Rossi scored his 2nd right before the halftime whistle off a LA GK save.  LA tried again and in the second half, Carlos Pavon scored but he was maybe a half step offsides and six minutes later LAFC took the lead for good.  For good measure, Rossi scored twice more (to finish with a tourney high 4 goals and 1 assist) to embarrass their neighbors, 6-2.  This was the second straight 8-goal El Traffico, both won by LAFC who now have tied the series at 2-2-3.  40 goals in 7 matches (5.7 goals per match) and this was the first without Zlatan.

LAFC is virtually in the Knockout round with 4 pts and a +4 goal differential, almost definitely will be the top 2 or top 4 3rd place finishers while LA is virtually out with 0 points and a tourney worst goal differential of -5.  LA would have to beat HOU by 2 to take 3rd place and then hope 3 points is enough.

While teams that have qualified for the Knockout round could rest players for their last group match, don't forget these group matches do count in the regular season standings so a loss would not be acceptable.

11 got POR and 8 got LAFC.  5 went 2-0 while Deutschland = Koenig went 0-2.  The top 2 remain the same and four points separate first and last. 

Unfortunate Deflection (7/17)

LIFTING MY COUSINS IN THE AIR, MONTEREY PARK, CA -- For the first time, MLS had two matches being played at the same time and for the night, the three matches only produced one first half goal.  In the craziest match featuring winless teams Colorado Rapids and Sporting Kansas City, VAR intervened three times, sparing COL one red card in 43', giving COL one red card in the 58' (denial of scoring opportunity), and calling a harsh inadvertent handball on COL that led to a SKC PK that they converted for a 2-1 lead.  The bad luck with VAR culminated with another COL red card for dissent in the 73'.  But COL managed to tie it at 2 in the 84' on a great finish.  This was the 3rd goal scored by a team in the tourney down 2 men (2 by D.C. United).  But in the first minute of stoppage time (the ref flashed 12' which is probably the most I've ever seen), a long shot by SKC's Graham Zusi deflected off a COL player and went just over the head of the GK into the net for the eventual game-winner (3-2).

D.C. United and New England Revolution played to a 1-1 tie thanks to NE badly misplaying a ball back to the GK which Federico Higuaín happily put in for DC.  NE and TOR sit atop Group C with 4 pts with DC in third with two.

Real Salt Lake and Minnesota United FC played to the tourney's second 0-0 draw putting both teams at 4 pts in Group D.

4 picked a TIE between DC and NE while 9 got barely got SKC correct.  Coronavirus_Sucks! was the only one to get the RSL-MIN tie correct.  Deutschland = Koenig (moved up to a tie for 7th) and BigRedMessi 2 (now in a 4-way tie for last with 4 pts) went 2-1 while four went 0-3.  Kona Coast Fauci's and Kona Coast Sliders remain tied for first with 8 pts.

14 Seconds (7/16)

PHYSICALLY AT WORK, CA -- So LAFC, without Carlos Vela, can still score 3 goals but Atlanta United FC without Josef Martinez has been shutout twice in a row after scoring in 27 straight matches (including playoffs) and are on a 215 minute scoreless streak.  FC Cincinnati snapped a 7-match winless streak to pull off the huge 1-0 upset thanks to ATL picking up a red card in the 26' and a VAR reversal of an ATL PK opportunity in first half stoppage.  ATL picked up a second red card in the 90'+10' aided by VAR in a match that went to the 90'+13' (102:41 - 10 min was initially announced).  ATL is the first team to be shut out in 8 matches (COL on 7/12).

Toronto FC needed 14 seconds to seize back the lead that they kept after Impact de Montreal tied it with a PK at 2-2 in the first half.  Alejandro Pozuelo assisted on all 3 TOR first half goals.  The second half saw Ayo Akinola get his hat trick after muscling a defender off the ball (pretty funny) and then chipping it over the GK before MTL pulled one back after their second PK in stoppage time.  The 4-3 win put TOR on top of Group C.  Akinola leads the tourney with 5 goals and Pozuelo leads with 5 assists.  TOR extended their regular season unbeaten string to 14 matches (6-0-8).

Even with Columbus Crew SC's GK injured for the whole 10+ minutes of stoppage time, the New York Red Bulls still couldn't muster a shot on goal and became the first team in the tourney to do so.  CLB only had 3 shots on goal themselves but scored on two of them for a 2-0 win to clinch a spot in the Round of 16 and lead Group E with 6 points.   CLB may rest starters which will help ATL but if CIN and RBNY tie, then it doesn't matter what ATL does.  ATLvCLB plays first with CINvNY playing the next day.  

Super League was the only one to pick CIN.  Ten got TOR right.  Six got CLB (in one of closest matches to pick with 7 picking NY).  TarjetaRoja (moving from a tie for 12th to a tie for 8th (4 pts)), Coronavirus_Sucks!, and Super League (the latter two going from 6th-T to 5th-T (5 pts)) went 2-1 for the day.  Deutschland = Koenig (fell from 6th-T to 12th-T (3 pts)) went 0-3. But the top 4 didn't change.

Issue 3.1.2 "MLS is Back!" (After each team played 1 match)

Archive

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

     ALL TEAMS HAVE FINALLY PLAYED; LOTS OF GOALS AND COMEBACKS

Kona Coast Fauci's and Kona Coast Sliders Tied for 1st

TELECONS, CA (smt) -- Well, things finally got better and games are watchable, even with the fake crowd noise on FOX/FS1 and TUDN.  While the first five matches had just 6 goals (1.20 per match), the last ten have had 39 goals (3.90).  While the first five matches saw just one goal in the first half (0.20) with four scoreless (80.0%), the last ten have seen 18 goals in the first half (1.80) and just two scoreless halves (20.0%).  While there were no VAR decisions in the first five matches, there now have been 6.  And on the 8th day, finally all 24 teams have played with B3-Vancouver Whitecaps FC the last one due to their first match postponed until July 23 with FC Dallas withdrawing.  MLS is back, baby!

A lot of excitement with D4-Minnesota United FC rallying to beat D2-Sporting Kansas City 2-1 with both goals in stoppage time (in the 90'+2' and 90'+7'), C4-D.C. United despite playing a man down rallying with two goals to tie C1-Toronto 2-2,  F1-Los Angeles Football Club scoring two goals in the second half to knot 3-3 with F3-Houston Dynamo, and B4-San Jose Earthquakes scoring three straight in the second half to top VAN 4-3.  Top seeds E1-Atlanta United FC and B1-Seattle Sounders FC were upset with the latter sitting on just one point after two matches.  Host A1-Orlando City SC and A4-Philadelphia Union punched their tickets to the Round of 16 by winning their second matches.  E4-Columbus Crew SC and D1-Real Salt Lake won easily with the former ruining E2-FC Cincinnati coach Jaap Stam's debut 4-nil.  F2-LA Galaxy's Chicharito finally scored but his PK miss in the 12' was costly as the F4-Portland Timbers won 2-1 and vaulted to the top of Group F.

It's been an odd tournament with both penalty kicks being saved and the teams with 63% or more possession going just 1-1-2 (SJ's comeback salvaged the lone win) (in the Women's World Cup, all 11 teams won their matches).  Teams with more than 20 shots have won just once (1-1-1) (again, thanks to SJ's comeback win).  Twice coaches were interviewed during the match and soon thereafter the opponent scored (but in POR's case, it was reversed by VAR).

Crazy Comeback (7/15)

PLAYING TENNIS IN OUR CUL-DE-SAC, CA -- Vancouver Whitecaps FC were without three key scoring threats so goals were going to be hard to come by but VAN managed to score three thanks to defender Ali Adman's great finish, one own goal off a long counter, and capitalizing a severe misplay by San Jose Earthquakes' GK.  VAN actually had just two shots on goal but 3 goals!  But their 2-0 and 3-1 leads did not last as SJ made four offensive subs in the 63' which led to sub and MLS leading scorer Chris Wondolowski (still pains me how he could've lifted USA to beat Belgium) netting one in the 72', Oswaldo Alanis scoring in the 81', and sub Shea Salinas scoring 8 minutes into stoppage time for the game-winner (4-3).  The game actually went almost to the 102' (100:52).

SJ dominated the match outshooting VAN 30-7 with 11 shots on target, earning 22 corner kicks, and having 67.8% possession.  I do not know how it's possible but SJ had 11 shots on goal forcing 8 saves.  8 saves + 4 goals should be 12 shots on target.  New math, I guess.  But SJ's first goal was a beauty with Andres Rios redirecting a hard cross with his backheel that found the far corner of the net.

So SJ sits atop Group B with 4 points over CHI (3 pts) but CHI has only played one match.  Defending champ SEA would've benefited with a tie but the road just got a little tougher (either way it was a must-win in their last match).

In the pool, four picked SJ (the odds before the match trended heavily in SJ's favor with VAN at -360) which leaves Kona Coast Fauci's and Kona Coast Sliders back alone on top with 6 points. This has been a difficult pool as there have only been three ties and the leaders were correct on just 6 of  13 matches.  BigRedMessi 2 is still last with one point.

The funniest thing about the TV broadcasts is watching a Pando* shot go high above the crossbar and through the virtual jumbo-tron "behind" the goal. 

*-Named after Guillermo “Pando” Ramirez, this LA Galaxy player in 2005 had 62 shots but only one goal in the regular season-- on a PK that deflected off the GK into the net.  However, he scored the GW goal in overtime against New England to win the Galaxy their 2nd MLS title.  It was my infamous yell while in the bathroom after regulation (watching with Galaxy Stats Crewat a restaurant) that "Pando will get the game-winner!".  And it came true.

Issue 1.0.1 "The Quarantine Pool" (7/7)

Archive

Just realized I never posted this (though it was in the Archive).  So here it is... Issue #3 will come out after tonight's match as then all 24 teams will have played at least one match.

Tuesday, July 7, 2020

     MLS IS BACK! FIRST POOL IN QUARANTINE ERA

Our 11th HWCI soccer pool will be free to all!

SANTA BARBARA, CA (smt) -- With the 2020 HWCI NCAA and 2020 HWCI EURO pools cancelled this year due to the pandemic (COVID-19), Major League Soccer has come back with an interesting concept.  A World Cup style tournament with group stage and knockout stage.  There are some key differences such as this pool is FREE (up to 2 entries per person) as who knows what will happen (DAL has already withdrawn due to 10 player COVID-19 positive tests) and handling money/refunds is not desirable.  Thus, FREE!  I'll see what kind of MLS/soccer swag I may have and will mail stuff out to the top 3 if shipping prices are reasonable.   Also, no Web Entry is not available yet... so print or take a photo or edit and email back to me at worldcup@hwci.com.  Hopefully this will bring some a distraction from the craziness of life. 

All teams are quarantined at the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort (pretty nice, stayed there a couple times) in Lake Buena Vista, Florida, and all matches will be played at the ESPN Wide World of Sports Complex in Kissimmee.  Nashville moved to the Eastern Conference for the rest of the year which means 14 teams in the East and 12 in the West.  Groups A, C, and E have teams from the East and Groups B, D, and F have teams from the West.

Host, Union, and Fire (7/14)

WFH, CA -- SEA let a draw slip away as Chicago Fire FC made an impressive debut with a 2-1 win over the defending MLS champs.  Robert Beric had a sweet backheel dribble behind his back to get one-and-one with the GK which he buried to break the scoreless match.  SEA tied in the 77' but a sweet back post run by Mauricio Pineda gave CHI the lead in the 84'.  CHI, which had been moved from Group A to Group B to replace DAL when NSH dropped out (leaving Group A with 5 teams), is in pole position for Group B with two matches left.

Host ORL got off to a strong start with a brace from Chris Mueller in the first 10 minutes en route to a 3-1 win over NYC to move closer to the Knockout stage.  The ref actually held up 10 minutes of stoppage time in the second half which just allowed NYC to run up the shots on ORL, finishing with a tourney high 26 shots.

PHI scored in the 5' and in the second half to outlast expansion MIA, 2-1, to secure themselves and ORL into the knockout round.  PHI and ORL will play each other to determine the Group A winner.

Since the opponents changed, the CHIvSEA and PHIvMIA results do not count in the pool standings.  Just 4 got ORL right putting Six Foot Box and TomJ into a tie for first with Kona Coast Fauci's and Kona Coast Sliders with 5 pts.  BigRedMessi 2 is still in last with one lone point.

Vancouver Whitecaps FC finally gets to play tomorrow!  And they are huge underdogs to SJ (+300) but not a bad as CIN to ATL (+475) and LA to LAFC (+325).  It's the lone match of the day.

Epic Comeback (7/13)

BACK TO WORK AT HOME, CA -- The last 156 times, a team that trailed by 2 goals and went down a man went on to lose, as expected.  Well, that changed today as D.C. United rallied in the second half to score twice to stun Toronto FC, 2-2, in the Group C match.  DC played the entire 2nd half with 10 men and TOR controlled possession but sub Federico Higuain got DC on the board in the 84' with a great chip over the GK and Federic Brilliant scored a minute into stoppage time.  It ruined a "brilliant" performance from TOR's Ayo Aknola (2 goals) and Alejandro Pozuelo (2 assists) but provided fireworks after the match.

Both LA teams have a very leaky defense but the difference is Los Angeles Football Club, even with Carlos Vela, knows how to score and score often.  The Houston Dynamo's Memo Rodriguez scored twice in the first half around LAFC's Bradley Wright-Phillips' first goal in his first appearance for LAFC.  VAR helped and overruled an offside and HOU got their 3rd goal.  In the second half, LAFC scored twice and ended with 71.5% possession in the 3-3 draw.  This was the 2nd straight match LAFC allowed 3 goals (both 3-3 draws).

The LA Galaxy gave up two sloppy goals in the second half and Chicharito's first MLS goal was of little consolation after his PK was saved in the 12'.  The Portland Timbers vaulted to the top of Group F with a 2-1 win despite being down a man the last 15 minutes.

Will coaches want to talk with TV announcers?  POR's coach watched his team seemingly give up a goal in the 81' while talking with FS1 but VAR intervened and ruled offsides denying Gordon Wild's first goal on his first touch in his first minute of MLS play.  This was after yesterday when COL's coach watched his team give up a goal while talking with ESPN.  LA also had a goal disallowed by an offside in the 86'.

LA came up short ending a 2-match streak (and 3 of the past 4) where the trailing team scored the last two goals in the second half.

No one got the TOR-DC or LAFC-HOU draws but 5 did get POR correct leaving Kona Coast Sliders and Kona Coast Fauci's tied for first with 5 pts.  BigRedMessi2 is last with one point.

Better not be Charlotte FC

So the new MLS Charlotte expansion franchise released the the seven candidates for the team name and eliminated one of them:  Charlotte Fortune FC.  I do like this Survivor-like elimination of names as we head towards the announcement on July 22, but if the winning name ends up being boring like "Charlotte FC", I may just go outside in public without a mask!   By the love of whatever-god-you-support-or-don't-support, not another CITY FC team.  We already have Toronto, NYC, LA, and Austin.  We already have the reverse with Dallas and Cincinnati.  Not to mention the "SC"s (Orlando City and Nashville).  I'm okay with adding FC/SC after a nickname (Sounders, Crew, Whitecaps, Fire, United (at least Charlotte United FC wasn't an option)).

What do I like?  I'm partial to Carolina.  When I ran a Continental Indoor Soccer League (CISL) fantasy league, I had a team Carolina Wave.  So Carolina Gliders, though not great, is okay.  All Carolina?  Don't know what I think about that, unless it's a local thing, then I'm all for it.  Charlotte Town and Charlotte Crown rhyme and would be different.  

Monarchs is going back to traditional but the last traditional plural nickname (that didn't come from the NASL/USL like Whitecaps, Sounders, Timbers, Impact) was the New York Red Bulls 14 years ago in 2006, and that's because Red Bull was the sponsor.  The only other non-plural "nicknames" would be Union in 2010, Dynamo in 2006, and Fire and Fusion in 1998.  So not great odds for Monarchs.

I like Charlotte Athletic since it is a different European take (we already have 3 Uniteds, an Inter, a Real, a Chivas (okay, Mexican take), and a Sporting).  So we'll see if they keep eliminating names every few days and I'll be happiest when Charlotte FC gets eliminated/executed/voted out.

A Delay, a Rally, and a Shutout (7/12)

DAUGHTER THINKS DE-ICING FRIDGE IS SNOW, CA -- The day started with potentially more team troubles with testing but it turned out the players re-tested negative delaying the Toronto FC and D.C. United match by 24 hours.  The evening saw Sporting Kansas City with lots of possession and a one-goal lead but a GK challenge ended in the tourney's first red card turning the tide.  Minnesota United FC took advantage and scored two stoppage time goals, the first on an own goal by SKC's scorer Khiry Shelton (yes, he scored for both teams) and the last in the 90'+7' by Kevin Molino giving MIN a 2-1 win.  For the first time, VAR overruled the call for the first time denying MIN a goal in the 64' as Molina was deemed to interfere while offside.

Real Salt Lake beat the Colorado Rapids for the 4th straight time, a 2-0 win that would have been worse if not for the PK and follow-on shot saves by COL GK Clint Irwin.  It was the first PK of the tournament.  Group D now sees RSL on top with +2 GD over MIN's +1.  

TORvDC's delay means their 2nd matches are also delayed a day with TORvMTL moving from 7/15 to 7/16 and DCvNE moving from 7/16 to 7/17.  Two matches will be played at 5 pm PDT July 17, one on FS1 and one on ESPN.  The SJvVAN time changed from 7:30 pm to 6 pm PDT on 7/15.

In the pool, 5 got MIN and 8 got RSL but only Six Foot Box got both.  3 got both wrong.  Six Foot Box moves into a tie for first with Kona Coast Fauci's and Kona Coast Sliders with 4 points.  Deutschland = Koenig got RSL snapping an 0-7 start and is tied with BigRedMessi2 for last.

Real fans, real noise

MINDING MY BUSINESS, CA -- So I get a notification on my Moto X4 Android One Edition, which still allows me to tether real (not throttled) unlimited Verizon data (safer-at-home with WiFi has knocked my data usage to just 13GB last month from 40-80GB typically), that the USL Championship match-up between Louisville City FC and Pittsburgh Riverhounds were going to play in front of real, not piped in, fans.  Say what?  So I tuned to ESPN2 and sure enough, LOU was hosting their first match in their brand new spankin' Lynn Family Stadium in front of a limited 5,000 fans (capacity 15,304) with lots of social distancing and drums and cheering.  Compared to MLS telecasts, the ESPN2 telecast was professional with cool graphics with no gaudy Adidas logo at midfield.  What a difference playing in sunlight with a home crowd behind you.  The play felt faster and the LOU scored the first goal on a great strike.

But LOU wasn't the first USA pro sports team to play in front a crowd as the USL Championship opened its abbreviated season yesterday with six matches, all at home stadiums.  However, just 3 were in front of fans with Indy Eleven the first pro sports team to play in front of real, bonafide fans with a limited crowd of 4,761 in attendance (boy, that Indianapolis Colts football markings are awful).  If MLS goes back to home crowds, Indy posted their safety plan for employees and fans to get a taste of how it would work.  Later, the Tampa Bay Rowdies hosted around 100 fans (invited fan groups and family only) in St. Pete and the Colorado Springs Switchbacks FC drew 1,000 to Weidner Field.  

Also, Paris Saint-Germain became the first top flight European club to play in front of fans with 5,000 (out of a capacity of 25,000) at Stade Oceane in Le Havre, France for an exhibition match against French League 2 club Le Havre.  So, maybe we'll get to see MLS soccer soon in our home cities.  Crossing fingers.

Another match postponed

PLANTING TOMATO PLANTS, CA -- The Sunday 6 am match between Toronto FC and D.C. United was postponed at kickoff due to one "initial unconfirmed positive COVID-19 case" and one "inconclusive test".  To be safe, the match was postponed.  With Toronto FC getting into Orlando late (which is why this match was originally delayed from July 10), new testing was done Saturday.  The hope would be that the players will later test negative (such as the case with PGA golfer Cameron Champ).   And even if they do, this is not a false positive as these tests are more likely to give a false negative meaning the players MUST have had some low levels of COVID-19 that dissipated quickly.  Or that is what the spin doctors say.

Or more players will test positive on subsequent tests.  Then, the question is, was this a burst in the Walt Disney World Swan and Dolphin Resort/ESPN WWOS Complex "bubble" or did the players get it in TOR or DC before the flight?  Trying to seclude themselves from COVID-19 like Prince Prospero did in "The Masque of the Red Death" only to succumb in the fake security.  We'll see.

With the max of 3 fields (though there is a spare training field that could also be used) and the brutal weather, scheduling becomes tough as it bumps into the knockout rounds.  Even TOR's original 3 1/2-day rest (next match is July 15 evening) seemed not to be in the players' best interest.  But by having everything at one site, flexibility is easier and no fans to worry about (maybe TV).  

Early Lightning Strike (7/11)

107°F BUT DRY, CA -- A rain and lightning delay postponed kickoff 45 minutes which seemed to energize both pool favorite Atlanta United FC and the New York Red Bulls with NY getting on the board in the 4' and several great chances for both teams in the first half.  The second half seemed to tire both teams but ATL had a few good chances with the last a leaping 90'+8' save by David Jensen to help NY preserve the 1-0 win.   This was the first time in 5 matches a team scored in the first half and it was the first time in 28 matches that ATL failed to score (regular season plus playoffs).  

The second match was delayed 30 minutes meaning an 11 pm EDT start (11:25 pm kickoff) and it didn't end until 1:22 am which wasn't soon enough for FC Cincinnati.  Columbus Crew SC scored twice in both halves in a 4-0 rout of CIN.  A lot of firsts for the tourney:  first team with a multi-goal lead, first team to score more than twice, first player to score more than once (Gyasi Zardes), and first official VAR review (on Zardes' second goal if he was offsides).  It was not a good night for new CIN coach Jaap Stam (hired on May 21 during the shutdown) and CIN's next opponent is ATL.

So FOX is piping in fake noise?  Yuck.  But you can listen to the natural noise on the FOX Sports app (not to be confused with the FOX Sports Go app -- ok, it's confusing).  I mean USA head coach Gregg Berhalter couldn't have made ALL that noise when his son Sebastian debuted for CLB in the 77'.

No one believed in RBNY but 12 did get CLB right.  The same 3 are on top (Kona Coast Fauci's, Kona Coast Sliders, and Super League) with 3 pts while Deutschland = Koenig is last with zero points.