Issue 5.1.4 "Cincy, Montreal, and Vancouver Rally for Spots" (After Group Stage)

Archive

Thursday, July 23, 2020

LAST DAY PROVIDES DRAMA AS ATLANTA, RBNY, AND LA FLAME OUT
Bobby Cee Racer leads by 6 points heading into knockout stage

EL SEGUNDO, CA (smt) -- While teams like 1A-Orlando City SC, 2A-Philadelphia Union, 1C-Toronto FC, 2C-New England Revolution, 1D-Sporting Kansas City, 2D-Minnesota United FC, 3D-Real Salt Lake, 1F-Portland Timbers, and 2F-Los Angeles Football Club were playing their last match for Round of 16 positioning, most of the others were fighting for their lives.  Some played to get the result like 3B-Vancouver Whitecaps FC, 3A-New York City FC, 3C-Impact de Montreal, and 2E-FC Cincinnati, others just blew their chance including heavy favorite 4E-Atlanta United FC, 4B-Chicago Fire FC, 3E-New York Red Bulls, and 3F-Houston Dynamo. 

NYC beat 4A-Inter Miami CF, who ended as one of two teams without a point, and had to wait three days to find out they made the Round of 16.  MTL edged 4C-D.C. United 1-0 which allowed three other teams (MIN, POR, LAFC) to make the R16 but not them.  MTL had to wait one more day to find out they secured a R16 spot (when RBNY lost by 2).  CIN had just two shots on goal but beat RBNY 2-0 eliminating RBNY and sending themselves into the R16.  CIN had started with a 4-0 drubbing by 1E-Columbus but are now in the Knockout Round.  CLB, meanwhile put ATL out its misery winning 1-0, ATL's third straight 1-0 defeat to finish dead last (24th) in the tournament.  VAN needed a two-goal win and were scoreless against CHI in the 63' when lightning delayed the match 90 minutes.  VAN came out of the delay by scoring twice in 8 minutes to advance to the R16, eliminating CHI who started the tourney with a 2-1 win over SEA. 

Montreal Sends 3 Teams In But Not Themselves (Yet) (7/21)

PAINTING THE PLAY STRUCTURE, CA -- Toronto FC and the New England Revolution played to the 3rd scoreless draw of the tournament sending both to the Round of 16.  However, it will be the what-ifs that could haunt either team as TOR edges NE for the tiebreaker (either 1st/2nd or 2nd/3rd depending on DC's match later).  One TOR PK was correctly taken away by VAR as the foul was just outside the box but each team had typical normally penalty that wasn't called.  An apparent takedown by TOR was not called a penalty for NE in the 80' and an apparent TOR handball wasn't called in the 89'.  If in the first 15 minutes, most likely they are both called a foul.

The collapse of Atlanta United FC is complete failing to score in any of their three matches in their 3rd straight 1-0 defeat, this time to Group E winner Columbus Crew SC.  CLB recorded their third straight shutout with three different lineups.

D.C. United couldn't rally for a third time and fell 1-0 to Impact de Montreal, eliminating DC from the Knockout Round.  MTL keeps their hopes alive and vaults ahead of NYC who also have 3 points in 3rd place.  By the virtue of two completed groups having 3rd place teams with just 3 points, it sends all the teams with 4 points into the Round of 16:  Real Salt Lake and Minnesota United FC in Group D and LAFC in Group F.  No one gets points for these last three until Groups D and F are complete.

VAN's GK which got his glove stomped on against SEA is out with a fractured hand.  Ouch.

And LA will get a NWSL team in 2022.  With Natalie Portman ("Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace") and Mia Hamm as two of many owners (Hamm is also an owner of LAFC, which is notably absent from this announcement), we'll see if Angel City sticks as the team name.  The NWSL has some weird names and I couldn't figure out for the longest time what OL Reign was... Olympia?  It's for Olympique Lyonnais Group which bought the Tacoma team.  Well, my guess of Olympia was close then.

In the pool, no one got the TOR-NE tie, two got CLB (Deutschland = Koenig and Coronovirus_Sucks!), and 7 got MTL right.  Deutschland = Koenig got 2 of the 3 matches correct and 6 got none.  All 15 got TOR into the Round of 16 and 5 got NE.  All 15 lost ATL but more importantly 5 lost their champion and 4 more lost them in the Final.  By far the biggest disappointment, so the LA Galaxy can only be at worst the 2nd biggest disappointment of the tourney.  While still early, LA at least needs to win by 4 to top both MTL and NYC for 3rd place contenders (by 3 to top just NYC but that's cutting it close).  So LA will have their destiny in their hands when they play on Thursday.

OK, back to the pool.  Bobby Cee Racer and Go Chivas picked up 7 points to move into a tie for first with 21 points.  TomJ (3rd-Tied, 19) and Hereforthecommentary (5th, 18) also picked up 7 points.  Six picked up just 3 points on the day.

Issue 4.1.3 "Seattle, LAFC, and Toronto Back in Form" (After each team played 2 matches)

Archive

Sunday, July 19, 2020

     TOP TEAMS EXCEPT ATLANTA RE-ASSERT THEIR POWER; SIX TEAMS PUNCH TICKET
Kona Coast Fauci's and Kona Coast Sliders remain tied for 1st

HOME, CA (smt) -- All teams have now played at least two matches with Group B teams B1-Seattle Sounders FC and B4-San Jose Earthquakes having finished group play due to the rescheduling of matches with FC Dallas and Nashville SC withdrew.  Eight of the 20 teams that played attained at least 4 points to join A1-Orlando City SC, A4-Philadelphia Union, and SJ.  Three teams already have 3 points and sit in the 3rd place position.

C1-Toronto took back control of Group C with a wild 4-3 win over C3-Impact de Montreal where Ayo Akinola has 5 goals and Alejandro Pozuelo has 5 assists in the two matches.  E4-Columbus Crew SC and F4-Portland Timbers clinched a spot in the Knockout Round with their second wins while SJ clinched Group B with a win over B2-Chicago Fire FC.  C3-D.C. United and C2-New England Revolution played to a draw to attain 4 points each as did D1-Real Salt Lake and D4-Minnesota.  D3-Colorado Rapids managed to tie the match down 2 men but D2-Sporting KC got the game-winner in stoppage time while 10-men and Josef Martinez-less E1-Atlanta United FC couldn't muster anything against E2-FC Cincinnati, falling 1-0.  ATL got a second red late in stoppage and haven't scored in 215 minutes. 

Short-handed F2-LA Galaxy (without Jonathan Dos Santos or Chicharito) took a 2-1 lead but fell hard 6-2 to Carlos Vela-less F1-Los Angeles Football Club with Diego Rossi getting 4 goals and an assist (5 goals for the tourney).  Short-handed B3-Vancouver, without four strikers, wilted against defending MLS champ B1-Seattle Sounders FC who desperately needed a win with SEA winning 3-0 and actually clinching a spot into the Round of 16.  They are guaranteed to be at least the 4th-best 3rd place team with 4 points (Group A 3rd place will max at 3 points and if Group E has a 3rd place team with 4 pts it will have a worse goal-differential (-1) than SEA's +2).

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.

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.