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)).

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.

Off the Crossbar! (6/20)

Such 3rd place drama.  With both top 2 teams in Groups E and F already qualified, the bottom two teams faced each other to try to qualify with a win.  A4-Nigeria (3 pts, -2 GD) and D3-Argentina (2 pts) were waiting to see if they could sneak in.  First of all, E4-Netherlands beat E1-Canada 2-1 to win Group E and F1-USA comfortably beat F4-Sweden 2-0 to win Group F.  Boring. 

Needing a win, both E2-Cameroon and E3-New Zealand were pushing players forward to try to break a 1-1 tie and in the end, 5 minutes into stoppage time, Ajara Nchout single-handedly worked herself through and her strike went into the right corner for the final play of the match and sent CMR into the Round of 16 and eliminated ARG.  Then E3-Chile needed a 3-goal win to advance (E4-Thailand now needed a 15-goal win margin after CMR won) and were leading 2-0 when VAR awarded them a PK in the 83'.  But Francisca Lara's PK hit the crossbar hard and match ended 2-0 sending NGA into the Round of 16.  Two African teams claimed the last two R16 spots.  In retrospect, SCO blowing a 3-goal lead against ARG cost them a R16 spot and would've sent CMR home.  So the 3rd place teams are 3E-Cameroon (BEF), 3C-Brazil (CDE), 3A-Nigeria (ACD), and 3B-China PR (ABF).

Foster's Football Brew # 3: Is Chile the little train that could?

Santiago to Rio, June 18, 2014

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RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL -- Who would have thought Chile stood a chance to win today's Battle at the Maracanã in Rio against the defending World Champs?!??  Well, tens of thousands of Chileans, that's who!

I flew into Rio this morning from Santiago with a plane-full of Chile fans, nearly all of them dressed for the game with tickets in hand.  As the airplane was about to touch down in Rio, the ENTIRE plane broke out in song, starting with "Chi-Chi-Chi, Le-Le-Le, Vi-va Chi-Le!!" With their "fight song" following.  A sea of red jerseys, zany mohawk whigs, and gladiator helmets.

The fans were really confident in their team, and the players didn't let them down!  Holland's revenge blow-out last week really shattered

Bye-Bye Me

Poor Chile.  The only R16 team to not score thus far.  

Well, 52 of 67 entries picked both NED and BRA today.  For some reason, my main entry (Futbol Fabone Four (51st-Tied, 66 pts) was not one of them.  As such, I am eliminated.  I still have slim hopes for my last entry, Zulupalooza (49th-T) which is only a point ahead of my eliminated pick.  60 picked NED and 58 picked BRA.  I Hate Vodka Alot (64th-T, 56) was the only who picked Slovakia and El Ruso (25th-T, 73) the only one to pick Chile.  Almost.

As usual, Coin Tossed (33) was the only one to go 0-2 today but she is not the only one to get only 1 of 6 Quarterfinalists correct... I Hate Vodka Alot and Da Fermo (66th, 55) also have picked just one thus far.  If Holland wins it all (I'll be rooting for them since that is what I picked for Zulupalooza), I am waiting for Warner L (Da Fermo) to complain about how he picked the correct champion and was left out of the money.  He finished 7th last time despite picking Italy to win it all.  If all you had to do was pick the correct champ, then why should I let you guys pick the other 62 matches??

LB and Serrano, tied for 45th (69), both still have a chance to win first.  Reckin Crew now holds the distinction for still having a chance while being placed the lowest:  51st-T (66).  Lionelmessi can't win first despite being in 3rd (82).  How frustrating must that me (probably not as much as being eliminated).  Neither can Corner Kick Kid (4th-T, 81) and Dime 23 (6th, 80).  I'm surprised there are still more than half the entries (39 of 67) are still alive for money and 16 still have a chance for 1st.

Forza Pazza (90) still has his six-point lead and has a 32.8% to win 1st and 59.8% to win money.  He is one of two (El Chileno (4th-T)) to pick 5 of the 6 quarterfinalists.  The top 11 entries have picked either Spain or Brazil.

Rout is on

Chile's used all three subs already and Brazil has taken a 3-nil lead with 25 minutes left.  The first of 5 South American team to fall and that's because 2 teams played each other.  That's what Chile gets for not winning the group like the other four.

Brazil breaking game open

After holding their own with Brazil for more than a half hour, Chile had quickly  surrended two goals.