Double Shootout (7/28)

SON TRYING TO BE A YOUTUBER , CA -- Columbus Crew SC gave up a goal for the first time in 299 minutes but rallied to tie with Gyasi Zardes putting in his rebound off his PK which was saved in the 79'.  In the penalty kick shootout, Minnesota United FC GK Tyler Miller made another save which was enough as MIN hit all five PKs to win the PSO 5-3.  Chase Gasper's GW PK was right down the middle. CLB finishes 9th in the tourney but 1st in the Eastern Conference when regular season hopefully resumes play later this month.

The Portland Timbers were cruising 1-0, scoring in the 67' (snapping FC Cincinnati's 277-shutout streak) after a CIN goal was taken away by VAR for an offsides in the 62', until POR GK Steve Clark made the oddest decision to try to play a CIN kicked long ball with his feet instead of picking it up and had to trip the CIN player encroaching.  Jürgen Locadia stepped up and put converted giving the underdog CIN the tying goal in the 81'.  It didn't stop there for these two players.  In the 86', a CIN shot somehow went through Clark's hand but luckily hit the right post and bounced out.  In the 88' a perfect cross gave Locadia a tap in from six yards away but he shanked it over the bar.  On to the penalty kick shootout, both teams have converted their first two PKs and Locadia is up again to face Clark.  This time, Clark makes the save and redeems himself.  Like MIN, POR didn't miss and their 4th was the winning kick, 4-2.

So Group D and F send their second team into the Quarters (beating both teams from Group E) joining 3 from Group A and SJ from Group B.  There is a day of rest and then three days of quarterfinals.

In the pool, 7 picked MIN into the Quarters which eliminated BigRedMessi 2 and Deutschland = Koening from winning the pool and meant Super League was finally eliminated along with Coronavius_Sucks! from the top 3 prizes.  Bobby Cee Racer and Super League were the only two to pick POR (no one had CIN) as the former now has a huge 11-point lead (70 pts).  Surprisingly, he hasn't clinched the top 3 yet as he (98.4%) and TarjetaRoja (92.2%) are almost there, essentially leaving just one spot up for grabs.  POR's win eliminated The Six Foot Box from the winning the pool and Futbol Fabone Eleven from the top 3.  Interestingly, both of those entries are mine and that leaves 3 with a chance to win the pool and 9 with a chance for the top 3.

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. 

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).

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.