3 in 15 Minutes (7/30)

ALL DAY DESIGN REVIEW, CA -- The Philadelphia Union scored three times in 15 minutes of the first half to beat Sporting Kansas City, 3-1, to advance to the semifinal against either New York City FC or Portland Timbers.  Sergio Santos assisted on the first goal and scored twice, his first off a breakway when SKC had a poor passback to midfield.  The second half was actually scoreless though SKC nearly cut the lead to one early in the second half but the free kick went off the left post.  SKC GK Tim Melia, who was brilliant in the PSO last match, had a 429-minute shutout streak before he allowed 3 in 15 minutes.

In the pool, 3 had PHI making the Semis including TarjetaRoja (2nd, 63 pts) who becomes the first to clinch at least a tie for the top 3 prizes and a 12.5% chance to win the pool.  Bobby Cee Racer, who leads the pool by 7, is still in the high 90s at 96.9% or 62 of 64 possible outcomes he would finish in the top 3 and a 75% to win the pool.  BigRedMessy (5th-T, 56) is the only other with a chance to win the pool (12.5%).  Six others have a chance to finish in the top 3.

Group A Dominates, First PSO (7/26)

HOUSE CLEANING, CA -- New York City FC came out firing and Toronto FC, who were without Ayo Akinola due to injury (5 goals in tourney) were on their heels most of the match.  An early 5' goal set the mood as NYC got revenge on last year's playoff rematch, 3-1.  The last team to get into the Knockout Round is now in the Quarterfinals.  NYC's win also meant that all 3 Group A vs Group C match-ups went to Group A.  Group A has three teams in the Quarters (ORL, PHI, NYC).

Vancouver Whitecaps FC were huge underdogs hovering around 8.5:1 odds as they could only field 18 players (teams can field 23 like Sporting Kansas City did) using a 3rd-string GK with no backup GK (VAN only made one sub in the match).  With SKC coming out dominating the first half, it was a fun match to watch to see how the young GK Thomas Hasal would do and he did well, saving six shots in the first half and faced 22 shots.  He also ran into the goal net camera hitting it with his head (so adorable) and in the second half had a concussion check (remember, VAN has no backup GK) but he passed and kept the match scoreless.  

In the first penalty kick shootout of the Knockout Round (no Extra Time), VAN missed three (2 saved by Tim Melia who also had 5 saves during regulation) while Hasal made one save and nearly had another, but it wasn't enough as SKC goes to the Quarters winning the PSO 3-1.  Although it would have been nice to see VAN win, the next match also wouldn't have been pretty as SKC could've easily just as won 5-0 if they finished better.  SKC ended with 36 shots, a club record.  Hasal ended with 8 saves in regulation.

In the pool, 9 got NYC and no one got SKC, mainly because it was supposed to be ATL-SKC in the Round of 16 but ATL flamed out.  NYC's win eliminated Go Chivas (14th, 43 pts) from winning the pool (leaving 7) and made TomJ (13th, 44) the first entry to be eliminated from the top 3 prizes.  Bobby Cee Racer (58 pts) built his lead back to 6 points with Kona Coast Fauci's and Kona Coast Sliders moving into a tie for second.  Bobby Cee Racer still maintains a big advantage of winning the pool (67.9%) and finishing in the top 3 (93.7%).  

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).

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.