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.

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.

Nashville tip-toeing and Toronto delayed

SANTA BARBARA, CA -- More changes as five players on Nashville SC have tested positive with a few in waiting so their first match July 8th vs Chicago Fire FC has been postponed.  Toronto FC is late getting into Orlando so their first match vs D.C. United has been moved to July 12th.

Again, don't worry about filling out an outdated bracket.  There is time to make corrections even after the first match is played.  However, once the first match is played, any team that drops out affects everyone.  Well, good news is the LA Galaxy have increased their chances :-)