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%).  

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. 

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)).

Issue 3.1.2 "MLS is Back!" (After each team played 1 match)

Archive

Wednesday, July 15, 2020

     ALL TEAMS HAVE FINALLY PLAYED; LOTS OF GOALS AND COMEBACKS

Kona Coast Fauci's and Kona Coast Sliders Tied for 1st

TELECONS, CA (smt) -- Well, things finally got better and games are watchable, even with the fake crowd noise on FOX/FS1 and TUDN.  While the first five matches had just 6 goals (1.20 per match), the last ten have had 39 goals (3.90).  While the first five matches saw just one goal in the first half (0.20) with four scoreless (80.0%), the last ten have seen 18 goals in the first half (1.80) and just two scoreless halves (20.0%).  While there were no VAR decisions in the first five matches, there now have been 6.  And on the 8th day, finally all 24 teams have played with B3-Vancouver Whitecaps FC the last one due to their first match postponed until July 23 with FC Dallas withdrawing.  MLS is back, baby!

A lot of excitement with D4-Minnesota United FC rallying to beat D2-Sporting Kansas City 2-1 with both goals in stoppage time (in the 90'+2' and 90'+7'), C4-D.C. United despite playing a man down rallying with two goals to tie C1-Toronto 2-2,  F1-Los Angeles Football Club scoring two goals in the second half to knot 3-3 with F3-Houston Dynamo, and B4-San Jose Earthquakes scoring three straight in the second half to top VAN 4-3.  Top seeds E1-Atlanta United FC and B1-Seattle Sounders FC were upset with the latter sitting on just one point after two matches.  Host A1-Orlando City SC and A4-Philadelphia Union punched their tickets to the Round of 16 by winning their second matches.  E4-Columbus Crew SC and D1-Real Salt Lake won easily with the former ruining E2-FC Cincinnati coach Jaap Stam's debut 4-nil.  F2-LA Galaxy's Chicharito finally scored but his PK miss in the 12' was costly as the F4-Portland Timbers won 2-1 and vaulted to the top of Group F.

It's been an odd tournament with both penalty kicks being saved and the teams with 63% or more possession going just 1-1-2 (SJ's comeback salvaged the lone win) (in the Women's World Cup, all 11 teams won their matches).  Teams with more than 20 shots have won just once (1-1-1) (again, thanks to SJ's comeback win).  Twice coaches were interviewed during the match and soon thereafter the opponent scored (but in POR's case, it was reversed by VAR).

Crazy Comeback (7/15)

PLAYING TENNIS IN OUR CUL-DE-SAC, CA -- Vancouver Whitecaps FC were without three key scoring threats so goals were going to be hard to come by but VAN managed to score three thanks to defender Ali Adman's great finish, one own goal off a long counter, and capitalizing a severe misplay by San Jose Earthquakes' GK.  VAN actually had just two shots on goal but 3 goals!  But their 2-0 and 3-1 leads did not last as SJ made four offensive subs in the 63' which led to sub and MLS leading scorer Chris Wondolowski (still pains me how he could've lifted USA to beat Belgium) netting one in the 72', Oswaldo Alanis scoring in the 81', and sub Shea Salinas scoring 8 minutes into stoppage time for the game-winner (4-3).  The game actually went almost to the 102' (100:52).

SJ dominated the match outshooting VAN 30-7 with 11 shots on target, earning 22 corner kicks, and having 67.8% possession.  I do not know how it's possible but SJ had 11 shots on goal forcing 8 saves.  8 saves + 4 goals should be 12 shots on target.  New math, I guess.  But SJ's first goal was a beauty with Andres Rios redirecting a hard cross with his backheel that found the far corner of the net.

So SJ sits atop Group B with 4 points over CHI (3 pts) but CHI has only played one match.  Defending champ SEA would've benefited with a tie but the road just got a little tougher (either way it was a must-win in their last match).

In the pool, four picked SJ (the odds before the match trended heavily in SJ's favor with VAN at -360) which leaves Kona Coast Fauci's and Kona Coast Sliders back alone on top with 6 points. This has been a difficult pool as there have only been three ties and the leaders were correct on just 6 of  13 matches.  BigRedMessi 2 is still last with one point.

The funniest thing about the TV broadcasts is watching a Pando* shot go high above the crossbar and through the virtual jumbo-tron "behind" the goal. 

*-Named after Guillermo “Pando” Ramirez, this LA Galaxy player in 2005 had 62 shots but only one goal in the regular season-- on a PK that deflected off the GK into the net.  However, he scored the GW goal in overtime against New England to win the Galaxy their 2nd MLS title.  It was my infamous yell while in the bathroom after regulation (watching with Galaxy Stats Crewat a restaurant) that "Pando will get the game-winner!".  And it came true.