Errors Lead to 1-0 Shutouts (7/25)

DROPPED MY 5-YEAR OLD IPAD AIR 2, CA -- With no Extra Time and matches going straight to penalty kick shootout, it's no wonder teams were tentative and both matches had scoreless first halves.  

Host 1A-Orlando City SC scored off a defensive miscue in the 60' to win 1-0 over the 3C-Impact de Montreal to advance to the Quarterfinals.  ORL played like the favorite they were as Thierry Henry's team lacked any urgency most of the match.  The line judge played a role nullifying an ORL goal by waving his flag.  If  the ref did what he was supposed to, in this photo-finish offsides, and waited to waive his flag after the goal or kept his flag down, it could've been reviewed by VAR.  ORL has a tough match ahead of them as they will face the winner of 2B-Seattle and 2F-LAFC, but ORL will have two extra days rest.

2A-Philadelphia Union scored off a NE midfield misplay at midfield in the 63' to win 1-0 over the 2C-New England Revolution to advance to the Quarterfinals.  Both Group A teams beat Group C teams.  1C-Toronto FC should then feel weary of their match against Group A 3A-New York City FC.

NE head coach Bruce Arena was red-carded after the match.  My estimates for Disciplinary Points only include match statistics since subsequent discipline or nullifying cards can come 1-2 days later and it's still not clear (nor any official total) how the DP is recalculated.  For instance, 4A-Inter Miami FC's Juan Agudelo's first yellow card was rescinded two days later, but he got a second card for a red card, so do the 7 points go down to 3, because the red card is still there.  Does any added supplemental mean 8 points so a card 1-2 days later means 8 points instead of 3 if it happened in the match?  Does a fine for simulation mean 8 points?  We probably won't get a tally unless it comes into play as a tiebreaker.

Four had ORL and 8 had PHI in the Quarterfinals.  Six Foot Box and Deutschland = Koenig got both right and are now just 3 points behind leader Bobby Cee Racer (54 pts).   Four got none right but Super League is still in last with 39 pts.

There was a small error in my 32K simulation but in correcting it for the 8K simulation, all entries are still alive.  But just 8 now remain who can win the pool.  Bobby Cee Racer is still the overwhelming favorite to win the pool (65.8%) and prizes (93.8%).  Six Foot Box and Deutschland = Koenig have a 48.2% and 43.9% of winning a prize with the latter with a 16.9% to win the pool.  Super League still has an 18 of 8192 chance of finishing 3rd.

All Alive!

WON $40 IN BLACKOUT BINGO!, CA -- So I did have some time to edit and try to run the possibilities, 32,768 of them, today.  A few hours later, it cranked out something I wasn't expecting -- no one was eliminated and everyone had a chance to finish 2nd (of 3 places).  Maybe it's because there is no money prize, but all entries are alive to start the Round of 16.

With a 6-point lead, Bobby Cee Racer (50 pts) has a 93.2% chance to finish in the top 3 and a whopping 64.9% chance to win the pool.  Five others have a better than 1 in 4 chance to finish in the top 3.  TomJ (2nd-Tied, 44) (8.5%), Hereforethecommentary (5th-T, 43) (7.6%), and Deutschland = Koenig (5th-T) (7.5%) have the next best chances to win the pool.  11 of the 15 entries still have a chance to win the pool.  Even Super League (15th, 35) has 148 chances out of 32,768 to finish in the top 3 (0.45%).

You can now see your chances in the Possibilities tab at the top.  The Standings have a new look as well, incorporating the possibilities in the additional columns.

Washington FT. Edmonton FT. Kraken!

Some musings.  So the NFL Washington Redskins finally got rid of their nickname not because it's the sensible thing to do but because now every fan has to buy new merchandise and advertisers finally became woke.  With no name in place (it'll take time to get the right copyrights as every rich fan is probably buying all the potential nickname site domains), the team will proceed as "Washington Football Team." Sound familiar?  Charlotte? Austin? Orlando City? NYC? Los Angeles? Toronto? Welcome, NFL, to the world of boring soccer nicknames.   Will there be chants of "Wash, Wash, Wash, F-T" in the stands (6 feet apart, of course)? 

Up north, the CFL Edmonton Eskimos also dropped their nickname they've had for more than 100 years and are now the Edmonton Football Team.  Or EE Football Team.  Which since this is community owned (no corporate owner), does that second E stand for... Eskimo?  So 2020 is the year of the rebranding.  Washington's was a "retiring" of the name and Edmonton's was a "dropping" of the name.  No word on the MLB's Cleveland Indians or Atlanta Braves yet.

Now to a great nickname but not necessarily when said out loud.  Release the Kraken is cool, the logo (especially the Space Needle anchor) is cool, the font and color scheme is cool.  The Kraken sounds great.  "Seattle Kraken", not so much, too much XFL 1 or inaugural MLS.  Maybe the Emerald City Kraken or even just Emerald Kraken rolls off the tongue better.  It was noted that this is just the 4th NHL team nickname without the plural "s" (Colorado Avalanche, Minnesota Wild, Tampa Bay Lightning).  MLS has had more than their fair share:  Clash, Mutiny, Fire, Galaxy, Burn, Wiz, Fusion, Crew, Dynamo, Revolution, Union, maybe Republic, and not to mention three Uniteds.

MLS has changed the Knockout Bracket once again (previous change July 16).  They switched the two bottom quadrants so 2A2C1D3B will now face 1C3A1F2E and 1A3C2B2F will now face 1B3D1E2D in the semifinals (or match #46 winner faces #48 instead of #46v#47 and #45v#47 instead of #45v#48).  This is why it's just important to get your picked team into the Quarters or Semis and not necessarily which side of the bracket.  You'll get 4 points per Quarterfinal team, 6 points per Semifinal team, 8 points per finalist, and 12 points for the winner.

Finally, this is like the World Cup!  Despite winning the U.S. Open Cup and Campeones Cup, ATL head coach Frank de Boer is out the door after 0 goals and 0 points in the tournament (mind you, they won their first 2 matches before the pandemic).  So what about LA's Guillermo Barros Schelotto?  Well, let's see if a healthy Jonathan Dos Santos and Chicharito was the difference or not.  It's the last Get Out of Jail card.

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)).

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).

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.

Group A is Complete (7/20)

STARGAZING SATURN, CA -- All 24 teams were alive before today but now we have our first elimination.  New York City FC's 1-0 win kept their hopes alive and killed Inter Miami CF, who have lost their first five matches as a franchise, a record.  Each team committed 21 fouls (42 for the match).  Probably the most interesting thing is an ant crawling on the camera at kickoff juxtaposed against the fake virtual Adidas logo.  NYC has 3 points and a -2 GD and will need help to become one of the four best 3rd place teams.

Host Orlando City SC score two minutes after the Philadelphia Union opened scoring getting a 1-1 draw that made them the Group A winners.  Both will play July 25.  

Ugh... Charlotte FC is still one of the possible names.  Please, no more City FCs or FC Citys!  There is hope as a possible early rendition has a crown above the stadium, so maybe Charlotte Crown FC will win.  But I told you Monarchs won't be it.  The announcement is two days away and is exciting nonetheless.

Now the St. Louis expansion club (which now will play in 2023 instead of 2022) will announce their name on Aug 13.  Stars is popular but like Monarchs, it likely won't be it.  I do hope they spell out "Saint" in their name though.  I would compromise and accept The Lou FC being the name.  Kind of cool sounding and does not remind me of a British toilet.  Being the heartbeat of American soccer, I wouldn't be opposed to SC, just not FC (which is already the name of the USL Championship club).

Back to the pool, no one got a chance to pick these two re-scheduled matches but since Group A is done, we can now award 3 points for the 11 who picked PHI and 9 who picked ORL.  5 got both teams while the other 10 got just one.  So no one will be shut out!  The six points for PHI & ORL propel Six Foot Box to the top of the standings with 15 points.  Bobby Cee Racer and Go Chivas move up to a tie for 2nd with 14 points.  5 won't get any points for picking MIA into the Round of 16.  BigRedMessy is last with 8 pts.

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).

Easy Shutouts (7/19)

SLEEPING IN SUNDAY, CA -- The San Jose Earthquakes became the 5th team to qualify for the Knockout Round and the first to clinch the win their group in a 2-0 shutout of Chicago Fire FC.  The Group B winners will face the 3rd place team from either Groups A, C, or D.

Seattle Sounders FC could have been the first team eliminated but put on a big performance beating Vancouver Whitecaps FC 3-0 to move into second with 4 points.  While MLS won't say it (but FOX will), SEA qualifies for the Round of 16 as Group A can only have a 3rd place team with 3 points and a tie in Group E between CIN and RBNY would mean SEA has the tiebreaker with a +2 GD over both CIN (-3) and RBNY (-1).  So at worst, SEA is the 4th-best 3rd place team and at best the Group B runner-up.  VAN, who were already severely short-handed, even lost their GK when a SEA player accidentally stepped on his glove -- but the match was already 3-0 so the backup (actually, the 3rd string) did well.

The CHIvSJ was a rescheduled match so no one picked it.  11 got SEA right.  Kona Coast Fauci's and Kona Coast Sliders still lead with 10 points (of 22 possible picked matches).  BigRedMessy and Deutschland = Koenig are last with 5 points.  Starting tomorrow when Group A closes shop, entries will be awarded 3 points per Group A team making the Round of 16 (right now, ORL and PHI).  Group C closes Tuesday, Groups D and E close Wednesday, and Groups B and F close Thursday.  As 3rd place teams qualify, entries will get the 3 points that day.

Hearing Rob Stone say "Goonies Never Die" (referring to SJ) reminds me of the recent "Goonies" reunion (all 6 of Josh Gad's Reunited Apart reunions are a must-watch) where the cast said they get the "Goonies Never Die" from fans and they have politely remind them Goonies don't die.  They said "Goonies never SAY die".  Too funny as I'm sure I've misquoted that as well!

One Way Traffic (7/18)

FORMING NEIGHBORHOOD WATCH, CA -- The Portland Timbers clinched a spot into the Round of 16 with a 2-1 win over the Houston Dynamo.  POR becomes the 4th team to make the Knockout stage and leads Group F. 

In the 7th El Traffico, the LA Galaxy got news that Javier Hernandez won't be in the lineup due a calf injury which mean both he and Jonathan Dos Santos were out.  Despite being huge underdogs, LA managed to score twice, one on an own goal and one on a retaken penalty (when LAFC GK went off his line too early to make the save - but no yellow card like in the Women's World Cup, just a retake).  With a 2-1 lead heading into halftime, the wheels began to fall apart.  Diego Rossi scored his 2nd right before the halftime whistle off a LA GK save.  LA tried again and in the second half, Carlos Pavon scored but he was maybe a half step offsides and six minutes later LAFC took the lead for good.  For good measure, Rossi scored twice more (to finish with a tourney high 4 goals and 1 assist) to embarrass their neighbors, 6-2.  This was the second straight 8-goal El Traffico, both won by LAFC who now have tied the series at 2-2-3.  40 goals in 7 matches (5.7 goals per match) and this was the first without Zlatan.

LAFC is virtually in the Knockout round with 4 pts and a +4 goal differential, almost definitely will be the top 2 or top 4 3rd place finishers while LA is virtually out with 0 points and a tourney worst goal differential of -5.  LA would have to beat HOU by 2 to take 3rd place and then hope 3 points is enough.

While teams that have qualified for the Knockout round could rest players for their last group match, don't forget these group matches do count in the regular season standings so a loss would not be acceptable.

11 got POR and 8 got LAFC.  5 went 2-0 while Deutschland = Koenig went 0-2.  The top 2 remain the same and four points separate first and last. 

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.

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.

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.