The first leg of the 7/10 matchup saw over 45,000 the crutchanators of soccer fans pack the home grounds to give their team a 12th man advantage over butterfiles united. The contest started off slow and stayed that way for the entire 1st half as neither team could put one into the back of the net. After the scoreless first stanza, the 2nd half was more of the same until all hell broke loose with 20 minutes to go. Spaniard Noe Juanma got the French team rolling in the 70th minute when his header tipped off the hands of crutchanators goalie Sasson Treppe to finally open the scoring. Midfielder Erik Adu did answer right back to tie the game at 1-1 but butterfiles kept pouring it on. Lucila Astol got lucky when he got an assist off of a defender's leg in the 79th minute to give butterfiles the lead again and they would go on to score twice more, including a goal in extra time to walk out of the visitors locker room with a 4-1 win. crutchanators has a couple of days to think about a new strategy as Golden Toe leader Heinz Hagelin, who sits by himself with 9 goals, failed to add to his lead and, more importantly, failed to help his team win. They're going to need Hagelin to become a scoring machine if they have any chance on the road.

Tomorrow has a bunch of games, so I'll be updating in both the morning and evening.

I have sent a challenge which has yet to be accepted and have not received one yet.

Posted by indiansrck27 on 11/24/2023 10:34:00 PM (view original):
I have sent a challenge which has yet to be accepted and have not received one yet.

Might be because of the holiday weekend. I made the time frame super long just in case some folks travelled to eat turkey.

Only one game this morning and it was a dominating performance by the #4 seed Futbol Club Oviedo. After yielding the first goal of the game to #13 Fianna AFC in the 13th minute when Ordsone Cudney put away a corner cross, it was all Oviedo from that point. English midfielder Derrance Bliss scored just before halftime to knot the game at 1-1 during the break and Oviedo crushed the Irish club in the 2nd half, despite going a man down midway through when Stanhope Edmund got a straight red after a dangerous tackle from behind. The 11-on-10 situation didn't change the momentum as Ewing Sequeira scored short-handed to finish off the game as a 5-1 Oviedo win. Fianna now has a tough task tomorrow as they'll need to turn the tables in order to survive.

All of the other games are this afternoon or evening. I'm going to be out most of the day so the update will be a tad late.

Posted by gomiami1972 on 11/25/2023 7:24:00 AM (view original):

Posted by indiansrck27 on 11/24/2023 10:34:00 PM (view original):
I have sent a challenge which has yet to be accepted and have not received one yet.

Might be because of the holiday weekend. I made the time frame super long just in case some folks travelled to eat turkey.

Probably! Both games scheduled

Three additional playoff series had their opening game this evening. In the one match that was a no contest, #5 VB Hibernian easily beat #12 Brighton AFC 5-1 in their home leg of the series. Leonardo Sarmiento shot up the Golden Toe leaderboard with his hat trick, giving him 8 goals for the tournament and in a tie for 2nd place. Of course, 2nd place gets you nothing so Sarmiento should be motivated to score more and improve his position. Brighton was only able to erase the goose egg on the last play of the game, when Hardwin Rogers knuckled a ball off the side of his foot. With Hibs dominating opportunities 30-9, the Brighton coaching staff better come up with something quick.

The 8/9 series, which should be a close one, had an excellent game with #8 kangaroo fc hosting #9 Rushmore FC in Croatia. Word had it that Luka Modric showed up to root the home team on...and his presence did absolutely nothing in the 1st half as both teams went scoreless. The roos controlled that pace and the stats but continued to lack a finishing touch around the net midway through the 2nd half. Meanwhile, Rushmore couldn't muster anything and looked to be playing for the tie. That strategy, unfortunately, went up in smoke in the 79th minute when hometown hero Helge Buturajac took control of a corner cross and blasted a shot through traffic to account for the game's only goal. Rushmore will need to find some scoring punch but some English home cooking may be exactly what they need when they get their home game coming up.

The final game of the day was the somewhat rare encounter of Group Stage participants getting matched up in the knockout rounds. #3 Fighting Ants swept a pair of close games from fellow Group H member #14 FC Trojans of SC. The third game between the two clubs ended up in a 0-0 draw, the first scoreless tie in Cup XIII. The players of the game were goalies Nacho Moran and Jakobe Mullan, as neither blinked nor yielded an inch. The Trojans now gain home field advantage with the series going back to their home pitch tomorrow.

Four more games tomorrow and all but one First Round game has been scheduled. There's plenty of time, with the last game on December 5th.

Three morning games resulted in three teams advancing to the Quarterfinals. #4 Futbol Club Oviedo completed its sweep of #13 Fianna AFC with a convincing 3-0 road win to take the series 8-1 on aggregate. Already up 5-1 in the first game, Oviedo sealed Fianna's fate with a 6th minute goal by Romeo Gimenez. The Spanish side scored twice more before halftime and then put it on cruise control. The Greens had few chances to make the final tally look better as they were outclassed by the former Cup Champions.

#5 VB Hibernian also finished its First Roubnd sweep over #12 Brighton AFC, winning on Brighton's home field 2-1 for a 7-2 aggregate win. Hibs defender Dylan MacHendrie scored in his 2nd straight game as the series lead swelled to an impossible 7-1 by halftime. Brighton did show a little bit of pride when another all-name team nominee Thornly Wood got the American team on the board, giving what was left of 19,805 in attendance something to cheer about.

Finally, #7 butterfiles united took its 4-1 home win into #10 the crutchanators of soccer stadium and had a much more difficult time advancing. Forward Speedy Bell scored off a nicely placed header in the opening half's last minute to give the French club a seemingly uncatchable 5-1 aggregate lead. But crutchanators owned the 2nd half, inspired by Golden Toe leader Heinz Hagelin and his off-balance shot that went through the wickets of butterfiles goalie Jonah Peloso. They would go on to score twice more to close the gap to 5-4 until Dennis Nardini put the game away in the 77th minute when his shot was tipped by goalie Sasson Treppe but still got behind him. crutchanators threw everything forward in the last 10 minutes but couldn't close as they won the game 3-2 but lost the aggregate 6-4.

Tonight's lone game will break the 0-0 tie between #3 Fighting Ants and #14 FC Trojans of SC...or will it? Stay tuned.

We are now 5 for 5 with the higher seed advancing to the Quarterfinals. After a 0-0 draw in the opening leg, #3 Fighting Ants and #14 FC Trojans of SC emphatically broke the scoring drought with a combined 10 goals. Welch midfielder Cenewig Lander scored the first goal of the series in the 21st minute with a grass burner. Trojans center midfielder Stephon Gray answered right back and the fireworks lasted until the final whistle. Halftime saw the game knotted at 2-2 and again at 3-3 when Lander, who had only scored once in the tournament up to this point, scored twice in a row for the hat trick, including a volley that was impossible to stop. But, it wasn't until Vincente Ocampo scored his second of the game in the 86th, a goal that also placed him in a tie for the L'Orteil D'or lead with 10, that the Ants could breathe easy. A last second score by Trojans superscorer Dahal Corner in the closing moments proved to little too late as the Ants took the game and the aggregate 6-4.

There is a single game tomorrow and Tuesday as the 2/15 series between Club de Fútbol Deportivo Cotopaxi and Bordeaux Fighting Bovines plays both legs.

#2 Club de Fútbol Deportivo Cotopaxi kept the trend of higher seeds and their winning ways this afternoon when the Ecuadorians beat #15 Bordeaux Fighting Bovines 4-2 in San Francisco de Quito. Cotopaxi jumped out in front when Dutch forward Maeyken Bastin scored unassisted in the 38th minute and the home side never surrendered the lead. The team was led by Weyland Watkins, who scored twice and moved into a tie for 3rd in the Golden Toe. The Cattle got goals from Orlondo Rosario and Lionel Insua, keeping the differential damage to something within reach. The series will switch back to southern France tomorrow morning as the day's only Knockout action.

Another series - another higher seed moves on. #2 Club de Fútbol Deportivo Cotopaxi travelled to Bordeaux with a two goal differential advantage and managed to keep it as they draw in the retrun game 1-1 and win the series against #15 Bordeaux Fighting Bovines 5-3. Almost 42,000 watched a tactical battele between defenses as both teams generated few chances and went into the locker room tied 0-0 at the half. Knowing a tie wasn't good enough, The Cattle got more aggressive and finally scored when all defenders moved into an attacking position, allowing light-scoring veteran Muhammad King to come off the back line and into a location where he could take an open field shot. His corner-painting strike closed the gap to 4-3 but, despite several other chances, it proved to be the only goal Bordeaux could muster. Cotopaxi forward Weyland Watkins inserted the final nail with his score in the 85th minute that moved him into solo 2nd in the Golden Toe and guaranteed his side a place in the Quarterfinals.

Tomorrow is a day off before Rushmore FC tries to become the first lower seed to make some waves when they try to catch kangaroo fc on the 30th.

The return game between #8 kangaroo fc and #9 Rushmore FC is at noon today. After that, we have a break before the final First Round series between #6 Arsenal F.C. and #11 Metropolitan Screaming Eagles gets underway. Those games will be played on December 4th and 5th.

Barring tiebreaker games, the Quarterfinals will begin on December 6th.

The 8/9 series concluded this afternoon and #9 Rushmore FC did everything they could to become the first lower seed to advance. Playing at home in front of the faithful, Italian forward Cannavaro Maccarone made quick work of the 1-0 goal differential #8 kangaroo fc enjoyed from the opening game as he scored in the 3rd minute. Taking a cross and controlling the ball at his feet, he blasted a shot past kangaroo goalie Nikita Shekhodanov. Hadwyn MacAuliffe then gave Rushmore a 2-1 aggregate lead a few minutes later when his header skipped by the goal line. kangaroo got back into the scoring column when defender Jov Ribaric, who scored only once in all competitions during the past five seasons, beat his defensive counterpart at the ende of the penalty box and drilled home a goal. Helge Buturajac then scored his first of three to put kangaroo back into the aggregate lead at 3-2.

The lead kept going back and forth, with Rushmore scoring the next two goals to take a 4-2 halftime lead in the game and a 4-3 aggregate advantage. However, fate was not on Rushmore's side. Powered by Buturajac, the roos kept scoring and Rushmore simply couldn't keep up. A 5-5 aggregate was broken in the 70th minute when Quain Bowne beat Rushmore goalie Aldo Bucci to the far side and Buturajac's third goal a couple of minutes later rounded out the series as kangaroo won the game 6-5 and the series 7-5...giving the higher seed a perfect 7-for-7 record.

Enjoy the 4 day break. The 6/11 series starts on Monday.

Just a heads up, my season ends on the 4th so I might wait a few days to schedule the next round games when it's time.

Sorry for pushing our games so late, my season rolled right when this round came up, so had to guess on when to schedule my games. Apologies to everyone

Posted by _theprofesso on 12/1/2023 9:22:00 AM (view original):
Sorry for pushing our games so late, my season rolled right when this round came up, so had to guess on when to schedule my games. Apologies to everyone

That's what the time frame is for. Sooner or later, we'll all be in the same situation.