Posted by vkurk on 6/24/2023 4:54:00 PM (view original):
Thanks for the shout out. This is going to be fun. Thanks for putting this together gomiami1972!

Very welcome. It's a long tournament but most enjoy it and come back Cup after Cup.

I forgot to add aubie8 and his butterfiles unites squad to the standings. I also had a late request from indiansrck27 to enter the field.

With those two extra teams, I can add two other standby teams and create a Group H. We will have a full 32 teams. That will eliminate the 3rd Place finishers advancing (the two Group H qualifiers will take their place.)

I'll make the necessary update to the Tournament Format and Rules post as well as the Group Standings post this evening.

That's awesome to make the change to let them in. Good luck everyone! I think I have all my outgoing challenges out and hope to see my 3 other USA World whatever compadres advance, hopefully.

Group Stage scheduling is beginning to trickle in. So far, 40 games have been scheduled.

About scheduling, there are quite a few worlds that are near or at the end of season. Therefore, some teams are probably waiting to sign players in order to field a full roster. My team's world is going to flip tonight and I will have a whopping six players on the roster. So, if you send a challenge and it does not get accepted, your opponent might not be ignoring you...they may be waiting to sign a few players so they don't play you with only six players. The Group Stage has a long time frame so there shouldn't be any scheduling issues. I'll even extend it a day (using July 4th as an excuse) if need be.

Live action starts tonight when Metropolitan Screaming Eagles host Arsenal FC in Group C play. As the opening game of the tournament, it gets the long writeup, so hopefully the game doesn't end in a 0-0 draw!

Posted by gomiami1972 on 6/24/2023 6:43:00 PM (view original):
I forgot to add aubie8 and his butterfiles unites squad to the standings. I also had a late request from indiansrck27 to enter the field.

With those two extra teams, I can add two other standby teams and create a Group H. We will have a full 32 teams. That will eliminate the 3rd Place finishers advancing (the two Group H qualifiers will take their place.)

I'll make the necessary update to the Tournament Format and Rules post as well as the Group Standings post this evening.

Thanks gomiami. As you mentioned, the butterflies are just starting recruiting and missing lots players. Please send invites for later in schedule.

The opening game of FC Dynasty Cup XII has gone official and it was not a 0-0 draw.

Metropolitan Screaming Eagles played host to the first game in the Swedish capitol when they took on newcomer Arsenal F.C. in Group C play. 38 year old midfielder David Teddy got the home side on the board in the 10th minute when he received the corner and snapped off a quick shot that beat Arsenal goalie Gerrard Fleisch to give the Metro Eagles the 1-0 lead. Before the crowd had even stopped cheering, Decker Bucher made the score 2-0 when he painted the corner three minutes later.

Arsenal showed that they came to play and immediately responded when forward Dennis Nolan dove forward and hit a low header that Metro Eagles' Wait Galik missed when he tried to make the save. The home side then did their level best to bury the visitors by scoring a third goal in the first 20 minutes off of the effort by Filip Lonnqvist, who hit a rocket at the top of the box to make the score 3-1. At that point, both sides got over their tournament jitters and settled down into a more routine rest of the first half.

Arsenal benefitted from the halftime breather and came out much better organized. Curtiss Castell and Carla Tamudo both scored for the English club as the latter's goal in the 72nd minute tied the contest at 3-3 and made the home crowd more than a bit nervous. That when Austrian forward Gunther Assmann, and that name is not a typo, beat the offside trap and smashed the game winner home with 15 minutes left in regulation, giving the Metro Eagles a 4-3 win and all three points. If Arsenal can take away something positive, the three away goals may be handy to have in a tiebreaker. The negative is they got beat by an Assmann.

More games tomorrow.

Wouldn’t wanna lose to anyone other than an assmann. Hahahaha. Thanks for putting this together Miami!

The games today were both early starts and the tourney has seen the first three contests won by the visiting club.

In Group D, Bordeaux Fighting Bovines, the Cup VII Runner-Up and long absent from the competition, got their return off to a solid start when they beat first-time Cup participant Eton Rifles FC 3-1. Bovines forward Mauro Marín put on a scoring clinic as the Spaniard scored a hat trick to take a very early lead in the L'Orteil D'or. Despite Hassoun Hautcoeur's red card in the 71st minute that forced the cattle to play a cow down for the rest of the game, Eton couldn't add to Holdin MacWatters' early tally.

Out of Group G, VB Hibernian made the record for English clubs playing at home 0-3 this tournament as they fell to Kobelco United Football Club 3-2 in a dramatic finish that sent the crowd of almost 35,000 home disappointed. The side from Kobe, Japan drew first blood early with a goal by Varik Brome from a free kick just outside the box. Rather than loft in a pass to one of his teammates, Broome shot over the wall and caught Hibernian goalie Dema Rowe out of position. Hibernian then took control for the next 75 minutes, scoring twice with goals by Mohamed Saylor and Leonardo Sarmiento to take a 2-1 lead.

That's when goal-scoring extraordinaire Rolfe Reinhard stepped up to salvage the contest for the visitors. In the 81st minute, Reinhard first headed in the tying score off a corner cross and then right before extra time was added, did it again. Rowe had a chance to stop the game winner but his deflection slowed but couldn't stop the ball from crossing the goal line. Kobelco takes all three points and Hibernian goes back to the drawing board.

14 worlds are either about to or are in the early player signing phase of the season...so just be patient and keep sending your challenges. They'll get accepted sooner or later. Several more games are slotted for tomorrow before the schedule really starts to heat up.

There were four games in the morning action.

VB Hibernian has dug a hole in Group G that they'll need to dig out of quickly if they hope to advance into the Knockout rounds. FC Kingston came into town and leaned on Quong Ikeda, who scored a triplet and single-handedly propelled his side to a 3-1 victory. Ikeda scored all three times off headers in and around the penalty box. Argentine forward Leonardo Sarmiento's goal was not nearly enough to compensate for the home side as Hibernian drops its second straight home game to open up Cup XII and would be well advised to get a positive result in their next matchup.

After sitting out the last couple of tournaments, Cup IX Champion Fighting Ants made a triumphant return to tournament play with a 3-1 victory over FC Cackalacky in Group F. Cackalacky's Asthor Truelsen opened up the scoring in the 18th minute with a shot that beat Colombian goalie Nacho Moran to the near side. Unfortunately for the home side, the Ants dominated the game from that point forward. A pair of goals by Burhford Sigismund in the second half sealed the deal as the Ants, who don't have a single starter over the age of 27, pulled away for the road win.

The Shield of the Cow displayed their usual excellence at the Cow Palace when they hosted Southeast Indiana Football Club in the Group E opener. What was billed as a tight contest quickly became lopsided when German hothead Lambert Schröder bodyslammed his mark to the ground and got red carded in the 16th minute. The sold out crowd of 47,000 then saw The Cow dominate the stats, although the final score ended up a respectable 3-0 considering the 11-on-10 situation. Brazilian forward Norberto Urbina scored twice as the undermanned Indiana squad simply wore down from the constant pressure.

Finally this morning, Eton Rifles FC bounced back from its debut loss to win this morning's game 5-3 against Shoals Soccer Club in Group D play. The game was statistically close between the two sides and the score bore that out as the contest was tied 1-1, then 2-2 and again 3-3. Shoals was able to keep the game close thanks to excellent play by Jorge Withycombe, who scored twice. Eton finally gained control in the 83rd minute when Nealon Laverty, a goal scoring machine in league play, netted his second goal of the game from point blank range to give the home side a 4-3 lead as it proved to be the game winner.

One more game this evening, the Group C return game between Arsenal F.C. and Metropolitan Screaming Eagles.

There were actually two games this evening...the other being Eton Rifles FC versus North Polar Dragons. Updating those as we speak.

In the evening games, Metropolitan Screaming Eagles made it a clean sweep of their home and away against Arsenal F.C. and had to do it a man down for the entire game. Deontre Voss was sent off in the 2nd minute!, yet the Metro Eagles still managed to build up a 2-0 lead by halftime before fatigue started to set in. Arsenal got one back when Dennis Nolan placed a perfect ball into the corner but the few scoring chances that remained couldn't produce the equalizer and the Metro Eagles held on to take a 2-1 road win.

In the other game, Eton Rifles FC played in their final Group D home game (already!,) this time hosting North Polar Dragons. The Dragons went on a scoring rampage, tallying a whopping six away goals, which will do wonders in the tiebreaker system. The game was close for the first 45 minutes as both defenses decided to take some quality time off. Between the two clubs, seven goals were netted before the break with North Polar holding a slim 4-3 lead. But, there was too much Cufré Alonso, who scored his third goal of the game in the 72nd minute and a garbage time goal by Finnish forward Kaj Tervo sealed the deal in a 6-3 road win. After three games, Group D has a three-way tie at three points each. It's all about the threes.

Tomorrow there are another six games as the standings start to take shape.

Four morning games have gone into the book.

VB Hibernian saved its tournament and got a much needed three points when it went to Japan and kept the Group G streak alive of the visiting team winning. Kobelco United Football Club had an opportunity to vault up to the top of the group standings but fell prey to the inspired Hibs. Mohamed Saylor scored the game winner in the 70th minute when Kobelco goalie Tetsunori Saotome tried to tip the ball over the crossbar but couldn't change the angle of the shot enough for it to clear. For good measure, Saylor scored an insurance goal 12 minutes later to finish the scoring at 4-2.

The Shield of the Cow and Aurea Cruce Aquilonis played to a gritty 2-2 draw in Group E featuring a contest between two former Cup champions. Halbert Labazares, the Cup X Golden Toe winner, got The Cow on the board in the 41st minute when he bent it like Beckham around the arms of Aquilonis goalie Ludwika Dudek. Polish defender Jaromierz Mielczarek closed the scoring in the 57th minute when he received a corner cross, settled the ball to his feet like a forward and blasted a rocket into the netting.

The Group D standings now sit with an early four-way tie with Shoals Soccer Club's 3-1 home win over Bordeaux Fighting Bovines. Jorge Withycombe takes the lead in the L'Orteil D'or with his third and fourth goals of the tournament, his second goal pinballing off the goal post just before halftime. Bordeaux had plenty of offensive chances but could only net an Alessandro Vigiani header in the 43rd minute.

Cup X champion Merchiston FC got off to a blazing start in Group B when the beat the crutchanators of soccer 5-2 on the road. Blanco Amaro scored a hat trick and defending Golden Toe Thomas-VanLuijk De Meyer added his own goal as Merchiston made the most of a modest number of scoring opportunities. The game was statistically even...the difference being Merchiston scored on 5 of its 7 shots on goal and crutchanators could only manage 2 out its 8. The game would have ended 5-1 if not for Juanma Vitolo scoring crutchanators' 2nd tally in extra time right before the referee blew the final whistle.

There are two more games tonight before the first massive day of the tournament when 9 games get played on the 29th.

I sent a sitemail to Chicken8 about this. He sent me an additional challenge in the past 24 hours. My guess is there was some confusion and he thought we weren't fully scheduled yet, but we already have our home/home scheduled with my away leg (the one he sent the challenge for) scheduled for the wee hours of Wednesday night/Thursday morning (tonight).

So I'm ignoring the new challenge, but if there's some reason that he wanted to scrap tonights game (like if he's currently rolling over and his roster is in flux), just let me know before tonight's game sims.

I'm also just posting this here now for posterity/visibility.

Posted by dw172300 on 6/28/2023 12:02:00 PM (view original):
I sent a sitemail to Chicken8 about this. He sent me an additional challenge in the past 24 hours. My guess is there was some confusion and he thought we weren't fully scheduled yet, but we already have our home/home scheduled with my away leg (the one he sent the challenge for) scheduled for the wee hours of Wednesday night/Thursday morning (tonight).

So I'm ignoring the new challenge, but if there's some reason that he wanted to scrap tonights game (like if he's currently rolling over and his roster is in flux), just let me know before tonight's game sims.

I'm also just posting this here now for posterity/visibility.

His world is early in the signing phase but he has 22 on his roster and I haven't heard from him.

Since there are a number of new coaches to the Cup, this is a good time for me to explain a scheduling rule. Since each team plays a home and away against the others within their group, if additional games get scheduled, this is how I handle the situation.

For example, team A has their home game scheduled on 6/29 and team B has their home game scheduled on 7/3. If a third game is scheduled, let's say another team A home game, unless I hear from both coaches before the 6/29 contest agreeing to set aside the final score, the first scheduled team A home game will be the one of record. If I do hear from both coaches that a particular game should be ignored, then I'll honor a later game date to count for the standings.

There are always a couple of games involving new Cup teams that surprise me since it's impossible to measure the strength of a team without seeing them perform first. Such a surprise happened this evening when newcomer FC Not Very Athletic went on the road and beat perennial powerhouse The Shield of the Cow 2-1 in Group E. Not only did they win in a stadium that few teams have success in, they dominated the stats sheet at the Cow Palace. Midfielder Lindleigh Little opened up the scoring with a shot taken at a full run right at Cow goalie Luke Sengier, who couldn't even move as the ball whizzed by him. After Cow forward Norberto Urbina tied the game on a not very athletic play by goalie Kole Suárez, who muffed the save, the visitors took the lead for good when defender Carlos Anunciacion scored off a perfectly placed header. The result serves notice to the rest of Group E.

In Group F, FC Cackalacky survived yielding a goal two minutes into the game to earn a come from behind 2-1 win over Fianna AFC. Fianna started its FC Dynasty Cup history by scoring on its first shot on goal, courtesy of Ordsone Cudney, who made some space inside the box and rifled home a score. Swiss forward Gabriele Abderhalden later tied the game for the home side at the 31 minute mark after wedging a shot with the side of his foot. The game looked as if it might end up a draw but a solid header by Rudolf Hofstetter in the 84th minute was saved by Fianna goalie Deegan Colcroft but not properly controlled. The rebound went right to the feet of Mario Dávila, who had no problem cleaning up the loose change and giving his team all three points.

A big day tomorrow. I'm getting some sleep.