There was only one game today, the final one in Group H between my own two teams, Fußball-Club Köln 01/07 e. and Der Kaiserlich-Österreichische Hodensack. For some reason, a young Hodensack defender decided to push way forward and hit a perfect strike in the 21st minute to account for the only goal in a 1-0 victory. It wasn't a corner or a free kick so I'm not sure why Teoboldo Werberg would be inside the box but it worked. The Crown Jewels finish with six points and my poor Köln squad ends up 0-6-0.

Since today is an off day before the last Group Stage game between Swamp City Dragons and Fianna AFC, I'm going to update the FC Dynasty Record Book. I haven't done so in almost a year but I have all of the data ready to go and can get bring the numbers through the end of Cup XI. If you like stats, some of you may enjoy seeing where your team or players place on the all-time lists.

The Group stage wrapped up this afternoon when Swamp City Dragons beat Fianna AFC 3-1 to close out Group F. Swamp City scored on the opening and closing plays of the game, pulling off an unusual box score where Titus Jarman scored a few seconds after the opening whistle and Rollins Scherer closed out the game in added time. The win lifted Swamp City past three teams in the seeding process, going from the #8 seed to the #5.

My thanks to everyone for a smooth Group Stage - that's 96 games scheduled and played in less than two weeks. You all are the best. I'll need a day to verify the standings and create the Knockout Round post. For those of you moving on, best of luck in the elimination rounds and for the teams whose dreams have ended, I hope to see you in Cup XIII.

So, enjoy a day off and I'll see you all on the 12th, when the First Round begins.

In an interesting twist in the L'Orteil D'or (The Golden Toe) standings, Bordeaux striker Mauro Marin was sold to the Butterflies after game 1 of the Group stage. Marin had a hat trick for Bordeaux in his last game for the Cattle and was promptly shipped to the Butterflies for a 7 figure transfer fee.

Posted by ttnorm on 7/10/2023 8:06:00 PM (view original):
In an interesting twist in the L'Orteil D'or (The Golden Toe) standings, Bordeaux striker Mauro Marin was sold to the Butterflies after game 1 of the Group stage. Marin had a hat trick for Bordeaux in his last game for the Cattle and was promptly shipped to the Butterflies for a 7 figure transfer fee.

LOL, dammit. I made note of the transfer and though to myself that Mauro Marín would become the first player in Cup history to score for two different teams in the same tournament...and then forgot about it when he scored his first goal as a butterfile. That's the kind of trivia I usually include in the game summaries.

Marín has 5 goals this tournament, three for Bordeaux and two for butterfiles. If you end up playing them in the playoffs...don't count your money.

Ha. For that much dough he better get up to a goal a game average and a hat trick or three.

I'll be finalizing the Group Stage and Knockouts this evening. Life sorta got in the way in the day time.

The First Round of the Knockouts is ready to go!

Each series will be a home and away. There are no tiebreakers, so you must win outright based on aggregate goals. If there is an aggregate tie, we'll play a sudden death with the higher seed hosting the lower seed. If that game draws, the lower seed then becomes the home team...and we'll keep playing until we have a winner.

As the games start to be scheduled, I will post the game date on the Knockout Round page in [red brackets.] The time frame for scheduling games runs through the 20th. If a series is involved in sudden death overtimes, the deadline for that series will be extended. If you win your series, don't start scheduling Quarterfinal games even if you know your opponent. Let's let the other series catch up to you.

The playoff seeding is the following

#1 - FC Yenisey Krasnoyarsk (18 pts)
#2 - kangaroo fc (16 pts)
#3 - butterfiles united (15 pts)
#4 - FC Kingston (14 pts)
#5 - Swamp City Dragons (13 pts)
#6 - FC Not Very Athletic (12 pts +7 GD)
#7 - Shoals Soccer Club (12 pts +4 GD)
#8 - Metropolitan Screaming Eagles (11 pts)

#9 - Club de Fútbol Deportivo Cotopaxi (2nd pl 15 pts)
#10 - The Shield of the Cow (2nd pl 11 pts, +8 GD)
#11 - Space Olympics (2nd pl 11 pts, +2 GD)
#12 - Burnaby Hillbillies (2nd pl 10 pts, +3 GD)
#13 - Bordeaux Fighting Bovines (2nd pl, 10 pts, 0 GD)
#14 - Merchiston FC (2nd pl 9 pts, +1 GD, 11 Away)
#15 - FC Cackalacky (2nd pl 9 pts, +1 GD, 5 Away)
#16 - VB Hibernian (2nd pl 9 pts, 0 GD)

Best of luck. Score early and often.

Posted by gomiami1972 on 7/11/2023 9:28:00 PM (view original):
The First Round of the Knockouts is ready to go!

Each series will be a home and away. There are no tiebreakers, so you must win outright based on aggregate goals. If there is an aggregate tie, we'll play a sudden death with the higher seed hosting the lower seed. If that game draws, the lower seed then becomes the home team...and we'll keep playing until we have a winner.

As the games start to be scheduled, I will post the game date on the Knockout Round page in [red brackets.] The time frame for scheduling games runs through the 20th. If a series is involved in sudden death overtimes, the deadline for that series will be extended. If you win your series, don't start scheduling Quarterfinal games even if you know your opponent. Let's let the other series catch up to you.

The playoff seeding is the following

#1 - FC Yenisey Krasnoyarsk (18 pts)
#2 - kangaroo fc (16 pts)
#3 - butterfiles united (15 pts)
#4 - FC Kingston (14 pts)
#5 - Swamp City Dragons (13 pts)
#6 - FC Not Very Athletic (12 pts +7 GD)
#7 - Shoals Soccer Club (12 pts +4 GD)
#8 - Metropolitan Screaming Eagles (11 pts)

#9 - Club de Fútbol Deportivo Cotopaxi (2nd pl 15 pts)
#10 - The Shield of the Cow (2nd pl 11 pts, +8 GD)
#11 - Space Olympics (2nd pl 11 pts, +2 GD)
#12 - Burnaby Hillbillies (2nd pl 10 pts, +3 GD)
#13 - Bordeaux Fighting Bovines (2nd pl, 10 pts, 0 GD)
#14 - Merchiston FC (2nd pl 9 pts, +1 GD, 11 Away)
#15 - FC Cackalacky (2nd pl 9 pts, +1 GD, 5 Away)
#16 - VB Hibernian (2nd pl 9 pts, 0 GD)

Best of luck. Score early and often.

well that was easy

Not surpisingly, both legs of the 5/12 match-up have been scheduled...

Both of ours are scheduled as well.

Posted by KSBeachBums on 7/12/2023 2:32:00 PM (view original):
Both of ours are scheduled as well.

I'll do a survey of the scheduled games this evening. I was just poking fun at the swampster. He's playing against himself in the First Round.

So far, 10 of the 16 First Round games have been scheduled with a week still left in the time frame, so looking good. The playoffs will open up on July 15th when the #6 seed FC Not Very Athletic, the only one of the new Cup teams to advance, hosts the #11 seed Space Olympics. After that, there is a cluster of games on the 16th and 17th.

Since we have a day or so before the live action resumes, let me run something by you all. Up to this point, the max number of teams that could enter was capped at 32. 32 teams makes for a very easy playoff format - two teams from each group of four making for 16 playoff teams. Now that we have hit the 32 mark for the first time, there's a chance we might get more than 32 teams for Cup XIII.

I'd hate to turn teams away and I haven't really thought about how to work a Knockout with 36, 40, teams or whatever. I don't want to add a 5th team to the group stage standings...four teams per group seems to be the sweet spot for scheduling. That means there would be 9 groups, 10 groups etc.

If you have ideas on what a playoff format with more than 16 playoff qualifiers would look like, you can sitemail me or post something here. I'm not anticipating the tournament getting to March Madness size but I can see it growing a little bit more as the word continues to spread. I would appreciate any thoughts.

You could still have groups of four for the knockout round, and then still advance the top two from each group to the first round. Then have the lowest rated second place finishers of however many extra teams above the 16 teams there are play a feather bracket series to get in to the first round. So for example, if you had 18 teams advance out of the knockout rounds, the bottom four seeds would be in the feather bracket to get into the first round games. #15 v. #18 and #16 v. #17.

That does look like only logical way to do a 36 team tournament - 9 groups, 18 playoff teams and the bottom four do a play-in game to get to 16...and also best for a 40 team tournament - 10 groups, 20 playoff teams and the bottom 8 play an opening round.

I'll probably make 40 the new max entry cutoff and go from there.

32 is the sweet spot, and I don't think you would have to turn anyone away if you limited each owner to one team. I know we have several people who entered two teams (me included) to help round out the tournament.