Posted by EJP on 7/14/2023 7:04:00 AM (view original):
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.

Can't argue with 32 being the perfect number. There are also some folks who rotate their teams in an out. But, some of those coaches who enter multiple teams have been doing so from the very beginning and with a lot of success under each ID.

I'll see what the signup numbers look like for Cup XIII in a few months and play it by ear.

CONCACAF's Hexagonal qualifier for the last world cup is probably a little too complicated, but it's what I immediately thought of.

I've got challenges out to kangaroo fc. Waiting to get theirs in.

The speculation about playoff formats for Cup XIII is over and the live playoff action for Cup XII resumes!

The first game has gone final when 27,938 fan fanatics packed the stadium to see #6 FC Not Very Athletic make its Knockout debut against #11 Space Olympics. The place started rocking when Jabari Pickens redirected a corner to put Athletic on the board. The lead lasted exactly 8 minutes until Vincente Ontiveros scored the equalizer on a diving hearder that easily beat Athletic goalie Kole Suárez, ending the 1st half scoring at 1-1.

The home side grabbed the lead again early on in the 2nd half as Grayvesone Akeman settled the corner cross onto his feet and snapped a shot passed diving Olympics goalie Nadir Dupuis to regain the lead at 2-1. But, once again, the French club answered in quick succession as defender Leondre Jolley picked an excellent time to score his first goal of the tournament to knot the game at 2 apiece. Olympics finally grabbed its first lead of the match when Gareth Carne scored in the 76th minute as it proved to be the game winner. Athletic had a final chance to salvage the draw in extra time but Dupuis was up to the task and the #11 seed won the game 3-2.

That makes the return game on the 17th a must win for Athletic. A one goal win sends the series into sudden death, a multi-goal Athletic win punches their ticket to the Quarterfinals and any other result hands aggregate to Olympics. A ton of games tomorrow as the First Round gets busy.

Three out of the four playoff games today were played at 7am as a couple of teams take a firm hold of their respective series. #4 FC Kingston hit the road and took it to #13 Bordeaux Fighting Bovines with a 5-2 win. Bordeaux actually drew first blood when Alessandro Vigiani scored off an early corner to give the home side the 1-0 lead. From then on, superior conditioning seemed to rule the day. Sadahige Kanai and Quong Ikeda both scored twice as Kingston really laid it on late. The score was actually tied 2-2 until the Cattle showed obvious fatigue and gave up three costly goals in the final 15 minutes. Bordeaux is now up against the wall.

By contrast, #10 The Shield of the Cow did what they needed to do with their home game and won 5-2 over #7 Shoals Soccer Club. The other side of beef in this tournament dominated play early at The Cow Palace as Norberto Urbina scored goals in the 5th, 8th and 15th minutes. That opening hat trick was more than enough to hold off Shoals, who played better later on but could not climb out of the huge hole they had dug themselves in. Shoals at least gets a chance to right the ship on their home turf tomorrow when the return game is scheduled.

The third game this morning saw two Canadian squads face off as #12 Burnaby Hillbillies hosted #5 Swamp City Dragons. It was a fairly tight affair as the first half went scorless despite some good chances. The deadlock was finally broken in the 66th minute when defender Remington Kain, playing up for a corner kick, scored his first of the tournament, delighting the British Columbia faithful. The 1-0 lead held almost till the final whistle but 102 year old Arley Movsisyan showed why he is still under contract in his 82nd season. Coming is as a sub, Movsisyan split the defenders and hit a grass burner that Hillbillies' goalie Augustus Barth couldn't reach to end the game as a 1-1 draw. Not bad for a centenarian.

This afternoon, the #1 seed Yenisey Krasnoyarsk opens against #16 VB Hibernian.

The final game of the day proves that seeding is just a number. #1 Yenisey Krasnoyarsk, so dominant in Group Stage play when they crushed Group B en route to a 6-0 record, hosted #16 VB Hibernian, who needed a road victory just to clinch the bottom spot out of Group G.

One would think that may indicate who the favorite was in this game. Nope.

Ana Arenas got Hibernian on the board in the 36th minute when his header off a nice cross was perfectly placed to beat Krasnoyarsk goalie Aliceson Abundis. Golden Toe leader Volodya Zablosky did add to his lead with his 13th goal of the tournament to tie the game 1-1 but it was all Hibs in the 2nd half, with goals by Leonardo Sarmiento and Mustafa Gibbs giving the underdogs the unexpected 3-1 victory. The #1 seed will now need to reverse the tables and win on the road in England by two, when the return game is played on the 18th.

A bunch of games are being played tomorrow with, potentially, four Quarterfinals bids on the line.

By the way, all First Round games have been scheduled, so thank you. As it stands, the games run through the 19th...although I would be shocked if at least one of the series didn't go into sudden death.

The first two Quarterfinalists have punched their ticket as they survive the First Round to live another day. #4 FC Kingston, holding a 5-2 aggregate lead over #13 Bordeaux Fighting Bovines, had a relatively stress free home match as they maintained their three goal advantage to advance after a 1-1 draw, giving them the series 6-3. The Cattle struck first when Alessandro Vigiani scored off of a corner in the 34th minute but that was all the French club could muster. Quong Ikeda scored right before the half ended for Kingston and the defense clamped down any Cattle comeback hopes in a scoreless 2nd half. Kingston can now relax and enjoy several days off before they have to hit the field again.

In a game with a bit more tension, #10 The Shield of the Cow, who also had a 5-2 advantage after the opening contest, barely held on to defeat #7 Shoals Soccer Club. Shoals set the tone early when Worth Carvaja beat the offside trap and put his cleats into the ball's stitching to easily beat Cow goalie Luke Sengier. The Cow's Niklas Mascherano then re-established the three goal aggregate with his first goal of the tournament 15 minutes later, not knowing his score would be the game winner. Shoals, led by their top scorer Jorge Withycombe, dominated the 2nd half. Withycombe scored in the 61st minute on a shot so hard that it deflected off of Sengier's hands and in to the netting to cut the aggregate to 6-4. Then late in the game, Withycombe scored again...but it was the last gasp for Shoals as the final whistle blew on a 3-1 Shoals home win with the aggregate going to The Cow by the narrowist of margins, 6-5. The Cow moves on to the Quarterfinals as Shoals' tournament comes to an end.

The other game this morning the #8/9 matchup got under way with a tight game in Stockholm. #8 Metropolitan Screaming Eagles did what they had to do and got the job done, barely, over the #9 visitors Club de Fútbol Deportivo Cotopaxi. The Ecuadorians got off to a blistering start as they scored twice in the first 8 minutes and raced out to a 3-1 halftime lead. The break seemed to allow the Sewdes a chance to calm down and they played better soccer in the 2nd stanza, capped off by high drama at the end. David Teddy scored in the 73rd minute to close the gap to 3-2 but hothead Deontre Voss, amped up about the Metro Eagles goal, received two yellow cards in as many minutes and was kicked out of the game. However, being down a man actually seemed to help. Decker Bucher scored the first shorthanded goal in the 88th minute to tie the game at 3-3 followed by Filip Lonnqvist's dramatic game winner in extra time that bent around the outstretched arms of Cotopaxi goalie Antonius-Hermanus Zeefuik and in to the upper corner. The Metro Eagles got away with one this morning in their 4-3 win. The series shifts back to South America tomorrow where playing a man down will not be a winning formula for the Europeans.

More games this afternoon.

A third team has made their way into the quarters and we have our first sudden death scenario come out of the afternoon action.

The run of first time Cup participant #6 FC Not Very Athletic came to an end today at the hands of #11 Space Olympics. Athletic, down a goal after dropping the opening match 3-2, absolutely dominated the stats sheet, with 27 opportunities and a +9 advantage in shots taken. Athletic even grabbed the lead, twice, having 1-0 and then 2-1 leads. But Olympics, playing on home soil, got the equalizer with 5 minutes to go when Vincente Ontiveros ripped a shot from outside the penalty box that beat athletic goalie Kole Suárez and dipped just underneath the crossbar to level the game a 2-2, with a tie all that Olympics was needing to advance. A last ditch Athletics efforts in the 90th minute sailed wide as Olympics takes the series by a 5-4 aggregate, ending a fine inagural tournament for the English side.

#5 Swamp City Dragons and #12 Burnaby Hillbillies will be heading to a sudden death matchup as the series remains knotted after the result this afternoon. The first game ended in a 1-1 draw so, fittingly, today's game also ended in a tie...this time 3-3. Burnaby scored all three of their goals in the first half and then held on as Swamp City owned the 2nd half. The Dragons secret weapon, the ageless Arley Movsisyan, scored in his second straight contest and Rollins Scherer, receiving a corner kick cross with just a few minutes to go, painted the corner to send the series into a tiebreaker. Since Swamp City is the higher seed, they will host the first sudden death game.

Half of the quarterfinal spots have been earned as the lone game this morning saw the #1 seed fall. Looking like the Stanley Cup playoffs where the Boston Bruins couldn't lose during the regular season and then lost in the opening round to wildcard Florida Panthers, #1 Yenisey Krasnoyarsk found themselves down 3-1 after dropping the first game at home. This morning's game in Edinburgh saw Hibs jump out to a 2-0 lead, which meant the aggregate swelled to an insurmountable 5-1 before the halftime whistle blew. A decent showing by the Russians in the 2nd half closed the gap somewhat but a late goal by Hibs forward Leonardo Sarmiento sealed the deal and #16 VB Hibernian won the game 3-2 and the series 6-3. Golden Toe leader Volodya Zablosky still has a three goal lead and can win the individual honor despite his team bowing out of the tournament. It's dubious whether 13 goals will be enough with three more rounds left in the playoff bracket.

The sudden death game between Swamp City Dragons and Burnaby Hillbillies has been scheduled for tomorrow. There are two games scheduled tomorrow, both Swamp City home games. Only the first one will count. If that game draws, Burnaby is the home team if the sudden death tiebreaker continues.

Three more games this afternoon/evening, including both legs of the #3 butterfiles united/#14 Merchiston FC series.

5 out of the 8 available spots have now been decided as the #8/9 seed matchup was decisively ended in Ecuador. #9 Club de Fútbol Deportivo Cotopaxi, down a goal after the game in Sweden, blasted #8 Metropolitan Screaming Eagles out of the playoffs with a 6-1 win that featured a boxscore as lopsided as the final result. The Metro Eagles managed only 5 shots...even had all of them gone in for a goal, they still would have lost the game. Cotopaxi scored six times in the last 26 minutes to erase a Metro Eagles 1-0 lead, that had given them a 5-3 aggregate lead up to that point, and just crushed the spirit of the club from Stockholm. The 6-1 win, and 9-5 aggregate, means the end of the road for Cup XII's winner of the best name award, as Gunther Assmann was unable to lead his team once they fell behind.

The other two games at 1pm were the opening contests of the final two pairings in the First Round. #2 kangaroo fc hit the road and played impressive soccer, as they handled #15 FC Cackalacky on the road. The Croats scored once in each half as goals by Tyrel Mora and Egor Chekhol locked down the victory. The series heads back to the Balkans tomorrow where Cackalacky has no time to dally and needs to come up with an answer to the roos defense. Also, #3 butterfiles united and #14 Merchiston FC played to a 2-2 draw in the butterfiles home stadium in France. Wild momentum shifts marked the action as Merchiston scored in the 3rd minute to grab an early lead and then gave up the equalizer as time was expiring. The two teams immediately jumped on their chartered planes as the game in Scotland is this evening in what will probably be a battle of which team handles the jetlag better.

After tonight's game, there are two more tomorrow as the First Round could potentially wrap up, barring any tiebreaker necessities.

I feel like I should fire my whole team after giving up 6 goals in 12 minutes of game time. SHEESH!!!

Posted by KSBeachBums on 7/18/2023 7:18:00 PM (view original):
I feel like I should fire my whole team after giving up 6 goals in 12 minutes of game time. SHEESH!!!

Yeah, I've always wondered what the program is compensating for when you see that kind of game-changing swing...fatigue, home field, favorite losing, etc. or is that just incredible RNG bad luck? Something dramatic happened...

We are NOT good in First Round Elimination Games. We lost 7-1 in the last cup and 6-1 in this one.

Yet another team has made their way into the Quarterfinals as #3 butterfiles united handled Cup XI Runner-Up #14 Merchiston FC, guaranteeing that the finals will have no repeats. The first game, played at butterfiles field, ended in a 2-2 draw, giving Merchiston the home field edge. Unfortunately for the Scottish faithful, they couldn't capitalize. Blanco Amaro did score early for Merchiston but that was the end of their highlight reel. The butterfiles kept applying pressure until the defense finally cracked in the 63rd minute, breaking open a 1-1 tie and cruising to an eventual 4-1 road win, giving butterfiles the 6-3 aggregate.

Two more spots remain as what was 32 is now down to 10.

Oh yeah, an oddity in the Golden Toe tracker as Mauro Marín has caught himself with a goal in the Merchiston win. The tally under 3 goals now has the following entry - Mauro Marín (butterfiles), Mauro Marín (Bordeaux). The man loves to see his name in lights.