Both scheduled games were played this morning so this will be the lone update.

Three out of the four Semifinalist births are now secured as #3 butterfiles united wins the French civil war with a 3-1 win and a final aggregate of 4-1 over #11 Space Olympics. Olympics was down a goal after the 1-0 buterfiles victory in the series opener and was feeling confident about having home field. That went out the window when Mexican midfielder, and part-time lucha libre Camilo Santo Domingo, wrestled down his mark in the 28th minute, earning the straight red card and dooming his squad. butterfiles immediately took advantage of the man advantage with a Mauro Marín goal a few minutes later. Olympics did manage to tie the game with a shorthanded goal but the constant pressure wore the defense down and butterfiles knocked two more into the back of the net.

The final head-to-head finally got underway between the only pairing where seeding held. #4 Swamp City Dragons hosted #5 FC Kingston in Canada and it was all Kingston. Two goals apiece by Quong Ikeda and Sadahige Kanai powered the offense and Swamp City couldn't really get anything going other than a Trowbrydge Teruyuki header. The series now heads to the US where Kingston can secure the final Semis spot on home soil tomorrow.

The Golden Toe is still being led by two players that have been eliminated from the competition (Volodya Zablosky and Mohamed Saylor) but can still win the individual honor if they are not caught, although Semifinalist #9 Club de Fútbol Deportivo Cotopaxi's Sceley Ballouchy is only one goal behind.

Congrats Aubie. Good luck moving forward!

Today's game is at 1pm and, if we don't need to play a tiebreaker, the Semifinals time frame will begin tomorrow.

We are now down to the Final Four as the evenly matched 4/5 matchup concluded this afternoon. #4 FC Kingston went into the game with a 4-1 advantage after taking it to #5 Swamp City Dragons on the road. Today, Swamp City tried to turn the tables during their own road appearance. As a harbinger of things to come, Swamp City defender Bertie Montabell scored his first goal of the tournament in the 3rd minute when he received a corner kick in the middle of the box and easily beat Kingston goalie Abrahan Sabino. The Dragons continued to pour it on, scoring two more times before the game was 25 minutes old to knot the aggregate at 4-4.

Clearly flustered, Kingston welcomed the halftime whistle to regroup and get their heads back into the game. The home side finally hit their stride when Sadahige Kanai's shot at the 60 minute mark dipped just underneath the crossbar, putting Kingston back in the lead 5-4. A relentless offensive attack by the Dragons tried to equalize but their final chance in the 87th minute got past Sabino but hit the side netting, temporarily quieting the home fans who thought the ball had crossed the line until the referee signalled for the goal kick. The crowd realized that Samp City had not leveled and the celebration began as #4 FC Kingston lost the game 3-1 but won the series 5-4.

The Semifinals will begin tomorrow. I'll post the time frame in a few hours.

The penultimate round has arrived. The time frame for the Semifinals will be July 27th thru August 3rd and, as with the previous rounds, it will be a home and away based solely on aggregate goals. The winners will face off in The Championship and the losing teams will play a single game (home team decided by coin flip) for 3rd Place.

The Final Four may begin scheduling at your leisure and good luck. Meanwhile, the solid gold Cup trophy was just delivered from the manufacturer and is being polished to a mirror finish. Looks pretty good if I may say so.

Looks like the first Semifinal game is on the 30th so we have a few days to kill.

The opening game between #3 butterfiles united and #10 The Shield of the Cow at the Cow Palace is a 1pm start. See you then.

The first game of the Semifinals is now in the history books as #10 The Shield of the Cow does its job at the Cow Palace and takes a 3-1 win against #3 butterfiles united. Former L'Orteil D'or winner Halbert Labazares got the Cow off on the right hoof when he scored with a glancing header that found the far corner of the goal, stranding butterfiles goalie Adrián Jared without any recourse. Things got worse for the French side when Cow defender Matthias Schilder weaved his way through the middle like a forward and blasted an effort that dipped underneath the crossbar. butterfiles kept falling for the offside trap, beautifully executed by the Cow defense, destroying any chances the visitors had of getting back into the game. The only bright spot for butterfiles was a late goal by their $1,000,000 transfer man Mauro Marín, who scored right before full time to eliminate the goose egg. The series now goes back to France tomorrow and we'll see if that goal proves important to the series outcome.

The other Semis also gets underway tomorrow as the Cup Championship is right around the corner.

I think the cocoon is about to bust. Good game cows

Good game, Butterflies. Being on the road tomorrow makes me nervous, though. 2-goal differential doesn't seem like much these days. Good luck!

High drama in the #3/10 Semifinals this morning. butterfiles went into their home game down 3-1 after #10 The Shield of the Cow took advantage of home cooking and won the opener. The return game in France, however, was a completely different matter. butterfiles dominated from the beginning as Gomes Martínez and million dollar man Mauro Marín scored on headers to tie the aggregate 3-3. The Cow did regain the lead after a Emerson Heçija shot beat butterfiles goalie Adrián Jared but the #3 seed pressed the pace and kept the momentum. Lucila Astol knotted the teams at a 4-4 aggregate with his tally in 1st half extra time, setting up the dramatic conclusion. Noe Juanma, in the 50th minute, flashed his superior vertical leap and rose above the fray, directing a shot towards the far corner and capping off the comeback. #3 butterfiles united won the game 4-1 and takes the series 5-4, ending yet another exellent run by the Cow Shields, who will play in the 3rd Place game. The cocoon is still intact.

The other Semis between #4 FC Kingston and #9 Club de Fútbol Deportivo Cotopaxi also got udnerway today with no hint as to which team will advance to the Championship. 46,000 fans at Kingston's home stadium sat on their hands for most of the game as Cotopaxi grabbed the early lead off of a fantastic individual effort by Edwin Smets, who made the defender look like an amateur and easily scored in the 21st minute. Cotopaxi played an almost flawless game, committing no yellows and winning every stat in the boxscore. However, a brief letdown in concentration cost the Ecuadorian side the win as seldom used sub Jin Seigo, who had just entered the game, scored in the 79th minute, allowing Kingston to salvage the 1-1 tie.

The series heads to Ecuador tomorrow to determine who will face butterfiles.

We pulled a butterfly out of a caterpillar on that one! Great series jeffdrayer!

Great series, aubie8. Good luck in the finals!

The last Semifinal game is at 1pm today, unless they tie again.

All sorts of Internet connection problems this afternoon...

The Championship is now set as the deciding game between #4 FC Kingston and #9 Club de Fútbol Deportivo Cotopaxi went final, making what was a 32 team tournament down to two. The opening game was a 1-1 draw, so everything was on the line. The evenness cobntinued as both teams traded shots but neither could tally with the 1st half ending in a scorless 0-0 tie. Midway through the 2nd half, the reigns finally loosened when Kingston's Rayshaun Lozada scored with a blistering strike that found the corner of the goal to give the visitors a one goal lead. The game almost leveled a few minutes later when Sceley Ballouchy delivered a couple of nice corners but Cotopaxi couldn't convert either of them into goals. The failure proved fatal when Isreali defender Simcha Bierger scored his first goal of the tournament in the 86th minute to put the game and the series away. #3 FC Kingston advances to the Championship to face butterfiles united and Cotopaxi will have to accept a trip to the 3rd Place game after a fine tournament thay almost didn't enter.