Thanks for the reminder. the challenge had timed out. resent

Posted by gomiami1972 on 2/16/2025 11:45:00 AM (view original):
I'm going to do the update for the three 2/16 games tonight. Meanwhile, we are down to two unscheduled games - the home and away series between Cotopaxi and Merchiston. Since the Group Stage has existing games through the 21st, I'm going to let this sit and hope the challenges get sent/accepted before making some kind of decision about how to handle them if they remain unscheduled. Here is a copy from the 1st page of the thread.

Unscheduled Games - 2

Group A

Club de Fútbol Deportivo Cotopaxi home to Merchiston FC Cotopaxi sends the challenge)

Merchiston FC home to Club de Fútbol Deportivo Cotopaxi (Merchiston sends the challenge)

The only thing I'll ask is if you have an existing challenge sitting out there, make sure it remains active and doesn't time out.

See you all this evening.

All my games are now scheduled

Actually potentially still waiting on them to accept but it is sent.

Posted by indiansrck27 on 2/16/2025 4:33:00 PM (view original):
Actually potentially still waiting on them to accept but it is sent.

We're down to one final game, your home game against Merchiston. If it is sent, he'll probably see it in the next day or so.

Check out the Group F standings. FC Not Very Athletic could have clinched a playoff spot tonight when they faced Slough FC, who was still seeking their first Cup stage point of the tournament. They are seeking no longer. Lutz Oswald's header in the 47th minute was muffed by Athletic goalie Derrick Richardson and that one mistake was the difference in the game. Rather than punching their ticket, Athletic had to settle for a 1-1 draw, giving Slough a point and causing a three-way tie at 10 points in the standings. North Polar Dragons FC are locked in at a 0 goal differential, so the final game between Athletic and Swamp City Dragons will decide everything. Athletic and Swamp City advance with a win or a draw. North Polar advances if Swamp City wins by 3 or more or Athletic wins by 7 or more. No pressure.

SwampDragons United ended up winning Group C after their 3-2 road victory over FC Trojans of SC. The Trojans had grabbed the 2-1 lead in the 66th when Udayle Velázquez scored off a shot from the top of the box but they couldn't hold the advantage, the Dragons dramatically scoring twice in the final 7 minutes to get the come from behind win and finish group play with 16 points, the most so far up to this point. The Trojans, who would have won the group with a win, will be going into the playoffs as a 2nd place finisher.

Fianna AFC won a critical game against FC Stolpen Steamroller, tightening up the Group B standings in another three team race. Steamroller could have clinched with a home win but The Greens found the winning goal right before stoppage time off the foot of Huntingdon Hinson, who beat Steamroller goalie Sein Flórez to the upper corner to give Fianna the 3-2 road win. Stolpen still leads the group with 10 points but Fianna now has two games in hand to both Steamroller and current 2nd place team FC Edinburgh Bullet Birds. All three teams have several ways to advance.

The fourth game today was a damaging loss for Kobelco United Football Club's hopes for making it out of Group A alive. Merchiston FC improved their record to 4-0 after 63 year old Thomas-VanLuijk De Meyer broke a 3-3 tie with his Social Security check...I mean his right foot. Kobelco goalie Carsten Zobel got his fingertips on the ball but the shot was too strong and it crossed the line. The 4-3 win places Merchiston in a virtually assured spot to advance, although they have not mathematically clinched. The Champs Club de Fútbol Deportivo Cotopaxi have yet to play a game, so who knows what's going to happen.

Three games tomorrow.

Posted by gomiami1972 on 2/16/2025 6:17:00 AM (view original):

Posted by KSBeachBums on 2/16/2025 2:31:00 AM (view original):
I just had a crazy Idea. Maybe you could run a backside of the tournament bracket for those of us who didn't advance.

That's not a bad idea. Single elimination with higher seed hosting the game? Home and Away? How would the "loser's bracket" be set up if that's what you mean?

Throw out some ideas and I can maybe implement that for Cup XVII. Anyone feel free to comment. Never thought of that before...

If you wanted, it could be a clone of the winners side of the bracket, only the bottom two from each group.

I'm going to do the 2/17 update this evening so I'm going to take the opportunity to talk about something else.

First off, all games have now been scheduled, so thank you once again for making my job easier. The last Group Stage game will be on the 23rd, meaning the Knockout First Round will begin on the 24th.

That leads to the idea of having a Consolation Bracket for any team that did not make the playoffs. Participating in the Consolation Bracket is purely optional and you can let me know either by posting here or by sending me a sitemail. The format for the consolation rounds will be the same as the playoff rounds, a home and away based on seeding.

Kinda like the 3rd Place game many Cups ago, we'll see if this has enough support to become a regular part of future Cups. Since this is short notice, as long as a minimum of four teams enter the Consolation Bracket, it will also get going on the 24th. So, let me know.

Three games and four teams clinched a spot in the playoffs, making 14 spots claimed out of the 16 available.

The biggest game of the evening was the match between FC Not Very Athletic and Swamp City Dragons, as the three way tie in Group F was going to end one way or the other. The game was as even as the group standings, with only a single goal in the 28th minute. After a corner kick was awarded for Athletic, Dermot Rushe placed a crossing pass into the middle of the box, where Savion Moyle eventually got control and pinballed one off the far post. Swamp City got several good looks and Mansfield Bagot's effort midway through the 2nd half just missed but they couldn't net one and Athletic won the game and the group. The result was good enough to give the Dragons the 2nd transfer spot on goal differential tiebreaker over North Polar Dragons FC, who will probably end up as team with the most points to not advance.

FC Stolpen Steamroller won their Group B pool with a hard fought 2-1 win over Fianna AFC, a result that helped out FC Edinburgh Bullet Birds greatly. The Greens scored first when Melvyn Ashton put one away in the 36th but Andrea Iglesias tied the game right before halftime and Rey Jaime won it for the German side when he drilled a shot from downtown in the 75th to clinch the group with 13 points. The 2nd playoff spot will go to either Edinburgh, who sits at 9 points with one game left or Fianna, who now needs to win their home game against Edinburgh and then draw (at least) in the other, making Brighton AFC's role of spoiler very relevant.

The last game of the evening was a rare Cup victory for Osztrák-Magyar Monarchia Foci Klub, a team that's been in quite a few tournaments and doesn't have much to show for it. Tonight, they surprised Kobelco United Football Club with an uncharacteristically strong performance. Tayson Scrope scored a pair of goals for the Japanese squad but a late goal by Keleman Pethe gave Austria-Hungary the 3-2 win in front of 27,000 shocked fans. The game sends Merchiston FC through in Group A and gives Club de Fútbol Deportivo Cotopaxi a straight road to the other qualifying spot. Both Kobelco and the Dual Monarchy sit with 1-3 records and have bad goal differentials

Three more game tomorrow as the Champs finally take to the pitch.

Count us in for the Consolation Bracket.

Not Very Utd are in as well.

Thanks gomiami.

Slight correction to the Group C standings. Brighton AFC has had all of their 5 group stage games correctly recorded in the boxscore area but their record was listed at 0-3-1. It should have read 0-4-1 and it has been updated. Thanks to sd59 for sending me a sitemail about the error. Brighton still gets to impact the 2nd transfer spot with their last game.

We are up to 5 teams for the Consolation Bracket/Tournament ...still not sure what to call it. (it'll be 6 teams as soon as my Austria-Hungary team is officially eliminated out of Group A.) If this becomes a regular Cup feature, you can all thank KSBeachBums since it was his idea.

The actual game update for 2/18 will be this evening.

The defending Champs Club de Fútbol Deportivo Cotopaxi finally started their title defense when they played both legs of their home and away against long-time Cup rival Kobelco United Football Club in Group A action. Kobelco was needing as many points as possible, with a pair of wins being what was probably needed to have a chance to advance. In the first game, Kobelco took advantage of home cooking and squeezed out a 4-3 win. Cotopaxi had taken the lead late after Luciano Milito shot a ball through the hands of Japanese goalie Kuri Kudo to give the Ecuadorians a 3-2 lead with only 5 minutes to play. Somehow, Kobelco managed to score twice before the final whistle blew to take all three points. Both teams then hopped on their charters and flew to Quito where 60,000 awaited the Champs in their home stadium. Cotopaxi outshot Kobelco 23-6 as the home side raced out to a 3-0 lead before the 20 minute mark. Kobelco did close the gap, capitalizing on a pair of defensive lapses right before halftime but a Gabe De Bruyn goal in the 50th put the game away for a 4-3 Cotopaxi victory. The series draw seriously favors the Champs as Kobelco is now locked in with only 6 points and Cotopaxi has four more games to play.

FC Edinburgh Bullet Birds had an opportunity to punch their ticket on the road against Fianna AFC but was unable to get the job done, falling to the Greens 3-2 in the Group B match. Huntingdon Hinson scored soon after the game started in the 6th minute and teammate Kenderick Keriell extended the lead to 2-0 several minutes later. To their credit, the Scottish side settled down and outplayed Fianna for the rest of the half, tying the game after Alano Agüero beat Greens goalie Keegan Ratliff to the post. The 2nd half momentum went back and forth with both teams having good looks but Keriell scored his second of the game with 12 minutes left when his shot was screened from Bullet Birds goalie Paulo Hudson's vision, getting by him without Hudson even reacting. The win brings both teams to 9 points and Fianna has one more game to play and the tiebreaker advantage. Fianna needs a win or a draw against Brighton AFC. A Brighton win will send Edinburgh through, either on goal differential or on away goals, depending on how big Brighton's win is.

Two games tomorrow, including the Fianna/Brighton matchup.

Group B has now sent its second team into the playoffs after Fianna AFC won a come from behind match against Brighton AFC in Ireland. Brighton, who could knock the Greens out with a win, jumped out to a 2-0 lead after Morrey Sumner's goal in the 24th minute but Fianna recovered from the shaky start and started to chip away at the Brighton defense, getting on the board before halftime as Kenderick Keriell scored for the 2nd Cup game in a row to close the lead to 2-1. After the break, Aidan Shawe was running right at Brighton goalie Kolton Rimando, a difficult play for any goalie to make, when he unleashed his shot in the 58th minute that tied the game at 2-2. While a draw would have sent Fianna through, they added the insurance goal late, ending any chance FC Edinburgh Bullet Birds had of making the knockouts and the game ended as a 3-2 Greens win. Edinburgh joins North Polar Dragons FC as the only other team to win three group stage games in Cup XVI and not advance.

Osztrák-Magyar Monarchia Foci Klub technically had a path to making the playoffs. Unfortunately, that path went through Quito, Ecuador and the defending Champs. Club de Fútbol Deportivo Cotopaxi didn't have too much difficulty disposing of the Austro-Hungarians in a 4-1 win. Veteran forward Weyland Watkins scored twice to pace the Champs and the Dual Monarchy gets sent to the consolation rounds. The win ties Cotopaxi with Kobelco United Football Club with three more games to play, needing only a single draw in those matches to advance...and they get to play Austria-Hungary in Budapest in a couple of days.

Tomorrow is an off day and then Group A picks up again. There is still time to enter your team into the consolation bracket if you didn't make the playoffs.

I would be interested in the consolation bracket

I'll do the update for today's game this evening.

Hopefully, nobody had any issues with the new login.