Swampdragons swamp_dragon World 90 not 85

The first tournament games are now in the book with both away teams taking all three points...and scoring large amounts that will help with any tiebreakers.

In Group A, Swampdragons, after skipping Cup IX, returns to limelight with a 5-3 road victory over VB Hibernian on the shoulders of a single player's scoring outburst. The game was even throughout most of the contest, with both teams holding 1 goal leads just to see the opposition draw level again. The tie was finally broken for good when dragons forward Dariell Lucy scored his 4th goal of the game in the 87th minute followed almost immediately by defender Torrence Nance putting the game away two minutes later.

Out of Group F, a statistically even game did not result in an even score as Futbol Club Oviedo eased to a 4-1 road win against black mambas. French striker Lionel Colville scored Oviedo's first two goals and mambas could not find the back of the net in the 2nd half, disappointing the 37,644 in attendance.

Tomorrow, two more games will be played before the meat of the schedule really begins. Keep scheduling any remaining games and keep in mind that a couple of teams are having their world flip this week...so they might be waiting until they sign a couple of players.

Posted by swampdragonz on 10/22/2022 5:35:00 PM (view original):
Swamp City Dragons need challenge from golf_yeah

Done

Both games today were early contests and the road team triumph continues. Four games played and all four have been won by the visitors.

In Group A, last Cup's Runner Up dominated the stats and the scoreboard as The Shield of the Cow logged in a 3-0 victory over F.C. Baltimore Blue. The Cow had goals scored by a forward, a midfielder and a defender, showing a balance that bodes well for a deep tournament run. The game would have been even more lopsided if not for GK Jurgen Roels, who made 11 saves and was Blue's best player.

Group B got underway with a more competitive match between the crutchanators of soccer hosting La Daga Club de Fútbol. Both teams had their star forward score a pair of goals, crutchanators' Gregorio Marechal and La Daga's Palban Mendez, to end the 1st half knotted at 2-2. La Daga finally grabbed control midway in the 2nd half with a goal by Kelton Landon and went on to win 4-2.

The Golden Toe tracker is beginning to fill up as the ball hits the back of the net. Swampdragons Dariell Lucy heads the field thanks to his 4 goal output in the tourney's opening match.

We are still fairly early in the Group Stage and 61 out of the 72 games have been scheduled. That is awesome. Five of the remaining games are one here, one there types. They don't concern me at all.

What might become an issue are the six games involving kangaroo fc out of Group E. I'll give chicken8 a couple more days (thru the 27th) to either contact me or to start scheduling games. If nothing happens, I'll substitute my Dutch team Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbal Bond - usf_bulls (World 69). Hopefully that is not necessary.

I have posted this info in the Unscheduled Games post (post #7 right below the L'Orteil D'or tracker.) I'll let you all know the situation if it changes.

Other than the tournament maintenance listed above, there was some actual action on the pitch overnight.

Shoals Soccer Club finally gets the home team in the win column with an impressive 3-0 victory over Cup III Champion Aurea Cruce Aquilonis in Group C play. Scoring goals on the 8s (18th, 28th and 48th minutes,) Shoals made the most of its aggressive 4-3-3 formation when center forward Heiji Kishimoto scored the clincher off a goalie deflection at point blank range.

In Group F, newcomer Lowestoft FC records the first true upset of the tournament as they cruise, on the road no less, to a 3-0 win over Cup V Champion Futbol Club Oviedo. 22 year old Jeny Bromka scores a pair of goals in the 2nd half to put the game away. Also, black mambas recovers from its opening defeat and narrowly gets by FC Kingston 3-2 at home, outlasting Kingston's furious comeback in the last 5 minutes of the game where they scored 2 goals to make it close. Those goals failed to get a point but could prove big for any tiebreaker that may come into play.

More this evening...

Posted by gomiami1972 on 10/25/2022 9:16:00 AM (view original):
We are still fairly early in the Group Stage and 61 out of the 72 games have been scheduled. That is awesome. Five of the remaining games are one here, one there types. They don't concern me at all.

What might become an issue are the six games involving kangaroo fc out of Group E. I'll give chicken8 a couple more days (thru the 27th) to either contact me or to start scheduling games. If nothing happens, I'll substitute my Dutch team Koninklijke Nederlandse Voetbal Bond - usf_bulls (World 69). Hopefully that is not necessary.

I have posted this info in the Unscheduled Games post (post #7 right below the L'Orteil D'or tracker.) I'll let you all know the situation if it changes.

Get to quote myself. kangaroo fc has accepted all three away games and has sent out challenges so, Group E, be on the lookout. My really bad Dutch team is now off the hook.

In the evening games, La Daga Club de Fútbol puts up five goals, including three from defender Enrique Porcel, as they dominate butterfiles united 5-1 at home. Palban Mendez added another two goals and now sits tied with Swampdragons' Dariell Lucy atop the Golden Toe with four goals apiece.

The opening game out of Group E saw a hard fought 1-1 tie, the first tie of the tournament, between Space Olympics and Iberian Sharpshooters Football Club. It took all the way to the 75th minute for Olympics forward Toraidio Vizcayno to start the scoring. Olympics was ultimately denied all three points when Sharpshooters striker Lino Magalhães evened the contest in the 88th minute to salvage a point.

I'll be out and about tomorrow all day so only an evening update. See you then.

For those of you who don't know, back in the Summer of 2019, a young 80-something year old forward for Swamp City Dragons named Arley Movsisyan tied for the Golden Toe during the Cup II Tournament. Since that time, he has never relinquished the overall goal scoring lead, although he has never won another individual scoring title. You can find the Top 100 Cup scorers in the historical records thread.

Apparently, at the age of 97, he's gunning for a second L'Orteil D'or.

Lots of action today and I won't be able to do a full writeup on every game (or this post would become a novel.) So tonight, we gets the highlights.

The Shield of the Cow scores in the 1st minute! off of a corner kick and then holds on for a very gritty 2-1 win against Swampdragons to take early command of the Group A Standings. VB Hibernian also gets its first win of the tournament, taking a 3-1 home win over F.C. Baltimore Blue, who finds themselves in a bit of trouble and better right the ship in the next game or two.

In Group B, La Daga Club de Fútbol wins its second away game by a 4-2 score, this time over butterfiles united, who had actually tied the game 2-2 before Bartoli de Montoya's rocket shot gave La Daga all three points. the crutchanators of soccer rebounded from their opening loss to score a 4-1 victory against Kobelco United Football Club. Kobelco scored first but then it was all crutchanators from that point forward. The race here seems to be for 2nd place, as La Daga is 6 points clear in the early going.

Six different players scored, including the 97 year old Arley Movsisyan, in Swamp City Dragons' 6-2 rout over golf_yeah at home in Group C play. Also, Shoals Soccer Club continues to impress by sweeping the home and away from Aurea Cruce Aquilonis, this time with a 4-2 road victory. We'll see just how strong Shoals is this tournament when they face off against the Dragons juggernaut.

In Group D, Merchiston FC picks up 4 points in its two games today by virtue of a 5-2 home win against Club de Fútbol Deportivo Cotopaxi and a tough 1-1 tie at home against Real TK. Thomas-VanLuijk De Meyer scored in each contest and Merchiston drew 60,000 in its match against Cotopaxi. Not bad for an exhibition.

In the lone Group F game, Lowestoft FC proves that their opening win was no fluke as they grab another three points, this time in a 3-2 win against FC Kingston, dramatically scoring the winning goal in extra time. Kingston has lost both games on the road by an identical 3-2 score but, fortunately, they are only -2 in differential and have 4 road tallies, which is about as good as a team sitting at 0-2 can get.

Tomorrow has 10 more games but I'll be updating throughout the day rather than all at once.

A couple points of maintenance this morning..

I updated the Unscheduled Games post, just below the Golden Toe tracker. There are only four unscheduled games left. We still have a ton of time to get them on the docket (Nov. 2nd), so no big deal...just be on the lookout if you are one of those teams.

Also, as what has happened in previous Cups, there is a programming bug that duplicates challenges. There are several examples where two teams are playing each other three games in a row. Here is an example - Club de Fútbol Deportivo Cotopaxi is hosting Real TK on the 29th at 1am and then two more times at 7am. Unless I hear from both coaches before these games are played, only the first game will count towards the Group Stage standings. The other two are just for fun.

Four games were played this morning as the Group Stage enters the heart of the schedule.

VB Hibernian picks up a key three points in its 4-1 road win over F.C. Baltimore Blue out of Group A. Leonardo Sarmiento scored a pair of goals and VB controlled the contest throughout. Baltimore Blue is now in a must win situation in its next game to avoid elimination. In Group F, FC kingston also finds itself in a must win situation after it dropped its third straight game, this time a 3-1 home loss to Futbol Club Oviedo. Right after the opening whistle, Kingston midfielder Hrocesburh Hussey went berserk contesting a header and was red carded. Although Kingston did score a goal while a man down, Oviedo had far too much quality and dominated the 2nd half when the Kingston defense started to tire.

Iberian Sharpshooters Football Club played a lock down defense and limited Rushmore FC to only 9 opportunities in a solid 3-1 road triumph. Keeping pace in Group E was Space Olympics, who came from one goal down at halftime to beat kangaroo fc 2-1 at home. Both Olympics goals came off set pieces and only two minutes apart. All four teams in the Group look competitive so nothing has been decided at this point.

Six more games in the PM.

In the 1pm games, La Daga Club de Fútbol had a chance to clinch the first transfer spot on home turf. That opportunity was emphatically denied by the crutchanators of soccer, who had five different players score as they pulled away for a 5-2 road win. Kobelco United Football Club then tallied a 3-1 road win against butterfiles united, making Group B wide open to all sorts of transfer spot possibilities. butterfiles, while not mathematically eliminated, is in a do or die situation.

In Group C, Aurea Cruce Aquilonis and golf_yeah split the points when Aquilonis scored twice in the last five minutes to salvage a 2-2 tie at home. Both teams probably needed the win. One of these two needs to gather all three points in the return game at golf's home stadium in Brazil since another tie would force either or both to post an excellent result against Swamp City Dragons, which is a tall order.

A little more than 2 hours after making the comment, Aurea Cruce Aquilonis proves that I am incapable of making a prediction. The Cup III Champions were statistically dominated, getting only three shots for the entire game...but making the last one by Adilson Leite count as Aquilonis beats Swamp City Dragons 1-0 at home and making the Group C transfer spots completely open again.

In other evening action, VB Hibernian takes a big step towards the Knockouts with a 4-1 road victory against Swampdragons, taking full advantage of midfielder Ludie den Ouden's blunder when he tripped a Hibernian player and was red-carded out of the contest. Futbol Club Oviedo more or less ended FC Kingston's tournament with a 4-1 home win out of Group F. At 0-4, Kingston would need about 10 different things to happen just to get into a tiebreaker.

Real TK and Merchiston FC played another gritty Group D contest that appeared to be headed to another 1-1 tie. In the 89th minute, Merchiston's Giovanni Léonard had a better idea and took matters into his own hands. Being in two places at once, Léonard took a free kick and then incredibly headed in his own set piece cross shot past the diving goalie. Amazing!