In the afternoon game, the crutchanators of soccer and The Shield of the Cow decided to give the goalies the day off. The 8/9 teams scored early and often...and I literally mean early and often. crutchanators opened the scoring when Joss Diestelfeld, the team's Shadow Striker (unique to a 4-4-1-1 formation) scored in the first minute as a fortell of things to come.

Following a period of calm before the storm, the Wild West broke out in the 25th minute when The Cow's Norberto Urbina scored the first of his four goals and the slugfest persisted all the way through Alceu Alvaro' goal in the 79th minute, giving The Cow an 8-6 epic road win.

Halbert Labazares scores his 8th goal, giving him a share of the Golden Toe lead.

crutchanators will now need to make of the -2 differential tomorrow at the Cow Palace or pack their bags for home.

#7 Swamp City Dragons becomes the first team to advance to the Quarterfinals after they narrowly beat #10 Club de Fútbol Deportivo Cotopaxi 4-3 on the road. The ageless wonder Arley Movsisyan started the scoring by showing that a 97 year old can still do a vertical leap, knocking home a header off a corner kick in the 14th minute. The game then settled into an even contest and looked as if there might be a second consecutive 3-3 tie in the series. That's when Abdelaziz Lins found himself wide open from about 18 yards and painted a perfect strike into the upper right corner to give Swamp City the game win and the series aggregate 7-6. Swamp City can now sit back and watch the other games as they rest up for #2 Futbol Club Oviedo.

Cotopaxi's Sceley Ballouchy did score his 8th goal of the tourney and is tied for the L'Orteil D'or but it is unlikely he will share the award since he can no longer add to his total.

#8 The Shield of the Cow becomes the next team to qualify for the Quarterfinals as they overpower #9 the crutchanators of soccer at home with a 7-4 win that gives The Cow a 15-10 aggregate victory in their First Round matchup. Halbert Labazares scored twice to give him the outright lead in the Golden Toe with 10 goals in the tournament, and he had plenty of help from his teammates. The result now sets up a Quarterfinal between the #1 seed Shoals Soccer Club and the pre-tournament #1 in The Cow...a matchup one would expect in a Finals rather than in a Quarters.

One more game this evening as #6 Kobelco United Football Club and #11 Lowestoft FC begin their series on Kobelco's home turf.

Another high scoring affair this evening when #11 Lowestoft FC scored four 2nd half goals to erase a 3-1 halftime deficit and triumph over #6 Kobelco United Football Club by a final score of 5-4. 30 year old Spanish midfielder Turi Carlos Alberto scored a pair of goals for Lowestoft, who is trying to become the first lower seed to advance out of the First Round. Kobelco's hopes were at least improved when the best player name in FC Dynasty Cup history, Kobelco's Harti Butt, used his head instead to knock home a corner kick on the game's final play to make it only a one goal differential (and Kobelco was down a man at the time to boot!) The return game is scheduled on the 12th.

Both legs of the #5 Merchiston FC/#12 Space Olympics are being played tomorrow.

Little bit of a late start this morning.

The 5/12 matchup got under way this morning with Merchiston FC hosting Space Olympics. Olympics set the tone early by scoring twice in the first 10 minutes and never gave up the lead. Merchiston did fight back to make the goal differential minimal when Giovanni Léonard scored in the 67th minute to cut the deficit to 4-3 but they couldn't create the equalizer. The teams jump on a plane from Scotland to France and play the return game tonight at 6pm CST, so Merchiston has about 8 hours to come up with a better game plan or face elimination.

The final game of the First Round is tomorrow unless one of the series goes into sudden death.

We already scheduled our quarterfinal matchup is that alright?

#5 Merchiston FC makes a dramatic statement on the road and overcomes #12 Space Olympics with a 4-2 victory. Down a goal after their home match this morning, Merchiston found themselves in a must win situation in France. A pair of goals each by Brazilians Gervaso Adao and Blanco Amaro propelled the Scottish side to a 7-6 aggregate and kept the streak of higher seeds advancing to the Quarterfinals.

Potentially, the final First Round game is tomorrow.

To the credit of Spaceballs, they were saddled with a red card at 59', losing a million-dollar-a-year defender. Merchiston's striker wasn't tossed until 89'. This one could have gone the other way quite easily.

Posted by colinhtucker on 11/11/2022 7:57:00 PM (view original):
To the credit of Spaceballs, they were saddled with a red card at 59', losing a million-dollar-a-year defender. Merchiston's striker wasn't tossed until 89'. This one could have gone the other way quite easily.

Spaceballs, lol.

I missed that red card or I would have included it in the writeup. I saw yours but it was over by then.

Posted by rolltide08 on 11/11/2022 5:09:00 PM (view original):
We already scheduled our quarterfinal matchup is that alright?

The best laid plans of Mice and Men...

Technically, if Kobelco wins tomorrow by one goal, the First Round will continue in sudden death overtime. That would make a somewhat awkward situation where two rounds are happening simultaneously. In reality, it's alright. In the future, let's wait for the other series to end so that the tourney moves forward at the same time.

I was going to announce this tomorrow evening but I'll do it now instead. An unexpected real life event has me hitting the road from Kansas City to Miami starting Sunday morning. For those of you who have not driven that, it's about 21 hours of driving...and I can't do it straight like I could when I was younger. Since I don't own a smart phone, I will most definitely be without Internet from Sunday morning until whenever I roll into south Florida (probably Monday evening.) So, the Shoals Soccer Club/The Shield of the Cow quarterfinals, by scheduling now, might not have any reporting on it until the morning of the 15th.

Ironically, I'll be somewhere in Alabama (in Birmingham they luv the gov'nuh, boo hoo hoo) when those Shoals/Cow games are played. With an ID like rolltide08, you have to have some connection to Alabama, right?

Sorry for scheduling so early -- I'm about to find myself in the unique/stupid position of not resigning my 39 year-old goalie, and our season ends tonight. So if we can squeeze these games in before he leaves the roster, that would be great. Thanks!

And, I happened to coach the HD World 4 Crimson Tide for 67 seasons, so I get a bit of a chill hearing the name as well. Bet I'd recognize the names of a lot of those little towns off the highway from our days of recruiting...

Posted by jeffdrayer on 11/11/2022 9:29:00 PM (view original):
Sorry for scheduling so early -- I'm about to find myself in the unique/stupid position of not resigning my 39 year-old goalie, and our season ends tonight. So if we can squeeze these games in before he leaves the roster, that would be great. Thanks!

And, I happened to coach the HD World 4 Crimson Tide for 67 seasons, so I get a bit of a chill hearing the name as well. Bet I'd recognize the names of a lot of those little towns off the highway from our days of recruiting...

No big deal. Hey, this Cup is better than the last one where your world flipped right as the finals started.

67 seasons is a long time. HD is my primary game but I play a lot of DII and DIII.

I'll be driving straight down the middle of the state. When I finally cross the Florida border near Tallahassee, I'll still have 10 hours to go!

The last spot in the quarterfinals was secured this morning when the first lower seed finally broke through and secured advancement. #11 Lowestoft FC, who came into this morning's game with a +1 goal differential, saw that lead evaporate when #6 Kobelco United Football Club's Hipolito Pascual scored a goal in the 11th minute to temporarily knot the aggregate 5-5.

From that point forward, it was all Lowestoft. Two goals by Turi Carlos Alberto just before halftime sealed the deal and the newcomers went on to win the game 4-1 and the series 9-5. Lowestoft advances to play #3 Rushmore FC.

So, the Quarterfinals are now set. I will add a day or two to the time frame to account for the 1/8 matchup that is ready to go tomorrow. The quarters will go from the 13th through the 22nd, As usual, each matchup will be a home and away. Feel free to start scheduling and best of luck. I'm going to sign off to get ready for my cross-country drive. See you all in a couple, three days...and for the eight teams that are still alive in the competition, y'all gettin' closer to claiming that shiny golden trophy below.

Nothing like a 25 hour drive. Fun times.

While I was having more fun behind the wheel than should be allowed by law, #1 Shoals Soccer Club and #8 The Shield of the Cow put it all on the line in their bid to become the first squad to qualify for the Semifinals. The opening game of the series on Shoals home pitch saw The Cow score two goals in the first 6 minutes and then hold on for a 3-1 road win after defender Darion Tasci was sent off with a red card in the 68th minute. In the return game, Shoals couldn't generate any offense and was outshot 27-12. The lack of punch resulted in a 0-0 draw, a more than acceptable result for The Cow' as it gave them a 3-1 aggregate in a ticket their ticket to the next round.. Congrats to Shoals for an excellent tournament run.

Looks like we have a small break before four Quarterfinal games are played on the 17th.

OK, finished my long day of driving and I'll have the 11/17 games updated within the next 20 minutes.