Two of the Quarterfinals series were decided as both the 5/12 and the 3/11 series played both their home and away contests today. Let's go over each one separately.

#3 Rushmore FC met #11 Lowestoft FC to see who would advance to the Semifinals. It the first game, Lowestoft took the home field and failed to capitalize on the advantage. Rushmore midfielder Augustine Del Piero started the scoring off in the 15th minute and Rushmore controlled the game throughout as the road team took a 3-0 victory. That forced Lowestoft to up their game in the evening contest. They immediately dented the three goal differential when Daevon Otsuka scored in the 2nd minute, followed by Maria Dabek's tally in the 43rd closed the deficit to 3-2. But that was as far as the #11 seed got as Rushmore clinched the series with a 75th minute goal and and won the Quarterfinal matchup with a 4-2 aggregate, despite losing their home game 2-1.

#5 Merchiston FC opened their series against #4 Swampdragons as the home team and fought the dragons punch for punch. Dragons opened the scoring in the 36th minute when Harlen Brownflet was on the receiving end of a free kick and blasted a header into the upper corner of the net. Merchiston and dragons then traded goals, culminating with Blanco Amaro's 2nd goal of the game evened the score at 2-2, which was how the game ended. The two teams traveled back to the dragons home field, where a completely different type of game was the result. Merchiston's Thomas-VanLuijk De Meyer score the first of his two goals in the 40th minute and Merchiston dominated the scoreboard, building an insurmountable 3-0 lead. A dragons goal in garbage time occurred when Merchiston players were beginning to celebrate as the #5 seed won the game 3-1 and took the series with a 5-3 aggregate.

The final Quarterfinals gets underway tomorrow to fill in the final spot of the Semifinals.

The opening game between #2 Futbol Club Oviedo and #7 Swamp City Dragons kicks off at noon (CST.) Be back to give you the results this afternoon.

The final pair got underway today in Canada when #7 Swamp City Dragons hosted #2 Futbol Club Oviedo. The Dragons opened the scoring quickly in the 6th minute when Zacarias Lovato scored one of those increasing rare type of goal in this tournament when he scored unassisted - not from a free kick or not from a corner. Lovato simply saw an opening and executed a perfect shot past Oviedo goalie Pasqual Montalbán. The game proved to be an even contest after that, ultimately being tied 2-2 and looking like an opening series draw. But in the final minute of regular time, Arley Movsisyan was fouled hard, setting up a free kick. Dragons veteran forward Filmore Bishop took to full advantage and knocked in the cross to give the home team a dramatic 3-2 win as the series shifts to Spain on the 21st.

With the next couple days off, I'll be able to finish my week long road trip and settle back in at home...and my own bed.

The Quarterfinals came to a close this morning when #7 Swamp City Dragons, who had a +1 differential in their matchup against #2 Futbol Club Oviedo, clinched the final Semifinal birth when 97 year old Arley Movsisyan scored a pair of goals in the first half en route to a 5-0 blowout road win. Movsisyan showed some good speed for a man nearing the century mark as he beat the offside trap to start the scoring in the 32nd minute. Dominating all aspects of the game the Dragons cruised from that point forward and took the series with an 8-2 aggregate. Next up for the Dragons is #3 Rushmore FC.

With the number of teams left alive and the number of games winding down, Herbert Labazares from The Shield of the Cow is looking to be in decent shape for The Golden Toe award. He is currently four goals clear from the next active player and can all but assure himself the trophy with a strong semis showing.

The semis officially begin tomorrow and the scheduling goes through the 30th. Feel free to schedule at your convenience. Because of the US Thanksgiving holiday weekend, there will be some flexibility if a semifinalist happens to be travelling. We are down to the Final Four. Congratulations to all of the Quarterfinalists for making a solid run in Cup X and best of luck to the four teams still alive.

Posted by gomiami1972 on 11/21/2022 11:28:00 AM (view original):
The Quarterfinals came to a close this morning when #7 Swamp City Dragons, who had a +1 differential in their matchup against #2 Futbol Club Oviedo, clinched the final Semifinal birth when 97 year old Arley Movsisyan scored a pair of goals in the first half en route to a 5-0 blowout road win. Movsisyan showed some good speed for a man nearing the century mark as he beat the offside trap to start the scoring in the 32nd minute. Dominating all aspects of the game the Dragons cruised from that point forward and took the series with an 8-2 aggregate. Next up for the Dragons is #3 Rushmore FC.

With the number of teams left alive and the number of games winding down, Herbert Labazares from The Shield of the Cow is looking to be in decent shape for The Golden Toe award. He is currently four goals clear from the next active player and can all but assure himself the trophy with a strong semis showing.

The semis officially begin tomorrow and the scheduling goes through the 30th. Feel free to schedule at your convenience. Because of the US Thanksgiving holiday weekend, there will be some flexibility if a semifinalist happens to be travelling. We are down to the Final Four. Congratulations to all of the Quarterfinalists for making a solid run in Cup X and best of luck to the four teams still alive.

Time to avenge our loss in FCD II finals

The first Semifinal match is tomorrow.

In the meantime, if you have any thoughts about the World Cup, feel free to share. I haven't seen any team that has impressed me up to this point. England placing 6 on Iran is really not that impressive. Japan beating Germany is just as much a function of the German squad being dysfunctional as much as it is the quality of the Japanese side. Saudi Arabia beating Argentina was a shocker.

The Semifinals got off to a great start when #5 Merchiston FC and #8 The Shield of the Cow locked horns at the Cow Palace. Cipriano Rincón got the scoring started for the home side in the 15th minute when he fired a lazer from just outside the box that easily beat Merchiston goalie Clifford Arnoldo. The lead swelled to 2-0 with Darion Tasci's well-placed header 11 minutes later. But the home crowd of 33,833 was denied having a celebratory halftime break after Merchiston's Blanco Amaro netted right before the halftime whistle to cut the lead to 2-1.

From that point, both teams traded equal blows. The Cow's veteran striker, Norberto Urbina, scored in the 81st minute giving what looked like a 4-3 win for the Cow Shields...but 48 year old Thomas-VanLuijk De Meyer beat the offside trap in the closing moments and, at a full run, blasted an unstoppable ball that proved to be the equalizer. The 4-4 tie shifts the advantage to Merchiston, who hosts the return game on the 27th.

Amaro's two goals gives him 9 for the tournament, closing the gap between himself and The Cow's Herbert Labazares who failed to score but still leads the Golden Toe with 11 goals.

Unlike what is happening in Qatar, alcohol was flowing freely in Scotland as #5 Merchiston FC hosted #8 The Shield of the Cow for the right to qualify for the FC Dynasty Cup X finals....and the 60,000 in attendance created a party atmosphere.

Merchiston's Gervaso Adao finished off an opportunity to give the home team a 1-0 lead and set the tone for the entire game. Thomas-VanLuijk De Meyer added another two goals as the 3-0 halftime lead proved to be insurmountable. The Cow did mount a comeback in the 2nd half, with Golden Toe leader Halbert Labazares scoring one of the team's two goals but it wasn't enough to climb out of the hole. Blanco Amaro, chasing Labazares in the top scorer standings, iced the game in the closing minutes when his header glanced off the post and in to close out a 4-2 win, giving Merchiston an 8-6 aggregate.

Merchiston advances to its first Championship game and will await the winner of the Rushmore FC/Swamp City Dragons semifinals, which gets underway tomorrow. The Cow was going for its third straight Cup finals but will have to settle for the 3rd Place game as the away team.

Posted by swampdragonz on 11/23/2022 5:52:00 PM (view original):

Posted by gomiami1972 on 11/21/2022 11:28:00 AM (view original):
The Quarterfinals came to a close this morning when #7 Swamp City Dragons, who had a +1 differential in their matchup against #2 Futbol Club Oviedo, clinched the final Semifinal birth when 97 year old Arley Movsisyan scored a pair of goals in the first half en route to a 5-0 blowout road win. Movsisyan showed some good speed for a man nearing the century mark as he beat the offside trap to start the scoring in the 32nd minute. Dominating all aspects of the game the Dragons cruised from that point forward and took the series with an 8-2 aggregate. Next up for the Dragons is #3 Rushmore FC.

With the number of teams left alive and the number of games winding down, Herbert Labazares from The Shield of the Cow is looking to be in decent shape for The Golden Toe award. He is currently four goals clear from the next active player and can all but assure himself the trophy with a strong semis showing.

The semis officially begin tomorrow and the scheduling goes through the 30th. Feel free to schedule at your convenience. Because of the US Thanksgiving holiday weekend, there will be some flexibility if a semifinalist happens to be travelling. We are down to the Final Four. Congratulations to all of the Quarterfinalists for making a solid run in Cup X and best of luck to the four teams still alive.

Time to avenge our loss in FCD II finals

Good memory swamp! That was a long time ago... Good luck tonight!

In a similar fashion to the FC Dynasty Cup II Championship back in July 2019, #3 Rushmore FC opened its series on the road against #7 Swamp City Dragons and won by three goals. In the Cup II Finals, Rushmore won the road opener 4-1. This time, the English side took a 3-0 victory. Dario Floro scored his first goal of the tournament in the 5th minute and the Rushmore offense blitzkrieged the Swamp City defense, scoring all three goals by the 20 minute mark. The Dragons generated plenty of chances but couldn't find a way to beat Italian goaltender Sebastian Gazzola, who recorded his 2nd straight Knockout round shutout, both coincidentially by 3-0 margins.

The series moves to Rushmore FC's home pitch on the 30th. Swamp City needs to solve the Rushmore defensive puzzle quickly or their dreams of hoisting the trophy will go up in smoke.

The 24 teams that entered FC Dynasty Cup X have all played their best and we have come down to the final two. #3 Rushmore FC, already leading 3-0 in the aggregate, solidified their lead in the series when Kobe Bermúdez scored in the 2nd minute! off an early corner and the home team coasted to a 4-2 win and a 7-2 aggregate over the Cup VI Champions #7 Swamp City Dragons. The elimination ends 97 year old Arley Movsisyan's stated goal of winning a 2nd L'Orteil D'or but he has said in interviews that he has no plans to retire and will be back for Cup XI and beyond. Congratulations to Swamp City for another excellent Cup run.

The Championship features England versus Scotland, like those two nations have ever faced each other in battle. Merchiston FC and Rushmore FC will play a home and away but, unlike other Knockout rounds, there is no time frame to schedule games. Both teams can schedule at their leisure. This week, next week, it is up to the two coaches. If an aggregate tie occurs, I will be using random.org's coin flipping service to determine which team will host the first tiebreaker game. The coin flip results will be posted tomorrow.

The 3rd Place game is optional for Swamp City Dragons and The Shield of the Cow. The game will be a home game for Swamp City since they were the higher seed. The results will not count in L'Orteil D'or standings, it is just for bragging rights. That game can also be scheduled at any time. It is a single game, not a series. If it ends in a tie, both teams will share the bronze medal.

The Golden Toe is between Merchiston's Blanco Amaro (10 goals) and The Cow's Halbert Labazares (12 goals.) Even though Halbert is eliminated from the tourney, he can still take the individual honor. Amaro, of course, has games to play and Halbert can only watch from the stands.

Best of luck to the two Finalists. The last step in the journey is upon you.

In case you did not look on the first page, Post #8, I'll copy and paste the result of the Championship tiebreaker coin flip.
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All games, unless we go into sudden death, are now scheduled. The Championship starts off on the 5th when Rushmore FC plays at home. Merchiston FC then gets its chance for some home cooking the next day.

The 3rd Place game at Swamp City Dragons' home picth against The Shield of the Cow is slated for the 7th.

The Championship got underway this morning in England, which was still in a rowdy mood after the national team's 3-0 win over Senegal in the World Cup round of 16. Merchiston FC quieted the crowd by starting the game in an immediate attack mode, winning a corner in the 4th minute and keeping the play deep in the Rushmore FC end. All of that pressure paid off when Lino Becerril, pressing forward from his center back position, found himself wide open in the middle of the box and painted the corner of the netting to give Merchiston a 1-0 lead.

Merchiston's dominance continued until Ainsley MacWatters was shown a yellow card for a reckless tackle. Hesitation after the booking seemed to give Rushmore a breather and the game became much more evenly contested. Elder Szetela was clearly energized after a free kick was awarded from a dangerous position in the 18th minute. Szetela hit a beautiful shot over the wall and then turned on the jets to head in his own cross, tying the game at 1-1.

After Gervaso Adao gave Merchiston a 2-1 lead, Szetela did it again, getting both the goal and the assist right before halftime to send the game tied 2-2 for the break and, as it would end up, the final score. Blanco Amaro had several good scoring chances in his quest to win the Golden Toe but all three of his shots were turned away by Rushmore goalie Sebastian Gazzola.

The Championship heads back to Scotland tomorrow knotted at 2-2. The trophies are being polished and will be in attendance when the game kicks off at 6am. The question is, will the hardware be won or will we need a sudden death tiebreaker for the first time in FC Dynasty Cup Finals history?

Merchiston FC and colinhtucker stamp their names into the history book and win FC Dynasty Cup X on their home field as they beat, by the slimmist of margins, Rushmore FC and by a 5-4 aggregate. The final game had the series tied at 2-2 and Rushmore drew first blood when MacGowan Treacy knuckled a ball into the net off the side of his foot to give his team the lead. The Rushmore advantage swelled to 2 goals when Elder Szetela scored his third goal of the Finals in the 31st minute and it looked like Rushmore was well on its way to claiming a 2nd FC Dynasty Cup, its first since Cup II way back in July 2019.

That's when Merchiston's 44 year old Dutch midfielder, Giovanni Léonard, pinballed a shot off the Rushmore goalie, the left post and then into the back of the net right before halftime, cutting the lead down to one goal and changing the momentum of the game. Merchiston came out firing to open the 2nd half when Brazilian forward Blanco Amaro, trying to help his team and himself with top scoring honors, controlled a crossing pass outside the box with beautiful skill and fired a missle past a helpless Sebastian Gazzola to tie the game 2-2 and the aggregate 4-4. That set up the final heroics, once again by Léonard, who beat the offside trap, did a little nutmeg on the central defense and scored an unassisted goal from point blank range, a goal that proved to be the Championship winning goal.

Congratulations to Rushmore FC and bert_fischer for the Runner Up trophy. The L'Orteil D'or award goes to The Shield of the Cow striker Halbert Labazares, the 2nd straight Golden Toe won by The Cow, who finished with 12 goals, one goal clear of Blanco Amaro, who scored once by fell just short with 11.