Welcome back for another season of our contest "Guess the Starting XI and Final Score". As always, thanks to former regular Spencer for starting this several years ago. Like last season, we will keep the non-MLS and MLS standings separate. We will also do a first half, second half, and overall standings. Finally, I will have various monthly contests where we add in an ‘extra’ thing to predict, like goal scorers, cards, suspensions, etc. With the basics out of the way, let’s get to the scoring.

MLS Scoring Details

· Contest article will be posted 2-3 days prior to game day

· We will keep track of overall, first/second half, and monthly winners so that late joiners will have something to play for

· I will have a separate ‘contest’ for Voyageurs and Champions League.

· As the MLS season is 34 matches, the overall standings will be based on each participant’s top 30 match guesses. This will allow everyone a few misses or bad guesses throughout the season.

· Predictions will be 'valid' if posted prior to the lineup being officially announced (1 hour before kickoff)

How Scoring is Determined

· You receive 1 point for every player you correctly guess to be in the Starting XI. Receive 1 bonus point for correctly predicting 10 starters. Receive 3 bonus points for correctly predicting 11 starters.

· You get 5 points for correctly guessing Win/Lose/Draw.

· You receive 1 point for correctly guessing each team’s final score. Receive 1 bonus point for correctly guessing both teams final score (for a total of 3).

· That means, if you correctly predict the Starting XI, Final Score, and Winner, you can earn 22 points!

At the end of each week, I will tally the scores and update the standings, to be posted with the next week's match thread.

I am posting TWO different sets of standings. The first is the first half standings. The second is removing each participants four worst weeks

FIRST HALF STANDINGS (MATCHES 1 TO 17)

Match in Review (Toronto FC) and Preview (LA Galaxy)

YIKES! For a second match in a row we all sucked! The best lineup predictions were placed by mattock, Arjon, AtlantisB, justcaps, Wardy1700, and newcomer GTCrane. The bad news is that each of their scores was.... EIGHT. Carl Robinson threw a bit of a curve ball (although there were rumblings of it ahead of time) by giving Spencer Richey the start over Paolo Tornaghi. No Christian Bolanos but Fredy Montero got his first MLS start. In the end though, it didn't matter as, for the second match in a row, the Vancouver Whitecaps were undone by red card.

The Caps will face the LA Galaxy at home on Saturday. The good news is the match is at home, so there is a chance. The bad news is that the Caps have not been the best team at home. While David Ousted will be back, who else will be in the lineup is a question. Bolanos and Kendall Waston will have returned from international duty, however, they will have played Tuesday night in Honduras. If both start it is questionable whether Robbo will put both of them in the lineup on Saturday. Mezquida did not look the best in the last match, so does he get another shot in the middle? With Shea suspended do we expect Manneh to finally get a start again? Will Alphonso Davies slot in on the other wing or do we see Cristian Techera or the aforementioned Bolanos?

You have to make the call.

KNOWN OUT (Will be updated as information becomes available)

Injury: David Edgar, Brett Levis, Yordy Reyna

Suspension: Brek Shea