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.

• 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
• 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)
• 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!
• I will have a separate ‘contest’ for Voyageurs and Champions League.

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

Match in Review (None) and Preview (Philadelphia Union)

After a thrilling Champions League victory over the New York Red Bulls, the Vancouver Whitecaps have a quick turnaround to Sunday, when they open up their MLS schedule against the Philadelphia Union. The Whitecaps will want to carry their emotional high over to their first match, so I expect Carl Robinson to have a full lineup. The question though is 'what is a full lineup?'. Techera and Hurtado will be available again, after being suspended for the Champions League match. However, Kendall Waston will be suspended for this one. Does Montero start or do we see Hurtado back up top? Does Shea start at forward again, or was that decision simply one of necessity? Does Techera play? With the way Alphonso Davies is playing, you gotta start him over Techera right? Who will fill in for Waston? Do we see a Parker/Dean pairing or does Jacobson fill in? Finally, we may get the answer to the RB depth question. If Nerwinski starts, he has clearly overtaken Williams, having started the first 3 matches of the season.

Time to get your predictions in!