Guess the Starting XI and Final Score (MLS Match 09: Colorado Rapids)

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 THREE different sets of standings. The first is the FINAL April Standings. The second is the results from Montreal match. The third is the First Half Standings (excluding each participant's worst two match predictions).

FINAL APRIL STANDINGS

Previous	Current	Chang in	User	Overall	MTL	POR	SEA	RSL	TIGRES	LA
Ranking	Ranking	Ranking		Score
1	1	0	Arjon	87	9	19	19	13	14	13
2	2	0	AtlantisB	83	10	19	17	7	17	13
3	2	1	WestCoastCule	83	17	12	16	8	17	13
8	4	4	rtomsheck	80	19	11	16	9	11	14
4	5	-1	chuckbiscuits	79	15	17	11	8	15	13
5	5	0	Jph003	79	16	12	14	14	14	9
8	7	1	olikchivas	78	17	17	14	9	12	9
14	8	6	MarcoD77	74	16	12	12	9	11	14
5	9	-4	mattock	73	10	19	12	14	10	8
7	9	-2	GreyHouseEffect	73	11	17	11	9	16	9
11	11	0	Soccer Mum	71	12	17	11	7	17	7
11	11	0	The Squirrel	71	12	19	11	9	12	8
16	13	3	justcaps	69	15	12	17	9	9	7
15	14	1	DougCuth	68	11	17	11	10	10	9
16	15	1	edmondk	66	12	12	11	9	15	7
10	16	-6	BlackPanther99	60	0	12	17	9	9	13
18	16	2	Westsider13	60	8	17	11	0	17	7
11	18	-7	forbrydelsen	59	0	17	11	13	10	8
19	18	1	jacinto	59	19	12	11	8	9	0
21	20	1	MarcusEarth	49	17	12	0	7	0	13
20	21	-1	Tanzaniamagic	37	0	0	11	8	9	9
22	22	0	Zee Samnani	31	0	9	0	0	9	13
23	23	0	Wardy1700	27	0	0	0	9	9	9
23	23	0	jamesmarkgraham	27	0	0	11	9	0	7
25	25	0	GTCrane	25	0	0	17	0	0	8
26	26	0	Norwegian Would	18	0	0	0	0	9	9
27	27	0	tecate	10	0	0	0	0	10	0
28	28	0	CascadiaCaps	9	0	0	0	0	9	0
29	29	0	ArrSea	8	0	0	0	8	0	0
29	29	0	Markuss	8	0	0	0	0	8	0

WEEK 8 RESULTS

User	Overall	Match 8 (Montreal Impact)
	Score	Lineup	Bonus	Winner	Score
rtomsheck	19	10	1	5	3
jacinto	19	10	1	5	3
WestCoastCule	17	9	0	5	3
olikchivas	17	9	0	5	3
MarcusEarth	17	9	0	5	3
Jph003	16	10	1	5	0
MarcoD77	16	8	0	5	3
chuckbiscuits	15	9	0	5	1
justcaps	15	9	0	5	1
The Squirrel	12	10	1	0	1
edmondk	12	10	1	0	1
Soccer Mum	12	10	1	0	1
DougCuth	11	10	1	0	0
GreyHouseEffect	11	10	1	0	0
mattock	10	9	0	0	1
AtlantisB	10	9	0	0	1
Arjon	9	9	0	0	0
Westsider13	8	8	0	0	0

FIRST HALF STANDINGS (BEST 6 MATCHES)

Current Ranking	Change in	User	Overall
	Ranking		Score
1	0	Arjon	90
2	0	AtlantisB	82
2	2	chuckbiscuits	82
2	5	Jph003	82
5	-2	mattock	81
6	-2	olikchivas	79
6	5	rtomsheck	79
8	3	MarcoD77	78
9	-2	forbrydelsen	76
10	1	WestCoastCule	75
11	-7	The Squirrel	73
11	3	justcaps	73
13	-6	Westsider13	72
14	-7	BlackPanther99	70
15	0	DougCuth	67
16	0	GreyHouseEffect	64
17	-1	Soccer Mum	63
18	0	edmondk	62
19	2	Tanzaniamagic	52
20	1	jacinto	50
20	4	jamesmarkgraham	50
22	-3	MarcusEarth	49
23	2	Wardy1700	41
24	-3	Norwegian Would	38
25	3	GTCrane	33
26	-7	soccerdad66	32
27	-1	Zee Samnani	22
28	-1	smatthew	20
29	0	Acumen	9
29	0	CalgaryRik	9
29	0	RedArmyNic	9
29	0	WRCAPS	9
33	0	ArrSea	8

Match in Review (Montreal Impact) and Preview (Colorado Rapids)

A lot to review, so I will try to be quick. First, congrats to Arjon for having the best score in April. If I would have predicted a Caps victory, rather than an Impact victory, I would have overtaken him. Oh well!

Speaking of Montreal Impact match, congrats to rtomsheck and jacinto who had excellent weeks. Their only misstep was one lineup prediction. Nicely done. A lot of high scores this week.

To make the first half standings a bit more interesting, I have adjusted the scoring. I have it setup so that we remove your worst two weeks. This gives participants an opportunity to score well even if they have one or two bad weeks, or miss inputting a prediction. In those standings, Arjon has a bit of a lead, but there is a logjam for second!

On to Colorado. It is another Friday night match, and in the thin air of Colorado. Colorado has not looked very good this season, so it is an opportunity for the Vancouver Whitecaps to get their second straight road victory. Carl Robinson has had a bit of a different lineup the last few matches. Do we see that continue as it seems to have been effective. Or does he revert back to his old formation? Robinson is trying to manage the minutes of Davies. That has resulted in him sitting of late. Does he get a spot start here or does he come off the bench again?

Finally, I am going to test out a new scoring category. I will begin simple and we will see about adjusting it next month. It should be noted that this is 'testing' so I will keep track of it (and report the results in the May Standings) but I will not include it in the First Half or Overall Standings.

NEW SCORING CATEGORY

In addition to your Starting XI and Final Score predictions, you can pick 1 goal scorer for the Whitecaps (we will keep it at 1 for now). If you can correctly predict a goal scorer than you will receive 3 points. If you incorrectly predict a goal scorer you will LOSE 1 point. You can predict no goal scorer and you can choose not to give a goal scorer (meaning you don't get the opportunity to gain 3 points but you don't risk losing a point either). Hope that is clear. I will try to answer any questions in the comments.

GOOD LUCK!

KNOWN OUT (Will be updated as information becomes available)

Injury: David Edgar, Brett Levis, Yordy Reyna, Brek Shea, Erik Hurtado

Suspension: