:format(webp)/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/55397847/usa-today-10118350.0.jpg)
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.
Bonus June Post-Match Scoring
JUNE STANDINGS
| Previous Rank | Current Ranking | Change in | User | Overall | Match 14 (FC Dallas) | ||||
| Ranking | Score | Lineup | Bonus | Winner | Score | Quotes | |||
| 1 | 1 | 0 | jacinto | 39 | 10 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 3 |
| 8 | 2 | 6 | AtlantisB | 36 | 10 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 3 |
| 8 | 3 | 5 | edmondk | 34 | 11 | 3 | 5 | 0 | 1 |
| 1 | 3 | -2 | rtomsheck | 34 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 1 | 5 | -4 | The Squirrel | 33 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 7 | 5 | 2 | olikchivas | 33 | 11 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| 1 | 7 | -6 | MarcoD77 | 32 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 1 | 7 | -6 | BlackPanther99 | 32 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 1 | 9 | -8 | justcaps | 31 | 10 | 1 | |||
| 8 | 9 | -1 | Soccer Mum | 31 | 10 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 1 |
| 8 | 9 | -1 | Westsider13 | 31 | 11 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 8 | 12 | -4 | Arjon | 29 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 |
| 8 | 13 | -5 | chuckbiscuits | 27 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 8 | 13 | -5 | GreyHouseEffect | 27 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 8 | 15 | -7 | Jph003 | 26 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 8 | 15 | -7 | forbrydelsen | 26 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| 8 | 17 | -9 | DougCuth | 25 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 8 | 18 | -10 | tecate | 14 | |||||
| - | 19 | - | MarcusEarth | 12 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
FIRST HALF STANDINGS (BEST 15 FROM MATCHES 1 TO 17)
| Previous Rank | Current Ranking | Change in | User | Overall |
| Ranking | Score | |||
| 1 | 1 | 0 | Arjon | 183 |
| 2 | 2 | 0 | Jph003 | 177 |
| 3 | 3 | 0 | rtomsheck | 174 |
| 4 | 4 | 0 | BlackPanther99 | 172 |
| 5 | 5 | 0 | MarcoD77 | 171 |
| 10 | 6 | 4 | AtlantisB | 170 |
| 7 | 7 | 0 | olikchivas | 169 |
| 11 | 8 | 3 | edmondk | 168 |
| 6 | 9 | -3 | justcaps | 167 |
| 8 | 10 | -2 | The Squirrel | 165 |
| 9 | 11 | -2 | chuckbiscuits | 164 |
| 14 | 12 | 2 | Soccer Mum | 159 |
| 11 | 13 | -2 | WestCoastCule | 156 |
| 16 | 13 | 3 | jacinto | 156 |
| 13 | 15 | -2 | DougCuth | 154 |
| 15 | 16 | -1 | forbrydelsen | 153 |
| 17 | 17 | 0 | GreyHouseEffect | 151 |
| 18 | 18 | 0 | Westsider13 | 144 |
| 19 | 19 | 0 | MarcusEarth | 125 |
| 20 | 20 | 0 | mattock | 98 |
Match in Review (FC Dallas) and Preview (Minnesota United)
Well, how about that! The Vancouver Whitecaps were able to come away with a point despite how it looked at the onset of the match, and after FC Dallas opened the scoring. Shoutout to the writing team this week as AtlantisB and edmondk both obtained a 19 score this match, with AtlantisB edging him out in the 'quotes' tie-breaker.
Speaking of the quotes category. It was a fun category, but hard to score. In the end, listening to the radio interview and post-mach, I came away with Carl Robinson saying "FC Dallas is a good team", "Couldn't be more proud of that effort" (in reference to Nerwinski), and "Couldn't fault the lads" (mainly in reference to Shea). It will be trickier than I expected as I have to listen to the post-match interviews and then try to guess. We will run the contest again this match. You will see that I added in a few new options, so have fun. Again, 1 point for one correct quote guess, 3 points for two correct quote guesses.
On to Minnesota this week. The Caps are still injury plagued, but we did see who would probably be filling in for Kendall Waston while he is on the shelf, Andrew Jacobson. As it is an away match, we expect Robinson to play a little more conservative, so does that mean we see the same lineup as against Dallas? He can't get much more conservative can he? Does Teibert get another run out? Not that he played bad against Dallas, just that he has not been a favourite of Robbo this season (or last). Does Tchani finally see the bench? Does Davies get a crack at it, after another fine performance last match. Maybe he plays in the middle. An away match like this might be a good opportunity for an experiment.
Time to make your predictions!
Injury: Brett Levis, David Edgar, Yordy Reyna, Erik Hurtado, Christian Dean, Christian Bolanos, Kendall Waston, Nicolas Mezquida
Suspension: Sheanon Williams
Based on the suggestion last match, we are going to add a fun little contest to the rest of the June schedule. We are going to do ‘quotes from the post-match’. Credit must be given for these. I grabbed them from a conversation with AFTN Canada and others, which you can find here
https://twitter.com/aftncanada/status/869722711345332224
Pick the TWO that you think will be in the post-match interview with Carl Robinson. 1 point for one correct guess. 3 points! for two correct guesses.
Quotes to Chose
I am posting two different sets of standings. The first is the monthly standings, with previous match stats. The second is the first half standings (with your worst two match predictions removed).