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Welcome to another season of our Vancouver Whitecaps contest “Guess the Starting XI and Final Score”. As is tradition, thanks to former regular Spencer for starting this several years ago. It has grown into a great contest and I am appreciative of him for the original idea. We had a great season in 2017. Congrats again to last year’s winners: First Half (Arjon), Second Half (dfree646), and Non-MLS (AtlantisB). Like last season, we will break the contest up into the three ‘seasons’: first half, second half, and non-MLS. We will continue to have fun monthly ‘bonus’ prediction categories, with some being based on whatever it topical at the time. Last season we had things like “Robbo post-match quotes”, “yellow cards”, “first goal scorer”, and several others. However, to start the season, we will keep March simple. With that out of the way, let’s remind you all how the scoring is done.
P.S. I would love if someone would create a great little graphic that we could use for these articles!
Contest Details
- Contest article will be posted 2-3 days prior to game day.
- We will keep track of first half, 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, each half of the season will be based on 17 matches, with your worst two match predictions being dropped. This will allow everyone a few misses or bad guesses throughout the season.
- Predictions will be ‘valid’ if posted HERE 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!
After each match, I will tally the scores and update the standings, which will be posted with the following match’s prediction article. I will post three sets of standings. First, the results from the previous match. Second, the monthly standings. Third, the first/second half standings (with your worst two match predictions removed).
Previous Match Standings
Montreal Impact Match Results
| Current Ranking | User | Overall Score | Lineup | Bonus | Winner | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current Ranking | User | Overall Score | Lineup | Bonus | Winner | Score |
| 1 | GreyHouseEffect | 22 | 11 | 3 | 5 | 3 |
| 1 | edmondk | 22 | 11 | 3 | 5 | 3 |
| 1 | ZTJ99901 | 22 | 11 | 3 | 5 | 3 |
| 1 | Arjon | 22 | 11 | 3 | 5 | 3 |
| 1 | CascadiaCrunchFC | 22 | 11 | 3 | 5 | 3 |
| 1 | robbosg1 | 22 | 11 | 3 | 5 | 3 |
| 7 | Slowkid | 20 | 11 | 3 | 5 | 1 |
| 7 | chuckbiscuits | 20 | 11 | 3 | 5 | 1 |
| 7 | Island Life | 20 | 11 | 3 | 5 | 1 |
| 7 | AtlantisB | 20 | 11 | 3 | 5 | 1 |
| 7 | olikchivas | 20 | 11 | 3 | 5 | 1 |
| 7 | The Squirrel | 20 | 11 | 3 | 5 | 1 |
| 7 | Jph003 | 20 | 11 | 3 | 5 | 1 |
| 7 | hbamarai | 20 | 11 | 3 | 5 | 1 |
| 7 | BlackPanther99 | 20 | 11 | 3 | 5 | 1 |
| 16 | CWilkins | 19 | 11 | 3 | 5 | 0 |
| 16 | rtomsheck | 19 | 11 | 3 | 5 | 0 |
| 16 | lrfanD | 19 | 11 | 3 | 5 | 0 |
| 16 | Cashen | 19 | 11 | 3 | 5 | 0 |
| 16 | dfree646 | 19 | 11 | 3 | 5 | 0 |
| 16 | AdamP 17 | 19 | 10 | 1 | 5 | 3 |
| 22 | Adamhutchison | 17 | 10 | 1 | 5 | 1 |
| 22 | Tdahl | 17 | 9 | 0 | 5 | 3 |
| 24 | AmandaC | 16 | 10 | 1 | 5 | 0 |
| 25 | tecate | 15 | 11 | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| 25 | Westsider13 | 15 | 11 | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| 27 | TrevFresh | 12 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
Match in Review (Montreal Impact) and Preview (Houston Dynamo)
Well, that was a positive start to the season hey? Unlike seasons’ past, not a lot of surprises in this opener with regards to lineup. As a result, we had 22 of 27 participants correctly predict the Starting XI. Common to begin the season is also optimism for victories. Combined, this led to a lot of high scores. In fact, SIX! participants had a ‘perfect’ match. This included long-time guessers GreyHouseEffect, edmondk, Arjon, and robbosg1, and newcomers ZTJ99901 and CascadiaCrunchFC. Congrats to you six. Let’s see if you can keep it going.
The Vancouver Whitecaps now travel to Houston to take on the Dynamo. Coming off a victory, and a solid performance, you would expect a similar lineup. However, with it being an away match, and against a Houston team that demolished Atlanta United this weekend, maybe we see a more defensive lineup? Although Felipe Martins saw some time on Sunday, his late trade meant that he did not start. Russell Teibert certainly earned himself another start, but do you have Felipe sit on the bench another match? Maybe.
In my opinion, Aaron Maund had a perfectly acceptable performance on Sunday. Others seem to disagree. Does Jose Aja see his first start? What happens up front? Does Blondell get a start? Do we see Jordon Mutch, with Yordy Reyna taking a seat? Tough to do it, but you never know. Carl Robinson has been very vocal about rotating his squad even more this season. The start of the year is the time to do it.
One final dark horse, don’t be surprised to see Erik Hurtado get some minutes; maybe not starting though.
Known Out (Updated as information becomes known)
Injury: Aly Ghazal, Doneil Henry
Suspension: None