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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. 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.
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 1.5 hours prior to kickoff (or half an hour prior to the lineup being officially announced).
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).
Match #21 (Seattle Sounders) Scores
| Ranking | User | Overall Score | Lineup | Bonus | Winner | Score | Interval |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ranking | User | Overall Score | Lineup | Bonus | Winner | Score | Interval |
| 1 | Jph003 | 19 | 10 | 1 | 5 | 3 | 0 |
| 2 | Arjon | 17 | 10 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 0 |
| 2 | olikchivas | 17 | 9 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 0 |
| 2 | ZTJ9901 | 17 | 10 | 1 | 5 | 1 | 0 |
| 5 | Cashen | 16 | 10 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | hbamaral | 16 | 10 | 1 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | CascadiaCrunchFC | 15 | 9 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 0 |
| 7 | edmondk | 15 | 9 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 0 |
| 7 | GreyHouseEffect | 15 | 9 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 0 |
| 7 | Isabelt | 15 | 9 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 0 |
| 11 | chuckbiscuits | 14 | 9 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 | MacMhuirrich | 14 | 9 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 | The Squirrel | 14 | 9 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 | Westsider13 | 14 | 8 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 0 |
| 15 | AtlantisB | 12 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 16 | BlackPanther99 | 11 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 16 | Island Life | 11 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 16 | rtomsheck | 11 | 10 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 19 | AdamP17 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 19 | dfree646 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 19 | Jstebeck | 9 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 19 | MarcoD77 | 9 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 23 | AmandaC | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
July Standings
| Ranking | User | Overall Score | COL | CHI | DC | MON | SEA | MON | MIN |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ranking | User | Overall Score | COL | CHI | DC | MON | SEA | MON | MIN |
| 1 | Arjon | 77 | 8 | 14 | 17 | 13 | 17 | 8 | 0 |
| 2 | chuckbiscuits | 71 | 9 | 13 | 19 | 8 | 14 | 8 | 0 |
| 3 | Westsider13 | 69 | 9 | 9 | 15 | 14 | 14 | 8 | 0 |
| 4 | Isabelt | 68 | 9 | 17 | 14 | 9 | 15 | 4 | 0 |
| 5 | GreyHouseEffect | 67 | 8 | 13 | 15 | 13 | 15 | 3 | 0 |
| 5 | The Squirrel | 67 | 7 | 10 | 17 | 14 | 14 | 5 | 0 |
| 7 | BlackPanther99 | 64 | 9 | 19 | 11 | 5 | 11 | 9 | 0 |
| 8 | CascadiaCrunchFC | 63 | 8 | 9 | 17 | 9 | 15 | 5 | 0 |
| 9 | MarcoD77 | 62 | 8 | 14 | 11 | 8 | 9 | 12 | 0 |
| 10 | edmondk | 61 | 7 | 8 | 14 | 13 | 15 | 4 | 0 |
| 10 | rtomsheck | 61 | 6 | 17 | 0 | 8 | 11 | 19 | 0 |
| 12 | AtlantisB | 60 | 8 | 10 | 17 | 8 | 12 | 5 | 0 |
| 13 | olikchivas | 58 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 12 | 17 | 2 | 0 |
| 14 | Jph003 | 49 | 9 | 13 | 8 | 0 | 19 | 0 | 0 |
| 15 | Island Life | 48 | 7 | 19 | 9 | 0 | 11 | 2 | 0 |
| 16 | hbamaral | 47 | 6 | 16 | 9 | 0 | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| 17 | AmandaC | 41 | 9 | 14 | 10 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| 17 | dfree646 | 41 | 7 | 14 | 11 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| 17 | MacMhuirrich | 41 | 6 | 12 | 9 | 0 | 14 | 0 | 0 |
| 20 | AdamP17 | 40 | 7 | 9 | 15 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| 21 | Jstebeck | 37 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 9 | 13 | 0 |
| 22 | ZTJ9901 | 36 | 6 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 17 | 0 | 0 |
| 23 | Jitsuo | 34 | 7 | 13 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 24 | Cashen | 32 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 0 | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| 24 | tecate | 32 | 6 | 10 | 16 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 26 | robbosg1 | 23 | 12 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 27 | CWilkins | 14 | 5 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 27 | freewheeling | 14 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Match Review (Seattle Sounders) and Preview (Minnesota United)
I AM BACK, WHICH MEANS TABLE UPDATES!!!!
I have spent too many hours today collecting all the data from the previous six matches I missed, so this is going to be short. First off, the First Half Final Standings are complete. I will write a separate article, with all the fun numbers, this weekend. Second, I have posted the Seattle match scores above. Congrats to our top scorer Jph003, who achieved a great score of 19. There was a three-way tie for second, at 17, between Arjon, olikchivas, and ZTJ9901. Third, I have posted the July Standings. It has been a great month, and with one match left (Minnesota), Arjon holds a comfortable lead over chuckbiscuits. Not putting in a prediction for the Voyageurs Cup matches messed a few people up, however, it is worth noting that the scores for those two matches are NOT good. Several people actually scored a ‘2’ on lineup prediction last match. YIKES! Fourth, I have not posted the Second Half Standings yet, because there are only a few matches. Those will come in the upcoming matches. Okay, now on to the upcoming match!
Vancouver Whitecaps play host to Minnesota United on Saturday. While Minnesota has been awful on the road (winning only once), they have been on a streak of late, thanks to Darwin Quintero. Meanwhile, the Whitecaps have been playing poorly of late, and are not exactly dominant at home. Like we have said far too often, this is a match the Whitecaps should win, but they were supposed to beat Colorado too.
Carl Robinson played a strong lineup on Wednesday evening, to win the Voyageurs Cup semi-final. While this might suggest that some rotation is in order, the Whitecaps can’t afford to drop any points in this one. As a result, we might see a pretty strong lineup again. The main question marks are around right back (Nerwinski vs Franklin), whether Davies will start, and who plays for the suspended Juarez (Teibert? Ghazal? Other?).
Don’t forget, this is the final match of July, which means that our scoring interval category is still in effect. As a reminder, correctly predicting the 15-minute interval in which the Whitecaps score their first goal will earn you a bonus ‘3’ points for the July Standings (only). The intervals are as follows: 0-15, 16-30, 31-45+, 46-60, 61-75, 76-90+
Good Luck!