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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.
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 half-an-hour 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
| Rank | User | Total Score | Lineup | Bonus | Winner | Score | Goal & VAR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | User | Total Score | Lineup | Bonus | Winner | Score | Goal & VAR |
| 1 | tecate | 15 | 7 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 3 |
| 2 | Westsider13 | 14 | 8 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 1 |
| 3 | Isabelt | 13 | 8 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | GreyHouseEffect | 12 | 6 | 0 | 5 | 0 | 1 |
| 5 | Columbian_Soutsider77 | 10 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 6 | Island Life | 10 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 7 | ZTJ9901 | 10 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 8 | Airos | 9 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 9 | AshMan77 | 9 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 10 | CapsOnTheDrive | 9 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 11 | CascadiaCrunchFC | 9 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 12 | chuckbiscuits | 9 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 13 | PowerOutOnTheKingsway | 9 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 14 | Tres_Tristes_Tigres | 9 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 15 | AmandaC | 8 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 16 | AtlantisB | 8 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 17 | Fudmur | 8 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 18 | hbamaral | 8 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 19 | rtomsheck | 8 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 20 | The Squirrel | 8 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 21 | AdamP 17 | 7 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 22 | edmondk | 7 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 23 | Jitsuo | 6 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Match in Review (Minnesota United FC) and Preview (Real Salt Lake)
We had a tremendous start to the 2019 season, with 27 people making predictions, including five first time guessers. Welcome to new participants Hasslis2ndshirt, sammygee, AlexGangue91, Derek L, and CapsOnTheDrive.
Let’s get right into the summary. First award of the season goes to Westsider13 who cam away with the top score of the match (17). They, along with tecate and The Squirrel were the only ones to predict a Loons victory. This typically happens at the beginning of the season especially. We are all too optimistic about the Whitecaps. That is a good thing though!
While only three received ‘5’ points for correctly predicting a Loons victory, several people still managed to receive ‘1’ point for ‘Score’, thanks to 2-x Vancouver predictions. GreyHouseEffect had the correct score (3-2), just in the wrong direction (Vancouver).
We had three perfect lineup predictions -Island Life, CascadiaCrunchFC, and Jph003. They each received the bonus ‘3’ points to overcome not predicting a Minnesota victory.
PC or Cornelius seemed to be the big stumper for many who did not predict the correct lineup, while many of us were also hesitant to put Hwang over Rose.
The award for best debut, from our five new participants, goes to Derek L, who scored ‘12’. Congrats. Hopefully we will see more predictions from the newcomers in the upcoming weeks.
Finally, sorry AdamP 17, Reyna didn’t score the goal.
This Saturday the Whitecaps travel to Salt Lake to take on RSL. We will have match information in the next couple of days via our Know the Enemy piece and Match Preview. Links will be added once those articles are posted.
Know the Enemy: Ian Jones spoke with RSL Soapbox to get their perspective on the upcoming match.
Match Preview: Samuel_Rowan gives you all the important match details.
Finally, we have Instagram now, so make sure to add us: eightysixforever!
Known Out (Updated as information becomes known)
Injury: Russell Teibert (likely), Jasser Khmiri (out), Brett Levis (out)
Suspension: None