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 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).

Match Recap and Preview

Optimism was low this week with only one person predicting a win and nineteen predicting a loss. CDPrior and hbamaral were the only two to predict the draw, earning them the highest scores this match. The most common error was including Venuto, who has started 6 of the last 7 matches. No surprise that MLS debutant Brendan McDonough was also absent from people’s lineups. Interestingly, I (AtlantisB) spoke about him possibly suiting up in our match preview, but didn’t feel confident enough in that to make the prediction official.

The Whitecaps are now in Seattle, to take on the Sounders. This may seem like an easy one to pick a Caps loss, but Seattle has been in very poor form of late and are without most of their offensive weapons. There is a major question as to who will start at striker as their first three options are all away on international duty or injured. Meanwhile, the Caps have not lost in their past six. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a lot of ‘loss’ predictions but for the Caps to pull this one out. The Cascadia matches are always a toss-up.

Don’t forget to check out our Match Preview and Scouting Report for more information prior to making your predictions.