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

April Standings Rank User Overall Score Galaxy Chicago LAFC Orlando Rank User Overall Score Galaxy Chicago LAFC Orlando 1 CapsOnTheDrive 55 9 19 18 9 2 Westsider13 54 16 14 10 14 3 AtlantisB 53 17 17 11 8 4 tecate 52 8 16 13 15 5 GreyHouseEffect 50 9 19 10 12 6 Isabelt 48 9 16 10 13 6 ZTJ9901 48 11 10 17 10 8 Columbian_Soutsider77 47 8 17 12 10 9 Tres_Tristes_Tigres 46 11 15 11 9 10 edmondk 42 7 17 11 7 11 PowerOutOnTheKingsway 41 8 10 14 9 11 rtomsheck 41 8 10 15 8 11 The Squirrel 41 12 10 11 8 14 AshMan77 40 8 10 13 9 15 CascadiaCrunchFC 39 9 12 9 9 15 hbamaral 39 11 10 10 8 15 Jitsuo 39 9 12 12 6 15 TillmanD 39 9 14 16 0 19 chuckbiscuits 37 9 10 9 9 20 Airos 36 10 7 10 9 20 AmandaC 36 8 10 10 8 20 Fudmur 36 9 10 9 8 23 AlexGangue91 35 11 15 9 0 24 AdamP 17 34 8 10 9 7 25 CDPrior 31 10 10 11 0 26 Jph003 29 0 12 17 0 27 Island Life 27 9 0 8 10 27 MarcusEarth 27 9 11 7 0 29 SnakeDave 21 8 0 13 0 30 BlackPanther99 12 0 12 0 0 31 JStebeck 11 11 0 0 0 32 Slowkid 10 10 0 0 0

Match in Review (LAFC) and Preview (Orlando City SC)

The Vancouver Whitecaps finally did it! They won their first match on the 2019 MLS season. Strangely, against the best team in the league. I am going to keep this a bit shorter (hopefully) today, as we are on a short turnaround with the weekend match.

Congrats to CapsOnTheDrive who finished the match at the top of the standings with 18 points. They were followed by Jph003 and ZTJ9901 at 17, and TillmanD at 16.

That moved CapsOnTheDrive to first in the April standings, only point over AtlantisB, with TillmanD moving to 4th and ZTJ9901 to 5th. Unfortunately for Jph003, that missed Galaxy prediction has cost them in the monthly standings.

A few observations. It looked like, for a moment, we would have a VAR-influenced decision, due to questions around Yordy Reyna being in an offside position, but it didn’t occur, meaning that we had no VAR decision. Although, props to Island Life who was close stating that a goal would be called back due to an offside.

GreyHouseEffect finally predicted a loss...only to have the Caps win. Can’t catch a break!

I was surprised by how many Sutter predictions there were at left back. I guess he impressed last match. Speaking about lineups, MDS said that a player would be playing in a new position. Turned out to be Russell Teibert in the attacking three. He had a good match, although his halftime interview was a little weird. Westsider13 was also correct about Reyna playing as the striker.

While CDPrior had a high score prediction (4-2) and Ashman77 was a little wild with their lineup prediction (7/11), they were the only two to correctly predict PC would start, so congrats to them. Speaking of PC...

AmandaC, we need to talk! Same to you tecate. Sorry, no bonus for the hunch. If I did that AmandaC would be running away with this contest.

That is it from me for this one. We have Orlando City on Saturday, at noon. Going to be a quick turnaround. Caps have already left for Orlando as this comes to publish. We will see who starts and who sits. Does PC get another start against his former club? Does Montero or Ardaiz start at striker? Where does Teibert go in the lineup? Does Sutter play against his former club after Nerwinski had a fantastic match? We will find out shortly!

Know the Enemy