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     TOP TEAMS EXCEPT ATLANTA RE-ASSERT THEIR POWER; SIX TEAMS PUNCH TICKET
Kona Coast Fauci's and Kona Coast Sliders remain tied for 1st

HOME, CA (smt) -- All teams have now played at least two matches with Group B teams B1-Seattle Sounders FC and B4-San Jose Earthquakes having finished group play due to the rescheduling of matches with FC Dallas and Nashville SC withdrew.  Eight of the 20 teams that played attained at least 4 points to join A1-Orlando City SC, A4-Philadelphia Union, and SJ.  Three teams already have 3 points and sit in the 3rd place position.

C1-Toronto took back control of Group C with a wild 4-3 win over C3-Impact de Montreal where Ayo Akinola has 5 goals and Alejandro Pozuelo has 5 assists in the two matches.  E4-Columbus Crew SC and F4-Portland Timbers clinched a spot in the Knockout Round with their second wins while SJ clinched Group B with a win over B2-Chicago Fire FC.  C3-D.C. United and C2-New England Revolution played to a draw to attain 4 points each as did D1-Real Salt Lake and D4-Minnesota.  D3-Colorado Rapids managed to tie the match down 2 men but D2-Sporting KC got the game-winner in stoppage time while 10-men and Josef Martinez-less E1-Atlanta United FC couldn't muster anything against E2-FC Cincinnati, falling 1-0.  ATL got a second red late in stoppage and haven't scored in 215 minutes. 

Short-handed F2-LA Galaxy (without Jonathan Dos Santos or Chicharito) took a 2-1 lead but fell hard 6-2 to Carlos Vela-less F1-Los Angeles Football Club with Diego Rossi getting 4 goals and an assist (5 goals for the tourney).  Short-handed B3-Vancouver, without four strikers, wilted against defending MLS champ B1-Seattle Sounders FC who desperately needed a win with SEA winning 3-0 and actually clinching a spot into the Round of 16.  They are guaranteed to be at least the 4th-best 3rd place team with 4 points (Group A 3rd place will max at 3 points and if Group E has a 3rd place team with 4 pts it will have a worse goal-differential (-1) than SEA's +2).

With 11 teams netting at least 4 points, will 3 points be enough for a 3rd place team to sneak in?  Big favorites ATL hope so but play against Group E leader CLB.  But although CLB may rest starters, helping ATL, the match will count in the regular season standings so CLB can't completely lay off.  ATL actually plays first so even with a win, the next day CIN and E3-New York Red Bulls could draw and eliminate ATL outright.  By the time LA plays, the top 4 3rd Place teams may have already been decided.

After the first two PKs were saved, players have converted the next 7 (though LA's Carlos Pavon got a retake since LAFC's GK left the line too early).  RBNY became the first team with zero shots on goal even though CLB's goalkeeper was injured in most of the 10 minutes of stoppage time (CLB had no subs left).

In the pool, the past 10 matches saw Go Chivas (5th-Tied, 8 pts), Hereforthecommentary (5th-T), Carseroni (8th-T, 7), TarjetaRoja (8th-T), and BigRedMessi 2 (14th-T, 5) went 5-3 while Duetschland = Koeing (14th-T) went 2-8 to fall from a tie for 6th to a tie for last.  However, the leaders from last time are still the leaders now with Kona Coast Fauci's and Kona Coast Sliders tied for first with 10 points.

Starting Monday, 3 points will be awarded for each team making the Round of 16 as their group closes.  Group A closes Monday, Group C Tuesday, Groups D and E Wednesday, and Groups B and F Thursday.  While no one can get points on the new matches Monday, 11 will get 3 points for PHI qualifying and 9 will get 3 points for ORL qualifying (doesn't matter if the team is 1st or 2nd).  It'll be too early if A2-Inter Miami FC or A3-New York City FC win to see if they qualify or not.  If that match ties, that will only help the other teams with 3 points inch closer to qualifying (only have to be top 4 best 3rd place teams out of 5 groups instead of 6).

I'll be doing daily gameday updates on our Blog and re-posted on Twitter.  These updates will be every few days or so and will be emailed out.  Everyone can view their pick and bracket by clicking the "Pick" link in the standings next to their nickname.  If you want to know who everyone is, the Who's Who in the Pool is now available.

   Ins 'n Outs -  Goals (25 Matches): 78 (3.12/match) [Own: 3 (10-SKCvMIN 90'+2, 19-SJvVAN 22', 26-LFCvLA 5'), Subs: 9 (6-DC 84', 17-SEA 77', 16-ORL 81', 19-SJ 72', 19-SJ 90'+8' {2}, 21-DC 72' {2}, 23-COL 84', 26-LFC 80', 30-SJ 83' {3}), 90'+: 8 [1-ORL +7 (GW), 10-MIN +2 (GT), 10-MIN +7 (GW) {2}, 6-DC +1 (GT), 19-SJ +8 (GW), 18-MTL +5, 23-SKC +1 (GW), 26-LFC +2]... Scoring First: 15-5-3 (2 Nil-Nil (7-SEAvSJ, 24-RSLvMIN); 1-MIA:ORL 1:2, 10-SKC:MIN 1:2, 19-VAN:SJ 3:4, 23-COL:SKC 2:3, 26-LA 2:6)... Leading at Half: 8-3-2 (12 ties; 10-SKC:MIN (1:0) 1:2, 19-VAN:SJ (2:1) 3:4, 23-COL:SKC (1:0) 2:3)... Shutout: 13 (3-NYC, 5-MTL, 7-SEA, 7-SJ, 8-ATL, 9-CIN, 11-COL, 20-ATL {2}, 22-NY, 24-RSL, 24-MIN, 30-CHI, 31-VAN)... PK: 7/9 [10-rsl (s) 72', 13-la (s) 12', 18-MTL 37', 18-MTL 90'+5' {2}, 23-SKC 73', 25-HOU 86', 26-LFC 13', 26-LA 31', 31-SEA 16']... PSO: -... Red Card (GF/GA): 7 (5/4) [10-SKC 74' {R} (0/2), 6-DC 45'+6' {2Y} (2/0), 13-POR 75' {2Y} (0/1), 14-MIA 90'+8' {2Y} (0/0), 23-COL 61' {R} (0/2), 23-COL 73' {R} (1/1) <2>, 25-HOU 88' {R} (0/0)]... Multiple G's: 7 [Zardes 2 (9-CLB), Akinola 2 (6-TOR), M.Rodriguez 2 (12-HOU), Mueller 2 (16-ORL), Akinola 3 (18-TOR) {2}, Taider 2 (18-MTL), Rossi 4 (26-LFC)]... Multiple A's: 7 [Pozuelo 2 (6-TOR), Felipe 2 (6-DC), Blessing 2 (12-LFC), Quintero 2 (12-HOU), Pozuelo 3 (18-TOR) {2}, B.Rodriguez 2 (26-LFC), Ginella 2 (26-LFC)]... 3+Pts: 4 [Zelarayan GAA (9-CLB), Akinola GGG (18-TOR), Pozuelo AAA (18-TOR), Rossi GGAGG (26-LFC)]... Zero SOG (Shots): 1 [22-NY (7)]... Goal Line Tech (Award): 0 (0)... VAR (-Reversal(Taken Away), +Reversal(Added), =Confirmed, xNo Call): 14 [9-CLB xOff={g} 49', 10-MIN xOff+{g-} 64', 12-HOU Off-{g+} 45'+5', 13-LA xOff+{g-} 81', 16-PHI HB-{pk-} 75', 19-SJ xRC={yc} 56', 20-ATL xOff+{pk-} 45'+5', 20-ATL xRC+ 90'+9', 18-TOR xHB+{pk+} 90'+4', 23-COL xRC={yc} 43', 23-COL xRC+ 58', 23-COL xHB+{pk+} 69', 25-POR xHB+{pk+} 83', 26-LA Off={xg} 54', 26-LFC xOff={g} 90'+1']... 63%+ Poss (2-1-2): 5 [8-ATLvNY (69) L, 6-TORvDC (66) D, 12-LFCvHOU (72) D, 19-SJvVAN (68) W, 30-SJvCHI (63) W {2}] ... 20+ Shots (S/SOG/G) (1-2-1): 3 [12-LFC (23/6/3) D, 16-NYC (26/8/1) L, 19-SJ (30/11/4) W, 23-HOU (24/4/1) L]... Postponed (>30m): 2 [8-ATLvNY (Lightning 45m), 6-TORvDC (Testing 24h)]... Cancelled: 3 (2-NSHvCHI, 14-MIAvCHI, 29-ORLvNSH)... Replacements: 6 (4-DALvVAN->CHIvVAN, 15-PHIvNSH->PHIvMIA, 17-SEAvDAL->CHIvSEA, 27-NYCvCHI->MIAvNYC, 28-PHIvMIA->PHIvORL, 30-DALvSJ->CHIvSJ)... Match Order (2,14,29 CCD): 1 | 3-5 | 7 | 8-9 | 10-11 | 6-12-13 | 17-16-15 | 19 | 20-18-22 | 21-23-24 | 25-26 | 30-31 | 27-28^A | 32-33-34^C | 35-36^E-37^D | 4^B-38-39^F...

   Knockout Knocks (+In, -Elim, ^1st) - +PHI^A (15-W), +ORL^A (15-PHI W)... +CLB^E (22-W)... +POR^F (25-W)... +SJ^^1B (30-W), +SEA^B (31-W)...

   Bits 'n Bobs -  ESPN/Deportes had good MLS TV ratings for ORLvMIA but that just means only 492,000 viewers... ATL has not scored in 215 minutes... CIN won for the first time in 8 matches (9/14/19)... ATL was first team to be shut out in 8 matches (7/12 COL)... the ATL-CIN went to the 90'+13' (102:41 - 10' was announced)... TOR is undefeated in their last 14 regular season matches (6-0-8)... MTL converted both PKs, the first successful conversions of the tourney (first two were saved)... each of the four Group E matches have featured one team shut out... RBNY became first team with zero shots on goal and never took advantage of an injured CLB GK in the 10+ minutes of stoppage time... DC-NE and SKC-COL were the first matches played at the same time (Fields 16 and 17)... the COLvSKC match had 12 official minutes put up for the second half stoppage and ended at 102:32 (still not the longest as the ATLvCIN went 102:41 (on 10 official min put up))... LA were +475 huge underdogs... for the first time, a GK was called for leaving the line too early (no auto Yellow card though like in the WWC19) as LA's Carlos Pavon nailed his second attempt... there have been 40 goals in the 7 El Traffico matches (Series now tied 2-2-3) and 8 goals each in the past two (the lone LAFC wins)... LA has given up a goal in 13 straight regular season matches (15 including playoffs)... after going winless in 9 straight regular season matches (0-7-2), SJ has won 2 in a row (both wins controlling the match with 63%+ possession)... Pool Summary:  Super League (8th-T) was only one to pick CIN, 10 picked TOR, 6 got CLB (3 went 2-1 while Deutschland = Koeing went 0-3); 4 got DC-NE tie, 9 SKC, and Coronavirus_Sucks! (8th-T) got RSL-MIN tie (2 went 2-1, 4 went 0-3); 11 got POR and 8 got LAFC (5 went 2-0, Deutschland = Koeing went 0-2); 11 got SEA (CHIvSJ was not picked)... each match has featured a mandatory cooling break of at least 90 seconds each half (~30 min into each half)... they finally updated the tweaks to the knockout stages -- we knew about the date changes (1Bv3ACD and 1Cv3ABF swapping dates) but the bracket has changed as well:  1Cv3ABF winner will now face 1Fv2E and 1Ev2D will now face 1Bv3ACD in Round of 16; 2A2C will now face 1E2Dv1B3ACD and 1A3CDEv2B2F will now face 1C3ADFv1F2E in Quarters...  

Wish we had Zlatan back since LA didn't change their strategy of long crosses into the box ...
Scott