Result!!!

That's me done for the first round! :)

Bring on the QF ;)

Seriously, though, I was a little unnerved when the report came up with you having an Excellent counter-attack skill, Brian. VERY scary ;/

That match was definately the most satisfying of the tourney so far... even if you did massacre my best midfielder... twice!!

Oh, and, by the way, I am going to sack my goalie... that's TWO goals he's let in in this round *mutters about 'blind & bats'* ;D

Update

I have added Scott's match roundups for weeks 4 and 5.

Sorry for misleading you folks about the semifinals but I didn't realise Scott was going to do it this way :P

I think I understand what you mean, Scott, and it seems like a good idea (especially if I get number one seed ;D).

I will update the final weeks standings ASAP... probably thursday evening (although I will have to hope for good traffic back from work as I have to leave home at 6pm to teach an evening class) but I will try to update the European matches as they finish ;)

Best of luck to all teams over the next couple of days!

Non-qualifiers

If you're interested in continuing play in a side tournament, HT mail me this week. If not, don't worry about it and those that don't qualify can hunt down friendlies for the next few weeks.

Further Clarification of Playoffs

In case you were interested....

Jeff's comment (given below) was partially incorrect:

"IF this was the final standings then the QFs would play like this:

1)Ratz v 3loc
2)Bonafide v Thunder

3)AVS v Lane
4)Ellwood v Hornets

The winners of 1 would play 2 in the semis, and the winners of 3 would play 4."


The Semifinals will be determined by seeding, that is to say that the highest seeded team will always face the lowest-seeded team remaining in the group, and the next-highest seed will face the next-lowest seed. Whenever you involve wild-card seedings it is best to do this rather than have concrete fixtures to reward teams that finished highest in their Group.

So given the above example, if Lane would upset AVS or Hornets beat Ellwood, Ratz would get to face one of those teams rather than the winner of the Bonafide/Thunder match. And so on. When we get the final results posted I'll go into this in greater detail.

New Update

I have updated the tables to take into account the Ellwood-3loc 5-0 walkover and have also added a new Goal Difference column to them.

Boy do I want to beat Hornets by two clear goals on Tuesday! ;)

Clarification of week 5 results

Thanks for that, Scott. So, with what you said in mind I thought I would set in stone the situation after 5 weeks.

1) Dirty Ratz (ENG)
2) Ellwood (WAL)
3) Bajen Avalanche (SVE)
4) FC Bonafide (USA)
5) Chocolate Thunder (USA)
6) Sea Lane (USA)
7) Heacham Hornets (ENG)
8) System 3loc (ENG)

If this was the final standings then the QFs would play like this:

1)Ratz v 3loc
2)Bonafide v Thunder

3)AVS v Lane
4)Ellwood v Hornets

The winners of 1 would play 2 in the semis, and the winners of 3 would play 4.

Of course with 3loc messing up their last fixture it means they will almost certainly not make it into the QF as Brooklyn FC and Skaningarnas FF have 6 points each and play each other this week. The winner of that match will be virtually guaranteed to qualify for the next round (A draw could see them both qualify at Lane's expense if they are beaten by AVS in their final game).

Best of luck to all teams :)

Match reports

Still working on them; I was out of town for the past week or so with no access to a computer, so last week's matches are lost to history. I'll have this week's games by tonight.

SJS

Bad News

It appears that System managed to Fu&% the Dog and schedule another friendly this week outside the Cup. They lose their match with Ellwood in a walkover, and to be consistent with the rest of the world we should put it down as a 5-0 game.

The SECOND option

I'm planning on using the second option, which is to award the top three spots to the group winnners, the next three spots to the second place teams, and the final two to the wild-card qualifiers. Makes more sense, and it gives teams an advantage for winning the series.

Bah! We wuz robbed!!

Nooooooooooooo........... I wanted that cool, luscious beer for myself :/

I have just sold my two backup goalies so if you kill Stewart Afford, Tom, then that would be just my luck :P

Okkies, well I have updated the tables and stats for this week :)

Sadly still no match reports from Scott :'( I am sure he will get round to 'em eventually ;)

'Course... there is nothing stopping anyone else sending me their own match reports... might be nice to have a 'guest' reporter ;)

Here are the top eight for this week... if you aint on this list then you have one more match to rectify it... no pressure, of course ;)

Method 1
1) Dirty Ratz (ENG)
2) Ellwood (WAL)
3) Bajen Avalanche (SVE)
4) FC Bonafide (USA)
5) Chocolate Thunder (USA)
6) Sea Lane (USA)
7) Heacham Hornets (ENG)
8) System 3loc (ENG)

Method 2
1) Dirty Ratz (ENG)
2) Ellwood (WAL)
3) Bajen Avalanche (SVE)
4) FC Bonafide (USA)
5) Chocolate Thunder (USA)
6) Heacham Hornets (ENG)
7) Sea Lane (USA)
8) System 3loc (ENG)

There is a slight difference in the order this week... (pos 6 and 7) so maybe Scott can decide on which method we are going to use as it will affect the seedings for the QF ;)

Two teams are definately out of the running now... but any teams in group C could potentially qualify... exciting stuff! :D

Thank you, thank you very much

Thank you for this great honor. First of all I would like to thank Michael for his generosity in providing an insentive for us to score. Michael, I will let you know when I am in the neighborhood. Secondly, I would like to thank the Rats. What a match, huh? I thought we actually might come away with the win there for a little while. Once again Jeff has proven to be the better manager and team. Cheers to you mate! And last but not least I want to thank the one person that made all this possible, the one person that unfortunately couldn't be here this evening because he is laid up for 2 weeks due to a near career ending tackle by Per Sahlhult. ;-) Willie Hamilton. Here's to you Willie! Here's to a speedy recovery! Here's to the next match against the Rats and you taking out their keeper.........ooops. Did I say that out loud? uhhhh, thank you and good night.

Tom Wins the Prize!

And well done to Chocolate Thunder who finally puts one past the Dirty Ratz. The winning beverage is collectable at 136 Atlantic Avenue, Brooklyn, New York 11201.

Cheers.

Week 4 Results!

Results are posted and records updated! :)

This weeks top 8 are:
1) Dirty Ratz
2) Ellwood
3) Bajen Avalanche
4) Chocolate Thunder
5) Sea Lane
6) System 3loc
7) FC Bonafide
8) Skaningarnas FF

Same result for both methods.

I say yes!

More to the point, Tom, where are the pics? ;-D

I say no.

Do you think Julian's "mistress" has read his team bio??

Team Details

Sea Lane has been added to the team files... cheers for the info.

I estimate that we should have all 12 teams by sometime in season XXX ;)

Transfer Ad

In case you're looking for someone to train, here's a nice young man for you to bring home to your coach:

Harley Villegas (16368331)
++17 years++, passable form, healthy
A pleasant guy who is fiery and honest.
Has disastrous experience and inadequate leadership abilities.

Nationality: USA
Assessed value: 20 000 US$
Wage: 580 US$/week
Owner: Brooklyn FC
Warnings: 0


Stamina: weak Goaltending: disastrous
Playmaking: ++inadequate++ Passing: ++inadequate++
Winger: wretched Defending: disastrous
Scoring: weak Set Pieces: wretched

Week 3 Reports

Up on the site now! Ultra fast this week :)

Week 3: Stats and results

Updated tables and stats. Top 8 teams now are:

(Scott Method 1)
1) Dirty Ratz
2) Ellwood
3) Bajen Avalanche
4) FC Bonafide
5) Skaningarnas
6) Chocolate Thunder
7) Heacham Hornets
8) Sea Lane

(Scott Method 2)
1) Dirty Ratz
2) Ellwood
3) Bajen Avalanche
4) FC Bonafide
5) Skaningarnas
6) Chocolate Thunder
7) Heacham Hornets
8) Sea Lane

At the moment both methods give the same seedings (As is most likely). I wonder if that will continue for the next three weeks? ;)

Playoffs, part deux

It should be obvious which I prefer but, just to be certain, I vote for the second option. Not only is it more like what would happen in real sporting competitions but it is fairer. If you come second in a group where one team dominates everybody then option one could, possibly, see you not qualify for the playoffs and that would be gutting!

Playoffs

There are a couple of options that I am considering:

One option is to seed them only according to total points and goal differential, without regard to placement in Group play. That would be the most simple and easy to follow over the course of the season.

The other option would be to award the top 3 spots to group winners, the next 3 slots to the 2nd place teams, and the 7th and 8th slots to the "wild card" qualifiers. That would reward teams for playing well in Group play, and makes winning the Group actually worth something.

Either way, though, the playoffs will proceed in a seeded format with the top seeds having home field advantage for the Quarterfinals, exactly as you mentioned below.

If there's a consensus of opinion, I'll go with that. If not, I'll make the decision myself. Let me know what you think.

The Unsinkable Stewart Afford

Tell you what, Jeff: I'll buy you a pint if you get through all 6 Group B games without coughing one up. How's that?

I see how it is... Now that you have 9 points, you want to discuss home-pitch advantage. I get it...

(Kidding. Your proposal makes sense to me -- I assumed that's what Scott had in mind.)

Do yas best! ;)

Hey Michael, can I claim the pint if I play my reserves against my own first team? Knowing my luck it will be a nil-nil draw :/

Whilst I am here I would like to ask a quick question. Scott, what is the setup for the quater/semi finals going to be? Is it like we discussed or have you come up with a new brainwave?

Just for the record, I suggested we play the quarters/semis in a seeded fashion: 1st v 8th, 2nd v 7th, 3rd v 6th, 4th v 5th for the quarters and then 1st or 8th versus 4th or 5th, 2nd or 7th versus 3rd or 6th. As the quarters are a single cup-game I suggest the highest seeded teams play at home (an advantage for doing best in the league round).

Any thoughts from you peeps?

Bounty

OK, Hornets, Thunder and Quakes have each had a turn. Bonafide will officially buy the first pint/round for the manager of the team who finally manages to put a goal past Dirty Ratz.

Week 2 Reports

They are finally in folks... read 'em hot off the press :)

VERY IMPORTANT

As we discussed earlier in the preparations for this Cup season, the new match orders are going to have a SIGNIFICANT impact on the way we approach things. Or at least we think that's the case, which is why we are going to go through this learning experience. So I'd like to make one request/order for all matches played the rest of the B-Cup season.

In order for us to best learn how our teams AND OUR OPPONENTS' react to match order, please HT-Mail your competitor what your match orders were after the game has been completed. This is still a competition to be sure, but we may as well use the Cup as a learning tool to put all of our teams at the best possible competitive advantage for next season's series play.

SJS

Recaps

Were a little delayed this week by the arrival of parents from California. They should be up on the site in a few hours, and I'll endeavor to have next week's up a bit sooner if possible. Another good Cup run so far, with the Brooklyn contingent predictably lagging far behind. No surprise to see the cream rising to the top.

SJS

Week 2 Update

Results and stats have been updated. I hope you all make good use of the new tactics next week ;)

The top 8 seeded teams now are:

1) Dirty Ratz (ENG)
2) Ellwood (WAL)
3) Skaningarnas (SWE)
4) Chocolate Thunder (USA)
5) Sea Lane (USA)
6) System 3loc (ENG)
7) FC Bonafide (USA)
8) Bajen Avalanche (SWE)

Tom: Yes you did... almost! (whisper) You have to press 'post & publish' not just 'post' (/whisper) ;)

I will add Scott's recaps as they come in :)

Nice!

Nice recaps Scott. Thanks for doing it.

p.s. Hey Jeff....I figured it out! ;-)