Rose City Forecast Four: Crew SC vs PTFC

Welcome to a fourth prediction thread!

Last Saturday, the Portland Timbers returned home to take on the Houston Dynamo, a Western Conference Rival that had also started the season strong with two wins. And at halftime, with a score of 2-1, it looked like their record would remain unblemished while the Timbers fell. But then PTFC went from playing their worst half of soccer to one of their best, scoring three unanswered goals in the second half to build their winning streak. Valeri was Valeri, and Guzman showed that he’s not just a destroyer - he’s got nice feet and a nose for goal as well, and benefited from a whirl-a-Nagbe assist machine.

Pick of the week goes to Z_thrilla for predicting the 4-2 scoreline, as well as several goals and assists. Honorable mention to MacVanek who also got the scoreline correct, but didn’t come away with quite as many points. Most recommended post of the week goes to Timber Dave for suggesting that Chara would get a yellow when a Houston player slipped on wet turf because the ref thought he should’ve seen yellow for his dive last week. Honorable mention here goes to Deschutes who suggested that Nagbe would get a yellow in this match - meaning two consecutive games with yellows! Surprisingly accurate, but not quite surprising enough for me to veto the most recommended post.

As always with the standings, let me know if I messed up the math somewhere.

Looking to remain perfect, the Timbers travel to Columbus this week to take on the Crew at the site of MLS Cup 2015. This match presents a challenge as PTFC will be without Nagbe and Guzman due to international games, and still missing Ridgewell and possibly Vytas. That said, they’re facing a Columbus side that has had a middling start, earning 4 points on the season where Portland has 9. But it might be that none of that matters as the Crew will surely be looking for revenge for that 2015 Cup loss. Can the Timbers hold them off and continue their winning streak?

Over/under: 4.5 total cards

The Scoring Format:

• Correct score: 5 points
• Correct result (draw/win/loss): 3 points
• Each clean sheet: 2 points
• Each goal-scorer: 1 point
• Each assist/lack of assist: 1 point
• Goal/assist bonus: 1 point
• Player with the first yellow card of the match: 1 point
• Player with a red card: 1 point (Cannot earn points for predicting 0 red cards)
• Over/under on total cards: 1 point
• Most recommended/most outrageously accurate prediction: 2 points

Some ground rules and explanations/clarifications:

You may amend your prediction at any point up to kick off to account for game day 18 announcements. Though I recommend at least getting an initial prediction sooner, just in case you forget to come back in that hour or two before the game.

Keep your scoreline predictions realistic. Basically, if you’re predicting lots of goals all the time to just earn points on goals and assists and ignoring the score, I feel that goes against the spirit of this thread. This hasn’t been at all a problem in the last two years, so let’s keep it that way!

The goal/assist bonus is an additional point if you correctly get the correct scorer and assistant on the same goal. (e.g., if Nagbe scores, assisted by Valeri, and you predicted that exact combination you get a total of three points - 1 goal, 1 assist, 1 bonus. However, if you predicted Nagbe scores assisted by Adi and Adi scores assisted by Valeri, you would get two points from the Nagbe/Valeri prediction - 1 goal, 1 assist)

Even though a player can be awarded a secondary assist, I will award a maximum of one assist point per goal. But that point can come from either the primary or secondary assist.

For the over/under on cards, a second yellow leading to a red counts as two cards, not three.

Most weeks, I will reward the most recommended prediction with the 2 points. However, if someone predicts that Caleb will bring a towel to dry off Seattle’s field, and he does, they’ll probably get those two points, regardless of whether they got the recs. We’ll also be testing this out, because I want to be careful that this doesn’t end up favoring the first few people to post their prediction. As I see it, the goal here is to add even more fun without going too over-the-top ridiculous.

If you’re looking for where I set the over/under on total cards, check the end of the preview paragraph.

Format:

In the comment title, post your predicted score with the winners, eg: 4-2 Timbers

In the body of your comment, start with the goals and assists, like so:

Nagbe (Valeri)

Valeri (Free kick)

Adi (PK)

Blanco (Unassisted)

Beckham (Free kick)

Donovan (Beckham)

Next, choose your first yellow card, and that means picking only one person.

First yellow to Nigel De Jong

Then reds, if any. (NOTE: no points awarded for correctly calling a red-card-free match, so take a guess.)

Nigel De Jong gets a red card for stomping Blanco.

Clearly note whether you’re predicting over or under on total cards. Don’t leave me to try and figure it out!

And lastly, make your fun prediction.

Nigel de Jong tries to stomp Nagbe’s ankle again, but this time, Nagbe avoids the tackle. Being angry Nagbe for the first time in three years, he kicks the ball straight into NDJ’s groin. Camera pans to a trademark Chara smile.

As always, any questions about anything?