Rose City Forecast Nine: FCD vs PTFC

A win! Last weekend, the Timbers started Cascadia off right, beating Vancouver 2-1 at home, and thus, they stayed atop the league. Nagbe got things started with a rocket of a goal that pinged off the underside of the bar. A few minutes later, he started the sequence that finished with a Mattocks goal from Valeri. The Timbers looked somewhat worse in the second half, and Alvas Powell ended up conceding a head-scratching penalty. Montero scuffed his initial shot, but managed to get the follow up for Vancouver’s goal. The Whitecaps threatened as the game went on, but PTFC held on for the win.

And again, the fortunes of you forecasters seem to follow the fortunes of the Timbers. It was a pretty high scoring week all around, but James Bondo got the most (for the second week in a row. Nice!) with 14. Correct score, plus two goal scorers, the corresponding assists and bonus points on both! Both Z-whiz and Timber DT got two recs for their silly predictions, which means I get to exercise my executive power. And I just had to go with Timber DT, who suggested that Adi would get a yellow and retroactive suspension from the stands for inadvertently elbowing a fan in the face, despite dealing with spilled nachos and tater tots for the first 50 minutes of the match.

The standings!

PTFC is once more on the road, traveling to their toughest game yet, and one of their toughest of the season. Dallas has fewer points than Portland, but has played two fewer games, and tops the Timbers on points per game. They are also undefeated, where the Timbers have two losses. To make it worse, Portland will be without Valeri for the game, as he is still dealing with a hip issue that put him out of last game. Can they absorb this loss and let Nagbe and Adi carry them to victory in Texas?

Over/under: 3.5 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 FK/PK/assist/lack of assist: 1 point
• Goal/assist bonus: 1 point
• Player with the first yellow card of the match: 1 point
• Each 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 (the fine print):

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)

Please be clear whether you think a goal will be unassisted, assisted, or from a PK/FK. Unassisted = no assist, run of play; Assisted = player who got the assist; PK/FK = directly from a free kick. For the purposes of this thread, a PK counts as a FK, and a FK as a PK. If you just leave the assist section blank, I will assume you’re declining to make an assist prediction.

Even though a player can be awarded a secondary assist by OPTA, I will award a maximum of one assist point per goal. But that point can come from either the primary or secondary assist in the box score. However, please keep your predictions to one assist per goal.

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

You may predict more than one red card if you’re expecting a chippy match, but only up to three total.

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 after the standings.

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?