Rose City Forecast 17: Loons vs PTFC

Welcome to this first mid-week forecast of 2017! The game on Saturday was quite disappointing, to say the least, as the Timbers coughed up a 1-0 halftime lead to lose 2-1, and gave up that winning goal in the 89th minute to none other than Alan Gordon. Worse, Adi flubbed a sitter, and Jake came needlessly off his line on the first goal while Valentin had his speed (lack therof, really) partially exposed. On the bright side, the Timbers’ one goal came from Blanco, and it’s beginning to look like he’s found his groove on the left of the attack.

GeorgeCorps17 and straight red tied for pick of the week, both taking home 8 points for a correct score, and therefore correct result. Five recs were given on the entire thread, one to each of MindfulCyclist, hoser!hoser!, BarmyTarmy, Qoolio, and deadjeff. That means I get to play tiebreaker, and I decided to go with hoser!hoser!’s prediction that Adi would make an account and make a more creative prediction than anyone else. I was disappointed the suggested username, asprillathekilla, never showed up, regardless of whether it was actually Adi.

And onto the standings. As always, if I made a mistake, do yell at me!

On short rest, PTFC travels to take on the Minnesota side they thoroughly thumped in the season opener. However, this is a new Loons team, as they’ve got four wins at home and three losses. Their past month has been rough, with only one win in five, and that coming on May 27. But it was at home, and as we know, the Timbers haven’t been great on the road lately. On the bright side of things, David Guzman served his suspension against Colorado and should be back in the lineup Wednesday with fresh legs to bolster the midfield. Will Blanco’s new energy at left wing and Guzman’s return be enough to propel the Timbers to their first road win in almost two months?

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?