The Thorns Prediction Game: Reading the PTFC Leaves – Matchday 17

Coming off a disappointing week, the Thorns entertained at home. The 4-0 rout of the Royals moved Portland up the standings by one position after the other contenders all won their matches. Our big winner was Constant Weeder with 10 of the possible 25 points, including the most rec’d fun prediction of the Riveters invoking magic to lift the curse of recent bad form.

We have a Sunday night matchup with the Houston Dash next. Proven to be a beatable team on the road, the 2018 Dash have held their own against the Thorns dating back to the preseason tournament (2 draws, one loss). In their recent loss to Seattle, coach Vera Pauw made only one substitution despite trailing, to no great effect. Their full roster should be available except possibly VanWyk, but they are on short rest, having beaten Orlando mid-week. The Thorns will be without Purce and Andressinha, but otherwise all fit. The weather forecast is for heat, with low 90’s predicted for the 8:00pm start time.

How this works:

Add a comment to this post. In the comment title put your predicted result, for example 3-1 Thorns.

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

Lussi (Klingenberg)

Horan (Free kick)

Weber (Unassisted)

Huerta (PK)

Next, name the first yellow card recipient: First yellow to Sonnett

Then reds, if any. (NOTE: no points awarded for correctly calling a red-card-free match, so take a guess.) Brooks gets a red for tripping Lussi on the edge of the box.

Make your fun prediction:

The halftime watering crew sprays the Riveters in the first few rows and then find themselves begged by the east and west side fans for the same treatment. This delays the restart and Mark Parsons gets a warning from the referee.

Lastly, please recommend one of the other player’s wild prediction!

Scoring:

· 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)

· Most recommended/most outrageously accurate prediction: 2 points

Some ground rules and explanations/clarifications (the fine print):

Comments must be posted before kickoff, but you can edit or amend an earlier prediction right up to the starting whistle.

Keep your scoreline predictions realistic. No crazy scores just to pad out your odds of getting goals and assists.

The goal/assist bonus is an additional point if you predict the correct scorer and assistant on the same goal, for example, you say Onumonu scores from an Horan assist and that is exactly what happens.

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 = not in run of play. For the purposes of this thread, Penalty Kick and Free Kick are the same thing. No entry means unassisted.

Have fun, tell your friends, let me know if you have any questions or if I screw up your score.