2020 Challenge Cup

Discussion in 'NWSL' started by SiberianThunderT, May 27, 2020.

  1. FanOfFutbol

    FanOfFutbol Member+

    The Mickey Mouse Club or The breakfast Club
    May 4, 2002
    Limbo
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    I find it interesting, not necessarily bad or good just interesting, that we are treating as a positive things that we would have found excessively intrusive or even a violation of basic freedoms before the pandemic. To paraphrase from a movie about an "Outbreak," "The virus is a billionth our size and it is beating us."

    I agree with the quarantine measures and even wish they could be much tighter but it really has changed what intrusions into basic freedoms we will allow.

    BTW: Has anyone noticed that some players on the bench are violating mask protocols by either not wearing one or wearing one improperly? Also some coaches and staff do not wear masks at all while others do. In some way masks seem to be optional but masks work two ways, incoming and outgoing, and they are not perfect in either direction but they do reduce the chance of infection transference. Yes the "zone" is supposed to be virus free but it cannot be perfectly sealed and testing only catches infection after a person has been infected for some time and has, probably, been contagious for at least part of the time they tested negative.
     
  2. lil_one

    lil_one Member+

    Nov 26, 2013
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    No one took me up on this, but we have another ACL injury. :cry:



    I'm not sure on total injuries, but I think we're at 4 ACL injuries, if we count the preseason ones (Dydasco, Mautz, Watt, and now Wright).
     
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  3. CoachJon

    CoachJon Member+

    Feb 1, 2006
    Rochester, NY
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
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  4. FanOfFutbol

    FanOfFutbol Member+

    The Mickey Mouse Club or The breakfast Club
    May 4, 2002
    Limbo
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    I almost never watch personal YouTube videos and I have to say that after wasting my time watching that one I see no reason not to revert back to not watching YouTube.

    The only thing I found good in it was that Short's hair still looks great even if she is wearing a mask. I am sure people can find much more productive things to do instead of producing drivel like this. Tempting people, even me, to waste time watching stuff like this should be punished by having to listen to "It's a Small World" performed by the Fresno bagpipe band at twice normal volume 1000 times in a row in a dark room.
     
  5. 2nd Mouse

    2nd Mouse Member+

    Apr 11, 2012
    Salt Lake City, UT
    Club:
    Real Salt Lake
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    What great videos from Yuki! I've been glued to the 'puter all morning. A great behind-the-scenes look at the tournament!

    And I've never been to Fresno and I won't speed it up, but presented for your dining and dancing pleasure:
     
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  6. MRAD12

    MRAD12 Member+

    Jun 10, 2004
    Chicago
    Club:
    Chicago Fire
    Great article:
    https://www.allforxi.com/2020/7/7/2...ct-play-welcome-to-nwsls-philosophical-battle

    This:

     
  7. lil_one

    lil_one Member+

    Nov 26, 2013
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Is there any info out there about the scheduling of the knockouts? Meaning, is the scheduled quarterfinal #1 going to be #1 v #8, quarterfinal #2 to be #2 vs #7 or #4 vs #5, etc? Or do we not know those details yet?
     
  8. SiberianThunderT

    Sep 21, 2008
    DC
    Club:
    Saint Louis Athletica
    Nat'l Team:
    Spain
    Pretty sure that was in the original announcement, yeah it's a normally seeded 8-team knockout
     
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  9. CoachJon

    CoachJon Member+

    Feb 1, 2006
    Rochester, NY
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    blissett and lil_one repped this.
  10. FanOfFutbol

    FanOfFutbol Member+

    The Mickey Mouse Club or The breakfast Club
    May 4, 2002
    Limbo
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    Yeah, that is why the announcers kept saying that the spots to strive for were "2,3,6,7" so as to be on the side of the bracket away from NC. I actually think it is better to meet a top team earlier in a tournament as was seen in the last WWC.
     
  11. lil_one

    lil_one Member+

    Nov 26, 2013
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Thanks, all, and sorry for being unclear, but, I was actually asking more specifically about when the games that are scheduled to be played. For example, is the quarterfinal #1 as they're listed on this schedule page of #1 vs #8 the game that'll be played on Friday, July 17 at 10:30 am MDT? And is quarterfinal #2 that is played that evening the #4 vs #5 on the bottom of that side of the bracket or the #2 vs #7 game on the other side? It really doesn't matter at this point (except for possibly which teams might get a bit more rest), and I'll probably be watching regardless, but I just can't find anything that actually spells that out.
     
  12. SiberianThunderT

    Sep 21, 2008
    DC
    Club:
    Saint Louis Athletica
    Nat'l Team:
    Spain
    Ah, yeah I haven't heard anything about the timing of the four seeded QFs. I'd guess they either do a drawing of lots, or let teams 1-3 pick timeslots to play - or already have it set up in some way so rest favors the higher seeds.
     
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  13. FanOfFutbol

    FanOfFutbol Member+

    The Mickey Mouse Club or The breakfast Club
    May 4, 2002
    Limbo
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    I just checked the CBS all access site and they only show times for quarterfinals not which teams 1,2, etc are playing.
    I also looked on the NWSL site and the same thing. They do not break it down.
    I checked five other sites and not one had a breakdown of which finishers are to be in which time slot. I guess we will just have to wait and see.
     
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  14. cpthomas

    cpthomas BigSoccer Supporter

    Portland Thorns
    United States
    Jan 10, 2008
    Portland, Oregon
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I am guessing that they will play the same side of the bracket on the same day, so that when they get to the semis, no team has a full day of rest advantage over the other. For the championship, there is no way to avoid it.
     
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  15. blissett

    blissett Member+

    Aug 20, 2011
    Italy
    Club:
    --other--
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    No comments about the fact that we currently have 5 teams tied at 4 points and Portland and Chicago at the last places? Who would have thought that?

    For sure my ladder-prediction is now crying! :laugh:
     
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  16. FanOfFutbol

    FanOfFutbol Member+

    The Mickey Mouse Club or The breakfast Club
    May 4, 2002
    Limbo
    Nat'l Team:
    --other--
    The "standings matter almost not at all. The only important thing to most people is avoiding NC when the games start to actually matter. That means finishing in 2nd,3rd,6th or 7th. Any team actually in 4th wants to move up 1 or 2 places or fall down to 6th but avoid going all the way down to 8th.

    In actuality the "drive" to avoid NC is unfounded because to win the tournament you must beat NC or beat whoever beats them and there is something to be said for meeting the "best" early.

    So the "standings" are really meaningless. I really think that an 8 team round robin with the top two playing a "final" would have made a lot more since that this current farce we are seeing.
     
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  17. Klingo3034

    Klingo3034 Member+

    Dallas FC
    United States
    Oct 11, 2019
    Considering many players like Sam Kerr of Chicago left and other players of the USWNT aren't playing, these playmakers are the ones who can get the team to the top. But at least we get to see how the other players do.
     
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  18. lil_one

    lil_one Member+

    Nov 26, 2013
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I'm really enjoying the features that the Equalizer is putting out. Here's another about the unsung heroes of the Challenge Cup: the stadium cleaning crew who are cleaning and disinfecting the stadium and its facilities after each game (they have about 7 hours between the morning and evening games).
     
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  19. SiberianThunderT

    Sep 21, 2008
    DC
    Club:
    Saint Louis Athletica
    Nat'l Team:
    Spain
    lil_one and CoachJon repped this.
  20. CoachJon

    CoachJon Member+

    Feb 1, 2006
    Rochester, NY
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    Orlando Pride COVID situation - Are there any updates?

    Back on June 22, NWSL announced that 6 players and 4 staff had tested positive. Subsequently I saw that Ali Krieger was one of the positives, but she had two negative tests after the positive one.
    Do we even know if the initial single positve test was confirmed as positive by subsequent testing?

    How many of the 10 have been determined to be not infected?
     
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  21. lil_one

    lil_one Member+

    Nov 26, 2013
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    #247 lil_one, Jul 17, 2020
    Last edited: Jul 17, 2020
    For those not on Twitter, there's been some fun stuff, even outside of the created accounts, so here's a bit of what you missed:

    Orlando Pride has picked a team for each game to "stan," and it does seem like the Orlando curse is real. Orlando, just as supporters, have a losing record, and Portland has now on twitter asked them to always "stan" the other team. It worked in this last game. For example:



    As a part of the "NWSL playground" story, many on twitter had called for a player to celebrate a goal on the playground. Two Athletic journalists (including Meg Linehan) committed to donating to a player's choice of charity if she would celebrate a goal on the slide. They even got Baird to waive the penalty fine from a slide celebration. Apparently, Weaver didn't read the fine print on Linehan's tweet though in that the celebration needed to be during the game:



    More on the request for a slide celebration (yes, there's an entire Athletic article about it): https://theathletic.com/1933864/
     
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  22. Yoshou

    Yoshou Fan of the CCL Champ

    May 12, 2009
    Seattle
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    From what I saw, everyone tested negative in subsequent tests. That number of false positives is unlikely, but it could have been contaminated samples.
     
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  23. lil_one

    lil_one Member+

    Nov 26, 2013
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I thought the initial positive was confirmed positive? But yeah, 5 other players and 4 staff (actually I never saw that the staff were subsequently ruled negative?) with false positives makes me think there were serious problems with the testing.
     
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  24. Yoshou

    Yoshou Fan of the CCL Champ

    May 12, 2009
    Seattle
    Club:
    Seattle Sounders
    Nat'l Team:
    United States
    I don't know if they were confirmed or not. I'm not sure the articles said anything other than they tested positive. The concern I have is that they all tested negative on the next round of testing. Unless the Pride weren't testing their players until that final week before heading to Utah, they shouldn't have tested positive for the first time and then a few days later tested negative.
     

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