There probably should have been changes to the scoring system for this year with the changes in tournament format and rules, but now that the ball's rolling in this tournament and people have already made the predictions, I kind of think its too much trouble to change it now....even if you did get more points than me from an exact score with wrong team advancing while I predicted the draw, but wrong score, with right team advancing.
Just picking with my heart instead of my head from here on out with both NC and WAS out. POR 1-3 HOU NJ 1-1 CHI (CHI advances)
While I'm tempted to just throw some 0-0's out there, I'm really hoping for some goals: POR 1 HOU 1 (Houston advance) NJ 1 CHI 2
I normally do not much engage in "predictions." But this now has a real chance to be SOCCER. This is on grass and that will make a huge difference. Goals will come almost by accident. POR 4 - HOU 2 (at least one will be an own goal) NJ 1 - CHI 3 The bad bounces will be gone and the players will quickly adapt to the much better conditions. BTW: If it rains add one goal to each side. If it rains heavily reduce all goals by 1.
Although I definitely hate articificial turf too , I am not sure its usage directly correlates with the number of goals scored, if at least a part of the teams are competent enough. U-17 WWC 2012 in Azerbaijan was played on turf, for instance, but I remember there were a lot of matches with a high number of goals, including a resounding Japan's win by 9-0 over Mexico (Momiki was on the pitch back then and she was one of the scorers in that rout).
HOU 2, Port 1. I'm betting the lightning won't strike twice in favor of a depleted Porland. Daly/Groom should be able to sneak in a couple of goals Chi 1, Sky Blue 0
What a debacle! My prediction season is being an utter failure (barely half-saved by the pointing system of the direct eleimination stage ). I was very tempted to cast my vote on Chicago Red Stars, since they have an history in the play-offs and they were 2nd placed last season, but in the end I decided to listen to who pointed out that the Houston Dash were one of the most consistent teams throughout this whole Challenge Cup, they scored more than anyone except Courage and they have a very effective game-changer in Rachel Daly. So my prediction for the final is: HOU 2 CHI 1 Don't worry, Chicago fans out there: only Orlando "stan" predictions have a worse record than me, so it will probably go the other way around.
I think the women hate it more for the turf burns (and maybe temperature) than any perceived increase in injury risk related muscles/tendons/ligaments/bones. 1285262480395005952 is not a valid tweet id
Wow, thanks for reminding me! Although there could be a whole lot of strategic schemes suggesting to predict a team to win and the other one to get MVP to minimize damage, since I predicted a Dash win I'll go with Rachel Daly as the MVP (and I frankly don't know who else could I go with in Houston; or better, I could imagine someone like Nichelle Prince having a helluva game, but if the Dash will win, I guess It'll be on Daly's shoulders or on no-one else's)
CRS 1, Houston 1, Houston wins on penalties (OK, I'm going with my heart not my head.) Daly as VP for this match and for the tournament.
With another strong performance from correctly predicting both wins and the right goal differentials, 59Amerinorsk takes the lead. Shoutout also to smallchief for a 10 point performance as well: So, I've also tallied the ladder predictions, but because several did not do them, I propose a winner for the tournament predictions, like our regular season winner, and then our tournament predictions+ladder predictions winner, like a pre-season, plus regular season, plus post-season winner. Although the points are not final yet, as Blissett could still get 2 more points, I think STT deserves some kudos for pretty much crushing us on the ladder predictions, beating the next closest competitor smallchief by 11 points: The ladder prediction tallies (please, of course, let me know if there are changes/mistakes or if I missed seeing your ladder): And so the ladder predictions plus tournament predictions tally total SO FAR (without the final results obviously):
Kudos to @lil_one for the excellent job Now that I am too much behind in the fight for the title, I definitely root for @59Amerinorsk to win the whole thing!!!
I was gonna go for Watt possibly - she is overdue to have a goal scoring breakout performance plus she will be playing her former team!
If I was to go with my head here, I think Houston actually has the edge (I know traditionally Houston would be the underdog here, but in this tournament, I think they've actually been better), but I'm going with heart and saying Chicago finally wins it. CHI 2-1 HOU I'll also go with Watt as finally having a breakout game in this tournament with a goal or two and getting MVP honors.