Eighty Six Forever, Guess the Starting XI, Vancouver Whitecaps FC

Guess the Starting XI – Match 22 vs. LA Galaxy

Welcome back, everyone.

The Vancouver Whitecaps managed to right the ship midweek with an important 2-1 win over visiting Austin FC. On Saturday, Vancouver will look to finish off their big week at home with a similar result, in a matchup against the LA Galaxy.

The Galaxy are coming into this matchup red-hot, with massive wins over LAFC and Philadelphia in their last two contests, and overall, being undefeated in their last seven. The problem for the Galaxy is that they were absolutely awful this season up until their recent run, so they’re still sitting 13th in the West, six points short of Vancouver with the same number of matches played. These teams drew each other 1-1 back in March down in LA, with goals coming from Tristan Blackmon and Kelvin Leerdam. The Galaxy are tied for the third-worst scoring record league-wide and have really struggled finishing their chances despite some decent attacking creativity. We’ve only seen things start to click for them recently, so I think this is the biggest area where they could take a sizeable jump as the season goes on. Defending is still pretty mediocre for the Galaxy, but it too has improved somewhat in recent weeks. Given the way the Whitecaps are attacking at the moment, there are definitely goals in this match for them.

Speaking of Vancouver, Vanni Sartini is out for this match after picking up a yellow card at the death against Austin for some handshake shenanigans, and Mathias Laborda will be out again with his suspension (this time for YC accumulation). As for the others, here is the latest update from training.

Ok, on to rules and standings.

  • Predictions will be ‘valid’ if posted HERE (or more accurately, whichever is the correct match thread) before the lineup is officially announced, usually about an hour before kickoff.
  • You receive 1 point for every player you correctly guess to be in the Starting XI. You receive 4 bonus points for correctly predicting all 11 starters.
  • You get 5 points for correctly guessing Win/Lose/Draw, this doubles to 10 if you also predict the right score-line along with the result.
  • All this means, if you correctly predict the Starting XI, Final Score, and Winner, you can earn 25 points!
  • At the end of each half, the contestant’s lowest two scores of that period will be deducted from the cumulative standings

25 thoughts on “Guess the Starting XI – Match 22 vs. LA Galaxy”

  4. Takaoka
    Raposo Blackmon Ranko Martins
    Gressel Cubas Ahmed
    Gauld Cordova
    White

    ‘Caps win 3-1
    Go ‘Caps

    Reply

  5. Takaoka
    Blackmon, Ranko, Martins
    Gressel, Cubas, Schopf
    Gauld, Vite
    Cordova, White

    I keep saying 3 goals for the winner and keep getting it wrong, but now I gotta make up ground so….3-1 or 2-0…
    Vancouver 2:0 LA

    Reply

  10. Caps win 3 -1 (whats with everyone always playing the odds with a 2-1 score line smh)

    Takaoka
    Veselinovic Blackmon Martins
    Berhalter Cubas Schopf Ahmed
    Gauld White
    Cordova

    Also thanks for putting this on every game day! appreciate the effort that goes into tracking scores, etc.

    Reply

  12. 2-1 Whitecaps

    Takaoka
    Veselinovic Blackmon Martins
    Gressel Cubas Schopf Ahmed
    Gauld White
    Cordova

    Will be an interesting match with no Sartini (the elderly couple who sit behind me call him Martini BWAHAHAA). We’ll see how it ends! But now that we have some key players back, I don’t know what the plan will be. Could see Johnson and Berhalter starting as well (is Ahmed back back?). My first thought was to give the Caps a clean sheet. I’m not sure how doable that is today either.

    Reply

  18. Takaoka
    Berhalter Ranko Blackmon Martins
    Gressel Cubas Vite
    Cordova Gauld
    White

    Vancouver 2-2 LA Galaxy

    Reply

  21. Fair, appreciate it can only be as good as the information available at times. Thanks for the discourse, and update.

    Reply

  22. FYI for all: Laborda is NOT available Saturday, he served his red card suspension v Austin, and v LAG will serve his yellow card accumulation suspension.

    Per the MLS disciplinary report:

    Mathias Laborda (VAN) – Suspended: Red Card – Second Caution

    July 12 vs. ATX

    Mathias Laborda (VAN) – Suspended: Yellow Card Accumulation

    July 15 vs. LA

    Reply

      1. Additionally, not certain if you knew for Wed.’s match but Ahmed was listed as out with a right foot contusion, sustained perhaps last weekend or in training this week (I’ve not seen a report either way). Suppose we’ll know later today or tomorrow morning if the MLS Availability Report is updated, or otherwise.

        You mentioned he wasn’t “match ready” for Wed. which is vague, referred to his “status” above, also vague. Simply a comment that if known / available specifics are appreciated in your blurb.

      2. Yea I understand the frustration, unfortunately on quick turnarounds midweek we don’t have the same media availability where the team provides updates. It’s a balance of trying to get this up in time and provide the best info available. I have updated the article now with some new info.

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