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

Guess the Starting XI – Match Two at San Jose Earthquakes

Welcome back, everyone.

It was a mixed opening weekend for the Vancouver Whitecaps against Charlotte, as they started slow out of the gates but eventually rallied themselves enough to earn a solitary home point. With that performance in the rear-view mirror, the Whitecaps will undoubtedly be looking to up their game as they head down to San Jose to face the Earthquakes.

Despite Vancouver’s mixed record in recent home openers, the predictions on this site were overwhelmingly positive in the buildup, which led to tecate2 being the lone predictor to correctly envision a draw last Saturday, nicely done!

As for the matchup this weekend, San Jose has not had much joy through the opening two weeks of MLS play, as they are one of just three teams without a point so far this season (overall, the standings across the league have been very even). The Quakes were thrashed 3-1 at home most recently by the LA Galaxy, as LA exposed a porous Quakes defensive unit in transition. The week prior, SJ suffered a heart-breaking stoppage time match-winner from FC Dallas’ Dante Sealy, a shot that beat a despondent Earthquakes goalkeeper Daniel from a tight angle.

Looking at Vancouver’s squad, it was encouraging to see Sam Adekugbe back in full training sessions for the ‘Caps this week. He’s still probably a week or two away from match action, but at least things are moving in the right direction. Fellow Canadian Ali Ahmed is also on the mend, so it will be interesting to see how many minutes he plays down in San Jose – he looked strong against Charlotte, but only the training staff knows exactly how many minutes he can handle at this point in his recovery. Mathias Laborda is also back from suspension, while Bjorn Inge Utvik, who was dealing with an injury last weekend, appears to be back to full health. I’ll post any additional news and updates here as they come in.

I’ve included the week one standings below in a new format for this year, as an embedded google sheet within the post, so please let me know how this works for you, and we can do our best to optimize it as the year goes on. Also, a big shoutout to some of the new names who have joined us for 2024, it’s great to have you aboard!

Alright, without further ado, on to the 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 of the season, the contestant’s lowest two scores (or missed predictions) of that period will be deducted from the cumulative standings.

25 thoughts on “Guess the Starting XI – Match Two at San Jose Earthquakes”

  2. 1-1

    Takaoka
    Laborda Veselinovic Blackmon
    Picault Cubas Vite Martins
    Gauld
    Kreilach White

    Oooh, look at that new look! Noice! Can’t believe I strayed away from my usual guess last match and shot myself in the foot :-p Tempted to give the Caps a win for this match but I never really know. Not feeling very confident with my picks being so early in the season!

    Reply

  5. Resubmit this time with a proper login….

    caps win 2-1

    Takoaka
    Laborda, Ranko, Blackmon
    Raposo, Cubas, Vite, Berhalter
    Gauld, White, Fafa

    Reply

  6. Caps Win 2-1

    Takoaka
    Laborda, Veselinovic , Blackmon
    Raposo, Cubas, Vite, Berhalter
    Gauld, White, Fafa

    Reply

    1. Oops did the login thing all wrong,
      So 2-1 Caps

      Takaoka
      Laborda Ranko Blackmon
      Raposo Cubas Vite Ahmed
      Gauld White DK

      Reply

  12. Dirqs Piqs for Starting XI vs San Jose Earthquakes
    Takaoka
    Laborda Veselinovic Blackmon Raposo
    Ahmed Cubas Vite
    Gauld Picault
    White
    Caps win 3-2
    Go ‘Caps

    Reply

  14. Should have gone with my gut 1-1 prediction rather than my heart Caps victory. Oh well.

    Takoaka
    Laborda, Ranko, Blackmon
    Raposo, Cubas, Vite, Berhalter
    Gauld, White, Fafa

    SJ 2:1 VAN

    Reply

  15. Caps win 3-1

    Takaoka
    Laborda Ranko Blackmon
    Raposo Vite Cubas Martins
    Kreilach White Gauld

    El capitano –

    i like the new standings thingy

    Reply

  17. Takaoka
    Laborda Ranko Blackmon
    Raposo Vite Cubas Martins
    Kreilach White Gauld

    San Jose 1-1 Vancouver

    Reply

  21. Takaoka
    Laborda Veselinovic Blackmon
    Ahmed Cubas Vite Raposo
    Picault Gauld
    White
    2-1 ‘Caps win

    Reply

Join the Conversation!