One final note for the evening. The two third place teams that will advance will come out of a combination of groups A, B, C and E. As it stands right now, Kiki United (Group A) sits at 9 points +1 GD and Old Field Ospreys (Group B) sit at 9 points -1 GD. VB Hibernian and Not Very United (Group C) can both get to 9 points as can FC Kingston out of Group E. If I were a betting man, Kiki looks to be in a good spot. It's the Ospreys, sitting with the 16th seed, which looks vulnerable.

The lone game this morning resulted in the first Group C team to clinch a playoff spot. Club de Fútbol Deportivo Cotopaxi enjoyed some home cooking and beat up on FC Trojans of SC 5-0 in Quito, Ecuador. Ariens Mathijssen set the tone in the 4th minute when his effort directly in front of Trojans goalie Jakobe Mullan beat him to the near post. From that point, Cotopaxi controlled the game and slowly built up their lead. Gabe De Bruyn added a pair of goals, including one that he put some english on as it bent around the outstretched arms of Mullan midway through the 2nd half. The win clinches 1st place in the group for the Ecuadorians and eliminates the Trojans from the tournament, who was needing a win and a lot of help. VB Hibernian and Not Very United are still alive with one game left to play against Cotopaxi.

There are two games this afternoon with playoff spots on the line.

The afternoon game went a long way towards deciding how the Group E spots will take shape. FC Kingston, in a must win situation, took care of business (barely) on the road with a 1-0 win over Halle Côte d'Or as Belgium is still in search of its first Dynasty Cup points as a nation. After a scoreless first half, Kingston, who only had three shots on goal for the entire game, made their last one count after Immanuel Khan redirected a header off a set piece and in for the game's only goal. The Golden Slope had multiple chances to tie the game in the final 20 minutes but goalie Hilario Serpa was up to the task, especially with Chadwik Henderson's shot in the 78th minute, which Serpa barely tipped.

The result means that Kingston is in a win and in for their final game, the return matchup against Halle. A draw or Golden Slop victory will send FC Not Very Athletic as the 2nd team out of the group. Also, it is now a mathematical certainty that Kiki United will get one of the two 3rd Place transfer spots out of Group A, so congratulations to them for advancing to the playoffs. The final 3rd Place spot is still up for grabs and dependent on the Group C games still to play.

"...as Belgium is still in search of its first Dynasty Cup points as a nation"

Awareness and attention to detail like this illustrate why gomiami is the best at this I've ever seen, and better than we (and WIS) deserves.

The lone game tonight allowed for the 14th team to earn their way into the playoffs. In a little bit of an upset based on previous results, Club de Fútbol Deportivo Cotopaxi played at home against a VB Hibernian team that was needing a win to survive. Things seemed to be going to form when Weyland Watkins scored his 7th goal of the tournament to give Cotopaxi the early 1-0 lead. But after that, Hibs hunkered down and outplayed the Group C winner for the rest of the match. Tedrick Frame hit a strike from just inside the penalty area to tie the game in the 21st and then, with less than 10 minutes left in Hibernian's tournament, Lucas Quezada beat Cotopaxi goalie Rose Luyten to the corner in the 81st minute to propel the Irish club to the knockout rounds. With 9 points, a -1 GD and 7 away goals, they beat Old Field Ospreys by a single away goal in the third tiebreaker to clinch the blue highlighting.

The Ospreys are still alive depending on what Not Very United does in the final game of the group stage. The game tomorrow solves one of the two remaining spots when FC Kingston tries to overtake FC Not Very Athletic for the 2nd transfer spot out of Group E.

At least for one day, the Dutch speakers in Flanders and the French speakers in Wallonia celebrated together as Halle Côte d'Or wins the penultimate game in the group stage of Cup XV. FC Kingston came into the Group E game simply needing to win at home to advance, which would have assured them 2nd place in the group. Against the winless Golden Slope, the odds seemed to be in their favor but it was not meant to be. The Belgians set the pace in a scoreless first half where Kingston got very few quality looks. Needing to win, Kingston started to press the issue in the 2nd half and it opened their defense up to counterattacks. Alijah Parsons got the Golden Slope on the board in the 50th minute when his header caught Kingston goalie Hilario Serpa leaning the wrong way and unable to react to the direction of the shot. Then, in the waning moments, veteran Belgian midfielder Luycas Lauwers iced the game for Halle and ended the Japanese side's tournament with a perfectly placed ball in the 85th that concluded the scoring at 2-0. The result sends FC Not Very Athletic to the knockouts and marks the end to Kobelco's Cup.

Tomorrow's game will decide the final playoff spot with the opening round of the knockouts starting on the 27th after I verify the standings.

All playoff spots have now been accounted for after the Group Stage wrapped up this afternoon. The last spot was up for grabs when Club de Fútbol Deportivo Cotopaxi hosted Not Very United in Group C. The stakes were simple - if United won by 2 goals or more, they would advance but any other result would send Old Field Ospreys to the knockouts. Despite being in complete control of the stats sheet, Cotopaxi and United found themselves in a tight game. The Ecuadoarians struck first in the 42nd with a shot by José Valdés and added to their lead after Weyland Watkins scored his first of the game right before halftime to make the advantage 2-0. But United immediately answered as the 2nd half began. Tate Papia volleyed his own crossing pass in a great show of speed in the 46th and Ilona Császár tied the game in the 51st. The problem for United was that a tie did them no good, so they kept pressing the issue. That left Weyland Watkins with plenty of counterattacking space and he made the Canadians pay, scoring twice more and taking over the Golden Toe lead at 10 goals for the tournament in the process. The final score of 4-2 sent the Ospreys to the playoffs and United home.

I'll verify the standings tonight and set up the 1st Round playoff matchups tomorrow. Congrats to everyone that has advanced and we'll get the knockout underway tomorrow evening.

The Knockout Round seeds are official and you may start to schedule at your leisure. The First Round is a home and away with away goals being the only tiebreaker. If we have an aggregate/away goal tie, the higher seed will host the first tiebreaker game.

It just so happened this Cup where three matchups are between group stage participants. So if you weren't familiar enough with that team during the round robin, lucky you...you get to play them twice more. That's just how the seeding worked out, especially when 3rd place teams are involved.

As the games start to be scheduled, I will post the game date on the Knockout Round page in [red brackets.] The time frame for scheduling games runs through October 5th. If a series is involved in tiebreakers, the deadline does not apply since there is no limit as to how many sudden death tiebreakers can be played. If you win your series, don't start scheduling Quarterfinal games even if you know your opponent. Let's let the other series catch up to you.

Here is how the seeding ended up

#1 - Fußball-Club Köln 01/07 e. V. (18 pts)
#2 - the crutchanators of soccer (15 pts, +15 GD)
#3 - Kobelco United Football Club (15 pts, +6 GD)
#4 - Brighton AFC (14 pts)
#5 - Club de Fútbol Deportivo Cotopaxi (13 pts, +18 GD)
#6 - Bolton Wanderers (13 pts, +6 GD)
#7 - FC Cackalacky (10 pts)
#8 - Fianna AFC (2nd pl 13 pts)
#9 - FC Edinburgh Bullet Birds (2nd pl, 12 pts)
#10 - Wolfsburg Dynamit (2nd pl, 9 pts, +4 GD)
#11 - VB Hibernian (2nd pl, 9 pts, -1 GD)
#12 - FC Not Very Athletic (2nd pl, 9 pts, -4 GD)
#13 - Bordeaux Fighting Bovines (2nd pl, 8 pts)
#14 - Merchiston FC (2nd pl, 7 pts)
#15 - Kiki United (3rd pl, 9 pts, +1 GD)
#16 - Old Field Ospreys (3rd pl, 9 pts, -1 GD)

Best of luck in the playoffs, everyone.

Gl everyone - just a heads up after today I will be out of service for about a week

I hope that What If Sports realizes that the only reason I still pay and play Gridiron Dynasty is to be able to play in the Cup.

So thrilled to have two of our World/Nation advancing, with FC Cackalacky advancing for the FIRST TIME to the Knockout Round.

This squad is a rebuilding/development squad so competing against the Champions of Champions will be incredibly tough.

Thank you so much gomiami1972 for putting on this tournament. It is so much fun. The recaps / stats are obviously a labor of love.

This is classic:

Tate Papia volleyed his own crossing pass in a great show of speed in the 46th

The playoffs get underway tomorrow when #7 FC Cackalacky and #10 Wolfsburg Dynamit start their series. Overall, 5 of the 8 First Round matchups are on the docket.

The opening punches of the First Round have been thrown and neither team was able to knock their opponent to the mat. #7 FC Cackalacky hosted #10 Wolfsburg Dynamit in front of a massive home crowd of 60,000, with an unknown number of fans in the standing room only section. The place erupted when Danish defender Akton Egholm, who was forward a moment before because of a free kick, weaved his way through traffic and unleashed some serious power that Dynamit goalie Gary Alford simply watched as it flew by him. After both teams traded some scoring opportunities, Dynamit was able to draw level in the 17th minute after Mahoney Dixie received Sanjuro Kawashima's corner kick and headed it home. While Cackalacky had most of the remaining possession in the 1st half, the game stayed tied at 1-1 going into the locker room.

Cackalacky regained the lead moments into the 2nd half when Finnish midfielder Pekka Kivelä scored unassisted to give the American side a 2-1 advantage but, much like the first half, they couldn't hold it. Kawashima took a quick corner that caught the Cackalacky defense not set and defender Natanael Nabarro made them pay, heading the tying goal past goalie Georges Müller, who was able to get his hands on the shot but unable to prevent it from getting across the line. The rest of the game saw Cackalacky hold the ball but the 2-2 draw stayed intact through the final whistle. The series will head to Germany on October 2nd with the Quarterfinals in the balance.

Three more series get underway tomorrow.

All of the playoff games today are either at 1pm or 7pm...so I'll do a single update this evening.

Also, all of the First Round games have been scheduled except for the #1 Fußball-Club Köln 01/07 e. V. versus #16 Old Field Ospreys matchup. I have a challenge sitting out there for the Ospreys and have sent a sitemail. There is still plenty of time for dd6877 to check in and get those games on the schedule since the deadline is the 7th.

Well, of the three games played today, one was quite the surprise. The defending Champs opened up at home as the #2 seed and entertained #15 Kiki United. the crutchanators of soccer ended up being too good of a host. Miika Moilanen started the match with a deceptively easy goal to make it appear that crutchanators were going to run away with it but Kiki had other ideas. Donato Uribe tied the game in the 11th and from that point it was game on. Both teams traded goals as the contest was knotted at 2-2 until late. That's when the German squad shocked the 60,000 in attendance with two quick goals. Rexley Coombs got the game winner when he beat the fullback and goalie Rueban Lazar with ease. To make things even worse for the Cup XIV winners, they yielded another goal with minutes left to end the game as a 4-2 Kiki victory. The teams will travel to the Deutschland on the 4th to play the return game.

#6 seed Bolton Wanderers traveled from Asia to England to take on #11 VB Hibernian in front of another big playoff crowd of over 42,000. Hampton Kennyon got the home team on the board first when he managed to stay onside by a toe and hit a grass burner past Matai Teuermann to give Hibs the early 1-0 lead. That ended up being the high point in the game for them as Bolton scored the next three. Hibs goalie Sonny Miki seemed to be out of position a lot and was unable to react to the onslaught of shots the Wanderers were sending in his direction. A perfect example of this was in the 31st when a corner cross came into the box and Miki couldn't track the flight of the ball and was therefore out of position for Itzik Widawier's header. However, Hibs was able to minimize the damage when Xavier Fuertes knocked one into the corner of the netting a few minutes before the final whistle blew to end the scoring as a 3-2 Bolton win. Both teams will take a day off and then resume the series in Japan on the 3rd.

Finally, #9 FC Edinburgh Bullet Birds dominated the #8 seed Fianna AFC at home with a 3-0 win that was aided, in part, by The Greens' own mistakes. Ron Lochore and Evan Ashby scored within the first 30 minutes to give Edinburgh a 2-0 lead but they were gifted the game in the 32nd when Irish hothead Keenan Whelan, who was warned by the referee in the 9th minute when he got only a yellow for a dangerous tackle, didn't change his style of aggressive play and mauled Edinburgh's Montie Gyon. The 2nd yellow sent Whelan out of the game and pretty much ended Fianna's comeback hopes, who did well to limit the Bullet Birds to only one more goal for their man advantage. Fianna has no time to recover as the return game is in Scotland tomorrow.

Three games tomorrow with two possible Quarterfinalists punching their tickets.