Tehel Cup Predictions

The Tehel Cup play in games are completed now and the full bracket is set so lets take a look at each Region and see who might make it to the Final Four and eventually lift the trophey. Each region is named after the last 4 BDSL League Presidents with some loose reasoning behind it.

Marion Region(Northwest):

Named after Marion because: Some old school classic match-ups that make this a timeless region much like Marion's time as BDSL president. This is the second toughest region in my opinion and its fitting to have it named after him.
Teams: Premier(4): BUSS, Azzurri, BSC Raiders, Lazio; Championship(2): Rush FC, Wolfpac; D1(2): Elbow Soup, Buffalo Gunners.
Final Four Favorite: BSC Raiders - Despite the excellent depth in this region with a top quality Championship team in Rush FC, a rejuvenated Lazio, and a surprisingly improved BUSS, its always difficult to pick against a perennial favorite like BSC Raiders.
Dark Horse: Rush FC - They have a great opening round game against an older Elbow Soup team, a possibly even Sweet Sixteen round game against BUSS potentially, and that would lead to the toughest game coming in the Elite Eight vs most likely Raiders or Lazio. It is certainly doable as the biggest upset they'd have to pull would see them into the Final Four.
Best Potential Match-up: BSC Raiders vs Lazio - I'd argue that this would be a dynamite Tehel Cup final and we get this in the very first round. The winner of this game maybe the overall finals favorite out of the Western side of the brackets.
My Pick:I'd love for this to be Lazio's year. They have great potential. But I hate that they play BSC so early. BSC Raiders is my current Final Four pick but I hope Lazio breaks that up

LoPresto Region(Southwest):

Named after LoPresto because: I haven't the slightest idea who makes it to the Final Four here much like I have no idea what happened under the BDSL reign of Brian LoPresto.
Teams: Premier(3): Chelsea, Yemen Elite, Amherst Sharpshooters; Championship(3): Lakeshore Select, Roos FC, BSC International; D1(2): Depew Village; Alden
Final Four Favorite: I goes I'd go with the defending cup champs in Amherst Sharpshooters but I can be sold on 4 or 5 teams here. This is easily the most balanced region out of the 4.
Dark Horse: Bases on what I just said it would be hard to pick a dark horse as well since each team is enticing. But BSC International might be the best pick. Its a tough ask for them as each game of theirs is against strong Premier and top Championship teams, but they did go undefeated last year and have started off OK in their Championship debut. Its not out of the realm of possibility to hot and win a few for them.
Best Potential Match-up: Out of a litany of choices, I'm going with last years Championship Championship Final potential rematch of Yemen Elite and Amherst Sharpshooters in Sweet Sixteen.
My Pick: Come now you really expected me to go this whole region and not mention Roos FC once? Shame on you if you did. RFC  has the talent to rick the final four. I fear a Elite Eight match up vs Yemen the most but no matter who we play we'll be in it and I have more confidence in this years team then I ever had in any Roos team.

Ski Region(Northeast)

Named for Ski because: Every Celtic team that is eligible for the Tehel Cup somehow made it into this region. Seriously.
Teams: Premier(4) Celtic United, Celtic, Clarance, Lakeside FC; Championship(2): Polonia, Buffalo Celtic; D1(2): Celtic Hoops, The Beast
Final Four Favorite:Celtic. No not that Celtic just Celtic. THE Celtic. Yes that one.
Dark Horse: I hate every option available to me in this region. Clarence isn't a big enough underdog and Lakeside only finds success in Tehel Cup so they don't quite make it as a dark horse either. Gun to my head................I'm dead.
Best Potential Match-up: Celtic Hoops vs Celtic - Great story lines for several of the games but this one would be the coolest. The best Celtic team in the BDSL vs the young kids who dream of one day donning a Soho Green and white jersey. Granted Celtic would destroy them but it'd be great to see this one happen.
My Pick: Celtic United was popular until they had to go to PKs vs Raptors in the play in game and have pooped the bed in the first two league rounds. How I'd love to take Lakeside but I'm going for Celtic. I have no guts to do anything else here.

Donner Region(Southeast)
Named for Donner because: This is the weakest and sorriest excuse for a Tehel Cup region. Its soft and gooey innards, remind me of Jack Donner. That is both a compliment to Jack and a insult to everyone else in this region.
Teams: Premier(1 sorta): Lykan FC; Championship
Final Four Favorite: Queenston FC. Excuse me, I need to go pour lava into my mouth and wash my eyes out with acid after that statement. I apologize to everyone but that's where we are here.
Dark Horse: With every other team here more or less falling into this category I'm going to go with FC Yemen. They are a battle tested team with heaps of BDSL experience. They've performed well so far an I truly think they can make it to the Final Four if things go their way.
Best Potential Match-Up: Queenston FC vs Sporting Roos - If anyone can save the day for the rest of the league by eliminating these worthless scums I hope its my mates on Sporting. They are arguably the second best team in the region so its a shame that they play each other first instead of the Elite Eight.
My Pick:I've already named Queenston as the favorite and that made me sick to my stomach. I'm hoping Rangers can ride there counter attacking play into the Final Four if Sporting can't beat them in Round 1.

Tehel Cup Final Four:
BSC Raiders 3 vs Roos FC 2 ET
Celtic 5 vs Rangers 0

89th Tehel Cup Final:
BSC Raiders 2 vs Celtic 3

I like these predictions very little.

What the people really want to hear is a breakdown game by game.  Because everyone loves hearing people talk about themselves, or in this case, their team.  Just look at how people respond to comments!  They tend to agree or disagree with what you say about them. Know your audience, Schieber.  Shame on you.  (Note: you did touch upon teams all throughout your post, but I'm attempting to belittle your post in an effort to make my reply appear stronger.  Don't tell anyone this though)

In the off chance people didn't want to read a game by game breakdown of Round 1's games, stop now.

West Seneca Sports Complex Region:
5/22/14 BUSS vs. Buffalo Gunners:  I fully expect BUSS to win this game, but the Gunners have been putting up some nice, lofty results so far.  In their past 2 games, they've scored 15 goals.  I don't care if they were playing a weakened Beast side or a clearly-over-their-heads Cheektowaga team.  15 goals is impressive.  Because of this, I've got them pegged for 2 goals against BUSS, but they'll give up double that.  4-2 Final in BUSS' favor.

5/22/14 Elbow Soup FC vs. Rush FC: Ummm, 6-0 Rush.  Elbow Soup lost every decent player on their team from last year, so I see Rush having their way next week.  Rush mopped the floor with Sporting Roos last year 4-0 in this round, do you really think they'll have more problems with a weaker team in the Soup?

5/22/14 Wolfpack vs. Azzurri: After Azzurri struggled on the grass against Celtic Hoops last year at West Seneca, and based on Woflpack's recent decent Tehel Cup history, this game should be closer than expected.  So with that said, I'm going Azzurri 2, Wolfpack 0, in relatively comfortable fashion.  Nothing against Wolfpack, as I think they have a similar squad in talent to last year (Better in places, worse in other places), but Azzurri's team on paper this year is stronger than it has been in past seasons.  I'm thinking this game is Anthony Johnson's dream; a physical team to play against so he can muscle people around without getting fouls called.

5/22/14 BSC Raiders vs. Lazio: Not sure where this game is going to be played, but I'd love to attend.  Raiders seem to care about the cup, which is probably the only reason why I picked them to win.  I want Lazio to win though.  Either way, I think the winner of this game has an extremely likely chance to represent not only this region, but perhaps hoist the trophy at season's end.  Lazio has something to prove, because in some ways, the Tehel Cup run came to an abrupt stop last season with their loss to the Sharpshooters.  Abrupt stop as in lightning called the game.  Lazio keeps it close, but I think Raiders win 1-0 in ET.

Southtowns Region:
5/22/14 Lakeshore Select vs. Chelsea: Chelsea struggled against BB Boyz in the opening round which is a head scratcher for me, and because of this, I think Lakeshore should get the job done down at Wendt Beach next Thursday by the score of 2-0.  My team has already seen Lakeshore this season, and I'm fully confident that they're a Top 4 Championship division squad.  I envision Chelsea in a similar position if I had the luxury of re-adjusting the BDSL divisions right now to my liking/assumption of which team is the best the league has to offer all the way down to the worst.  If Lakeshore is stout defensively, they should win.

5/22/14 Depew Village vs. Roos FC: A few weeks ago, this matchup was regarded as one of the easier draws to obtain.  Since then, Depew Village has started their season 2-0 and actually looked like a better team than Celtic Hoops from what I saw briefly before our own game last Sunday.  Maybe not quite the pushover I was expecting, so I will formally apologize for ranking the Village around 8th best in Division 1.  I have sold you guys short.  Meanwhile, it looks like the Roos are finding the back of the net with ease thus far this season, thanks in part to early acquisition of the year candidate in Alex Reid.  I'm thinking this game starts slow, with perhaps even a 0-0 or 1-0 score at the half, but ultimately the Roos will prevail by the score of 4-0.

5/22/14 Yemen Elite vs. Alden: This game presumably is being held at the Cage, and Alden I get the sense is a team that has problems fielding a full 11, so I am not exaggerating when I say the final score of this game will be 9-0.  It'll be this season's BUSS/Polonia blow out in the Tehel Cup, although I hope a thread of 50+ replies doesn't follow, because the string of replies were almost impossible to understand.  No one likes the grammar police, but I mean for the love of God, please run a comb through your finished product before submitting.  I hates when people do'nt check they're punctation when its that ovious?

5/22/14 BSC International vs. Bye: Whoops, typo there.  I meant to write "Amherst Sharpshooters".  BSC and the Sharpshooters, at the time this hit the press, both have 0 wins to show for this year.  They also have 0 losses.  BSC however has played 2 games to Sharpshooters' none, so it's tough to gauge how quickly the Sharpshooters will gel.  On the plus side, Amherst will be playing Lakeside this Sunday, which is a good opening test in the BDSL (rematch of last year's Tehel Cup final), so come Thursday, BSC International will appear to be a much easier team to navigate passes around.  This is a compliment to Lakeside, not a jab at BSC Inter.  I think defense plays an integral role in this game, and keeps the score at a respectable 2-0 in favor of the Sharpshooters by the final whistle.

Celtic Region:
5/29/14 Polonia vs. Celtic United I probably should wait until we actually play Polonia before giving my 0.02 on this game, but judging by their 4 goal loss to Lakeshore, I'm going to confidently say that Celtic United will win this game on the road despite their early season woes.  United have scored 1 goal this season in 3 games; 2 losses in Premier league play and a 0-0 draw that was decided by PK's against the Raptors.  If Celtic United fail to bring a decent sized roster to this match, the game could be played a bit closer than expected.  I'm sensing that will happen again, but their quality will prevail by the score of 2-0.

5/29/14 Celtic vs. Clarence: It surprised me just how easily Celtic won their opener against United, and Clarence predictably played a close game against Lazio.  I don't see any surprises here.  Perhaps there's some angry Clarence players seeking revenge this year due to the stunning early round loss to FC Yemen one year prior, but I don't think that will power will be enough to take down the top Celtic program.  I think this one is close though, since these teams play each other so frequently.  I'm taking Celtic 2-1.

5/29/14 Celtic Hoops vs. Buffalo Celtic: Well this should be interesting.  I've previously written about how it appeared as if Buff Celtic was overlooked this year when it came to roster adjustments, while Celtic Hoops seemed to get the players to make their promotion push.  Buffalo Celtic REALLY needs to find ways to score.  I think this game will be a surprisingly chippy affair which may even see a red card given it's an inter-club game.  Hoops with the mild upset win at 2-1 with a late PK conversion in regulation.

5/29/14 Lakeside FC vs. The Beast: Lakeside hasn't scored a goal yet this season, but they've played the likes of Raiders and Elite thus far, so I can't look into it that much.  The Beast have opened up their 2014 campaign with an absolutely brutal schedule, and I know they've missed some key young players to this point, so I also won't look into their 13 GA in 2 games as much as I should.  But with Westerholt coming back from double yellow card suspension for this game (assuming he is present for this game), the level of play between these two teams is rather stark.  If Gunners were able to beat The Beast by 5 goals, I see no reason why Lakeside shouldn't be able to.  Pencil this final score in as Lakeside 6, The Beast 0.

No Trophy Region:

5/29/14 Rangers vs. FC Yemen: This is a great Tehel Cup match.  You've got a consistent mid table finisher in the Championship division in Rangers going up against a very impressive FC Yemen team thus far in the First division.  But let's remember, a lot of the current FC Yemen players have experience playing for Yemen Elite as recent as last summer.  These two clubs are probably much closer in skill than one would first think.  The fact that it's down at Sahlen's could give Rangers a slight edge, but the Yemen teams generally travel well and are fit.  I think FC Yemen provides us with a slight 'shock' by winning this game 3-1.  This score was definitely influenced by the crushing defeat Rangers took over the weekend, losers to Rush 5-1.  We'll know more about where Rangers stand once the result comes in this Sunday against Sporting Roos.

5/29/14 Hamburg Monarchs vs. Lykan FC: Wow - I'm not ready to say just yet that Hamburg is a contender for the first division, but we all know what we've been seeing out of Lykan thus far in premier.  My gut tells me Lykan is a better team than Hamburg still, but being that they need to head down to the Nike base for this one, who's to say Lykan won't show with only 12-13 players?  That's why I will boldly take Hamburg in this one 2-1.  Queenston has upended Lykan in the Tehel Cup before, with an easily better Lykan side a few years ago, so I don't see why Hamburg couldn't get the job done.

5/29/14 Queenston FC vs. Sporting Roos: This game will be centrally located in Youngstown, NY, so I don't see why the casual fan wouldn't attend this game.  Initially, Queenston was pretty happy to draw Sporting Roos in the bracket, but I'm starting to get the sense that this team is a bit more formidable than what initially met the eye.  Sporting could have some decent tools to put pressure on Queenston's back four, but there enlies Sporting's problem:  This could be one of the most difficult defensive units to break down.  If Queenston can get through the first half without conceding, history has shown the opponent will ultimately break down and this one should go Queenston's way.  The Parliament 3, Sporting Roos 0 in a slightly closer game than the score would suggest.

5/29/14: SPAL Buffalo FC vs. FC Buffalo Reserves: Neither of these teams have done anything thus far in 2014.  SPAL has disappointed me so far because I saw some promise in last year's division 2 final.  However, FC Buffalo Revs have picked up where they left off last year: They're marketed as a destination for talented, upcoming soccer players in the area, but players opt to go play with their friends or a team in which they feel will actually be better.  Re-read that last sentence.  So what are the Revs then?  Is it a group of friends/players like any other team in this league, or a fall back option for local players who haven't yet joined another existing team?  Last year, we saw some individually talented players on Revs, and they made a semi-decent run in the Tehel Cup last year, so I'm thinking they actually get a W here, by the final score of 3-2.  That is unless Jose Mendoza and Jose Mendoza both of SPAL say otherwise and net some goals.