Contest3
2014 World Cup Contest Update

ASN's Starting XI Contest: A World Cup Week in Rio

How did you do in the inaugural installment of the ASN Starting XI Contest? Did you follow your instincts? Follow some bad advice? However you performed, you're still in the running. Here's why.
BY John Godfrey Posted
February 07, 2013
6:03 PM
That's a screen grab of my Starting XI Contest results up there. Ten out of 11—not bad. I had Sacha Kljestan instead of Eddie Johnson.

Crap.

UPDATE: Here is a link to our brand-new leaderboard.

I saw that my esteemed colleagues Leander Schaerlaeckens and Grant Wahl both received—and tweeted—tips about the U.S. Starting XI a few hours before the match. But I didn't go in and change my lineup because 1) I was too busy at the time and 2) I'm not eligible to win the free week in Rio anyway, so why bother?

Their info, of course, was wrong. (I was surprised; these guys are two of the best in the business.)

But you don't care about that. You want to win a free trip to Rio. And if you saw their tweets and changed your lineup, you probably think you are screwed.

You're not.

Our contest tallies your 10 Starting XIs across the entire Hexagonal, but IT WILL ONLY COUNT YOUR SEVEN BEST SCORES. Your three worst performances will be tossed out. Like they never happened. (Unfortunately for Jurgen Klinsmann, it doesn't work that way in the Hex.)

So if you only got six or seven right Wednesday, fear not. You are definitely still in the running. You just have to step up your game against Costa Rica and Mexico in March. (I can think of a certain soccer team that needs to do the exact same thing.)

Even better: If you somehow didn't hear about this contest in time to submit a Starting XI for the Honduras match, you can start up in March (or June, actually), and still win the grand prize. The complete rules are here. They are worth checking out.

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