Update: Excape Goat has decided all of his opening line-ups now. I'd already decided mine too and sent them to Puck. There are two cases of picking our teams before the opposition even confirmed the squad: Excape's Portugal XI to play against Africa, and my Fennoscandia team for the game with the Germans. Probably Peru won't be surprising us too much with those squads anyway though! The starting line-up I'm not sure, but we wouldn't see that before confirming ours obviously anyway. I had my opening Fennoscandia line-up for that game in mind so have gone with that so we can play our own game, and I think Excape is happy for Africa to bring on their game with whichever line-up against his chosen team too!
Will there be a new thread for the matches? Reminders etc as I’m hopeless and unorganised as per usual
Yeah, there will be at least 2 new threads, started after all the squads are confirmed, and various bits of useful info will get posted on those, including deadlines for line-ups and votes. But I'll open new 'conversations' by PM with all the participants too.
Yeah, that is the plan. Voters can even suggest goalscorers/assisters/times of goals etc, and I'll be tasked with deeming what the consensus decides there, but yes the result and scoreline will be determined by selecting the average/most popular options from all the votes received.
Benelux A 1 Edwin VAN DER SAR 2 Eric GERETS 3 Jaap STAM 4 Ronald KOEMAN 5 Adri VAN TIGGELEN 6 Cor VAN DER HART 7 Faas WILKES 8 Frank RIJKAARD 9 Ruud VAN NISTELROOY 10 Ruud GULLIT 11 Rob RENSENBRINK 12 Jan VAN BEVEREN ( GK ) 13 Wim JANSEN 14 Johan CRUYFF ( C ) 15 Giovanni VAN BRONCKHORST 16 Johnny REP 17 Rinus ISRAËL 18 Edgar DAVIDS 19 Puck VAN HEEL 20 Kevin DE BRUYNE 21 Abe LENSTRA 22 Marc OVERMARS 23 Willy VAN DER KUIJLEN
All my four squads are now in! Now awaiting the opening ceremony. Will Shakira be performing? @PDG1978
No, @msioux75 left her out! She might get to take a penalty Diana Ross style (well, ok, not Diana Ross style). I booked Level 42 if that's ok? I'm thinking the chances are reasonably high that poetgooner went with the same pick 2 and 3 combo in your draft that I had decided I would if you took Cruyff! Van Basten and Bergkamp. But I wouldn't rule out that he went with a Hazard or a Neeskens for example, and you went with Gullit ahead of perhaps Dennis or something like that...
Benelux B: Marco van Basten Ruud Krol Arjen Robben Johan Neeskens Willem van Hanegem Dennis Bergkamp Eden Hazard Vincent Kompany Frank De Boer Wim Suurbier Piet Keizer Clarence Seedorf Jan Cuelemans Jan Vertonghen Jean-Marie Pfaff Enzo Scifo Robin van Persie Arie Haan Michel Preud’Homme Paul Van Himst Wesley Sneijder Hans Van Breukelen Virgil van Dijk
I wanted Rijkaard, Gullit and Cruyff as my spine and got all three Wanted strong central defensive options so snapped up Stam, Koeman, van der Hart and Israel. Plenty of wingforwards/wingers/second strikers to rotate around Cruyff too. If I want to play with a classic #9, Van Nistelrooy will join the front three with Cruyff deeper in the free role. I admittedly didn’t draft many Belgians, but couldn’t pass on Dutch talents like Van Heel, Lenstra and van der Kuijlen as late picks.
Ah, looks like it was Krol who was taken as a defender on one of poet's first two picks then! I'm pretty sure he is listing his picks by order taken anyway, otherwise there are some strange squad numbers being handed out lol! I guess some things would have gone similarly had I drafted Benelux-B then. I'd probably have snapped up Ceulemans slightly sooner (and now I think about probably Scifo and quite possibly Van Dijk too). Moulijn is one that had come to mind, so I guess he'd have ended up being drafted if I'd not been seduced by the Italy Reserves job (or threatened by the mafia or whatever the reason was)! It's not too surprising he wasn't drafted though, but yeah maybe Bergkamp not being a top 10 pick of the draft (and Hazard neither who I wondered if poet could pick very early) is mildly surprising but probably La-Maquina was forming an idea for team set-up he didn't fit into too (or he fancied a change after having him alongside Ronaldo in the FM draft!).
He's there on poet's list at pick 7. I just wasn't sure he might not make pick 2 even (but now I think about it poet preferring Robben earlier isn't a shock either, in terms of current/recent attackers he could select).
Yeah, I did wonder (if I was selecting MVB/Bergkamp early certainly) whether you'd be focusing on a 1974-esque 4-3-3 primarily, which is what you imply maybe (but I'm sure you can have some surprising variations anyway). It's not a shock you'd do it anyway, but I guess if Bergkamp was still there when you'd made 20 picks you'd have given him a squad place at least!
Robben was picked earlier because there are plenty of good left forward but only one great right forward.
Ironically I've 'Repped' this but I know Johnny might not be happy with it! At least Level 42 have agreed to sing this to cheer him up: I'm not really sure if La-Maquina's first choice would be exactly a 1974-esque 4-3-3 actually given what he said and who he picked but I won't speculate about it anymore now so that La-Maquina can keep some things up his sleeve before the opening game at least. Rep could fit into it ok himself if it was though of course (as the right forward indeed, although he can also play CF).
Sorry for no being persuasive with her. Btw, I heard that Kinsey Wolansky planned to appear in the very final match
Brazil a thebigman Cláudio Taffarel Júlio César Marcos Lúcio Hilderaldo Bellini Aldair Juan Carlos Alberto Cafu Roberto Carlos Marcelo Zito Dunga Gilberto Silva Didi Sócrates Roberto Rivellino Kaká Rivaldo Garrincha Pelé Tostao Leónidas
BRAZIL B ADEMIR de Menezes | ST, WF DANI ALVES | SB, WB DIDA | GK DJALMA SANTOS | SB, CB DOMINGOS da Guia | CB, SW FALCÃO, Paulo Roberto | CM, AM GÉRSON | CM, AM GILMAR | GK JAIRZINHO | WF, ST JULINHO | WF, SS JÚNIOR | SB, WB, CM LUÍS PEREIRA | CB MAURO RAMOS | CB MAURO SILVA | DM, CM NEYMAR | SS, WF NÍLTON SANTOS | SB, WB, CB ROMÁRIO | ST RONALDINHO | SS, AM, WF RONALDO | ST, SS THIAGO SILVA | CB TONINHO CEREZO | CM, DM ZICO | AM, SS ZIZINHO | AM, SS, CM
Good work lads/amigos. If the remaining squads of yours are announced later today, I'll get the new threads started tomorrow. Thinking about it what I might do when listing all the squads is show them in alphabetical order myself, if specific squad numbers haven't been allocated in the drafting (pre-tournament) phase - if they haven't they don't need to be later by the way - all that will be required is choosing the 11 players to start each game and maybe 1 or 2 subs as I'll explain again in the new thread intro info.
I forgot to pick neymar, could I swap Marcos for him? Brazil reserves Dida marcos (if swap is allowed) Alison Felipe luis Alex sandro Roque Jnr Marquinhos Naldo David luiz Maicon Jorginho Edu Oscar (swap for neymar if allowed) Leonardo Ze Roberto Willian Mauro da Silva gomes Emerson Sampaio Robinho Bebeto Adriano Edmundo
It looks like Peru FC drafted Neymar in your draft mate. So you can add one more player (can be a goalie or an outfield player) to your Brazil Reserves squad, other than those listed.
Damn sorry, I didn't look properly. Dida needs to come out too @thebigman - here is Peru FC's confirmed list again. I can understand you forgot some things from your draft though.