Ok, the Argentina-B vs Benelux-A 6-a-side Play-Off is ready to go. La-Maquina's team in the above quote plays poetgooner's selection which is as shown below: Fillol Passarella Veron Riquelme Sivori Messi So I'll count up any vote received by PM before around this time tomorrow, and then we can be sure of the full second round set of fixtures.
I was quite surprised when those votes came in. Nobody else (other than myself) voted for a French win! I think part of it is that the South American selection was rated highly (and of course it is a collection of the top players from various nations - whether msioux did pick that squad as more of a true 'A' squad I'm not sure - not fully maybe but it could be you put more eggs in the South America-A basket msioux?). There were one or two comments suggesting they could score against a Varane-Blanc partnership, and also the selection of Giuly was highlighted (but you did bring on Rocheteau at half-time and overall you picked more of a first choice team than my Hungarian one to play them I suppose - I did think I had made a mis-calculation there lol when votes were coming in but I guess I felt like you the side I picked would still be good enough in my mind and I did bring on Puskas for the last 20 minutes, and we all had to consider using our squad in case we did get to the latter stages and needed to use all 23 players...plus I probably liked a bit of rotation and found it fun to design the teams for each match which I guess most of us did....or do - everyone else has 1 team left at least at this stage). If it's a consolation, France-B take 3rd in the group in theory (if splitting the tie between us), with a better result against the table-topping Italian team, than Hungary achieved. But there was no need for us to play a 6-a-side match regardless of that, for the reason you can see - that we both went out! That was the one difference from the set of 'seeded teams' and the set of qualifiers - the South America-A squad making it through instead of France-B. But I wouldn't say the seeds were huge favourites since we have split up the squads of the most favoured nations, and not those of 'dark horse' nations, while we've combined other nations into one like with RoSA indeed (albeit with two selections), and also put certain batches of nations into one team (whether historically like that eg Yugoslavia/USSR, or done geographically with a Fennoscandia region team and a combined Bulgaria-Romania for example). I hope you all found it fun to pick the teams in the groups anyway. I'll get the match reports up over the next days, and then you can see the swings in the matches as they occured, and get more of a feel for how goals are deemed to have been scored etc. I thought I'd better get the 2nd round fixtures sorted first though.
Yeah it means Less work now lol just a surprising result for me It’s going to be interesting the next round as the best sides are playing each other now
Press conference with British Isles-B manager, Sir Alex Ferguson. Question: What's the latest on the England squad? SAF: Everyone is fit and well-motivated. I think the performances of the group stage has helped us establish the key players of our starting XI. Our squad has many great players and competition remains extremely intense in some key positions. I probably won't come to a decision until the very last minute! Question: Can you give us insight into what key decisions you still have to make? SAF: One of them is certainly the no.9 role. We have three of the greatest our country has ever produced competing for that one slot in the starting XI. Everyone wants to play against Brazil so they're all giving it 110% in training to prove themselves. Fortunately, they're all amazing in the box and a great aerial threat, allowing us to fully leverage the magic of Stanley Matthews, so whomever we pick will be very good.
I'll probably start writing up tactical instructions at this point as well. I actually quite enjoy reading them and taking them into account. Only fair I write up my own. Could be decisive, who knows.
6-a-side match report A low-key but high quality kick-around between the 6-a-side selections from Benelux-A and Argentina-B has seen Benelux secure first place in the group. Rijkaard got the winning goal, in time added on for hoping someone scores soon and finally decides this thing before everyone's legs are too dead to play in the knockout stage. The ball was running loose and Koeman was preparing to wind up a long range effort, but Rijkaard got to it first himself and drove it Koeman-esque into the goal anyway. Benelux had already taken the lead 3 times: Gullit's runs picked out by Cruyff twice (outside of the boot cross onto his head, and angled pass/cross onto his thigh which he took down and placed past Fillol on the half-volley), and in the middle a Cruyff solo goal after Rijkaard's quick pass on the counter-attack. Argentina's players had levelled things up each time though. In the opening half though Sivori after Messi's right to left dribble had opened things up, and in the second half through Messi himself both times - after Passarella advanced and fired a shot onto the post, leaving him to latch onto the ball and speed past the Dutch defenders to score, and then after a 5 player, 20 pass move ended with Riquelme lofting a pass for him to take down and find the top corner with. So here is the full second round list of matches: Benelux-A vs Rest of South America-A Italy-B vs Argentina-B British Isles-A vs Benelux-B Argentina-A vs Spain British Isles-B vs Brazil-A Germany-B vs Portugal Germany-A vs France-A Brazil-B vs Italy-A Deadline is Thursday 22nd August for submission of line-ups.
So, who should I pick to lead the line for my British-Isles B team? I also have a lot of decisions to make. Still trying to figure out my Spain midfield. Who to partner Monti in Argentina-B's midfield? Who to play left-wing? Lots and lots of decisions to make. Only my Benelux-B team do I already know my starting XI.
Thanks Puck, but no all my teams are out now so I just have to concentrate on the organising and there won't be any more of my own line-ups to publish. I will still put my votes in our PM, but those don't need to be published of course.
Internal voting for Player of the Tournament (among fans and team-mates) for my squads: Hungary: 1st Puskas, 2nd Sarosi, 3rd Kocsis, 4th Hidegkuti, 5th Bozsik Yugoslavia: 1st Dzajic, 2nd Savicevic, 3rd Zebec, 4th Stojkovic, 5th Gudelj Italy Reserves: 1st Giannini, 2nd Toldo, 3rd Prati, 4th Donadoni, 5th Trapattoni Fennoscandia : 1st M.Laudrup, 2nd B.Laudrup, 3rd Lerby, 4th Elkjaer, 5th Litmanen Feel free to reveal these votes for other teams already eliminated!
Hungary's elimination was a surprise, I think. Well, my internal MVPs were: Uruguay: 1) Schiaffino, 2) Rocha, 3) Francescoli, 4) Nasazzi, 5) Scarone. Rest of S.America - B: 1) Marcos, 2) Sotil, 3) Valderrama, 4) Salas.
Just needing to receive poetgooner's teams now. Obviously I do want to wait a while past the deadline though, as it'd be unsatisfactory and unfair to not receive the desired line-ups before setting games up (I've been hoping to give everyone enough time and I knew poetgooner was the one who'd previously been cutting it fine). But on the other hand, it's definitely preferable that it doesn't drag on too much and that we all have a decent idea when the deadlines will be. Ideally if they came in the next few hours that'd keep things running smooth, but if not possible an update would be appreciated instead @poetgooner - thanks. Just to make a note here too (although I'll make it clear after I post all the line-ups for the remaining games on the update/fixtures thread too): if anyone votes for games to end as draws after 90 minutes, can you also vote for an extra-time scenario (and if applicable a penalty shoot-out too)? Thanks.
Yep, received all of those now, so although I myself might now delay things slightly, it is certain that the remaining 4 games will all be posted today on the line-ups thread and then everyone can vote on every game (with details about extra-time included if you envisage a draw after 90 minutes - all votes for 90 minutes results will be analysed first though before looking at the extra-time ones if necessary).
All games up here now: https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/al...updates-fixtures.2105346/page-6#post-38096262 Deadline stays at Saturday for votes provisionally, but I know it's not long, so let us know if you want a bit more time at all. I'd not look to post any results before Sunday morning though anyway at the earliest so as (as normal) to give everyone their whole Saturday hours to vote if they want.
There is no way that Argentina-A team gets close to my Spain team. We would have 80% possession. Even when teams set up specifically to stop the Spanish tiki-taka, no one could stop it at the peak of their power. My team is the peak Spanish team, but with better talent like Gordillo, Gento, and Suarez. This Argetina-A team simply does not have the ball-winning capability to counter our playing style, pure and simple. Maradona is mediocre at best at this department. Di Stefano provides more defensive contribution than most AMs, but he's not a specialist at it either. Neither is Redondo who could do the job, but his strength was more in playmaking than in ball-winning. None of their midfielders were ever the main defensive shield of their team. Holland had two specialists in Van Bommel and De Jong, and they still struggled mightily. You really think Maradona-Di Stefano-Redondo can get close to my midfield? It doesn't matter at all that Argetina has more firepower than we do. They're going to get choked out of the game.
They'll have to talk to pass the time because they weren't have the ball. No one to win the ball back for them
I took a guess at Brazil's lineup, and pretty much got it right as well. Garrincha was an easy guess, so I placed the mobile Keane on that side so he can shift wide. MacKay is bigger and stronger, but less mobile. He doesn't need to shift wide because the tall Socrates shifts inside, where MacKay will be positioned anyway.
Just you two left to vote now.... So some breaking news will follow (it's not the only game which is in effect already decided but it's the only one where the result is confirmed)....
2-1 Argentina (details to follow on Ceefax with the other reports, but a late effort nearly took the game to extra-time, only for VAR to show the ball wasn't fully over the line).