03/07/12 02:09
Footcall 2012 Day 19...
After 31 matches over three weeks, here we were at the final! Euro 2012 had been a fantastic spectacle of high quality exciting football and it was all culminating in the final showdown between Spain and Italy. Up until this point, Spain had shown their skill to win comfortably and also against the odds, they ground out draws here and there but always threatened victory. You know what, the same could almost be said for Italy. Maybe slightly less fancied on paper, for Christ's sake Hansen, will you put away your paper, but the Italians had proved to everyone they were not be taken for granted. They lined up in the tunnel ready to be called onto the field. I always like the tunnel banter, team mates and football buddies all giving each other cheeky little winks as they clasp the nervous hands of their mascots, whose importance often gets overlooked. The presence of these unsung hero infants is there to make sure the players behave themselves; we all remember the shenanigans Vinnie Jones and those Wimbledon boys got up to in the tunnel prior to the FA Cup in '88. So come on Footcallers, let's here it for the mascots! Maybe UEFA should award one lucky mascot the chance to actually play in the match!
Dum-de-dum-de-dum... let's get those national anthems out of the way and get on with it! Finally time for the toss up and then the two captains shake hands in centre circle to exchange tiny little team pennants! Whatsthatallabout? Maybe UEFA could bring in another rule insisting on the captains having to carry these pennants at all times throughout the match? Of course what was interesting about tonight's match was both captains were goalkeepers so seeing them effectively playing one handed whilst they held a little flag in the other could have livened things up somewhat! Anyway... enough of these rule changes, everything is fine just the way they are ;-) with the exception of goal line technology of course!
The whistle blew and Spain, who had been accused of being a bit slow out the blocks in previous matches, certainly looked in the mood to kick this one off as time and again the boy Jordi Alba made electric runs down the right flank to hook up with Fabregas or Iniesta. This was a promising start and it was clear that Italy certainly had their hands full just dealing with the tireless work rate of their opposition. It only took 14 minutes for Iniesta (he's only 28 you know!) to slot a perfectly weighted pass through to Fabregas as he darted into the box to cut back right on to the head of David Silva. Back of the net! as a certain Alan Partridge would say. The game progressed and a pattern started to emerge. Italy get the ball, Spain steal the ball, then Italy stand aside as Spain charge forward and in the 41st minute that's exactly what happened again. Xavi found himself in open space in the midfield whilst young Jordi burst through like he was bustin' for the toilet to latch on to a peach of through ball and slide it past the oncoming Buffon! Where does he get such pace? Spain were two nil up and cruising.
Half time came, thankfully for the Italians as they were looking ragged. On their return the Azzuri appeared to ready to show the defending champions just what they were made of. But try as they might to feed balls up to Balotelli, the Spaniards were there time and again to snuff em out. Di Natale did wake Casillas up from his slumber but he was quickly alive to it. As the pundits suspected, this war was won in the middle of the park as Spain intersected the sloppy Italian passing and in the 84th minute golden boy substitute Fernando Torres, who had barely been on long enough to adjust his Alice band, was gifted the golden chance to put the golden team another goal and securing the golden boot in the process! This was starting to look embarrassing for Italy now and manager Prandelli must have been wondering if he could get Paolo Maldini and Marco Tardelli on as the next subs! The problem he now faced was that his last (and final sub) who had only been on for four minutes pulled up with a hamstring injury and had to be stretchered off! Not only were Italy three goals down but they were down to ten men as well :-( In the closing few minutes gaps started to appear in the weakened side and Torres assisted Juan Mata to tuck away the ball for their fourth and final goal. The final whistle blew and Spain had defended their title. What a masterclass! Never has three major trophies been won consecutively, and whatever you think of their style of play, that's not too Xabi eh? Very few teams could have lived with the quality of the Spaniards this evening, maybe we'll see all teams play without strikers in the future?
And so to the final Footcall league...
This is it the moment you have all been waiting for... the Footcall 2012 champion is Nathaniel Ridley and his team Play Fight on the Sofa! with a magnificent 45 points. He collects £320 for his achievement along with £5 he received for coming joint 5th after the Group Stages, 10 Hall of Fame points and free entry to Footcall 2014 for winning the Hurst Division! What many of you probably won't know is that Nathaniel is just four (and a half) years old! I have been assured that his father James (There's your Salad Bryn!) Ridley only assisted him slightly and Nathaniel should take all the credit. No doubt James will be putting the prize fund into a special account for his son to enjoy a good piss up when he's old enough! So Nathaniel stands proudly top-o-table with his name in red looking down on the 137 below him. Surely his name on the trophy is the most important thing?
Manoj (check me out Tat) Gupta, one of the half way leaders, did tremendously well on his first Footcall outing to secure second place and he takes £190 total prize money plus has a free go in 2014 for winning the Wilson Division. With the reward for predicting the winner bringing many players into the frame and also the money bracket. Steve (Andy thanks for telling me about Footcall) Russell takes £90 and can come back for free for winning the Banks Division. Keith (I dun ya, Paul) Firmston claimed fourth and 80 sterling in his back pocket. In fact the last three players all had 38 points and were only separated by the accurate scores they picked up in the Group Stages. Brother Paul (Damn you Keith!) Firmston takes 5th and a few vital HoF points, he really can tell his better half that Footcall is most certainly not luck! He also picked up a fiver for fifth in the Groups.
Nick (Where did I come from) Stacey will receive sixty quid so he can gloat in front of all of his work colleagues with the honour of being top of the Peters Division. Unbelievably even with four sets of scoring criteria, seventh place could not separated and so David (buckin ell) Frost, Jack (Han, my experience paid off I'm afraid) Wakefield and Spencer (Ooh I've won some fresh nappy money) Collins all scoop £40 for their efforts, well done guys. The final money spot was closely contested by Leanne (only 123 places above Sean) Maloney, Hannah (Jack I'm gonna get you in 2014) Wakefield and Robert (I was down and out a week ago) McNamara. All finished on 37 points (in fact 8 players finished on 37), but despite having the same number of accurate scores, it was Robert who can claim the twenty pounds as he scored more points in the Knockout Stages than Hannah.
Let's give special praise to both Leanne and Robert as they both collected a perfect 24 points in the Knockout Stages and saw them boosted towards the top of page one after only having scored 13 points in the Group Stages. Not only that they both won their respective Divisions. Let's also credit, Russell (you see Sam, it's where you finish, that counts) Morris winner of the CharltonJ Division, Oliver (who's the daddy?) Whitfield winner of the Cohen Division, Matthew (JT and DK I clearly know more about football than yous two) Green winner of the Moore Division. But without question my player of the day has to go to Joanna (No! Surely not! Really? You're winding me up right? OMG, I can't believe it!) Mackenzie who has romped home to top the Hunt Division. Jo, surely this has to be right up there with your wedding day? Its OK you can tell me, I'm sure Dan will understand!
There are two awards still to come and it is with great pleasure (should I be happy about this?) to give my brother Simon the vuvuzela award for the second Footcall running! Who would have thought nil nil would bring so much reward? I think Simon (or Syd as he is known to his friends) summed it rather nicely in his feedback form said, "I'm damn good at coming last!" please note that the word damn has replaced a rather more gratuitous word ;-) Finally we ran a competition for you the Footcallers to vote for your favourite team name for 2012. We had a terrific response and I can reveal with 12.67% of the votes, Emma Wakefield and her team Ukraine Bolt has received the most support. She narrowly edged Nick Simmonds and his team Obi Wan Kenobi Nil into second place. Thank you to all those who voted, both Simon and Emma will receive a box of chocolates for their moments of inspiration.
Well that's it for another two years, we'd like to thank you for all your support and wonderful feedback, it's been a great tournament on the field and a fantastic Footcall competition to match. we only hope you have enjoyed it enough to want to give it a go again in 2014. I'd like to thank my brother Simon for his help on change over day, my good friend Spencer for all things backstage, this tournament would be unmanageable without his expertise, good luck for the future for you, Domi and baby Cecily. And last but by no means least, Mrs Christine Jenner, who year on year has lives with a man who barely has any interest in football until Footcall comes around. Thank you for your support, as you are the football fan in the household, I know how much it bothers you to see me above you in the league and I'm sorry about that. Thank you for letting me stay up late to write these silly little reports!
We've all got stories of what could have been, that's the beauty of Footcall, I know a few of you had run the numbers and figured out they might be in for a prize if Italy had been victorious tonight, but like me, you're gonna have to wait about 700 days until Footcall 2014 rolls into town, then it will be your time to shine!
Until then... Adiós!
David
29/06/12 03:14
Footcall 2012 Day 18...
Second semi final day saw red hot favourites Germany take on the Italians. So far in this tournament Italy have yet to spark into life, having technically only beaten Ireland in open play up until now; and I reckon I could put together an all star Footcall 11 that could give the Irish a run for their money! Conversely, the Germans have been nothing short of formidable, rampaging through their group before dishing up good and proper over the Greeks in the last eight. On paper this was more of one horse race than some tennis match going on Centre Court at the same time. Anyway who writes all these sporting projections on paper? Is there a little Hobbit somewhere deep in Middle-earth archiving everything these pundits forecast? Do we really need em? I'm not referring to the Hobbits, I'm talking about the pundits! Year on year there seems to be a little more punditry and if you pop across to the Sky's F1 channel you can have a whole fortnight of it until the next race rolls round. When is this bubble gonna burst? The ratio of analysis and chat compared to actual action is astonishing, something I know annoys Mrs J no end!
OK folks time for me to analyse and chat about the match ;-)
Germany had the first chance of the match when Italian keeper Buffon, fumbled the ball only to see it ping off his colleagues legs and roll tantalisingly close to their own net! Both teams looked lively and Italy certainly showed signs of giving Germany more of a threat than did to England, and it wasn't long before the blue team had a chance at the other end. Cassano twisted his way through a dizzy German defence to lob a cross into the box to perfectly meet the head of the rising Mario Balotelli. Bingo Bango... back of the net! I think Luigi would have liked to have seen that one Super Mario! This certainly wasn't in the German handbook but history has told us that the Italians don't always play by the German rules. I'm sure there were many a Footcaller getting a little uncomfortable at this point as it's no surprise there has been plenty of confidence in the Germans taking the cup back home. But they haven't won a major trophy since Euro '96 (Southgate flashback... sorry!) despite looking dominant in the earlier stages of so many tournaments since. Well it seemed the Italians were full of confidence with Signor Pirlo conducting the midfield whilst De Rossi and Montolivo fed the front number 9 like doting parents to one of those greedy baby birds you see on Springwatch!
Come the 36th minute and they broke away from a bodged German corner to see a classic route one ball over the top for the galloping Balo to race into the oppositions box. He was on his own with no back up but he didn't care about that. How was he gonna finish it? A little Henry-esque sweep of his instep past the approaching keeper. Nah... b*llocks to that! He blasted it full power, putting his foot right through the ball straight into the top right hand corner of the net. Simultaneously, Alan Shearer, John Arne Riise, the ghost of Sir Stanley Matthews and Chuck Norris all stood up to applaud the kinetic energy generated from the boot of one human. He must have a foot like a traction engine! Then came the celebration. Now, Mario is noted for saying "When I score I don't celebrate. I just do my work. When the postman delivers your letters, does he celebrate?" Well this time was different, this time he ripped off his shirt to show his team mates his ripped torso and for all the German fans sitting behind him, they had a lovely view of his bright blue kinesio tape! You could tell he enjoyed this one as there was just a hint of a smile, just as we cut to a forlorn looking German woman with tears rolling down her cheek. Although this was still the first half it really looked like there was only going to be one winner and it wasn't the one we initially expected.
The second half came round and Germany did start to create some chances. Lahm spooned one over the bar and Reus had a terrific free kick saved. Meanwhile Italy's Marchisio missed a golden opp to put them three nil up and totally out of sight. But in the closing moments of the match, Balzaretti was adjudged to have guided the ball with his arm and gave a penalty away at a critical moment. Up stepped Mesut "Don't call me Nemo" Ozil and converted it sweetly into the right half of the goal. The Germans scrambled to get the ball back on the centre spot but we were beyond the 90 now and barely seconds after the restart, the full time whistle blew. Italy were the victors 2-1 and against the odds, just proving once again, that despite whatever a little Hobbit might write on a bit of paper, the underdogs can triumph!
And so to the Footcall league...
Well, well, well... now we have some interesting developments. Of course the smart Footcall money was all piling on Germany but we have a sprinkling of support for the Azzurri, including me and that moves me up to the giddy height of 110th. On page two of the league table, Anne (don't tell Patrick) Ferguson, Mark (I'm a big Italian fan) Horner, William (look George look) Relf and Mr Neil (Da Funk) White all pick up four points for their correct prediction. But it's on page one where it all matters. The top six players all failed to score tonight as we see them tread water whilst a few sharks circle below them. We have four players all with a perfect 6/6 results so far. Leanne (OMG Sean, could I really win some money?) Maloney, Robert (blimey Colin I'm not bad at this lark) McNamara and Eddie (Jock Stein's protege) Bojtler has made a move right up to threaten the money bracket. But it's Leanne (I'm in Barcelona ready for the celebrations) Rennie who has stolen the show as the 16 points she's collected in the Knockouts have moved her into a creditable 7th. This also means she has both Spain and Italy in the final but which one has she plumped for?
With just one game left, worth a massive 8 points, anyone with Spain or Italy to win will be watching Sunday's final with extreme interest! Will Manoj hang on to the top spot, will Leanne steam in on the inside rail and on a day for the underdogs, maybe somebody else might emerge from the peloton, you'll just have to wait and see!
Good luck everyone, see you on the other side!
Dj
28/06/12 01:08
Footcall 2012 Day 17...
After a couple of days rest from Euro 2012 and Footcall VII, we're down to the first semi-final with just three games to go. First up we saw reigning champions Spain take on their next door neighbours, Portugal. It took me back to my childhood when I would take on me old mate and fellow Footcaller Nick D'Avanzo in a best of nineteen goals back when we were kids! Well maybe the patch of grass we played on in 1980 wasn't quite the top quality Rolawn the Euro semi-final was played on in Dontesk but I'm sure Nick will back me up here when I say there was more drama and excitement in our one-on-one kick-abouts than the first 90 minutes of tonight's match!
There was world class quality all over the pitch and it seemed as if all it amounted to was a stalemate :-( Portugal probably had the most talented player in Ronaldo with Mr Nani backing him up but Spain knew exactly how to deal with him and Del Bosque's gamble of playing a 4-6-0 formation with no strikers perhaps might have appeared to have been somewhat naive. Of course this legendary Spanish manager has forgotten more than I've learnt about the game, blimey, this is a man who managed the Galácticos in the golden season of 2003! His plan became evident soon into the first half, let the whippersnapper young Portuguese allowing the defensive supremos of the Spanish squad soak it all up, then bosh! Hit em on the break. This was the footballing equivalent of Ali's masterful Rope-a-Dope tactics against George Foreman in the Rumble in the Jungle '74.
Who could argue with this genius as it all seemed to go to plan and for the best part of 80 minutes Portugal were reduced to speculative shots from distance and it was the Spaniards who had the majority of the possession and probably the best opportunities on goal, was this all part their plan? This was all very well except Snr Bosque overlooked one thing, he didn't have any centre forwards who could put the ball in the back of the net. And with 87 minutes gone it was time for a substitution. Who was going to replace workhorse Xavi? He needed someone who had proven himself for his country, scored in this competition already (preferably blonde and overpaid) somebody with a bit of pace and an eye for goal in the Spanish colours. Well he looked up up and down the bench several times and then brought on... wait for it... Pedro! WTF?
And as the full time whistle blew it was indeed 0-0, sorry Simon another 3 points vanish into the Footcalling ether! Extra time loomed and we expected more of the same but hang on, someone put a rocket up the Spaniards backside and they were now taking control. Finally we were seeing a bit of down and dirty goalmouth action! It was the hero of World Cup 2010, or Footcall VI as I like to call it, Andres Iniesta who had the best chance of the match but he saw his goalbound shot wonderfully saved by Rui Patricio. The Jordi boy Alba worked his little legs (he must be half my height) tirelessly for the thick end of two solid hours, and although like many of those on the field he is world class at play acting when there is the slightest touch, he teamed up very well with subs Navas and Fabregas to create moderate havoc amongst the Portuguese defence, sort of like a disgruntled cow in a Poundsaver store!
So it was to be, just like the England match, this had penalties written all over it. Time for the managers to get their iPads out and compare the Angry Birds scores they'd achieved during the 120 minutes of play! First up was XaBi Alonso for Spain... Rui Patricio saved it! Blimey, what a start! Next up, Moutinho... another save, Casillas diving well! What is going on? Even the penalty kicks were gonna end goalless! Maybe those iPad high scores might come into it?
Next up was the ever reliable Iniesta... goal! Thank God! Pepe for Portugal, goal... 1-1. Steady on fellas, no need to go mad! Pique, goal. Then up strolled Bruno Alves, he placed the ball and assessed where he was gonna strike it. Suddenly Nani appeared like the shopkeeper in Mr Benn to say that Del Bosque had double checked his To Do app on his iPad and it was Nani's turn not Bruno Alves'. So a bemused BA retreated muttering something like "I pity the fool who thinks it's their penalty!" to leave Nani to stutter his run up and squeeze the ball into the roof of the net. Sergio Ramos stepped up to make it 3-2 to Spain before Bruno Alves had a sense of deja-vu walking up to the spot one more time! Had Nani's torpedo affected his concentration, we waited, he took three steps back and wallop! He hit the bar! This left Cesc Fabregas to take his chance from 12 yards and secure their place in the final. He appeared to chat to himself as he lined it up, maybe he had a bluetooth connection with Matt Le Tissier sitting in the crowd? He ran up and wallop! He hit the post! But unlike BA, CF's shot hit the inside of the woodwork and ran across the goal line and in! The Spaniards went mad and did a massive big British Bulldog pile up to leave Rui Patricio and his compatriots distraught once again! Who said you can't win with no strikers? Oh did I mention Ronaldo? No? Well he was Portugal's fifth penalty taker and he never got the chance! So sad, but he's done rather well for column inches off me wouldn't you agree?
And so to the Footcall league...
Maybe this was the big decisive game in the Footcall league. There are four points riding on the semi final results and the wrong choice could see things all change topside. Manoj nailed it and stayed top with Mr Firmston and the boy Ridley hanging around like Nani's shadow. Sadly however Matthew Green along with Chris & Nick who were obviously given some poor advice as they opted for Portugal and slip down the table. Oliver Whitfield is now in the prime money spots. Spain was a popular choice tonight so just a quick roundup of the state of play. You will see and the ominous appearance of Kevin Appleton into the top 30 which must scare the sh*t out of those around him! Jill Fuller collects a nice little four pointer tonight along with Spencer, Colin Jessop and Neil Larkin just to mention a few on page one. Maybe a Portuguese win would have shuffled the pack a little more and we'll have to see what the Germany Italy result brings us tomorrow.
Please can I remind those who have not done it yet, to cast your vote for your favourite Footcall team name of 2012 as we would like to give a small prize to the player who receives the most votes. Go to www.footcall.co.uk/feedback.html
Over and out!
Dj
25/06/12 02:07
Footcall 2012 Day 16...
This was it, England back in the Quarter Finals ready to duel with Italy in Kiev. Up until this point neither team had rewritten the form book and who knows what to expect at the end of it all. One thing was for sure, there was always going to be a result and for those battle weary England fans that meant only one thing, the possibility of penalties! 1990 saw England embark on our first ever penalty shoot-out, which saw Chrissy Waddle blast high wide and handsome over the West German bar. Six years later we enjoyed a brief moment of success from the penalty spot, remember when we beat Spain in Euro 96, Stuart Pearce laying to rest the ghosts from Italia 90. Ultimately though it ended the same way, as poor Gareth Southgate failed to convert his opportunity in the semi finals against Germany. It was after this match that I personally swore not to invest quite so much emotion into my national team. Of course this all evaporated when just two years after fighting like lions, the same fate fell to David Batty who joined this group of branded individuals leaving the fans gutted once again. 2004 once again saw England exited from the Euros by the hands of Portugal (and cheeky keeper Ricardo), Darius Vassell being our primary culprit on this occasion. And two years after that we lost to them again in the World Cup 2006, few of us care who lost it for us then but Jamie Carragher was the last England spot kicker that year before Ronaldo sealed our fate. Well surely we wouldn't be going through it all again?
The match started with great pace, so much better than last nights game, certainly no chance of nodding off during this one! We looked sharp, but we do tend to look good in the first half of the first half, it's the other three halves we tend to look ragged. Like the Spaniards, Italy were pretty confident on the ball and this was all orchestrated by the midfield maestro, Pirlo, who reminded me of Jan Molby in his hay day (but quicker :-). Our talisman Rooney was puffing and wheezing early on once again and maybe even more significantly, Capt'n Gerrard who had been steering the England ship up until now seemed to have slightly broken rudder! Never-the-less we surely had enough courage and hootspa to squeeze some sort of a result, we're still playing "Golden Goal" right?
Mind you, De Rossi hit a wickedly slicing shot which would have seen any golf ball out of bounds on your local municipal, and this had the beating of Joe Hart only to ping off the outside of the post... thankfully! Then at the other end Glen Johnson seemed to find himself in prime position just 6 yards out and the best he could do was scoop it up for Buffon to cling on to! Blimey, can you just imagine the look on Linekar's and Shearer's face in the studio when this happened, they would have lapped that one up! Amazingly the first 45 did finish nil nil but it was going well, no need to be disheartened just yet.
In the second half, that man De Rossi scuppered a perfect opportunity to put the blues in front, this could only have happened because he had one short and one long sleeve. Maybe if he had converted either of his chances this fashion style might well have caught on in the streets of Milan, well maybe not now! As Italy took the lion's share of possession we could see Hart was under more and more pressure from Balotelli and Diamanti. The writing was now on the wall... extra time.
Always a cagey affair, extra time, as neither side really wants to put their head on the block but Italy carved out the best chance and they even managed to score from the head of the "little nut" Nocerino but the linesman was in our favour as he waved him offside. Soon after this the extra 30 was up and here we were again, on the rickety bridge we know and love as the penalty shoot-out. First decision for manager Roy was who was on the playlist for these tunes?
Balotelli was first up to face Joe Hart, his Man City colleague, and he comfortably put it away but was then followed by a Gerrard equaliser. First blood was drawn by England as Montolivo kicked it wide... come on England we cheered! Rooney then scored to put us 2-1 up. Next up, man of the match Andrea Pirlo stepped up to do a cheeky little dink down the middle to evade Hart's dive to make it two all. Then young Ashley Young stepped up and blasted it against the bar... Drat! The "little nut" pushed the Italians 3-2 up before our other Ashley (Cole) feebly put it into Buffon's arms... I think Cheryl might have given it a better go than that! Our fate was sealed when Diamanti finally buried the English with his conversion to see Italy through to the semis 4-2 on pens :-( Welcome to English football management Roy! Is that 'Arry's phone I can hear ringing?
And so to the Footcall league...
It's all change at the top! Well not quite. Manoj maintains his 100% record in the knockouts so far and has elbowed aside, Chris & Nick and Steve Goodwin as they slip a little bit. Don't give up hope guys it's still wide open. Can anyone stop Matt Green scoring points, his deliberation over Italy or England paid off this evening. Paul and Nathaniel are also moving up the money bracket as too is Jonny Hill and Ollie Whitfield. Stuart Acott and Darryl Farmer have had Quarter Final clean sweeps along with Jamie & Ian, Barry Smith, Dan Wilks, Steve Russell, Nick Simmonds, Adam Jones, Nick Stacey, Eddie (young and old) Bojtlers, Kevin (here I come) Appleton, Leanne (not Lyn) Rennie, Hannah (Jack are you watching) Wakefield, Neil (I was in last place not so long ago) Larkin, Neil (the clean sweeper) White, Lee (better than Reggie) Albrecht, Chris (yes I am in 72nd now Maxine) Read, Mark Horner, Robert McNamara, Leanne (Sean pfff!) Maloney and a rare mention for Keith (the drums) Reynolds!
Quite a few have managed to get a clean sweep of zeros as well :-) Mick (OMG, I forgot about the Hall of Fame) Mallion, Dan (I'm only in this to support Jo) Mackenzie, Sean (here I am Leanne) Broad, Sharon (it was worth a punt) Hills, Lee (you might have to wait another 46 years) Baker all scored nowt for the Quarter Final results. These three are now dangerously in with a chance of the vuvuzela award.
But...
There can only be one winner today and it is my pleasure to award my brother Simon, two points for guessing Italy to win which now threatens his vuvuzela position! Ironically tonight's match finished 0-0 which would have earned him his one and only red square but of course have moved the goal posts in the Knockout Stages, unlucky bruv!
That's it for the Quarters, now we march proudly to the Semis. The next two matches are worth four points each so let's see what that does to the table.
Dj
24/06/12 01:33
Footcall 2012 Day 15...
Day 15 in the Footcall house (you have to say that with a Geordie accent) or should that be with a Jordi (Alba) accent, as the Spanish left back was instrumental in unpicking the frayed seams of a lack lustre French defence. This was the third Quarter Final of Euro 2012 and on paper was set to be tight, defensive, cagey affair with the reigning champions against the Millennium winners and you know what, that's exactly what we got! This was like watching Audley Harrison box, all the prospects of something spectacular but sadly lacking in any fireworks. Maybe that's a bit harsh, I certainly wouldn't want to get in the ring with Our Audley, but I was looking forward to this match because we had more than a few world class players on the field and I'd gambled our cats (don't tell the present Mrs Jenner) on France pulling this off! I had visions of our near neighbours walking this match, cantering across the Semis and trotting through the finals to victory seeing "Everybody Loves Beer Pong!" gallop up the Footcall table quicker than Black Caviar in the Diamond Jubilee at Royal Ascot!
Let's face it, France were poor, they had a shaky defence and a distinct lack of fire power, the only thing they did possess was a moderate midfield but they couldn't trust wandering up the field to leave the centre backs to their own devices. Conversely, Spain are in a different league, strong in all departments and one of the best in the world at ball hogging. They're not flash, they don't terrify their opponents, they just don't give the ball away nor do they worry when they don't have it either. This was all brought into sharp focus when that Jordi boy escaped the floundering French right back to get his head up and pitch a ball across the face of goal that even Phil Mickelson would tip his cap to! It landed right onto the oncoming head of Xabi Alonso who powered into the goal, wrong footing the French keeper. It was as if Spain had simply decided to stop messing about and grab the game by the balls. We were 20 minutes in and surely this was all going according to Del Bosque's master plan? I'm guessing the next stage was to just taunt the French another 70 minutes? Probably. All I can say was it must have been effing hot in Donetsk this evening as it seemed both sides slowed to a pedestrian paced game of keep ball. maybe both nations were happy with one nil? Comfortable victory for Spain whilst not totally humiliating for the French. We've been treated right royally to some end-to-end, exciting football matches over the past two weeks and maybe we were getting complacent, we had 6 goals last night for Pete's sake... I want more! I'm not saying the Euro 2012 bubble has burst as the Spaniards were utterly professional and they can only beat what's in front of them; but with the exception of Franck Ribery, France just weren't at the races. Long range shots cleared the bar like Jonny Wilkinson conversions and if there are any aspiring goalkeepers looking for some new gloves, I know Iker Casillas has got an unused pair for sale!
As the game was drawing to a close, Spanish substitute, Pedro was brought down in the box and Alonso duly stepped up and converted the penalty, not for the first time tonight sending Lloris the wrong way. We were beyond the 90 now and there was no time for Xabi to get his hat-trick and perhaps two goals was enough all things considered. Another Waterloo for the French whilst the Spaniards celebrate with Fernando! In summary, Spain do not look as red hot as their shirts and maybe they will be undone against Portugal and the might of Mr Ronaldo next Wednesday. My suspicion is that they will know how to snuff him out and we'll see Torres steal the show, but hey, what do I know I picked France to go all the way!
And so to the Footcall league...
OK I'm finally conceding defeat! A ridiculously tiny part of my Footcalling brain had mathematically figured out the ultimate combination of results to see my team push up the table. Realistically I was never really thinking I could win but maybe I had dreams of crashing into the top 100 :-) Well that dream has been quashed now and all I've got now is to pin my hopes on England to win their first major trophy since we won the Rugby World Cup in 2003 (thanks Trish for pointing out this previous oversight in an earlier Footcall report!)
Once again the table has barely changed shape as Spain were hot favourites to secure the win tonight amongst the Footcall revellers. Craig Amos (top of Cohen Division) had France to win and has consequently slipped a little as too did Lyn Rennie although he maintains the top spot of Banks Division. Don't forget that winners of the each Division will get free entry to Footcall 2014, a small prize I know but it's the equivalent of getting your stake money back. Dan Shroeck is holding his own in the money bracket and top of the Ball Division. Dave Herbert (now threatening Craig in Cohen), Rob Pearson (now giving Jon Hill a gentle nudge in the Stiles Division), James Ridley (reminding Nathaniel who pays the bills in Hurst Division) and Rob Smith (asking the questions of the Statesiders above him in Ball Division) and all of them are knocking Hall of Fame door!
Chris and Nick are still topside of the big league and CharltonB Division, Nick Singleton is still top of Greaves Division but Colin Jessop is hanging about like a bad smell ready to step up if he should falter. It's an all Cowland affair in Hunt Division (Steve: 42 years v Finley: 3 months), the ManOnAMission Matt must be feeling the heat in Moore Division from JT who is not that far behind. Steve Goodwin is top of Peters Division with Darryl Farmer not completely out of it just yet. Manoj and Paul are having a big ruck at the top of Wilson whilst Tat just tries to mediate, with the devious view of sneaking up on their blindside!
However Simon Dudson might have taken his eye off the smaller prize as he's dropped 4 out of the 6 points in the Knockouts so far and now Tim Jennings and Julia Virco have actually caught him. What was Si thinking; picking France and Greece? Nutter! In fact, in the infamous As It Stands table, Tim and his pet Seagulls will technically go top on Knockout Stages points scored.
That'll do for now!
Dj
23/06/12 01:57
Footcall 2012 Day 14...
OK folks we're back up and running! Hoorah I hear you cry :-) The last 24 hours have seen us draw on the experience of six Footcalls that have preceded this and here we are dodging and weaving like a prize fighter ready to go another round. The league is back in it's rightful place there on the home page, ready to reveal herself as soon as you figure out how to push her buttons! OK we can all exhale now, normal service has been resumed (big thanks to Spence for pulling out the stops).
The one man Portugal team set the stage alight last night and now we make way for the gladiators of Euro 2012 and warm Footcall favourites, Germany, to enter the arena once more. They were going toe-to-toe with the Spartans of Europe, Greece. An unlikely David v Goliath match up as this, on paper, looked woefully one sided. Unless prizes were going to be awarded for best "sniper shot from Row Z play acting" (boy those Greek players are masters at that) there was only ever going to be one winner in this match. The Germans started like the solid unit we've come to expect and they sliced their way through the Greek defence like a knife through feta. As commentator Drury so aptly put it, "it's not a matter of if; but when." Wave after wave they slung their shots in and it looked as early as the 6th minute it looked as if Greece might have been playing for penalties, if only they could hold on for another 114 minutes? Well they did hang on for 39 minutes but despite the Greeks adopting a rather unique 8-1-1 formation they couldn't prevent little Philip Lahm from blasting the ball from 30 yards out straight into the corner beyond the outstretched keeper. Joachim Loew went nuts in his technical area and Angela Merkel got out her chair, adjusted her twin-set and cheered with delight. This was it now, surely the floodgates were well and truly open!
The second half got underway with us all expecting more German domination but then something shocking happened, Greece scored! Yes they really did! This must have thrown the Footcall viewers into blind panic as they could see their German faith collapsing quicker than the Grecian economy! Georgios Samaras clearly hadn't read the script; amazingly Greece were level. Where was Merkel's rattle now? What is it with these political figures muscling in on football matches? Well the equalizer clearly got up the nose of the Germans and before long normal service was resumed as Sami Khedira hit an absolute pile-driver into the roof of the Greek onion bag, it was a good job the keeper didn't get his hand on that one, he would have ended up in A&E. This time Deutschland were not going to relinquish their grip. Miroslav Klose went close several times before heading home a sweet corner to make it 3-1. They were cooking now, and it looked like sauerkraut! Then up popped Marco Reus to nail a volley that his namesake, Marco Van-Basten would have been proud of, now it was four one and four to one on that there was more to come. Well there was, but astonishingly it was at the other end. A speculative shot struck Boateng on the arm in what could have been argued as ball to hand but never-the-less a penalty was awarded and Salpingidis tucked it neatly into the right hand corner. And so it finished 4-2, just who would have predicted that? Good job for the Footcallers it was only the team that was required and not the score.
And so to the Footcall league...
Well it will be no surprise that a huge percentage of you lot had Germany to win in fact they are the overwhelming favourites to win this tournament amongst the Footcall fraternity. I'm not gonna list off all those that had predicted, crikey I'm even that list, as the league has barely changed shape in the past 24 hours. You'll see that the league now has nice blue colour coding to mark the six money winners from the Group Stages, in the C/F (Carried Forward) column. The leader (currently a three way tie) is marked in red and finally those marked in yellow are those in line for financial gain come the end of the tournament. Let's pick a few random players who might have much spotlight up until now as this might be their only time to shine... Neil (I'm the one cooking now) White, Pavol (I knew the Germans wouldn't let me down) Malenky, Lyn (I'm top of my effing Division) Rennie, Rick (it was all going so well) Wilkinson, Joff (if I can just edge past Andy) Funnell, Jonathan (in the nick of time) Reeves, Kim (eat my dust Graham) Gilbert, Oliver (better than mum) Whitfield, Ryan (bye bye Dean) Smith, Nick (where is McNamara now) Singleton, George (I'm taking this very seriously) Relf, David (I can't believe I backed the Czechs) Bourne, Lee (I've taken some gambles in my life) Baker, Clive (Syd you are a b***end) Catterall.
Also I should mention, Iain (I'm surprisingly good at this) Baker, Chris (I'm not out of this yet) Read, Maxine (I'm up here Yasmin) Coupland, Yasmin (hang on Maxine I'm coming) Coupland, Carl (Richard you may as well retire now) Andrews, David (if you boys above me think I'm giving up, think again) Kilbey, Gary (I fancy my chances here) Thorp, Kevin (I only need to stay above Mick) Appleton, Mick (damn it, I took a risk and I have proper blown it) Mallion, Peter (I could do with a life saver now) Nilsen, Trish (The Spaniards must win tomorrow) Bertram, Sean (I spy with my little eye, a vuvuzela) Broad, Stephen (on the buses) Hills and Richard (Manoj don't get too comfortable) Goodwin.
OK that's enough of that. Tomorrow we see my tip for the trophy, France, pick the Spaniards pocket and send them home penniless! I might be in 116th at the moment but I'm still confident I can make it up to 115th :-)
All the best!
Dj
22/06/12 02:22
Footcall 2012 Day 13...
So the Group Stages are done and we seamlessly move into Knockout Stages like the Spirit of Chartwell majestically cruising down the Thames in the Royal Pageant. BTW, did you see that boat race with the Royal family? I knew that red boat was gonna win! And like the weather on Her Majesty's big day, Footcall's transition from G to K was a bit of a son-in-law (not quite what we expected). My Footcall coding colleague Spencer (and his appropriately team named Jubilee Delight) Collins and his lovely wife Dominique were expecting their baby some time in early July. No problem for us Footcallers, we'd be all done and dusted come the end of June, feet up, celebrating England's first major trophy for 46 years. However Footcall's first baby had other plans as little Cecily Eda Collins decided she wanted to be part of the Footcall end of term party as she arrived some three weeks early. Her timing was just perfect and rightly so, priorities for Spencer and Domi took a different course. This meant we were faced with having to pull in all the Knockout Stages predictions in random old skool methods. If ever there was a time to knock out one of those "Keep Calm and Play Footcall" posters this was it!
Well we did it...
Collective cooperation saw you submit your forms in whatever form you could muster... email, fax, courier, carrier pigeon, morse code, somebody even sent them via the Enigma machine (that took a few minutes to decipher I can tell you :-). Fortunately the "no smoke signals" policy was vigorously adhered to and we didn't have to administer any fines. Some of you struggled with the technology of having to read the instructions, download and send over a Word document and it took countless texts to extract the predictions from Peter Short who has given me public licence show him up as an example of "Extreme Muppetry!" So, like a 36hr marathon game of The Weakest Link we eventually managed to get all the predictions banked before kickoff this evening and I'd like to take this opportunity to thank wonderful wife, Christine, and my equally as wonderful brother, Simon, for their assistance today and above anything else, preserving my sanity. But if they think this will earn them any Footcall bonus points, they'll have to put it in writing for Committee consideration, we'll put in on the agenda with goal line technology and whether we need that bl**dy countdown before every match!
And so to the match...
Tonight saw the Knockout Stages embark and you know what this means... the chance of penalties! We all love a penalty shout-out, right? Well, maybe not Gareth Southgate, David Batty or Chrissy Waddle. First game up was Portugal against Czech Republic. Now I've seen all your predictions and I can say the overwhelming favour was with Portugal to move into the semi-finals. Well the Czechs were not ready to go quite so readily and they really held their own in the first half of the first half, maybe penalties could be decisive? As the game progressed the cream rose to the top as Cristiano Ronaldo who must be a contender to give Lionel Messi a run for his money as World Player of the Year, started to show his class. Time and again he foxed the Czech defence as he rattled the woodwork on several occasions and rattled the cage of keeper Petr Cech on several more. The guy was on fire and there was nothing they could do about it. How it finished nil nil at half time was anyone's guess. However after the break, the boy wonder returned with his one-man team effort. Sporting a wartime appearance with slicked back hair and a hint of a pencil moustache he looked like a cross between Privates Pike and Walker from Dad's Army! In the 79th minute he eventually broke the deadlock as he dodged his man marker to perfectly meet a Moutinho cross and power the ball into the turf bouncing straight over the top of the keeper's gloves. He then did the "I'm a scary monster" celebration to camera whilst taking the applause from his adoring fans. This opened the floodgates for the Portuguese to really let rip at their opposition before they finally admitted Czech-mate! So no penalties (yet) and Portugal move on to the semis to set up a duel against the winner of Spain and France.
And so to the Footcall league...
Well I'd love to give you a break down of just who had Portugal to win and the two (not three) points they all received for it but sadly this data is still in quarantine! Until we decide whether or not the Ukrainian ball did cross the line, if Rio should have been in the squad or if Jimmy Carr has been a naughty boy we can't release the latest Footcall league table. Rest assured we have our team working on it as I ramble on; as soon as there is an update, you shall all be informed.
What I can tell you is that I was one of just a handful to have chosen Czech Republic to win! Mad I know, but when you're languishing in the lower echelons of the Footcall 2012 league you have to go a bit radical with your predictions. In fact I can tell you now, to avoid any suspicious eyebrows being raised, I have backed France to go all the way! Not very patriotic I know, I even have England to lose to Italy; but as I said, I needed to think outside of the six-yard area with my estimations. Just to complete my form, I have Germany to beat Greece and then Italy to beat Germany in the semis before France get their revenge on the Italians in a rematch of the 2006 World Cup final. This time however, ZZ won't be playing and the result will be altogether different. Yes you heard it here first, France are gonna win. I'll let you into a little secret, Michel Platini has arranged for France to go on to lift the trophy just so they can be reigning champions when Euro 2016 comes to their home nation!
Tomorrow it looks as if the football gods do have a sense of humour as we see Germany play Greece in the second quarter final. It remains to be seen if the Greeks will have the Drachma reinstated come Saturday morning.
Until then...
Dj
20/06/12 02:56
IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ THIS MESSAGE
Thank you for taking part in Footcall 2012, we really hope you have enjoyed it so far no matter how your predictions have gone.
That is only the first half of the tournament completed, now you have the chance to consolidate your position if you are flying high at the top of the table or maybe you can score some valuable points and streak up the league into contention as we enter the make or break part of the competition, the Knockout Stages.
When you login, you will find a new link called MAKE KO PREDICTIONS where you will be presented with a table of the remaining teams left in the competition. Simply click on each team you think will progress to the next match until you have completed every game. You will be asked to confirm your predictions or start over if you would like to have another go. We do not require the scores for these matches, just the winners unless, of course, you are going for the Vuvuzela* award (see note below).
You will be emailed a confirmation of your predictions, although this won't happen immediately as my friend, colleague and Footcall website coder, Spencer Collins along with his wife Dominique, are celebrating the birth of their new born baby girl who wasn't due until three weeks from now but decided to arrive somewhat early. This has meant some of the site functionality will be up and running later in the week and I'd like to take this opportunity to wish Spencer, Domi and their little girl our warmest congratulations. I wonder if they might call her middle name, Footcall?
Please make the time to complete this stage as I would like to remind everyone that in 2008, Alex Stoater correctly predicted every winner in the Knockout Stages and leapfrogged loads of players to collect the top prize. Don't forget the winner stands to collect 320 quid for their efforts at the end of Euro 2012 and it could well be you!
The deadline for the Knockout Stages entry is 1pm on Thursday (yes, this Thursday) so you only have 36 hours to get them done, don't blame me, blame UEFA! Failure to complete the KO Stages form on time will mean you won't score any further points in Footcall 2012 and you MUST complete this stage to be able to qualify for the Vuvuzela* award. If you have any problems with your entry then please get in touch via the Contact page on the website.
Good luck everyone!
David
* You might think you have little hope of catching the leaders and so you may want to focus on the other end of the league. Last place picks up the infamous Vuvuzela award (and a nice confectionary accompaniment) for coming bottom of the heap. Simon Jenner claimed this prize in 2010 and seems to be a specialist in this field as there is again at this half way stage. You'll have to choose all the teams you think will LOSE their matches in Euro 2012... and then keep your fingers crossed!
20/06/12 01:55
Footcall 2012 Day 12...
We did it... England are through to the Knockout Stages, surely we're gonna win the cup? My apologies to those of you playing who are (a) Not English or (b) Don't share my enthusiasm for our chances of success. Either way, the fact remains that England did top the group with their one nil victory over Ukraine but what was perhaps more of a surprise was that France lost 2-0 to Sweden which gifted us a Quarter Final match against Italy rather than Spain.
The England game was indeed classic England. Before the match everyone was tense, nervous and ready to kick ar*e, and that was just the Messrs Chiles, Carragher, Southgate and Keane. All we needed was a draw, surely we could just keep it tight for 94 minutes and we'd be home and hosed? Well not England, we like to do it the hard way! Suddenly we lost the ability to keep the effing ball, surely the boot boy must have put out 22 left boots cos it looked dreadfully uncomfortable out there. Rooney was back with his trademark aggressive style? Clang! Nope even he looked terrified of picking up another card and so we looked like we were playing in to the Ukrainian hands affording them time on the ball and potshots at poor old Joe Hart. Rooney did miss a golden opportunity to head England in front but didn't jump high enough and put it over the bar. Goalless at half time there was a strong sense that maybe Sydsupersoccerstars would be on for some points tonight but soon after the break!
Fortunately one man seemed to understand our plight, no I'm not talking about manager Wroy (although he's doing a pretty good job so far) it was Cap'n Gerrard. Yep Jamie's mate was out there winning the tackles and disrupting the the Ukraine defence and it was Stevieee's attrition that carved out our best chances and in the 48th minute, Gerrard swung in a ball which was fumbled by the keeper right into the path of Rooney and this time his head managed to guide it into the net. Now we had the lead, all we had to do was keep it. Minutes later, Devic managed to evade John Terry's defence and lob Joe Hart to send the ball towards the gaping net. But Devic hadn't banked on Mr Terry getting back up Terminator style to rush back and clear the ball off the line with a desperate swing of his boot. Was it over the line? The referee said no, the linesman said no and the mysterious new touch line assistant (specifically drafted in to look for balls crossing the line) said no! WTF? The instant replay told is it was comfortably over! Why do UEFA and FIFA refuse to implement the technology? You only have to ask any Spurs fan how important it is to have it. There was a rumour that Devic was offside but this certainly wasn't the case. At least this refereeing oversight has balanced out Lampard's goal that wasn't given in Footcall 2010. The game did become a little more open and Smashley Cole had a good effort well saved to be denied his first ever goal in an England shirt. And so it finished one nil to the Eng-er-land and then the news came in that Sweden had doubled their lead against the French after Larsson picked up a deflected bounce off the bar and powered the ball into the roof of the net. This was all nugatory as Sweden were going home no matter what the score but I'm sure Ibrahimovich was well happy with his peachy volley that put his country in front for what must be one of the contenders of goal of the tournament. So France lost two nil, surely nobody predicted that scoreline... or did they?
And so to the Footcall league...
That's it for the Group Stages it's all over for part one of Footcall 2012 and would you believe it, we have a three way tie at the top all with 26 points and all with 6 accurate scores! So Manoj Gupta, Chris and Nick Kotsonis and Steve Goodwin all share the £120 prize money for the top three places. That's 40 quid each and yes, Chris and Nick that is sterling I'm afraid, you'll have to get the best exchange rate you can :-) Close up behind them is Matthew Green claiming £20 who put on a blistering run in the past few days to move into fourth with 25pts and 6 red squares. Finally Paul (Footcall's Mr Consistency) Firmston and 4½ year old Nathaniel Ridley both share the final tenner (that's £5 each) as they both scored 25pts with 5 three pointers, that's more than a pound for every year of Nathaniel's life, I'm sure his dad, James, will put that into a trust fund for him!
Sadly Dan (I can't get enough of this Footcall lark) Schroeck just missed out on a money spot finishing in 7th but Jon (now I'm in contention) Hill raced into 8th with a correct answer tonight. Other correct players include, Nick (Colin? Where are you?) Singleton, Dave (I'm looking but I don't see Les) Herbert, James (I have a fiver) Ridley, buddies Tat Wah and Richard Goodwin, the elusive Angus McPheep, Lucy (only one point after 7 games) Ginger and Colin (here I am Nick you cheeky Footcaller) Jessop also did well. Finley (I'm only three months old) Cowland, Sam (check me out on page one) Ford, Simon (it's not about the winning) Clark and Jill (it never crossed the line!) Fuller all cemented their place on the top page after the Group stages. Alan Church, Nick (it's not been my year so far) Stacey, Kim (I'm sure Graham was around here somewhere) GIlbert, Rennies (Leanne and Lyn), Mick (let's not talk about my position) Mallion, Deano Smith and Paul (how many people do you know called Max) Wakefield all picked up red squares. Neil (strike a light) Larkin was given Norfolk n Chance a week ago but now is up to 91st! Harry Hitch has smashed into the top 100 and Peter Mulvey has edged away from the bottom to leave poor old Simon Jenner rooted to the foot of the table yet again, the question is, can he stay there and claim the vuvu?
But man of the day has to be Dan (better late than never!) Mackenzie who was the only player to score a perfect 6 today even guessing Sweden to win two nil (along with Neil Larkin) it was an impressive haul from Dan who shoots up into 92nd now just a point behind Joanna. But we are still only half way folks!
The following email is your reminder to now go and complete your Knockout Stages form, where there are a massive 24 points available. You have until 1pm on Thursday afternoon to complete your KO form, just login on the home page and click the Make KO Predictions link.
Good luck!
Dj
19/06/12 02:55
Footcall 2012 Day 11...
Yet more decisive matches this evening as protagonists of Group C slug it out for qualification. We could only hope for games as good as the Group B deciders but it was somewhat slower to start. Division leaders, Spain took on Croatia whilst the Italians went head to head with the Irish. For those of you who aren't aware Sydssupersoccerstars have predicted a goalless draw for every single game and at the kick off for every match, Simon starts with a perfect 6 and then he would see them whipped from under him. From the start of tonight's matches it looked as if he might have been on the money. However my young brother was thwarted yet again as Italy took the lead from a Cassano header. Back over to the Spanish duel or should we call it a stalemate. Come on teams, don't you know anyone of one you could be going home with Ireland?
Half time came and went leaving us desperately needing a goal to spark it into life. Early in the second half saw Croatia with best chance blown as Rakitic just needed to head a perfect cross down and they would the boys in charge, sadly however it went straight into the keepers outstretched arms. Snr Torres threatened to make a difference but eventually El Nino was subbed for Jesus Navas and in the 88th minute Fabregas chipped the oncoming defence to put Iniesta in on goal and more importantly, onside. Unselfishly he squared the ball to Navas who powered the ball in from a yard out with enough venom to split the net. Bosque looked relieved and Bilic put his head in his hands. The writing was on the wall for the Croats and the 58th showing of the As It Stands league confirmed it!
As the Spaniards celebrated, news came in of another goal from the other match. Was it an equaliser from Ireland? Was this a lifeline for Croatia? The crazy UEFA directive where a division was decided by the result of who played who, if more than one team finished on equal points, seemed unfair from some angles but it kept the viewers bemused as Simon Brotherton tried to explain that level teams might have to come back the following day for another 18 holes with a best of three game of beer pong decider! To avoid all that nonsense, it was Italy who'd scored again... and what a goal it was. A screaming diving volley met with precision fro Balotelli who connected beautifully... schweeeeeet! He clearly had something to say as he gestured provocatively to the Italian bench but was restrained by a well meaning Bonucci and probably preserved Mario's chances of playing again in the tournament. And so it was cast, Spain and Italy qualify which was probably expected but it was by no means a certainty.
And so to the Footcall league...
Yet another good day for Chris and Nick as they join Manoj and Steve Goodwin right at the top. Matt Green and Paul Firmston are right up there as well. Dan Shroeck did well as did Simon Dudson and Oliver Whitfield, Steve (check me out up the top) Cowland and Darren (lol) Alldritt also made big strides. Jamie and Ian, Gary Thorp, James (I'm catching you now Nathaniel) Ridley, Chris Amos, Lyn Rennie and Tat Wah all gathering vital reds. Nick Rowland (where did he come from), Steve Russell, Nick Simmonds and Adam Botting scored well along with Adam (watch me go now lads) Jones, Stephen Hills, Rick Wilkinson and Simon (watch me pass Gavin on the way up) Clark, Emma (I'm on fire) Wakefield, Richard (this is the life) Caine, Nick D'Avanzo and Mark Horner all scoring three pointers.
Special mention should go to Esther Eatwell who has had three red squares in a row and is now in the top 10. Neil Jefferis scored a perfect 6 and so did Grant (face it Sean you know nothing about football) Broad who has done well today. But I'm going to give maximum credit to Paul (Hannah, you owe me a tenner) Wakefield, Clare (I'm still hanging in there) Hawkins and someone called David (insert your own caption here) Jenner all correctly predicted Italy to win 2-0 tonight and picked up their first three points of Footcall 2012, OMG whatever next, page two of the league table? Hmmm, that might be stretching it a bit!
Tomorrow sees the final showdown for the group stages and the boy Rooney has had two games to work on his new quiff and we'll be ready to show the Ukrainians just how it's done!
Until then...
Dj
18/06/12 01:54
Footcall 2012 Day 10...
The group of death, Group B, was to be decided this evening and we saw ITV1 and ITV4, I'm sure they put re-runs of Poirot and TOWIE on hold to schedule this. Tournament favourites Germany took on Denmark whilst the Portuguese played the Dutch on t'other side. The Germans set their stall out early as they carved the Danes open led by midfield general, Khedira. And Thomas Mueller had a point blank effort saved early on. But it was one of the stars of World Cup 10, Lukas Podolski powered them into the lead in the 19th minute. Fair play to Denmark they pushed for an equaliser and were rewarded as Krohn-Delhi headed in from 7 yards out. The "As It Stands" league kept popping up to show who was going through as any one of the other three could join the Germans in the Knockouts. In the second half the great Danes had a great shout for a penalty turned down for shirt pulling by Nicklas Bendtner but soon after it went similarly named Lars Bender who covered all of 60 yards to hook up with a loose ball in Denmark's box and passed it neatly in the bottom left corner. The last ten minutes were played out and the Danish dreams dashed. So Germany kick Greece out of the Euro on Monday and Greece kicks Germany out of the Euros on Friday? That's the script, right?
Over in the other match the Netherlands or Portugal needed a result to give themselves a chance of promotion. Holland for once looked moderately sharp and we watched to see if they would play like the class act we know they are. Eleven minutes in and they didn't disappoint, Van der Vaart curling the ball beautifully into the left hand side of the goal, the fans in orange went berserk! The thing about Holland in Euro 2012 is that you never get the impression they will keep hold of their lead, nor in fact do they look that bothered. The game was end to end and you'd be forgiven for thinking you were watching the final 20 minutes not the first and soon enough the Portuguese pressure paid off as Captain Cristiano Ronaldo drew his country level with a lovely goal. This lit the blue touch paper for Portugal and suddenly it looked like a one horse race. The second half was pretty much one way traffic and the start of the show was the scintillating number 7. However Nani scuppered a chance that my Nan could have put away and the Dutch weren't out of it just yet. Ronaldo was the man to put the game to bed as wrong footed half the defence and pinpointed the ball in the left corner, surely there was no way back for Holland now? VdV could have doubled his tally and Cristiano could have made it a hat-trick but both were denied by the uprights. So it finished 2-1 to Portugal which saw them through with Germany to KO stages. Holland, to be frank, were poor and I bet they wished they had Frank (Rijkaard) or maybe they could have adopted David Nalbandian in the team at least they would have a bit more passion in the side!
And so to the Footcall league...
Nathaniel's lead is narrowed as Manoj and Steve Goodwin move up into second. We have a ManOnAMission (Matt Green) bounding up the table with a double three today. We have to trust JT to do the business and those Seagulls won't go away both collecting valuable points. David Frost, Lyn Rennie, Julia Virco, Jack Wakefield and Iain Baker all played a blinder today. Esther Eatwell collected her third three, and the Mackenzie Dream is still alive for Jo. Tim Amos who gave everyone a head start by kicking off with 7 zeros is now up into 43rd! Gavin Day, Leigh Boardman and the coalition of Marshall and Pope are up onto page one of the leaderboard. Tracey Beattie racing up the charts, and Rowlands (Rachel and Nick) picking up very rare red squares. Rick Wilkinson, Dean Smith, (yet another for) Emma Wakefield do well today and finally Richard (Carl you're in my sights) Ellis and Greg (I'm catching you now Alan) Church both managed to get their first correct predictions. I'd like to give credit here to Carol Gerrard who has been unbelievably consistent accumulating 13 admirable points but not one three amongst em, we still have four points to play for so let's see what comes of it.
My special mention goes to Rob (RTS) Smith who scored a perfect six to move into ninth and honours of the day must go to Neil Larkin who was languishing in 138th position with just three points also had back to back reds today to race into 119th! Poor old Neil had a run of 11 straight zeros but must be looking at the league in a completely different light now.
Spain and Italy finish their matches tomorrow.
Dj
17/06/12 01:12
Footcall 2012 Day 9...
Today was D-Day for Group A as Poland took on Czech Republic whilst at the same time (to prevent any match fixing) Greece played Group favourites Russia. The Poles were dancing with joy after squeezing a draw out of their last game but needed a result this evening to qualify for the Knockout Stages. That script could have been written for any of these four teams and that's what made it so exciting. Russia, you would have thought, were nailed on certainties for promotion especially from what we've seen of them in earlier games and they were playing the Greeks who weren't really given a hope on past performances. However the Republic weren't ready to Czech out just yet either. After a first half dominated by the Poles where they must have wished there were goals awarded for hitting the side netting it finished evenly poised for a tense second 45 minutes.
Quick! Over to the other match for an update... the remote worked overtime flicking from Beeb1 to Beeb3 (I always wondered whether there would ever anything other than Family Guy worth watching on that channel) the first half of the Greece Russia game was also drawing to a goalless closure. But in the second minute of extra time in the first half, seasoned veteran, Giorgos Karagounis, playing a record 120th game for his country slid the ball under the keeper as he came Russian out of his box! What a shock! Greece were in the lead and suddenly the qualification table turned on it's head.
Back to BBC1 for the start of the second half, and it was Petr Jiracek who has a passing resemblance to Kasabian's axe man, Serge, who managed to break the deadlock in the 72nd minute and put the Czechs one up against Poland. The home nation pushed for an equaliser but it was rapidly turning into a Polanski horror. Quick! back to BBC3... Karagounis side stepped the Russian defenders and broke into the box and was eventually brought down for a stonewall penalty! Surely this was Greece's chance to seal the deal? But no, referee Eriksson stunned as all as he booked the Greek for diving, which will mean him missing the next match... tragic! Mark Bright was apoplectic in the commentary box at the injustice he had to go for a walk round the car park to cool down.
Quick! The Czechs were holding their own, quick! Greece had a free kick. Russia built a wall (why? to make it even harder for the keeper to see the incoming ball), and Giorgos Tzavellas looped it over and slammed it against the upright, six inches left and it would have been two nil. Quick! the whistle blew in both games at similar times and the fortunes were cast as Czech Republic squeaked out qualification and the Greeks had done the unthinkable... queue over exuberant celebrations... surely they couldn't do it again? What is this... 2004?
And so to the Footcall league...
The Czechs winning one nil was popular with you lot. Keith Firmston knew it as did Oliver Whitfield, Barry (where has he come from?) Smith and the Pride of Wales, Mark Pedler and Adam Botting all picked up crucial points to improve their table position. Andy (please don't let me get another red square) Kirchell, David Blakeman, Tat Wah (has anyone seen Neil?) Liu and Iain (I'm gettin to like this game) Baker also collected threes. The mysterious Angus McPheep and Lucy (again) Ginger, Jill (I'm only doing this for Eleanor) Fuller, Dean Smith and the legend that is James Vallender all picked up reds. The Greece result was harder to come by but Jonny (the Yorkshire fortune teller) Hill guessed it and at one point when the other game was 0-0 Jon was up into 2nd. As it is he'll have to be content with 10th for the time being. Chris and Nick showed the faith and backed the Greeks to win and that sees them up into 13th, way to go guys! Maximum credit and a little red square goes to Sam (Hey, Russ I'm up here!) Ford, little Finley Cowland (how does he do it?) Tim Amos, and Mark Horner both scooped four points this evening.
But I'm gonna make players of the day, Jack and Emma Wakefield who have been living in the shadow of young Hannah's Footcall shadow for the past week and this is their moment to shine and for Emma this was her first three pointer of the competition. Her celebratory text at full time was simply... Yesssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Group B decided tomorrow.
Dj
16/06/12 01:44
Footcall 2012 Day 8...
First game up this afternoon was between France and Ukraine but barely four minutes into the match the ref was pulling em all off for what Soccer AM's Sheephead would have described as light drizzle! This was accompanied with some fork lightning which had knocked out some of the screens around the ground so maybe he had a point. On their return it was the French who took command and it was probably the Ukrainian keeper, Pyatov, who was the man of the match in the first half as he saved several opportunities for France to take the lead. Soon after the break the breakthrough came as Menez tucked one away with his left peg. From then it was one way traffic and eventually Cabaye doubled their lead and in the final minutes he belted the post before the game finished 2-0 to France.
Then off to the showcase event of the evening, England's second game, this time against Sweden. Our record against the Swedes has never been great but our band merry men were willing to give it a go. A lot has been made of England's lack of experience, Rio being left at home, Rooney on the bench, Lampard and Cahill injured, if it all went t*ts up at least we had our pick of the excuses lined up! But we weren't gonna need em, were we? We still Capt'n Stevieee and Colonel Parker shoring up the midfield whilst Privates Carroll and Wellbeck created havoc up front. The first half was typically frantic but it was Gerrard who looped in a gem of a cross that met the rising head of Andy Carroll as he steered the ball right into the bottom corner of the net ably assisted by Manager Hodgson on the touch line simulating the header. Wallop! England in front and looking good, we even managed to hold on to the slender advantage whilst we went back to the studio to a beaming Gary Linekar and Alans Shearer and Hansen.
On the return we started in typical form to sit back on our lead, only to see the ball ping about in our box before Mellberg sent it goal-ward just to see Glen Johnson stop it from going in the net but then deciding there was nothing he could do to prevent momentum carrying it over the line. Damn it... one all. Ten minutes later that man Mellberg (who looks uncannily like Robinson Crusoe) headed in the Swedish second from free kick. Now we were rocking and it was looking tough, as we all knew a draw was bad news but a defeat disastrous. Going behind somehow woke England up and with a chance at the other end the boy Walcott (some fans questioned why he was in the squad) lifted the ball above all the Swedish defence and into the roof of their goal. Game on! As Hodgson nervously looked on, we pushed for a winner and young Theo ran to the line dragging defenders with him as he cut it back to Danny Wellbeck who magically flicked it off the inside of his heel past the wrong footed keeper. We weren't content there as we pressed for a fourth and Walcott's pace saw him take the ball into the box and cross it for Stevieee to guide it in but this time Isaksson thwarted his effort and it remained 3-2. Blinding effort lads!
And so to the Footcall league...
Two nil to France was a very popular choice and it saw Nathan Ridley move topside all on his own. Rob Pearson, Dan Shroeck, Stephen Read, Shane Barden, Steve Cowland and Spencer Collins all netted perfect threes. Looking at others who also picked up red squares include Lucy Ginger, Adam Jones, Andy (I'm new to this game) Kirchell, Eddie Bojtler, Ryan Smith and Leigh Boardman. Others include Lee Albrecht, Rob Smith and yet another for Jo Mackenzie. Patrick Ferguson, Barry Smith, George Relf and Nick (do you want chilli sauce with that?) Simmonds, Lyn Rennie not forgetting, Neil White (OMG again?), along with Colin Jessop, James Jones, Steve Russell and I'm gonna give special mention to Nick Rowland and Harry Hitch who, after indifferent starts, collected their first red today and they certainly deserved it!
But best call of the tournament so far must go to Maxine Coupland, as she the only Footcaller to predict England to win 3-2... and it was her first three to boot!
Tomorrow sees the final games of Group A.
Until then...
Dj
15/06/12 02:47
Footcall 2012 Day 7...
Week one of Euro 2012 draws to a close and saw Italy play Croatia in their second games of Group C. Italy would have been favourites for this but they really didn't set the world alight in their first game against Spain. After a couple of speculative Balotelli shots early on, Andrea Pirlo dispatched a beauty of a free kick over the Croatian wall and into the bottom left corner of the goal proving (once again) that without the wall, the keeper would have (IMO) stood a better chance of saving it (*puts soapbox away). However the Croats didn't drop their heads and after the break Mario Manduzukic sneaked in at the far stick to beat the offside trap and smash in their equaliser off the post. Both teams saw out time and it finished 1-1.
The evening game was the do or die match for the Republic of Ireland as they took on the current World Cup and Euro holders, Spain. Despite a promising start for the Irish they were quite frankly out classed. The quality of the first touch by the Spanish was evident as after three or four minutes they were the ones making the chances. And it was Fernando Torres who jinked his way past the hapless defence to blast the Adidas Tango right between Shay Given's gloves. From then on it was pretty much one way traffic. After half time David Silva seemed to nutmeg half the Irish centre-backs to put the game out of sight. Late on Torres went one on one and made it three, and this is where Christine and I wanted it to stay as we were both on for our first three pointer! Then just to rub salt in our Footcall wounds Cesc Fabregas who had come on for Torres bobbed up in the six yard area to hammer in the Spanish fourth and the final nail :-( Well at least we get a point! One thing we can award Ireland is the award for most in-tune fans; despite what Roy Keane might say, they love a sing-song the Irish!
And so to the Footcall league...
We have a new leader! Manoj Gupta joins young Nathaniel Ridley top-o-table. Nick Singleton, Simon Dudson, Matthew Green, Jon (Don't be like Dave) Hill, Andy Brunt, Eddie Bojtler Jnr, Chris and Nick Kotsonis, Graham Weaver and Paresh Tailor all got threes today for the first game. We should mention Joanna (look further down the table for Dan) Mackenzie picked up her second red square and Lyn "Loves Footcall" Rennie got his very first correct answer. As did Barry Smith, Peter Short and Peter Nilsen, well done guys!
Game two offered up a few threes to Johnny (you can trust me) Trent, Gary Thorp, Chris Amos, Dave Herbert and yet another for (Bobby) Dazzler Alldritt, steady fella, you're gettin' dangerously close to the leaders! Buckin Fonkers Utd (David Frost) can Fear and Midloathing (Angus McPheep) collected their first red squares since day one, you deserve it guys. Whilst hardened Footcallers Neil (Ytee) White and Peter (Millwall) Mulvey were rewarded for all their patience with their first one of the competition, I'm sure they would both like to thank Mr Fabregas for that late goal!
But it's Craig Amos and Matt Clark who take top honours today for their perfect 6 and both players now feature in the top 10. It's a short way to the top but a long back down again chaps!
Tomorrow sees the return of England as we go head-to-head with the Swedes!
Dj
14/06/12 01:53
Footcall 2012 Day 6...
Here we go again with another couple of matches to determine the success or failure of the Footcallers dreams. First up was Denmark against Portugal in Group B. We really haven't had a dull game in the tournament yet and this one didn't disappoint either, possibly the best so far. Portugal, having lost to germany, really needed a victory and they started well powered in a near post header. I was updating the Footcall league table at this point to see it dynamically change everyone's positions as they bobbed up and down the table as the goals went in. The only thing was I missed the Portuguese second goal by Postiga as I was dealing with my courier! On my return, Denmark scored what I thought was the equaliser so I updated the table accordingly only to receive several text messages telling me I'd got it wrong! Realising my error I corrected it and thanked those eagle-eyed viewers, at least this proves some people are interested enough to follow their Footcall fortunes live :-) And so it finished the first half with Portugal one ahead. The exciting open attacking game continued well in the second half as poor old Cristiano Ronaldo pi**ed away two golden opportunities as he went one on one with the keeper, the Brazilian Ronaldo certainly wouldn't squandered such chances in his hay day! Then that many Bendtner nutted in his second goal to bring the Danes level again. Now the tension rose as we entered the last ten minutes but Silvestre Varela sealed the match for Portugal after bumbling his first swing at the ball he then powered it in the corner of the Danish net! That 3-2 win for Portugal makes the group wide open with much to play for in their final games.
The other match in Group B saw the resolute Germans take on the flair boys of the Netherlands in the Metalist Stadium. Van Persie missed a good chance to take the lead but it was Mario Gomez the German number 23 who hooked a through ball into the left hand corner of the Dutch net. Just 14 minutes later he did it again, connecting with Schweinsteiger's perfectly weighted pass and he banged in the top left corner of the goal a la Michael Owen (18) in 1998. The Germans were bossing this game and Holland looked all at sea. In the second half Holland did spark to life when Van Persie broke into the edge of the German box and smashed in peach of a goal to bring the game to life. Suddenly there were orange shirts everywhere as they pushed for the equaliser. But the Germans are masters at running down the clock and they didn't panic as kept the Dutch at arms length for the remaining few minutes. Another three points for Germany and now three goals for Gomez in the back pocket, surely a contender for the golden boot?
And so to the Footcall league...
There were a load of one pointers but would you believe only two people got Germany to win 2-1 and I'm gonna give special credit to my mate Sean Broad and his team HodgSpurs who must be crushed at the news of Harry leaving Tottenham but can take some comfort for his first red square of his Footcall campaign, he now has girlfriend, Leanne Maloney in his sights! Don't worry Sean, rumour has it Harry will get a tasty £3m when he leaves Spurs and after tax, that's £3m ;-)
The second match brought more joy for the Footcallers, Manoj Gupta picked up another three to cruise into third place, Dan (the man) Schroeck and Johnny JT Trent also move further into contention. Oliver Whitfield, Stuart Acott, Gary Thorp, Stephen (I've left me bus running) Hills, Simon (where's Julia now?) Dudson and Darren (not again?) Alldritt all gathered valuable reds to do their league position no harm at all. Matt (or is it Mat?) Green and Tracey (Fancy Nancy) Beattie picked up threes but only one man scored a perfect 6 today, it's the salad man, James Ridley who rockets into 15th place with his first exact predictions of the tournament. For those of you wondering, his team name is a Gavin and Stacey reference.
Let's see how the Irish get on against Spain tomorrow.
Until then...
Dj
13/06/12 00:52
Footcall 2012 Day 5...
So here we go with the second games for Group A which saw Czech Republic take on Greece in the early game. Whistle... goal! Restart... goal! before we had time to get comfy and the Czechs had carved open the indifferent Greek defence and opened up a two goal lead within six minutes. The first from Jiracek latching on to a through ball and just three minutes later Pilar bundled it in from a couple of yards out. Not for the first time in this tournament, the Greeks were in disarray and they were defending somewhat like Nick Rowland on FIFA12 :-) But they are nothing but dogged and before half time they had a goal disallowed for offside and they were showing signs of a come back. After the break they did come back and all thanks to a rare slip from Petr Cech as he mis-handled the ball on the edge of the box to gift an opportunity for Gekas to pull one back for Greece. I'm sure even the legendary David 'Calamity' James would have winced at that one!
Despite this keeper cock up, the Czechs did manage to hang on for victory and have given themselves a good chance of qualification whilst this leaves the Greeks in a state of desperation, they are a far cry from the team that one this tournament in 2004, has anyone got Angelos Charisteas' phone number? The Czechs have gotten stronger and will need a result against Poland to seal promotion. Cech, Czech, Cheque, Check one, two... it sounds just like a Diamond D rap!
And off to game number two... the host nation Poland took on dark horses, Russia in Warsaw. The home team looked to have a few chances early doors and were denied a Polanski goal for offside which was a real shame. It was an open game with chances at both ends and but it was that man again, Dzagoev who popped up to head home a Russian free kick and take them one ahead into half time. When it resumed the entertainment never let up and we were treated to what is without doubt the goal of the tournament so far as Blaszczykowski (what's that worth in a game of Scrabble?) weaved past a couple of defenders as he went Russian at the opposition's defence and slammed it in the corner of the net beyond the outstretched fingers of Malafeev... what a beauty! More chances came and went but it finished 1-1 leaving the group wide open for three of the four within Group A.
And so to the Footcall league...
Oooh lots of threes! Dan Wilks strides up into the top ten whilst Andy Booth, Rob Smith, Dave (don't tell Les) Herbert and Aaron Sutcliffe all pick up vital red squares to move up the table. I should also give credit to Richard Caine for getting his first three, surely this day must on a par with City winning the Premiership? Mark Horner must be getting giddy with his 56th position and Nick (great team name, not quite so good team predictions) Simmonds goth is first three as too did Leanne Rennie, Andrew Green and Esther Eatwell. Me ol badders mate Dazzer Alldritt also picked up his first one of the campaign as he bursts through into 95th position!
The second game also brought a hatful of reds. Paul Firmston takes over the top spot with his 1-1 prediction. Stephen Read, Mark Pedler plus Alex and Alan "We are the Park Lane" Church scoop up critical points for position. Gary Thorp, Rick Wilkinson and our European connection Pavol Malenky pick up threes, well done Pavol I knew your patience would pay off. Joanna Mackenzie, Lee Albrecht, Ryan Smith and Eddie Bojtler (the younger) also collect red squares.
And so to the doubles of the day... Steve Goodwin races into second place, Nick Singleton, David (just where is Harry?) Hitch, Carl Fandango Andrews, Manoj Gupta, Shane Barden, David Blakeman and (Slip) Matt Clark all have back to back three pointers.
But it's Tim Jennings who has an amazing three in three and those 9 points have propelled him into 5th, let's see how he gets on with his prediction for the Denmark Portugal game.
Until the next time.
Dj
12/06/12 01:10
Footcall 2012 Day 4...
Finally we see England enter stage left and we're taking on our near neighbours the French. What were we expecting? It's over to Stevie Geeeeeee in the pre-match press conference, it's hot (check), we're unfamiliar with the new ball (check), we're confident of a good performance (check), it's a game of two halves (check), we've got a double-decker bus we can park in front of the goal if we need to (check) :-)
Some of us may have snuck off work for the early kick off and from the whistle England didn't look too shabby. They looked solid at the back, commanded the midfield, and Oxlade-Chamberlain ran at them opening up a lovely opportunity for James Milner to round the keeper only for him to hit the side netting. This was all positive stuff and our pressure paid off when in the 30th minute Captain Gerrard swung in a cross from a free kick right onto Joleon Lescott's face! The deflection made the net bulge, queue Ian Wright's celebrations! Then England started show signs of playing like England defending deep and not venturing too far forward. We weren't playing negatively just cagey. Sadly however it caught us out as Samir Nasri (Lescott's colleague at City) carved a shot through the England defence just out of Joe Hart's (Nasri's colleague at City) reach, one all.
Half time came and we were subjected to some indecipherable analysis from Stevie's bezzie mate, Jamie Carragher leaving viewers desperately trying find the subtitles button on the remote! The second half was somewhat slowed paced than the first (don't forget how hot it is out there) a few chances came and went for both sides testing both keepers but full time came round and it finished one a piece. Post match interviews were riddled with cliches about how we have plenty to be satisfied with and we're not out of it yet, it's a marathon not a sprint blah, blah, blah... OK, OK, we get the picture, you really don't have to tell Footcallers about the long road. Thankfully on thing that was missing from the match was the England Supporters club with their never ending rendition of the Great Escape Theme!
The evening match saw joint hosts Ukraine take on Sweden in Kiev. The result of this could have a bearing on England's placement in Group D. The stadium was adorned in yellow and blue as both teams national colours were pretty much identical. This was a much more open game than the earlier one and it had goals written all over it. It was end to end and very surprisingly finished goalless at half time. That all changed after the break when Swedish legend, Zlatan Ibrahimovic deflected a cross to put the Swedes into the lead. The Footcall league turned upside down at this point and it was interesting to see the live updates to the players' positions as the goal was went in. But Sweden hadn't banked on the opposing team having a legend of their own, Andriy Shevchenko, and were certainly caught napping as he headed in a wonderful cross on the near post. Then just seven minutes later he put them in the lead after he picked the pocket of Imbrahimovic (what was he doing defending?) and headed in another to go 2-1 up. Quick whizz back to Zlatan down the other end and he powered a shot at the Ukranian goal which would have split the net but the keeper just happened to be in the right place at the right time. FInal whistle blew and the Olympic Stadium went crazy go nuts!
And so to the Footcall league...
England one all was a popular prediction and Mr Firmston scooped another three to push for the top. So did Paul's brother Keith, Dave Billington, David Bourne and Harry the B**tard Whitehouse all picking up a red square. Me ol mate, Iain Baker collected his first one (see Iain, I told you this would be fun) Leigh Boardman, Jamie Marshall, Gavin Day and finally Grant Broad rockets up the table with perfect predictions; hey Grant... they'll dancing in the streets of Bristol with that news!
Match number two was also a sea of red on the table. Young Hannah Wakefield back in the mix topside and Simon Clark got his first three after being Mr Consistent with a hatful of ones. Stu Are You Acott must also be relieved along with Stephen (and Sharon) Hills and the Rowland couple, James and Rachel who very suspiciously have identical score lines across all 8 matches so far, what on earth is going on there, this might be a job for the Footcall bods upstairs! Rob Smith and Tim Jennings picked up a couple of threes as too did Chris and Tim Amos who were both anchored to the bottom of the table, but in the words of Bob Hale... "Not for long!"
Special mention must go to Trish Bertram, I hope your twisted arm is better now you have your first three pointer; look at you cursing on to the first page. But stars of our show are Dan (I live in the USA don't you know) Schroeck and Rob (I love Footcall) Pearson who were the only players to score a perfect 6. Well done guys!
Right! I'm off to get myself a Lescott haircut!
Dj 11/06/12 02:34
Footcall 2012 Day 3...
Here we saw the big Spanish guns take on another big dog in the competition, Italy. This was set to be a match of verve and skill as we would be entertained by two of the favourites to potentially lift the trophy. Well it seemed that Spain played into Italy's plan and like a typical Apprentice task it certainly looked as if it was the Italians with the better "strategy". The first half was a cagey affair and desperately cried out for a goal and whilst Iniesta went close it was 0-0 at half time, great for me (and the GLW*) as that's what we had predicted. After the break, Super Mario Balotelli failed to impress was substituted for Di Natale who promptly tucked the ball into the Spaniards net. This opened the game a little more and three minutes later Barcelona (defender/midfielder/striker) Cesc Fabregas equalised! In the latter stages of the game Fernando Torres squandered two opportunities to seal the game and has probably knocked another 10m quid off his value! The game finished 1-1 and maybe both sides would have been happy or maybe not.
Game two saw an evening kick off between Ireland and Croatia and the Irish had vast vocal support many of whom were dressed as stereotypical Leprechauns! But the Croatians silenced them rather quickly as Mario Mandzukic headed past a wrong footed Shay Given within three minutes. However soon after, Sean St Ledger latched on to an Irish free kick and they were back in it. But the Croats were in full control and their dominance saw Jelavic put them ahead before the break... over to the studio and miserable looking Roy Keane! Pretty much normal service resumed after the return and they even advanced further, as that man Mandzukic got a second after he hit the post only to see it it ping back off Given's head and in the net leaving poor old Shay with white line paint covered all over his face like he'd just been busted at a cocaine party! Irish eyes were certainly not smiling when Robbie Keane had a good shout for a penalty turned down and it finally ended 3-1 to Croatia leaving it extremely tough for Ireland to qualify for the knockout stages.
And so to the Footcall league...
Nick Stacey forged up the top with seasoned Footcall campaigner Paul Firmston with three pointers for the first game. In fact there were quite a few red squares for this match including, Dan Wilks, Les Herbert (don't tell Dave), Steve Goodwin and Patrick Ferguson. I'm sure Kevin Appleton is delighted to get his title defence underway with a three along with Jill Fuller, Steve Cowland, Andy Kirshing Kirchell and Clive Catterall.
In the second match we saw far fewer exact score lines but Nathaniel Ridley nailed it and bang; he goes top! Other red square players include, Chris Read, Julia (just where is Simon?) Virco and James Parker, back from holiday to claim his first points of his campaign. But hey look... who's this creeping up the table? Leanne Maloney is showing consistent form with three ones and a three to move into 6th (I know just how much she is loving the Euros and Footcall 2012) whilst fellow division players the brothers Broad languish at the opposite end of the table!
Next up... ENG-ER-LAND!
Dj
*GLW - Good Lady Wife
10/06/12 02:28
Footcall 2012 Day 2...
Well here we are, day two of Euro 2012 and day two of Footcall VII. Hopefully you all received the email earlier regarding the new features of the Hall of Fame on the website along with the added dimension of the new divisions we have put you in to give you a more focused view of just a few fellow Footcall competitors. I've had one feedback message from one of our Scottish players regarding the names assigned to each division (being the England World Cup '66 winning squad) I can only apologise for this and I wish that player all the best for their success in this year's Footcall as I know that will be the only comfort for him at the end of the tournament :-)
And so to the matches...
The early kick off saw red hot favourites the Dutch take on outsiders Denmark. Despite having much of the possession, the Netherlands huffed and puffed without blowing the door down only to see Michael Krohn-Dehli take a rather surprising lead for the Danes. He latched on to stray ball in the Dutch box, rounded the desperate defender and nutmegged the keeper. Not too sure this was his intention but it was effective none-the-less! Now came 65 more minutes of the Dutch pushing for an equaliser but to no avail. Sneijder, Van Persie and Robben all had their chances, even hitting the woodwork at one point but sadly no goal came and Denmark have caused what must be one of the biggest upsets in the tournament already.
Of course 99.99% of Footcallers had their faith in the Orange army and only three (yes three) players had Denmark to win so Simon Clark, Leanne Maloney and Chris Read took any points from this match. Well done guys, those points picked up where nobody else scores are quite valuable at the end of the day. As for the rest of us, we can only hope Holland pull their socks up as the general consensus has a lot of backing behind their results.
The evening match saw the star studded Germans take on Portugal who really only have Ronaldo to orchestrate their attack. The Portuguese looked as if they were parking the bus with 10 men behind the ball soaking up the German onslaught. Fair play to Germany they took the fight to them by spreading it wide and eventually carving out an opportunity for Mario Gomez to tuck one away. Maybe this would open the floodgates but the opportunities came and went with the Portuguese hitting the underside of the bar then down off the line a-la England 1966 the only difference was there was no Russian linesman to award this one and this time round the Germans got away with it (the fact was the ball never crossed the line anyway). Gomez had another chance to put the game out of site but Portugal rode it out. Finally the whistle blew and it remained 1-0 to Germany.
Well despite many of us having Germany to win, only 9 players predicted a one nil scoreline. The perfect threes include William Relf, Steve Russell, Mark "the tweet" Pedler, me ol mucker Matt Green and Mick Mallion strides into the top 20. Richard Goodwin also picks up a red square along with new boy Tat-Wah and they are pushing into the top 10. But two players stand aloft the Footcall table, Nathaniel Ridley and Spencer "I can't believe it" Collins (he really can't believe it it). Let's see if they can consolidate their positions tomorrow.
That'll do for now, it's been a long day!
Dj
09/06/12 01:50
So we are off and running... Footcall 2012 rumbles into town for the 7th time!
Not only are we here again for another lap round the Footcall circuit, but we're back bigger and better with a new website (big shout out to my buddy Spencer for his work behind the scenes) and an amazing record entry field. Our target of 113 from 2010 was looking a real challenge to surpass especially when the list was knocking about the 60 runners mark at the start of the week. Well we smashed the back doors in of the previous record and pulled in an unbelievable 138. Many thanks to all the returning Footcall veterans and a warm welcome to those whose arm I twisted to give it a go for the first time, I promise to do my best to keep you entertained over the next four weeks whilst the results determine the fortunes (and misfortunes) for you all. You noobs had better get used to content of these postings… it's a fur-lined, ocean-going, pun-tastic, no-holes-barred, cliché city!
So the Champion returns; Mr Kevin Appleton was in fact one of the early entries, obviously very keen to defend his Footcall crown. I'm sure there will be seasoned campaigners prepared to take him down a few pegs. One of whom will be double winner Mick Mallion (Kevin's colleague) who very nearly missed the entry deadline this time round. Plenty of new names ready to give it a go and I shall do my best to mention you all, especially if you do well. However I might need your help to give me some banter ammunition especially for those taking part that I don't know. Get in touch via the CONTACT PAGE with any correspondence. Don't forget we have a FACEBOOK GROUP which you are all welcome to join. For all of you prepared to offer fellow Footcallers a bit gentle ribbing on the Facebook Wall, don't forget we do have some young kids taking part… I'll leave Michel Platini to any heavier handed threats ;-)
And so to the league table…
The opening game of Euro 2012 was contested by hosts, Poland and cash strapped Greece! Rumour was Stavros Flatly had a whip round to see if they could get €60bn down as a win bonus accumulator on with Paddy Power for every goal they scored. It might just bail them out of the proverbial, failing that they would buy half a dozen Euro Millions tickets for the big payout! Well the Poles took charge of this game right from the off and looked in command as they carved the Greek defence wide open and Lewandowski caught their keeper flapping to go 1-0 up. Then the fireworks happened, Papastathopoulos received two bookings for nothing challenges and was promptly sent off putting all the pressure on Greece. Poland squandered a chance to go two nil and then suddenly Greece made a break through and got a surprising equaliser. Then soon after Poland were also down to 10 men as the Arsenal keeper Szczesny made a rash challenge and received a straight red! The sub keeper came on and then saved Karagounis' penalty. Phew what a half… I'm sure the Greek manager would have been smashing the tea cups and saucers at half time in the dressing room! The second half arrived and then promptly went again with barely a highlight to mention, clearly this was a game of ONE half :-) So it finished 1-1 and there were a quite a number of Footcallers to predict this scoreline, in fact 21 in all. Chris and Nick Kotsonis were the notable ones here mainly because Nick's family are Greek but he wasn't quite patriotic enough to pick them to win, good job too. Nathaniel Ridley, Nick Stacey and Spencer (no bribes taken) Collins, along with Simon Dudson and Kim Gilbert all picked it to be one all. Brother and sister, Jack and Hannah Wakefield also pulled in a valuable three pointer.
Game two of day one saw Russia take on Czech Republic. It was clear that the Russians were the class act here as they dominated the game as they took an early lead from Dzagoev after the post saved the Czechs. They followed it up with another before half time from Shirokov. Pilar did well to round the Russian keeper to get the Czechs back in it but it was that man Dzagoev again to power it past Petr Cech and Pavlyuchenko sealed a convincing win for the Russian dark horses. Bad day for the Chelsea keeper, I suspect the Champions League final is a distant memory now :-) The Footcall league was bouncing around as the players went up and down with each goal going in. John Trent took the top spot alone for a moment then to be followed by David Kilbey and then Hannah Wakefield all momentarily had 6 points in the bag. As the fourth goal was scored for Russia the table equalised and left twelve people top-o-table with four points including Robert McNamara, Joff Funnell and Tony Gardner.
Let's see what day two brings. I'll tell you, Netherlands v Denmark and Germany v Portugal. Should be a good day, so sit back and enjoy the biggest football tournament in the world and let's see how far your predictions take you.
Stay tuned folks and happy Footcalling!
David Jenner
25/05/12 01:58
...and so is Footcall 2012
IF YOU'RE GOING TO BE WATCHING EURO 2012, YOU WILL WANT TO BE PART OF THIS FANTASTIC COMPETITION!
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Good luck everyone!
David Jenner