Keep Calm and Play Footcall...
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