Today will forever be known as Super Saturday!
05/08/14 02:51
Footcall VIII Day 4...
What truly unbelievably emotional, exhilarating, joyous, momentous, historic, incredible, heart-warming, tremendous day of British sporting achievement! For those of you who have enjoyed the events of day eight of the London Olympic Games, the fourth of August 2012 will live long in our memories. Wonderful gold medals for Jessica "T" Ennis, Greg "don't call me Mike" Rutherford and Mo "GoMoJo" Farah all lifted the spirit of the nation with amazing performances in the Olympic Stadium. Not forgetting our success in the rowing and in the velodrome, all in all an outstanding day... that is until it comes to British football.
After the despair of losing on penalties to Italy in Euro 2012, once again our hopes were dashed from 12 yards out as Korea overcame Team GB in a tense shootout. After Aaron Ramsey had equalised with a penalty, he was awarded another one which could have seen GBR edge in front and see out normal time the victors. Unfortunately for us the Korean keeper, saved this one and so the match finished one all after 120 minutes and for the second time within a month we were faced with the prospects of pinning the hopes of a nation on a few good men to convert from the spot. Well one thing to note was the quality of the kicking, almost all the penalties were taken with a great skill particularly from the Koreans who certainly looked confident right down the pecking order. Sadly it was Dean Sturridge who cracked under the pressure and his stuttered run up gave the man between the sticks, Lee Bumyoung, to second guess the direction and save. Then finally Sungyueng Ki, the Celtic midfielder, powered it into the top left corner. And from the successes earlier in the evening, the hearts of the GLW and me were broken again right there and then in the Barming branch of Pizza Go Go!
Previously on Super Saturday tournament favourites Brazil came from behind twice against Honduras and eventually triumphed 3-2 as they advanced into the semi finals to face Korea. Mexico had a fantastic match against Senegal which finished two each after the regulation 90 and it took another 30 minutes for the Mexicans to tuck away two more in extra time and win 4-2. The first game of the day saw Japan take the Egyptians to the cleaners with a comprehensive three nil win and they must be the dark horses of this competition who now play Mexico in the semis.
And so to the Footcall league...
Well done to all those who got their Knockout Stages predictions done on time, a brilliant 50 players out of 53 managed it and despite numerous reminders three people let the Footcalling side down which is a shame. Most notably of these would be Bryan "OMG what have I done?" Relf who was unbelievably in second place after a storming Group Stages and as he will score no further points is now dropping faster than Ricardo Blas Jnr going over an Ippon move! Oh dear Bryan, looks like you're gonna have to wait until 2014 to redeem your Footcall pride.
Meanwhile we have a new leader taken over at the top. Stewart "see JT this Footcall game is a piece of p*ss!" King has edged above Kevin whilst James Vallender and Leigh Boardman move into contention as do Patrick Ferguson and Rachel "I don't think they do Footcall in Turkey" Rowland, all of whom scored 6 out of 8 from the four games today.
Sadly the GLW, Christine and me have coincidentally put our faith in an outside bet which has subsequently not paid off and we've perhaps both rued our chances as I'm sure one or two others might have done :-(
Nobody scored a perfect 8 today but other 6 pointers came from Richard Goodwin, Stephen Hills, Steve Russell, Graham Weaver, Tim Jennings, Jo Mackenzie, Nick Stacey Manoj Gupta, Ollie Whitfield, Dan "the man" Shroeck, Spencer Collins, Dave Herbert, Andrew Green, Adam Jones and Keith Firmston.
Final word should go to Leanne "my name is on that vuvuzela" Maloney who was lying in 52nd place after the group stages and is now fighting it out with Maxine "I'm obsessed with all this sport" Coupland for the vuvu award. Both scored four points today so only time will tell if they score any more.
That's it for an immense day of sporting excitement, a year ago our cities were on fire, tonight we have all become one happy nation.
See you Tuesday!
David