Irish League Tournament Review and Awards

So the final tournament on Fifa 12 was one to remember! Had the lot goals, shocks, controversy (looking at you Comu) and some cracking matches with SpursBoy being crowned the winner of this wonderful spectacle.

Let’s start with Group A and what I think was the strongest group containing me, SpursBoy, Comu, KentSpur and Arsenal Dog. Spursboy and Dog fought out a credible 2 – 2 draw with the Dog blowing a 2 – 0 lead this setting the tone for Dog to tumble in the group stages whilst Spursboy would be riding high. Dog went on to lose to KentSpur 2 – 1, come back to defeat Tyke 3 – 2 and then fell at the hands of the awfully late arriving Comu 2 – 1. With Tyke also performing badly with losses against Spursboy 3 – 1 and Kent 4 – 2 it was down to Spursboy, Kent and Comu to fight it out for the semi-final spots. With Spursboy only recording 1 draw with 3 wins it was safe to say he was through and with Kent winning 2 and losing 2 he had a chance of progression, but Comu had won 2 but only lost 1 with 1 game left against the under-achieving Dundalk Tyke. However a heroic performance saw a Tyke team with only ten men for 70 mins of the game defeat the might of Comu 3 – 1 and possibly send him out, now for the controversy. Comu showing an obvious disregard for the rules by starting his matches at 19:45 when it starts at 19:00 should he have had points deducted? I decided to give him benefit of the doubt, thus he progressed by the virtue of 1 goal difference. This certainly was the group of death.

Now on to Group B consisting of former champion Junior, TopLad, Kanga, Ludy and Tez. Now my favourite for this group to progress was TopLad with the strongest team again (Shamrock Rovers) along with Junior who just doesn’t mess around he just progresses. Kanga had a fighting chance, whilst Ludy and Tez always seem to flop. Now tournament favourite TopLad got off to a good start with a 2 – 0 win against wooden spoon specialist Tez, but this was followed by a poor 0 – 0 against Ludy and then surprise defeat to Kanga 1 – 0 rounded off with a 2 – 1 despatching by Junior resulted in him needing a minor miracle to qualify. Junior did the business winning 3 out of 4 of his games with the only blemish was a 1 – 1 draw against surprise package Ludy, which a heroic performance from the Taiwanese man saw him concede a last min goal, Ludy was springing the shocks! No shock in him beating Tez which I thought would be the battle of the minnows but Ludy proving to be no minnows easy beat Tez 3 – 1 Ludy’s major low point was a 3 – 1 loss to Kanga. Kanga like Junior won 3 out of 4 of his games and secured a spot in the semi-finals his only lowpoint was a 3 – 2 loss to Junior who pulled it out of the bag with two last min goals. Tez duly collected his wooden spoon being the worst person in the tournament, but fair play to him he had the worst team!

So the first Semi-final saw Spursboy against surprise-package Kanga. Kanga was frustrated through Spursboy’s stifling tactics and couldn’t find his way to the back of the net. This saw Spursboy run out 2 – 0 winner and a place in the final beckons, could anybody stop this machine? Well ArsenalDog did, but you get my drift.

On to the next semi-final and Junior was up against Comu which was dubbed a more even affair. A very dour encounter ensured with the full 90 min regulation time finishing in a 0 – 0 draw and golden goal would have to finish this one off and so it did. Comu won a penalty and despatched it for the victory and the place in the final! That was the end of Group B representation an Junior was not heard from for the rest of the tournament.

So it was Spursboy v Comu and Spursboy pulled off yet another attack nullifying performance by beating Comu 2 – 0 and earning the title of champion, not the best final in the world, but a win is a win and Spursboy will not complain one bit, whereas Comu did nothing but complain. I don’t think anybody can really argue that Spursboy deserved to win this tournament after no practice at all with the team, well done him and goodbye Fifa 12 tournaments, thanks for the memories.

Fifa 12 tournament winners:
SPL tournament: Junior
Dutch Tournament: PsychoGooner
Irish Tournament: Spursboy

Awards
Winner: Spursboy

Runner-up: Comu

Overachiever: Kanga

Underachiever: TopLad (who else??)

Most goals scored: Spursboy - 15

Least goals scored: TopLad - 3

Best match: Kanga 2 – 3 Junior

Worst match: Ludy 0 - 0 TopLad

Best goal difference: Spursboy + 7

Worst goal difference: Tez - 6


Please look out for the Fifa 13 Switzerland League tournament!