So the Russian Fifa Tournament has concluded. Here is the review I hope you enjoy it!
Starting off in Group A this group consisted of Voom, Virus, Tyke and latecomer Kamran. The favourites to go through were two time champion Voom and Virus. However Voom’s interest in the competition ended relatively early on with two rare group stage defeats. Firstly a 2 – 0 loss to Virus was then followed up by a surprising 2 – 1 loss to Kamran which left him signing off a disappointing tournament with a 3 – 0 victory against Tyke. Tyke had a similarly disappointing, albeit expected group stage exit. Initially a 3 – 0 defeat to Kamran’s CSKA Moscow was followed up by one of the results of the tournament as a 2 – 1 victory against Virus’s Lokomotiv Moscow with the much maligned Mordov followed, however the aforementioned result against Voom put an end to any hopes of progression. Virus and Kamran fought out an entertaining 1 – 1 draw with Kamran topping the group with 7 points to Virus’s 6, a fine progression to the quarter-finals for them, whilst Voom suffered a historic first group stage exit!
On to another difficult looking group with group B. Champion Kent, May, Sideshow and Ludy contested this group and as you may remember I had problems predicting the outcome of this one. Kent had a poor team in Krylya Sovetov, but like a true champion he learns to work with the limitations of his team. This showed with a confidence boosting 2 – 0 win against May and then all but sealing his progression when he beat Ludy 2 – 1 who had Zenit. His 2 – 1 loss to Sideshow meant little in the scheme of things, for him anyway. Sideshow battled for that win against Kent and then again against May in what was tipped to be a pivotal game ending 1 – 1. However he was stifled and defeated 1 – 0 by Ludy who was ripping up the tournament predictions by also beating May 3 – 1. This was enough for a shock progression for Ludy who finished 2nd with 6 points alongside 1st placed Kent also on 6 points. Sideshow got a reprieve in the shape of a play-off, but more about that later. Whilst May couldn’t find much form with his limited team A Viadikavkaz and thus finished bottom with 1 point.
A much changed Group C now only contained three teams and one of them being a new face. Edin, Choice and Wilshere contested this group with Choice looking the strongest on paper to go through having Spartak Moscow. However Edin absolutely ripped the paper to shreds and threw it in the bin when he trounced Choice 5 – 0 and edged out Wilshere 1 – 0, all this with FC Rostov! So with him through it was just Choice and Wilshere left to play for the play-off spot, with Wilshere only needing a draw due to Choice’s poor goal difference. Choice finally showed some form in this game winning 2 – 1 to take that play-off spot, it could’ve been different had Wilshere made his late onslaught count, but he did well considering he had FC Krasnodar. Choice finished with 3 points and Wilshere finished bottom with 0 points and a third consecutive group-stage exit.
Group D looked straightforward with SpursBoy tipped to dominate, whilst Dog and Terry fought it out for 2nd with 1man tipped to play the role of minnow. Well you know that bit about SpursBoy dominating, forget that! A strong defensive performance by Terry’s Dinamo Moscow saw him collect all three points and instantly put Terry a favourite for that 2nd place. If Terry’s performance was good for defence then Dog’s was fantastic for attack! His A. Makhachkala destroyed SpursBoy in one of the most amazing tournament performances of all time with the player ranked a lowly 10th winning 6 – 0 sending SpursBoy out of the tournament in the group-stages for the first time with only a 2 – 0 win against 1man to show for his efforts. With Dog and Terry beating 1man 3 – 0 and 4 – 0 respectively there game wasn’t nearly as important as I thought it would be with both safely through, Dog came out a 2 – 1 winner to top the group. Commiserations to 1man finishing bottom with 0 points. He is a decent player who unfortunately had a chit team in Amkar Prem, he says he is going to retire from tournaments now, but I hope that isn’t the case.
CONTINUED IN FIRST POST.
Russian Tournament Review & Awards
posted on 18/6/13
Disgraceful ref. good tournament.
posted on 18/6/13
great tournament, enjoyed the review.
posted on 18/6/13
Tyke Waiting for the next tournament
posted on 18/6/13
my 1-0 loss to Edin should have been game of the tournament
posted on 18/6/13
I took the lead against dog but he equalized from kick off with a zhirkov weak foot postage stamp top corner 30 yarder (hence his name)
I couldn't believe it
posted on 18/6/13
Scored right foot with Zhirkov against me too
posted on 18/6/13
Smashing review again Tyke, although it was my worst tournament, it was certainly the most enthralling one yet.
posted on 20/6/13
Great stuff Tyke.
I'm still celebrating
Tyke
posted on 20/6/13
Nice one I was hoping you would comment
posted on 29/11/14
Come back Dog