Welcome to the review of the Fifa Last 16 Tournament, the second edition of Kami’s now revived Fifa tournaments. Here is the (very late) review, I hope you enjoy it.
Group A consisted of Greg, Saggy, MTC and Oscar. The group should’ve been most notable due to the return of two time Tyke Tournament champion Saggy, but unfortunately and uncharacteristically he didn’t turn up. So with three players left to vie for the two qualifying spots, it was a pretty close group. Greg’s ability to stay unbeaten against Oscar and beat MTC at least once meant he topped the group on 7 points. Whilst MTC beating both Greg and Oscar also meant he just edged it into second on 6 points. Oscar adds another group stage exit to his long tournament history.
Group B saw the battle of old and new as Ludy, Kami, 50 and Louis all did battle. I had literally no prior knowledge regarding Louis, and vaguely remember 50 participating in a tournament long ago. However Louis soon made his mark with a complete sweep of everybody in the group, picking up the maximum 18 points. The losses to Louis would be 50’s only group stage blemish as he accumulated 12 points to also go through. The tournament stalwarts Kami and Ludy scored a win against each other, with Kami finishing bottom. Poor performances from the tournament veterans and leads one to believe if tournament experience is that important?
Group C was the predictable group, Sideshow, Hugo, 1man and Shadow. I couldn’t foresee anything but Sideshow and Hugo progressing whilst the other two struggle, though Shadow was an unknown quantity. In the end one minnow performed better than the other with 1man taking 6 points off shadow and earned a credible 4-4 draw with Hugo to accumulate 7 points. However the first and second positions were already a foregone conclusion, it was just a case of what order? Sideshow collected maximum points and took first, Hugo second.
Group D was an interesting group with champion Tyke, TopLad, the returning TLLL and Nadz making up this group. Many predicted this group may have a shock exit in it, but whilst they suffered setbacks TopLad and Tyke certainly were not going to fall victim to one. TopLad could only take 1 point off TLLL, but took 4 points off Tyke and the maximum off Nadz to secure first place. Tyke’s 1 point off TopLad resulted in strong performances needed against Nadz and TLLL, three 1 – 0 victories and a draw was enough to get second place. TLLL’s good performances against TopLad and victory against saw him finish third on his tournament return with a respectable 7 points. Nadz out before the fun really starts yet again.
REST OF REVIEW IN FIRST POST
FIFA 17 CL Tournament Review
posted on 27/3/17
The first match in the one legged Quarter-Finals saw Greg with Leicester City take on 50 with Barcelona, surely 50 would sweep him away with such a team? Surprisingly it wasn’t the case. In an embarrassing scoreline for 50, Greg beat him with Leicester 5 – 2 proving he is no mug. A great tournament journey so far for Greg, but what started promisingly, ended pretty badly for 50!
The next match was Louis and Leverkusen v MTC and Dortmund in all-German affair. Due to Louis making light work of his group and MTC being pretty tame last tournament my money would’ve been on Louis. A match that finished 1 – 1 went to golden goal which MTC ultimately scored. A solid enough tournament debut for Louis and MTC exorcized the ghost of his last foray into the knock-outs with a semi-final appearance.
The third match was the first real heavyweight tie of the round as two-time Tyke Tournament champion Sideshow with Juventus, took on current champion Tyke with Napoli. The pre-match build-up was noted for the fact Tyke has never beaten Sideshow. Unfortunately for me that was how it stayed. An early goal from Sideshow was cancelled out by the first-half and some end to end stuff saw the superior Juventus attack come up trumps in a well fought 2 – 1 victory. So disappointment from the previous champion, whilst Sideshow had his eyes on the tournament title.
The last Quarter-Final match saw Bayern Munich take on Real Madrid in the form of TopLad v Hugo in what had the makings of a real classic knock-out match. Well Hugo soon made sure that any of that classic nonsense wouldn’t be used to describe this match. An emphatic 4 – 0 victory meant an earlier than expected exit for TopLad who must have been disappointed at going out so early with Madrid, but one of them had to be. Hugo reaches a second semi-final in a row.
The first Semi-Final saw Greg up against it in the form of Sideshow, not only that but it was Leicester against Juventus. However Greg had been proving all tournament that the bigger clubs did not faze him and he was at it again when he took a 2 – 0 lead against Sideshow. Typically Sideshow got one back and really put the pressure on, Greg’s palms were even sweating (his words). But he held on to reach the final and create a real tournament story. Whilst a semi-final exit is no disgrace, this defeat must rankle at Sideshow considering the team he had and his tournament reputation.
The other Semi-Final saw the revived MTC against Hugo in Dortmund against Real Madrid. Whilst I predicted a comfortable win for Hugo, MTC nearly pulled off a shock when he took a 1 – 0 lead and if I remember rightly he held out till the very last min and then conceded, that’s gotta hurt! Hugo like all decent players, found a way to victory when he notched in the ensuing golden goal. Commiserations to MTC who truly did himself a service that was lacking last time. Hugo goes one step further than last tournament.
So the second final in these tournaments saw two final debutants with Greg hoping to complete the fairytale with Leicester City and Hugo hoping to secure what could be the first of many tournament titles. Hugo took a 2 – 0 lead and it looked like the game would run away from Greg, but he somehow mustered the spirit to score not once, but twice to have him dreaming of that first title. Some end-to-end stuff ensued, but the class of Real Madrid eventually wore the Leicester resistance down to finish 4 – 2. Hugo wins his first ever title!
Huge credit to Greg for dragging Leicester to the final, and got so close to one of the greatest tournament victories. The title ultimately though went to Hugo, he showed a glimpse of what he could do last tournament and he certainly has the skills and enthusiasm to make sure this is not an isolated event, anybody willing to bet against that? Not me!
Also just a brief message to Kami for reviving these tournaments when I genuinely thought the appetite for them had gone from JA606. He’s listened to the players, changed the format accordingly and advertised well. JA606 is a better place for these tournaments, so thank you to Kami and everybody who takes part and has fun.
posted on 27/3/17
Great review Tyke
posted on 27/3/17
Long overdue! But still...
posted on 27/3/17
Hugo