Fifa 17 9 Team Tournament Review

The third Kami Fifa Tournament has concluded, here is the review and as always I hope you enjoy it!

Starting off in Group A and this looked a tough group with Sideshow, Tyke, TLLL and Kami participating. Kami wasn’t expected to do much in this group so it was very much the other three players going for the two qualification places. Kami had the one surprise up his sleeve when he beat Sideshow 3 – 2, albeit with the latter using a much weaker team. Tyke capitalized on this however taking all 6 points from Kami, 3 from Sideshow and 4 from TLLL to top the group with 13 points. Whilst TLLL also picked 6 points up from Kami, he only picked up a solitary two points from his matches against Sideshow and Tyke, thus his 8 points wasn’t enough and Sideshow avoided a shock group stage exit with 10 points.

Group B in my pre-tournament opinion was only going to have one winner. Consisting of Hugo, Louis, newcomers: A_49 and Stringer I fully expected the champion to win the group and that he did. Hugo racked up 6 straight wins to top the group with max points. Unfortunately no interesting side-story was to happen as Louis picked up 12 points in his second tournament. A_49 beat Stringer to avoid the wooden spoon. Stringer finished with a GD of -17 scoring one solitary goal, ouch.

Group C was a bit of a mixed-bag group consisting of 50, TopLad, Mr A and Oscar, not really an easy one to predict! It seemed that 50s ability to take 6 points from Oscar which the other two players failed to do is what saw him top the group with 10 points. However TopLad and Mr A fought out a very tight dual for second with TopLad taking it by just the virtue of 1 GD, both on 9 points. Mr A grinded out a few 1 – 0 wins and TopLad only lost one match and it was TopLad’s ability to avoid more than just the solitary defeat which swung the GD in his favour. Solid debut from Mr A though. Oscar propped up the group with 5 points.

Group D unfortunately due to external issues was a three-man group. Consisting of Greg, returning Tyke Tournament legend Junior and Ludy. Greg took 6 points from Ludy which Junior conversely only managed the 3, however both took a win from each other that saw Greg top the group with 9 points, Junior second with 6 and Ludy last on 3.

The first Quarter-Final saw Tyke coming off an impressive group-stage performance, pit Chelsea against Louis with PSG. Louis will be hoping to go one step further than his tournament debut and Tyke hoping to improve on last time. A pretty even encounter this was, until mid-first half Louis made a mistake which I capitalized on. The second half was end to end, but eventually Tyke found a way through, twice in fact to make it an ultimately comfortable 3 – 0 win. Well played Louis, eventually you’ll win in the knock-outs! Tyke back in the semi-final.

The next Quarter-Final saw a real heavyweight clash with champion Hugo taking on Sideshow in a Barcelona v Atletico Madrid tie. Many would agree that this was the final come early. The game ultimately finished 1 – 0 to Hugo and considering Sideshow was a bogey player for Hugo this was a massive result and a real boost to retaining his trophy. Tyke Tournament twice winner Sideshow has yet to live up to his billing in this new era.

The third Quarter-Final was Junior with Real Madrid marking his return in this new era with a familiar place in the Quarter-Finals, his opponent was 50 and Argentina who in his last knock-out appearance was humiliated by Greg despite having a better team. Don’t know much about this match but Junior won it 3 – 1 which suggests it was probably comfortable enough. His tournament return ticking over nicely thus far, whilst 50 needs to move up a gear if he wants to succeed at knock-out football.

The final Quarter-Final was an intriguing contest with last tournament’s runner-up Greg taking on TopLad. TopLad has gotten into the knock-outs now three times in a row. Unfortunately the teams they used is not on the tournament records, but that isn’t my biggest gripe about this match sadly. What should’ve been a classic turned into a dud. TopLad well known for his laggy connection, played Greg who struggled with this connection. Tournament protocol is to ditch a laggy match ASAP and keep trying until the lag disappears. Unfortunately for Greg he played 80 mins of the match before lamenting the connection, with TopLad leading 4 – 3. One argument led to another and it was decided to leave it at this score. Lessons learned all round, but disappointing for the tournament that this match played out like it did.

The first Semi-Final and we are taking you back to the first ever Tyke Tournament final March 2012 Tyke v Junior, fast forward five years later and they are facing each other once again as Tyke with Manchester United took on Junior and Juventus. This was a very bland match with few chances and similar styles. Tyke was arguably the better player, but the bore fest was settled in golden goal via a set-piece by Junior. His comeback just became even more successful! Tyke out in the Semi-Finals thus failing to reclaim the trophy he lost in the first tournament.

The other Semi-Final saw Hugo with Real Madrid take on TopLad with France which we were hoping was not as one-sided as Hugo’s 4 – 0 demolition last tournament. Thankfully that was not the case and TopLad lead 2 – 1 in this match for quite a while, until Hugo rallied and grinded out an impressive 3 – 2 victory. That’s what champions do folks, they dig deep and find a way to win and Hugo is back in the final. Whilst TopLad improved against Hugo and in the tournament as a whole, it must be a bitter pill to swallow that the final has eluded him once again.

Here we go then, the third final of this new era and already on his way to legend status is Hugo looking to make it two tournaments wins in a row, he went with Bayern Munich. Junior in his first final of the new era in his first tournament of the new era will have to use the experience of his three tournament wins in the old era if he is to be successful. All that Hugo really said about this match was ‘Junior plays like Tyke’ probably not a compliment but hey ho! Junior got his goal and defended well to beat the champion 1 - 0 and win the tournament!

Every tournament has its story and this one will be about Junior who last won a tournament in September 2013. He might not be the most impressive, he might’ve had his share of tournaments flops in the old era, but boy when he is on form he just finds ways to win. Well done to him and I’m sure he will be looking to add to his haul at future tournaments.