League Two Tournament Review

The fourth Kami tournament ‘The League Two Tournament’ has ended, here is the review and I hope you enjoy it.

As always starting in Group A and just the three participants for this one. Tyke tournament royalty KentSpur returns to tournament football after a long hiatus and desperate to recapture former glories. Accompanying him is Tyke and TLLL once again in the same group. The games between Kent and Tyke ended with a victory apiece. Their qualification was smooth as Kent took 6 points from TLLL, whilst Tyke took 4 points from him, meaning Kent topped the group. Unfortunately TLLL decided to play the joker and throw his key matches against Kent and Tyke resulting in cricket scores, disappointing actions from a tournament stalwart.

Back to a four team group now with Group B containing TopLad, Oscar, Boo and Mr A. I called TopLad to win this one at a canter and he did just that. A surprise draw with Boo and a loss against Mr A when he already qualified were the only blots on his comfortable passage to the next phase. However 2nd place was very much up for grabs and with Oscar and Boo both performing underwhelmingly, Mr A who came so close to qualifying last tournament, qualified this time with points to spare. Oscar recorded his fourth straight group stage exit, whilst the only way is up for Boo after this tournament debut.

Group C consisted of Sideshow, Nadz, Stringer and current champion Junior. Many would’ve predicted a stroll for Sideshow and Junior, and whilst it was for the former, it wasn’t for the latter. Sideshow waltzed through, with just a draw against Junior the blemish on his record. However things got interesting from here, Stringer improved on last tournament by finishing with three points. That doesn’t sound very interesting but those three points prevented Nadz from overhauling Junior to a 2nd place finish, which obviously would’ve knocked the champion out at this early stage. Lucky, lucky Junior.

Never has a Group looked as predictable as what Group D did, I couldn’t envisage any shocks in this one. Hugo, Kami, Greg and Trebs made up the final group. I predicted Hugo and Greg to go through and they did just that. Greg secured a perfect record with a notable double over Hugo. Hugo however underwhelmed with the aforementioned losses and a 1 – 1 draw against Kami. That draw would be the only highlight for Kami who suffered two losses to Trebs. Fair play to Trebs for putting in an improved tournament performance.

The first Quarter-Final in what for this tournament were two-legged affairs, saw Kent with Carlisle take on Mr A and Crawley. If Kent was even 70% as good as in the Tyke Tournament days then this was only going to end one way, and I think regular readers of my reviews know what I mean. The first leg saw Kent run out a 4 – 1 victory basically killing the tie. The formality of the second leg saw Kent win 5 – 1 making it 9 – 2 on aggregate. An easy victory for Kent saw him into the Semi-Finals. Mr A did well to get to the knock-outs and can certainly build on his experience.

Next up was a belter, TopLad v Tyke in a knock-out tie, Mansfield vs Notts County, both mutually agree that this is the biggest Fifa rivalry in JA606 tournament history. My memory is hazy of this match because of the constant resetting of the match due to lag, but both ties ended in draws, 2-2 and 1-1 respectively. What came next however when the lag abated was a real slug-fest of a golden goal match. Played over a full match and 15 mins it was only towards the end when TopLad started to wilt that the end of this match was near, Tyke struck and went through to the Semi-Final stage. Tough to take for TopLad, but you can’t fault his effort, just needs to take it up another level in knock-out football.

Ability wise this was probably the strongest tie in the Quarter-Finals. Sideshow with Grimsby was taking on Hugo and Accrington Stanley. The first leg lived up to those expectations as a tight 1-1 was fought out. However I don’t think anybody could’ve predicted what happened next, a 6-1 victory for Hugo absolutely decimated Sideshow’s tournament hopes. A real sign of intent that Hugo wants the trophy back. Sideshow however made comments that suggested this might be the end of him and this fifa edition, watch this space.

The last tie was Greg with Cambridge taking on current champion Junior with Newport County. This match was always going to be tight with two good players duking it out and Junior took a slender 1 – 0 lead into the 2nd leg. More solid defensive work and a few wasted chances from Greg saw Junior win the 2nd leg too, 2 – 1 to Junior and 3 – 1 on aggregate. Junior in his knock-out football comfort zone goes on the Semi-final, whilst Greg rues another Quarter-Final exit.

The first Semi-Final was very much the past vs the present. Kent was an all-conquering force back in the Tyke Tournament days, whilst Hugo has one trophy, one runner-up place and the number 1 ranking already to his name in the short history of Kami’s tournaments. A close first leg tie finished 1 – 1 with Hugo scoring first in the 80th min. Kent instantly replied back to make sure nobody was taking a lead into the second leg. Kent flew out of the blocks scoring in the 2nd min, but Hugo repaid the favour of the last tie when he pretty much instantly replied in the 6th min. Hugo started to dictate this game and was rewarded with a well taken goal in the 32nd min. Rather than jolt Kent into action it was Hugo who looked more likely to get that killer third goal and it happened in the 67th min, some shoddy defending allowing Hugo to finish easily. With the match finishing 4-2 on aggregate it was Hugo who reached his 3rd tournament in 4 appearances. I wouldn’t describe Kent’s tournament as a fairy tale, it was a solid enough run to this stage, but more is expected in future tournaments.

Next up was a carbon copy of the semi-final tie from the last tournament Junior vs Tyke. Junior started this match well with Tyke keeping up his habit of conceding an early goal. Junior defended well and kept Tyke at bay and it wasn’t till a brilliant free-kick in the mid-second half that finally saw Junior’s defence unlocked with parity restored it remained this way. The second leg followed the script of the first, early Junior goal, and a Tyke equaliser a bit later on. Golden goal was the only way to settle this and it was Tyke who created the better chances, however a Junior penalty in the second half would’ve put him through to the final, but he missed by a country mile. A subsequent red card further hindered his chances meaning that the follow-on match required him scoring two golden goals. Tyke unlocked his defence mid-way into that match, and avenged his defeat last tournament whilst also ending Junior’s reign as champ. Well done Junior on a solid title reign, but all good things come to an end. Tyke reaches his second final.

It would be hard to argue that this match isn’t the best two players currently playing Fifa on JA606 atm. 1st in the rankings Hugo taking on 2nd ranked Tyke. No other two players have had the same impact in the short history of these tournaments. It was Accrington Stanley v Notts County. A rather tight start saw Tyke defend well whilst Hugo have more of the possession. However in the 11th min a Hugo corner which attempted to spray the ball out to the edge completely backfired when Tyke countered and put the effort away at the second attempt. This didn’t change the flow of the match and stern Tyke defending kept Hugo limited to zero shots on target by half-time. However a corner early in the second half proved more fruitful for Hugo in the 2nd half with a clumsy tackle giving him a penalty. That penalty being the strangest penalty you’ll ever witness, no force was applied and it just rolled to the keeper. Baffling stuff, lucky Tyke! More luck came Tyke’s way when Hugo missed a good 1 on 1 chance. Tyke capitalised with more good defending to see out a 1 – 0 victory and his second trophy of the new era.

Well done Hugo on giving me a test in that match, had lady luck smiled on you more you might’ve been collecting your second trophy. So on the trophy list now there is one person out there on his own: Tyke. He overcame two golden goals, one penalty in those golden goals and another penalty with the final tightly poised. Luck or mental strength? Probably a bit of both, but his place as the tournament’s most decorated player thus far cannot be denied. Good luck trying to take my trophy next tournament fellow fifa players!