Fifa 17 Championship Tournament Review

This is the review for Kami’s Sixth Fifa Tournament, this one being the ‘Championship Tournament’, as always I hope you enjoy it.

With three players qualifying from the four team groups, Group A looked a formality for Kent, Oscar and Tyke with Stringer suffering from consistent bottom of the group finishes in previous tournaments, it seemed like just a case of what order the top three would look. Well it was only the current champion Tyke who made it seem a formality. Collecting 16 points, the only stain on his record was a draw against Kent. The rest of the places turned into a scrap, Kent lost both games against Oscar, who in turn lost both games against Stringer. Kent’s point against Tyke was enough to get him second place with a meagre 7 points. Whilst a couple of cricket score defeats for Stringer 3 – 0 and 5 – 0 against Kent and Tyke respectively meant that Oscar would take third place via the virtue of superior goal difference. Certainly a better showing from Stringer.

Group B was a moderate group, it had Mr A and TopLad who are regularly seen in the knock-outs, whilst also having Kami who has struggled with form for a while now and the newcomer Yankari Fox who posed an unknown challenge. This group proved difficult for TopLad and Mr A, but ultimately they finished first and second respectively as they had done in a couple of previous groups. TopLad lost twice, once to Fox and another to Mr A, collecting twelve points. Whilst Mr A lost half his games, twice to surprise package Kami and once again TopLad, it was still enough to take second. Newcomer Fox’s impressive victory over TopLad couldn’t be backed up with further wins, two draws against Kami meant five points and a bottom placed finish. Kami however stayed unbeaten against everybody bar TopLad, his double against Mr A and the draws against Fox meant eight points was enough to secure third place.

Group C was a three player group with two progressing from this group. Junior, Boo and Greg were the entrants in this group and to any regular readers of this review it looked like Boo would suffer against the two heavyweights. The clash of the heavyweights Greg and Junior saw them collect a win apiece. Whilst Greg did the expected and took six points from Boo, former champion Junior looked in danger of throwing one of his infamous Group Stage wobbles. A 3 – 3 draw and a 2 – 1 loss to Boo so nearly put him out. However Boo’s leaky defence against Greg meant that Junior sneaked through via virtue of one GD. Valiant effort Boo!

The first Quarter-Final sees the champion in action with Tyke taking on Kami. Kami after a solid enough group showing returns to the knock-out stage having not been present since the first tournament. Kami had Fulham, whilst Tyke had Derby giving Kami the upper hand in that respect, but that is where any advantage over the current champion ended. The first half followed the same pattern throughout, lots of Tyke possession countered by solid Kami defending, neither would give way in the first half. However early on in the second half Tyke made the breakthrough with a neat finish inside the box. Tyke had a few more chances after that which he was unable to convert whilst blew a glorious one on one. Kami’s decision to go more attacking was punished when Tyke went 2 – 0 up right towards the end of the match. Tyke’s quest for three in a row continues, whilst Kami can be proud of his tournament effort.

Next up was the returning TopLad with Leeds United against Oscar with the tournament’s weakest team in Preston North End. It’s been a few tournaments now since TopLad got to the Semi-Final, whilst Oscar made a memorable run last tournament to the aforementioned stage. The game was very tight not only just for the first half, but a proportion of the second half before TopLad broke the deadlock on the hour mark. He further backed this up with another goal in the 80th min to seemingly put the tie to bed. However Oscar quickly replied but in his search for the equalising goal, TopLad put the nail in the coffin on the 89th min. So no successive Semi-Final for Oscar, but still to get to the knock-outs twice in a row is a decent feat. Whilst Toplad has carved himself out another chance of tournament glory.

Last tournament’s runner-up Greg started his knock-out journey to go one better with a Quarter-Final tie against Mr A. Many tipped Greg and his Sheffield Wednesday team to win this one, whilst Mr A with Brentford was in his third successive Quarter-Final match. Didn’t get much of a match report on this one, it sounded like Mr A dominated the game, albeit Greg took the lead. It wasn’t too long until Mr A equalised and with him registering far more shots in the game than Greg it looked like he would take this tie, but nope with his second shot of the match Greg won the game in the last minute of the match. Impressive or lucky? I’ll let you good folks decide. So Greg marches on to another Semi-Final, an interesting side-story of this match is Mr A thinking it was two legs. Would that have changed the outcome of this match? Rhetorical question I guess, but Mr A needs to start winning knock-out games.

The last Quarter-Final was perhaps the one that looked closest on paper. Former champion Junior with Brighton against one of the stars of the old era KentSpur who had Norwich. Junior as always ups his game in the knock-outs, whilst KentSpur has been questioned by his fellow players regarding his desire to win another tournament. Anyway enough of the politics and on to the match. Not much information on this but somewhere along the line Kent took the lead, however Junior equalised via a penalty when his player was brought down. It wasn’t long till Junior earned himself another penalty, but this time it was saved. The game was end to end and continued to golden goal, eventually Kent would be the one to end this tie and send Junior out. Kent wins an epic duel and enters his third successive Semi-Final, whilst Junior made some amends for last tournament’s horrific group stage exit.

The first Semi-Final was a repeat of last tournament’s final, Tyke v Greg. Greg seemed more confident of victory this time round having been drawn a decent team in Sheffield Wednesday and would make a huge statement knocking out the winner of the last two tournaments. However actions speak louder than words and it was Tyke who had won their last two games. The game started well for Tyke having possession and scoring a well taken effort just inside the box on the 7th min. The game saw Tyke not only stifle Greg, but also keep creating chances. Greg had a decent chance in the second half, whilst Tyke fluffed a couple of efforts. Greg’s frustration boiled over the 82nd min when he collected a second yellow card. Ultimately the match fizzled out and Tyke progressed to the final. A Semi-Final finish can’t ever be seen as a bad tournament and Greg further solidifies himself as one of the best in the tournament, but it is Tyke who marches on with a chance to secure an immortal three in a row.

Next up was TopLad vs Kent, the first time these two had met since Kent’s return. TopLad returning from his one tournament absence, has lost both of the Semi-Finals he has played in previous tournaments. Whilst Kent hasn’t fared much better, also losing his two previous Semi-Finals. Something had to give and it was a chance for one of them to exorcize a few demons. TopLad took an early lead in this one, but it wasn’t long till Kent equalized via a penalty and then subsequently took the lead. However TopLad did not lay down equalizing with momentum turning his way. One good way to kill momentum is a long-range goal and Kent managed two of them. With TopLad stunned he no choice but to go for it. In doing score Kent added a further couple to his tally making it 6 – 2, in what turned out to be a record Semi-Final victory. It seems TopLad just can’t crack the Semi-Final conundrum and will have to wait a while until he gets another chance in an official tournament. Could this be the match where the real Kent finally arrived?

When on form, it is harder to find two tournament players better than Tyke or Kent (maybe Hugo or Greg). Stakes are always high in a final, but this one carried more significance than most. For Tyke it was a chance to carve his own legend out, winning three tournament wins in a row. A feat only once achieved by the great SpursBoy in November 2012 and never once achieved on the same edition of Fifa. For Kent it was a chance to shut up the doubters, with his desire being questioned and described as a ‘fading star’ a loss here would continue those jibes for a while yet as the next official tournament isn’t till October. The match started with Kent having more of the possession and forcing a bit of last-ditch defending from Tyke. The first goal arrived on the 27th min when crafty wing play enabled Tyke to take a 1 – 0 lead. This didn’t last very long when a foul the ref deemed just inside the box meant Kent dispatched the resultant penalty to make it 1 – 1. Kent kept going and took the lead literally 2 mins later when a corner kick headed away fell to his player just outside the box with a wild deflection putting into Tyke’s net. Both players threatened more goals in the first half but it stayed at 2 – 1. The Second Half saw Tyke become more dominant, but Kent defended well. Tyke eventually paid for his inability to find a way through the defence with Kent scoring on the 84th min. All seemed lost and a further penalty on the 88th min which Kent dispatched put the match to bed at 4 – 1. Tyke had the last say of the match when impressive passing lead to an inconsequential second goal, ending the match at 4 – 2. Kent is the new champion!

Well what can you say? Kent really came alive in the last two knock-out games and ended any talk of him not being good enough to win a tournament again. Not many people can knock four past Tyke and it was perhaps fitting that a player of such calibre was the one to end his dream of three in a row. To fall one game short is pretty agonizing and I’m sure I’ll be back in Fifa 18, but this tournament belongs to Kent who will not relinquish his title without one heck of a fight. Congratulations to the new champion.