The first of these knock-out games which consisted of two legs with away goal counting, came in the form of Hugo v Ludy. I didn’t see this game, but the home leg was Hugo’s first and he took advantage of this with a 1 – 0 victory, denying Ludy a crucial away goal and he did exactly the same thing in the second leg, denied Ludy a goal and secured another 1 – 0 win to make it a 2 – 0 win on aggregate. Hugo the unknown quantity was now in the semi-finals!

The second knock-out tie saw joint-tournament favourite TopLad take on rank outsider Kami. Kami was going to have to pull off something special to eliminate TopLad over two legs and he did the opposite. TopLad romped to a 3 – 0 away win in the first leg, virtually ending the tie as a contest, whilst further solidifying his dominance with a 2 – 0 home win making it 5 - 0 on aggregate. TopLad was in the semis and for Kami it was a rare foray into the latter stages of a tournament and the steepest of learning curves!

The next knock-out game saw another joint-tournament favourite Tyke take on the unknown MTC. I was obviously no stranger to knock-out football, but MTC could prove a dangerous opponent to face this stage. Luckily for me that wasn’t the case, the game was over in the first leg when I secured a 5 – 0 home victory, recovering from a slow start which MTC really should’ve took advantage of. The formality of the second leg saw a 4 – 1 away victory for Tyke with MTC putting in an improved performance and taking the lead. However the stark facts are it was 9 – 1 aggregate victory and that is embarrassing for any player. Hopefully will see more of MTC in future tournaments to prove he can play knock-out football.

The last knock-out match between Oscar and Hoop$ was the closest of the lot, but also the most boring. Both ties finished 0 – 0 meaning we had to go to golden goal to settle this one. Overall I would say Oscar played better and should’ve put his chances away, but it is goals that count and a converted penalty kick saw Hoop$ win this tie and make his first tournament semi-final!

The first semi-final saw TopLad’s Lyon take on Hoop$’s Lazio and as you know these two faced off in the group stages with TopLad winning both ties by 1 – 0 and 2 – 0 respectively. Was that an indication of how this match would go? No it wasn’t! The first leg was TopLad at home and he suffered a major setback when Hoop$ scored not once, but twice in a dominating first-half performance that deserved more than two goals. TopLad rallied in the second half and pulled one back to keep this tie alive.

The second leg saw TopLad continue straight from where he left off, whilst Hoop$ was displaying some rather nervous play. TopLad got his goal in the first half and needed only one more to put himself in front on aggregate, however he huffed and puffed whilst Hoop$ displaying some solid defensive skill, held out and reached the final in his first ever JA606 tournament! TopLad once again seemed burdened by the tag of ‘favourite’ and exited the tournament earlier than expected.

The second semi-final saw tournament favourite Tyke take on Hugo, Hugo surely buoyed by the efforts of Hoop$ who knocked out the other tournament favourite, TopLad. It was Tyke’s West Brom vs Hugo’s Leicester! The first leg was held at Leicester’s ground and a relatively even first half saw Hugo take the lead and looking like another wasn’t beyond him. The tide turned in the second half when Tyke was awarded a penalty which he duly despatched to give him the away advantage in the tie. Disaster then struck for Hugo who conceded another away goal and Tyke secured a 2 – 1 win.

With many not betting against Tyke to reach the final, Hugo had other ideas withstanding some early pressure to go up 2 – 0 by the end of the first-half. However just before the half ended Tyke squeezed in a goal to balance out the tie. Inspired by this turn of fortune, it was not long till another goal came and the start of the second half saw Tyke score again to make it 2 – 2 and 4 – 3 on aggregate and this was how it finished. A true classic semi-final saw the tournament favourite triumph and for Hugo a solid tournament debut which he will be hoping he can build on!

So here we are, the revived JA606 tournament had its first finalists: Tyke and West Brom v Hoop$ and Lazio. Hoop$ bested Tyke twice in the group stages 1 – 0 each time, suggesting this would be a close final. It was Tyke who had the possession in the first half, but I was only really creating half-chances, then Hoop$ gets one decent chance and boom, 1 – 0 Hoop$. This changed the game slightly, but Hoop$ did seem more content with keeping the lead than going for a second. The second half saw frustration after frustration for Tyke and it looked like Hoop$ had done yet another number on him, when Tyke scored a thunderous drive in the 84th minute to breathe life into this final and send it to golden goal where we saw a relatively mundane first half. Early in the second half though, Tyke took his chance and won the final, securing his maiden trophy in the revived tournaments!

So that was that, commiserations to Hoop$ who made a great case for himself that he could consistently challenge at these tournaments. However I proved that self-belief goes a long way, I had possibly the worst team in the shape of WBA, went behind in both the final and semi-finals and gave my opponents extra inventive to beat me. In the end though I am YOUR tournament champion, regardless of how it was won, I am the winner and I challenge anybody reading to sign up to the next tournament and come see what you can do!

Sorry if I lapse into third and first person, bad habit when writing these reviews.

Excellent as always 5 's

Just need the awards

Great stuff, Tyke

This FIFA has to be the hardest to recover from going behind in my memory. So to do it twice is no mean feat.

a damning assessment of my foray into the knockouts lol