Saturday 12 June 2010

The World Cup Begins

Finally the waiting was over...after the opening ceremony we saw South Africa take on Mexico in the opening game in front of 90,000 fans (and 90,000 vuvuzela horns by the sounds of things). It was a great start to the tournament as the game swung both ways over the 90 minutes. Mexico were hugely impressive in the first half as their movement & use of the ball allowed them to run rings round their hosts, and they were unlucky not to go in a couple of goals up with Dos Santos running the show.

I was watching the game with a group of mates and at half time we all agreed we wanted South Africa to get something from the game for the good of the tournament, as an opening defeat would be sure to dampen what appears to be a fantastic atmosphere. We got our wish, as the second half was a complete turnaround with the African side dominating, playing with pace and passion, culminating in an outstanding opening goal from Tshabalala which sent the stadium in to raptures and created the most amazing noise I ever remember hearing when watching a match on TV. The World Cup had begun.

Unfortunately for the majority of fans in the stadium, Mexico levelled the scores through Marquez later in the game, but to be honest it was a deserved equaliser on the overall balance of play. Mphela could've won it in the 90th minute, but after showing impressive pace and strength he could only hit the post when he really should've scored. A fair result, and a great opening game.

The same could not be said for France v Uruguay, which barely deserves a mention. A dull 0-0, no real notable efforts on goal and typically odd decisions from Domenech leaving Malouda on the bench because of an apparent row, subbing Anelka off instead of the anonymous Govou and bringing on Gignac as a right winger. Uruguay had Lodeiro sent off, Forlan was probably the best player on the pitch, but neither side look like anything to worry about, so both Mexico & the South Africa will believe they have a chance of progressing - Group A is wide open.

In fantasy terms I had only Ribery, who scored me 4 points after picking up a booking. My midfield sub options are Hamsik and Cahill, but I think I'm going to keep Ribery's 4 points rather than making any changes. Glen Johnson, Frank Lampard & Lionel Messi play for me today.

Speaking of today, I actually woke up at 6am this morning after struggling to sleep last night. I don't remember being this nervous about a football match - it's just 12 hours until England v USA. Before that we have South Korea v Greece followed by Argentina v Nigeria, and I'm going to be watching all 3 games and drinking beer in an effort to calm my nerves. My prediction is 2-1 England, but I'm wary of the Americans and given the fixtures to follow I think avoiding defeat will be key for both sides, as they should both beat their 2 remaining opponents.

What did you think of the opening day? Any success in World Cup fantasy football? Let me know your predictions for today!

Cheers,
AM

59 comments:

AdmiraLord Nelson said...

Good Read AM!
USA 2-5!

AdmiraLord Nelson said...

and Uruguay had Ladeiro sent off not Gonzales! I am shooting myself in the foot for forgetting to sub in Salcido and Lloris!! 12 points so far!

Assistant Manager said...

Cheers ALN, correction made on the Ladeiro sending off, my confusion stemmed from being half asleep during such a boring game :)

AdmiraLord Nelson said...

its like this;...we only get this jam but every four years so if you dont play your best you should be really pissed!!!!

Birty said...

4 from Ribery and Forlan. I have a maybe injured Robben or an outside bet on JS Park to replace them, depending on Robben's injury status I may bring him in. today i have messi rooney and heinze playing.

As for england, i hate liverpool, chelski, ferdinand etc with such a passion, i have never and probably will never support england. As long as rooney comes back un-injured, I really don't care about the result.

Anonymous said...

1st two matches from group A was great.

may i know how many times we can change sub player in 1st round?

gkinz

Ian Sanderson said...

@ anon. You can bring on any sub that hasn't played to replace any player as long as that player hasn't been sent off.

marhawk said...

blimey AM posting early! just been making use of the sub option, out went Malouda with a disappointing 1 point replaced by Lennon who surely should do better. Also swapped Perez(4) for caouaoui (alg) who will be replaced by Sanchez(spn) unless he saves a couple of penalties of course,

11 so far with 8 from gallas and 3 from piennar, who will probably go to

roll on this evening !!

Bojan said...

RSA are very quick and they run all the time... But bad on set-pieces... they will drop if they keep up in that fashion in next 2 games... Tshabalala was great for whole game and Mphella is such a good forward... could he nice buy for some good Championship or bad Premiership club...

Mexico had 2 very bad coach decisions at the start of the match... Guille Franco is such a bad forward and he needs 10 chances to score... Guardado is the best mexican player and when Agirre subbed Franco and get Guardado in Mexico played much better... dos santos looked like ronaldinho in his good days... They were bad in defence and their keeper didnt get 1 good reaction... very bad gk... on other hand Khune was very acrobatic and secure after he dropped 1st ball of the game...

France is really bad offensivly... in 1st half hour ribery would paced the ball down the line and there would be no France players in 20 meter radius around him... after that he lost all his posessions until end off the game... Gourcuff is the worst player of the day imo... he didnt pass one (1) ball... he is slow and he shoots on sight, and shoots really bad... toulalan was great and evra was true captain...

Uruguay did ok but they were happy with 0:0 so you dont need to do much to get that result against France... Lugano was great, Perez runned like a mad man for 88 minutes and Forlan is true class... Good buy for harry even @30M...

Just two more things...

Refs were great imo... all of them... good offside calls and very good reading of the game... i would rather see this kind of refereeing @WC rather then any goals...

and finally the Ball... looks very strange... on even small bumps ball hoops up fot 30 cm, and on long passes after contact with surface it hoops almost 1 meter more then regular balls... we saw a lot of bad passes, quicker then needed, in both games... i think that controling this ball will in a right way will be mayor step to win this wc...

i planed to write 2 lines and look what happend...

Bojan said...

btw, had evra and ribery in mcdonalds game... 8 + 4 points... after today and tomorow games i will decide who is staying in my 1st round team... and at prediction game i have 2 good pick... got both draws right...

and in soccerfreakz game i had ribery who got me -3 points...

Anonymous said...

AS GOOD AS YAHOO FANTASY FOOTBALL. SIMILAR INTERFACE.....SIMILIAR SCORING SYSTEM.

JOIN NOW !!!

http://wc2010.soccerfreakz.com/fantasy/team/index.php?fid=87

AM CHAT REGULARS LEAGUE
group ID : 8
pass : worldcup (without space)


Hans_India

Maxer said...

0 points this first day.. got pienaar and davids on the bench and drop gallas last minute to fill in maicon and filler figueroa.. park, messi, di maria and a.cole play for me tonight with belhadj, s.nakamura & villa as my backup subs if anything goes wrong.. anyway, good luck everyone..

Asher_MaXTeN

Maxer said...

ow btw.. my prediction for the games today..

Korea(2)-(1)Greece or a 2-2 draw
Arg(3)-(2)Nigeria or a bigger score for Argentina.. four goals perhaps.. :p
Eng(2)-(1)US..

Asher_MaXTeN

Anonymous said...

with regards to fantasy football i had 3 points from Pienaar, 8 from Evra and 4 from Yoann. I subbed out Pienaar and Yoann, i believe that a good score would be at least 85 points total after the entire round 1 is over.
my predictions for the next few games would be:
Korean 0 - 2 Greece
Argentina 4 - Nigeria
England 1 - 1 US

-FlightImpetuous

Rukkie said...

Got Gourcuff the worthless for 4 and Dos Santos for 6. But I havent subbed anyone yet, still sitting at 4-5-1 formation and waiting for more game. Gourcuff probably gotta go though. Today I got Rooney/Lennon/Howard/Samuel/Di Maria with Rooney as captain.

Anonymous said...

Most SA fans happy with the draw yesterday which was a fair result though I hope Bafana don't rue missing out on all 3 pts, it really was a chance to take the win. mphela should have done better and Modise missed several good chances. I must say that the France-Uruguay match did make me feel better - if Bafana can continue to play like they did then I can see them getting a win in their next games :-)

I had a good group of friends watching the Bafana match along wiht my kids and the vuvuzelas and excited screaming when Tshabalala scored sent my cats running for safety!

Phil, Durban

marhawk said...

does anybody know if it"s possible to view other managers teams, cant seem to find the link.. am i missing something?

birty said...

@marhawk - if you click on the name of a team you get: "Other teams can only be viewed after the last substitution window of the round has finished." So I guess its next friday.

marhawk said...

@ birty_ thanks mate, got it

SK said...

Just wondering, does the value of each player fluctuate between the tournament? I mean, you can look at the price change on all players in the tournament, but I haven't seen a change in price yet. Does anyone know when the price change occur?

- SK

Caleb said...

I just found out that the minus point in the "Attacking Bonus" regarding to the pass missed has been deleted.

AdmiraLord Nelson said...

30 points so far! Evra Messi Forlan Park!

SK said...

@Celeb - wow, spot on. The "Defending Bonus" minus point has also been removed.

- SK

Bojan said...

http://en.castrol.predictor.fifa.com/M/predictions.mc

Bojan023

* Croatia
* Bojan023

Overall points
311
Overall rank
138
Round 1 points
311
Round rank
138

Success
4/4

Bojan said...

to pick England win for 21 point or draw for 93 points? i think that it would be very close game...

madness said...

and you were right..

Ian Sanderson said...

WooHoooo!!!!

I'm top of the AM League and 57th Globally.

Obviously it won't last, but you've got to make the most of these things.

Fidan said...

Guys, just a quick question...!!!

I know the rule "if you sub a player that has already played with someone about to play, you CAN NOT pick him back for that week" but what if now I decide to "sub a player in my s11 that has not played yet (e.g.Fabiano) for someone that has not played yet too (e.g. Barrios)"??? My question: can I still get Fabiano back in my s11 if Barrios doesn't score well???

Thnx in advance...!!!

Cheers

bean said...

didn't quite realize, but the scoring is really pretty basic. Shots on target don't count for anything, which is kind of weird. Still an interesting game though.

Go USA!

Anonymous said...

AM,
didn't you say that u could replace ur starting players with substitutions if you think they'll score higher? you didn't mention that there'd be a 3-point penalty for each substitution that u make? i've just tried to make my substitutions but it's asking me if i want to deduct 15 pts?? is this how it works or is it just me? coz this totally changes the game.

JJ

mehicoradio said...

subs should be unlimited (providing they fit the rules) and it is transfers which will deduct points.

As for my team, up to 36, 5 from Di Maria, 18 (due to the captain bonus) from Messi, 5 from A. Cole, and 8 from Howard.

Anonymous said...

@JJ,
If you sub players that have already scored with players that haven't played yet, the subbed players points are removed from your total. Whatever your subs score once they play will then be added to your overall total. Hope that helps.

-Banned in DC

Maxer said...

@fidan.. this from the rules.. "If you remove a player who has scored points for your team, these points will be lost. The player cannot be brought back into your team until the next round".. so meaning if u sub fabiano for barrios, u cannot get fabiano back if barrios didn't do well.. but u can sub him (barrios) for other players..

@JJ.. rules says "Additional transfers will deduct 3 points per transfer. In overall and classic leagues, these points are deducted from your total".. i think the 3 points penalty is only for extra transfers u did.. not the substitution..

anyway, can anyone confirm this?.. has anyone tried the manual substitution yet?.. i'm thinking of subbing 2 of my players actually.. :p

Asher_MaXTeN

Ian Sanderson said...

Ok, to answer the couple of points above.

JJ - it doesn't cost anything to sub players, but does to transfer players (after in 1 free tf). You lose the points the player you are subbing has earned and it does warn you about this so maybe that is the 15 pnts in question.
Fidan - I disagree with Maxer and believe you can bring Fabiano back as he hasn't yet played. However I am not 100% sure as it is a little ambiguous.

Maxer said...

@Ian.. yup i think u r right.. but has anyone tried it before?.. i got Casillas on goal, but tempted to try Mucha cos he played against NZealand and before Casillas.. but am scared if i cannot re-sub Casillas cos my third goalie is Escobar(Honduras) who played earlier..

please anyone confirm this?.. :p

anyway, the substitution for today is closed.. hopefully i wont regret not fielding belhadj and yebda for 5pointer a.cole and d.maria..

Asher_MaXTeN

Anonymous said...

i can confirm this. i did my subs, it doesn't cost u 3 points per substitution. whichever player u're subbing out, u're just gonna lose the points for him. so yeah, make ur substitutions!

JJ

Maxer said...

great i didn't do the Beldhaj and Yebda substitution.. both only manage 4points each.. :p

Asher_MaXTeN

Anonymous said...

I substituted Beldhaj for G. Johnson which only gave me an extra point. I was debating subbing Cahill for Lamphard, but the window closed out before I got the chance today. All I have left today are Lahm and Schweinsteiger.

D

Anonymous said...

According to fantasyfootballscout.co.uk they THINK dribbling the ball into the box is the same as a successful cross; hence Tevez and Messi with a bunch of Attacking Bonus points.

Nowhere on the McFantasy site did they say this!

Now the question is, how far from the box do you have to start your dribble to make a point?

-JJOKBOB

madness said...

they did say it:

For every 2 balls delivered into the penalty area * 1

* Ball entry into attacking penalty area whilst maintaining possession: Player making run, Player passing, Player receiving, Cross.

Birty said...

16th in the blog league with a couple of germans to play and a couple of brazilians and a dutch GK (unless Schwarzer has a stormer). and maybe fabregas and / or robben to play.

what are people finding is the average score for players? about 4 or 5? I've got forlan and ribbery on 4 and am thinking of subbing them out.

Rukkie said...

Capt Lahm and now I got 24, wonder if I should go with him or be greedy and capt some striker like RVP or Fabiano later.
So far defensive players are getting higher score than attacking ones.

SK said...

Finding the average to be around 6. Makes sense since you get 3pts for just playing most of the game.

@Rukkie - can you change your captain after he plays?

- SK

madness said...

@SK:
only to a player who hasn't played yet

Rukkie said...

Yes you can like madguy said, Rooney was my captain yesterday and i switched to Lahm

Ian Sanderson said...

Wow, the top 3 globally have 105 points which is the same as 'the dream team' and that's not even a valid team.
80 points for me.

Unknown said...

Think you can sub a player in and out as long as he hasn't played: Case in point, the other day I subed in Messi for Podolsky, yest I subbed Podolski back in for Eto'o. I got my 9 and 15 points resp.Now I'm looking to sub in Eto'o or RVP , but have Fabiano[c] in addition to Messi and Pod. Thinking Eto'o for Messi and losing 9 pts, any better ideas? Eto'O has good match-up

Unknown said...

also can you indeed switch CAPT to someone who already played with more points?

Ian Sanderson said...

@Linda, have you anyone with less points than 9?
You can change formations.
9 is a good score.

SK said...

madguy said...
only to a player who hasn't played yet

@Linda - too bad you can't deploy 4 FWDs, but you can bench Fabiano and give the CAPT to someone else for now. It's also the reason why I didn't go for 5 world class forwards.

Unknown said...

@SK
So I can sub Eto'o in for Fabiano, make him my CAPT, and after he plays I can sub Fabiano back in as CAPT if I so choose>?
And you are spot on for 5 WC fowards. My next transfer is going to be for a foward from NK.

THX

Anonymous said...

i subbed lahm and messi who got me more than 20 points without realizing that the points will be lost silly me

Maxer said...

@anon 1:31.. oh no!.. :p

anyway, i'm subbing s.nakamura for d.maria (5pts) today.. rvp is coming in for either cr7 or fabiano.. and mucha for casillas tomorrow and see how it goes.. i think i'm getting the hang of this subbing thing.. hehe..

Asher_MaXTeN

SK said...

@Linda - haven't tried it myself, but Rukkie above said that you can

SK

madness said...

@D
lucky that you were too late to bring Cahill in :D

Anonymous said...

@Madguy- No kidding! The Cahill move would have cost me. I'm waiting to sub Lampard now with Simao in hopes he can earn more than 3 and VP with Villa who only got 3 today up front. These big names aren't doing my team any good for round 1.

D

david peter said...

Can someone please explain the automatic sub rule better? it applies only if no manual subs or captain change is made and make the highest scoring sub; i know. But is that change applicable only if someone of your first XI has not played at all? What if he has played but performed poorly, does computer will sub him also with someone better on bench?

Ian Sanderson said...

Only applies if he hasn't played.

Unknown said...

can I change my CAPT,from a foward who played to a Def who hasn't played, and how

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