Never Write Off The Germans
How impressive have Joachim Loew's side been? They've been superb so far - even in their defeat to Serbia they were well in the game despite being down to 10 men for an hour - but I'm sure a 4-0 victory over Argentina was beyond their wildest dreams. They look solid at the back, devastating on the counter attack, should fear nobody now and I'm thoroughly looking forward to Germany v Spain. The Spanish haven't hit their best form yet but are getting results and are capable of turning it on in the big games (and Villa is on fire), so it should be hugely entertaining.
Before that we have Brazil's conquerors Holland facing a Uruguay who are very lucky to be in the semi finals. I know the rules are the rules, and Ghana missed the penalty to make up for Suarez's handball on the line, but he stopped a certain goal so it does seem extremely harsh that the last African team in the tournament were then knocked out in the shoot-out. If the Dutch can perform in a similar way to the 2nd half vs Brazil then they should progress comfortably, but if we see a repeat of their 1st half showing then the Uruguayans have a chance.
In fantasy football terms I had a good Round 5. A team of Casillas, Pereira, Lahm, Maicon, Sneijder, Ozil. Iniesta, Kaka, Messi, Klose, Villa (C) earned me 98 points and moved me from 320th to 160th in the Blog League, but I'm too far away to mount any sort of challenge on the Top 50. We know that the remaining 4 teams are guaranteed 2 games each so I'll start looking at my squad later this afternoon and again look to assemble 15 active players...still holding a number of North Korean and New Zealand players at around £1m is really helping when it comes to achieving this!
The Blog League Cup competition see the following 4 teams contest the Semi Finals:-
Crazylegsdude(England) Vs JJOKBOB(Canada)
DirtyAlpacas(USA) Vs Leozabalet(Canada)
Good luck to those involved!
One final note - I had a look back at old posts and realised we could be less than 2 weeks away from the start of the Yahoo 2010/11 Fantasy Football season...last year it was 17th July, so keep on checking back as I'll start creating Blog Leagues as soon as the game launches.
Cheers,
AM
24 comments:
germany has been the best team so far in the tournament and against spain they are favourites, cause spain haven't been really convincing, but you never know.
i'm hoping for a thrilling game.
for me, i would love final holland vs germany the most.
i've always liked holland and i'm rooting for them to win semifinal and hopefully final.
i got 82 points for round 5, i hoped more, but my argentians sucked, luckily like you AM, i got my share of 1 mil fillers.
i have to change my brazilians and i'm looking solid enough, overall im little bit behind from you, mainly because my first round was a disgrace, but with a fantasy game it's more entertaining to watch games also.
Would love to see a Holland Vs Spain final!
The Dutch should win this tournament! They need a trophy!
82 points in Round 5, Rank 20 in Blog League.
Ahhh i only have 14 players to play for next round.. should i add more??
Final: Holland vs Germany :-D
terrible round for me, Suarez as captain, brought in Messi instead of Podolski because I thought surely it was his time to score. Ended up with 58 points (-6 for extra transfers) and dropped many places in the AM WC.
For the semis, I have:
Muslera, Neuer
M.Pereira, Ramos, Lahm, Boateng (VanDerWeil-suspended)
Sneijder,VanBommel,A.Pereira,Rios,Iniesta,Sergio
Klose,Robben,Kuyt,Villa,Podolski
worried about the yellow card of Lahm, Rios, Sergio, Robben & Kuyt. Also concerned that A.Pereira won't be starting.
@bean
after quarter finals yellow cards were canceled, so every player starts with 'clean sheet'
@CFCBOSS - that's good news, didn't catch the new rule...
no Uruguay lineups this time around:
http://tinyurl.com/2873ovh
pesky journalists.
here's my team for semis:
stekelenburg, casillas
v.bronckhorst, m.pereira, heitinga, ramos, van der wiel.
rios, sneijder, xavi, iniesta, özil, a.pereira
v.persie, kuyt, villa, forlan
who should i captain on the first day, second day it's obviously villa, if my captain doesn't score good, my thoughts:
kuyt - always gets points, no matter what
sneijder - maestro of holland, assist or goal likely, set pieces, free kicks
v.persie - time to score, free kicks, takes penalties?
i had sneijder captained first, but was also thinking about Kuyt. I think Uruguay will go after Robben to shut him down, maybe creating more space for Kuyt. Dirk has really been peforming well this tournament and doesn't get a whole lot of attention. I think RVP is a risk with his injury (even though he has been cleared to play), I could see him twisting his ankle during the national anthem. He is "due" in some sense, but so is Torres, not sure if they will ever come through.
I was thinking about Klose or Podolski for the second day actually. I just have a feeling that Germany could have the smarts to shut down David Villa. I felt he was lucky to score against Paraguay, but he's certainly on a roll.
I think that what Low did, deserves some credit. he chose 6 or 7 youngsters to go the the cup and even started 3 or 4 of them for the german team. i wonder how many coaches are regretting not taking more youngsters now.
brasil's best two players, were its two youngest, Juan and Ramires.
mexico's most dangerous was geovanni dos santos, who can't even start for his club team.
ghana's best player, was the blog favorite, KPB, who is now having roma want to buy him.
france, england and italy's stubborn coaches, only brought its geriatric stars. each team had a smattering of youngsters, not enough.
holland brought youngsters on defense and then a few youngsters that are substitutes on offense. the dutch coach, van Marwijk, was forced into those picks because of the lack of big name defenders, so he wasn't risking as much as Low.
Spain has a very experienced team, and really did not need to mess around with the team, since they had won the EUROS, the spanish youngsters Navas and Pedro are doing fine in the cup.
i also think two men will cover robben, because of this i bought kuyt and it's really hard to pick a captain.
van persie had a arm injury some kind, after twisting he played on, so i think that's not the case.
i think kuyt or van persie can over score sneijder this time, like robben, uruguay will try to shut down sneijder, cause he's the playmaker, so for me either kuyt or van persie, don't have glue, who i go for.
germany vs spain is very close call.
@bean and CFCBoss
The yellow card info isn't totally accurate. If a player received a second yellow in the QF's he is out of the semis. The case in a point is Muller of Germany who is suspended. Which sucks for Germany because he has been a stud.
There is also talk on ESPN.com of Torres being benched. Which makes sense. He has sucked.
RVP has been a total disappointment, even more than Torres. I still have him on my squad because I still think, as I said so from day 1 that the Netherlands are going to win.
The only Uruguay player I have is Forlan which seems like a good bet with Suarez suspended.
I have had Villa captain since Day 1. I am in 60th place in the AM blog with 437 pts. which is ok, that puts me 15,414 in the world and 682 in the US.
I have 4 1.0 place holders on my squad who are out, so I have money to burn. Which is a strategy that I think people should have embraced. AM said he has a couple.
Needless to say I am nearly all in on the Netherlands over Uruguay. If Uruguay wins I crash and burn. If not I am still hoping for a top 25 finish in the AM league and maybe top 10,000 overall.
What has me absolutely puzzled is how Germany vs Spain is going to play out. I think, unfortunately, its all going to come down to the officials. Germany is going to try to kick the shit out of Spain, muscle them off the ball, control the midfield through hard tackling. If the ref keeps the yellow card in his pocket, I think Germany will win. If not, and Germany ends up a man or two down, Spain will pick them apart.
OT, if Fabregas goes to Spain (and he should be starting instead of Torres btw), could Arsenal buy Ozil please!!!! He is the next Messi.
chrism
velvet underground allstars
@charism
özil wants to go either chelsea or manchester united.
yep you're right about the yellow card situation, also van der wiel is suspended, it sucks for me.
there will be game for 3'rd place, so there's not difference really that much, all of them will play and final will be really close and cautious, i don't expect a lot of points, i presume holland to go to final and germany vs spain loser to get 3'rd place and score big, of course imo..
@chrism - the info cfcboss provided was that yellow cards are wiped clean AFTER the quarter finals, which I believe is accurate.
2 slots left, should I go for Klose or/and Robben or/and Podolski or/and Kuyt????
Calucifer./.
I'm thinking about making some last minute changes and maybe a 3 point transfer or two!
currently have only Muslera M.Perreira Fucile Ramos Pique Capdevila Ozil Schweinsteiger Khedira Iniesta Arevalo Rios Sneijder Robben Van Persie Forlan Villa Podolski
que goalaso gio!
AM Blog World Cup has dropped down to 9th
we gotta pick it up and finish off strong..
btw, AM and anyone else that might have been away from the game, have you tried automatic substitutions? wondering how well it works.
so far done decent for the round, 66 points from from 8. down to 57 after subbing out Heiti, Cavani, and A. Rios to bring on Capdevila, Iniesta, and Villa.
Also was looking at the numbers and so far the Blog League is the 9th best least in the game. only 20 points behind Fantasy Football Scout for 1st.
got 58points after yesterday.. minus 9points subs for heitinga, mathjisen and victorino for puyol, lahm and sergio.. left with 49points and drop to 69place in Am blog league.. today lahm, puyol, schweinsteiger, sergio, ozil and villa play for me.. klose is on the bench because i alrdy got forlan(8) and kuyt(7).. but last minute decision, i might drop kuyt for klose because i think klose is trying harder today for the golden boot.. :p
Asher_MaXTeN
69 points so far, up to 10th place in this group.
Anyway happy with 4 of my players managed to get a goal last night.
Btw, i have Robben (13), RVP (7) and Forlan (8) and Villa and Klose as Sub.. should i replace RVP and Forlan with Klose/Villa? Sigh..
Have to pick 5 out of this(Lahm, Ramos, Puyol, Boateng, Iniesta, Ozil, Swainsteiger, Sergio, Podolsky, Villa). Im gonna need my sidekick ability again.
Go all Germans or all Spains defender, for no risk no gain mentality... or go majority pick(Lahm,Ramos).
Post a Comment