Championship Fifa Tournament Review

The 22nd Tyke Fifa Tournament, ‘The Championship Tournament’ is over; here is the review of which I hope you enjoy.

This tournament consisted of just the one group with seven players participating the usual suspects were here including the current champion Saggy looking for his third title in succession. Wenger, Monica, Tyke, Crouch were also hoping to make an impact on the tournament, whilst two newcomers in the form of Greg and Mike would be looking to upset the status quo.

It was Tyke and his Huddersfield who dominated the group stages, beating everybody apart from a slightly controversial 2 – 1 defeat to Saggy. My personal highlight was the 3 – 1 win over Wenger, going 3 -0 up within 25 mins. Elsewhere Saggy did toil a bit losing to Wenger and drawing with Crouch and newcomer Mike but in the end he got 11 points and progressed in second with his Blackburn team. Wenger was only a point behind in third and was able to scrap and fight his Millwall team to some close victories, a loss against bottom placed Crouch was made up for with a victory against Saggy whilst beating Greg and Mike helped his cause.

The battle for fourth place proved really tight, in the end it was only 3 points which separated fourth from seventh. Whilst a number of abject performances meant Crouch never really threatened. Mike, Greg and Monica all were in with a chance near the end. Monica was having a tough time with arguably the strongest team in the tournament in Norwich and could only muster seven points but he did beat Greg and Mike, also took a point off Wenger which could’ve been enough. Unfortunately for him despite a poor start on his debut campaign Mike picked up momentum beating Greg 3 – 1, Crouch 6 – 0 and then most impressively took Saggy to a 3 – 3 draw to earn one heck of a precious point, this put him above Monica on goal difference. However Greg could’ve still stolen this. On six points, he needed to beat Tyke who had nothing left to play for, but it wasn’t to be, a 1 – 0 loss sent him and his Derby team out. So Mike went through in fourth, not a bad debut from Greg, but him and fellow Pro Clubs team-mates Monica and Crouch, all tumbled out. You may have the best Pro Clubs team lads, but individually still a way to go before you win the big one.

So the first semi-final saw group dominator Tyke and his Huddersfield take on Mike and his Wolverhampton team. Playing in his 8th semi-final and already beaten Mike in the group-stages, surely anything but a Tyke victory would be a significant shock. The match started pretty even, but it wouldn’t be long before Mike managed to get in front taking advantage of poor defending to go 1 – 0 in front. This struck Tyke into action and before the first half he was 2 – 1 in front with Wells dragging the team forward with two excellent strikes to leave Mike shaken. However the second half started evenly again and Mike wasn’t overawed, far from it! A well worked free-kick mid-half put him back on terms and some end to end action ensued. A winner was not to be found and the plucky newcomer took it to golden goal. Early on in the first-half of extra time a penalty was conceded with a rash challenge from Mike’s defender. Tyke’s decision to pick Wells instead of first choice penalty taker Vaughan cost him dearly as it was saved, despite dominating the rest of the half Tyke still couldn’t find a winner. Mike came out a new man in the second half, probably buoyed by my penalty miss and a well worked Sako strike low in the bottom corner won the match for him.

I could complain that Mike had the better team by one star, but the truth is with my tournament experience I should’ve won this match no excuses. Mike however fresh from that result against Saggy has got himself into the final at his first attempt and now had a chance to make tournament history.

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