Kameumi

I have Italy as the champions. against all possible odds. They are playing under no pressure at all after being written off by everyone, especially at home. England were in the same position, but after their tie yesterday, all the clever commentators on ITV and everyone else British were suddenly convinced they will go all the way, deriding Sweden and Ukraine on the way, calling them "weak teams".. Now, they will lose their next two and go home. The first round results confirm my basic thesis: In this type of league, it's a crap-shoot. Anyone can win, with a lot of good things usually happening to the home teams who would have been hard-pressed to qualify at all had they had to go through the usual preliminary channels. And Germany. I would be honestly suprised if England manages to beat either Ukraine (Who looked very sharp and sits on one of the best striker-pairs in the tournament in Voronin - Shevchenko) OR Sweden (Who England have a very bad history against). My bet is that France finishes clear #1 with Ukraine scraping together 4p to take place #2.

Hahahaha - Brilliant!

Not to interfere, but I think the scores are Chabonowaka - Xiaotan 3:0, and Pitinosato - Pandaazuma 3:0 (if I am not mistaken again). The Exec gyojis will have the last word. You are right about Chabonowaka having 3 goals scored, my mind asumed Denmark lost, it still cant comprehend that match. About the other game I think I'm correct there. "The line-ups are in the form of a 'chain', starting with the first slot, and going down to the last slot. However, the chain may be broken at any stage, in which case, any results that occur after the breakage cannot score goals." "When one team has its chain broken, then situations 7-9 are used, until the other team's chain is broken. When both chains are broken (or the 7th slot has been reached), the match is over, and no further slots are considered."

My prediction was wrong, but I am still very pleased!

There we have it! Round 1 is over. Final standing Round 1 - Group B XaioTan - Chabonowaka 0 - 3 Chabonowaka scores his only goal with his © team Spain that had an direct meeting with XaioTan's Italy in the same slot. Edit: Also scores two with his upsetwinning ® Denmark Pitinosato - Pandaazuma 2 - 0 Pitinosato decided things right out the gate with 1 - 0 and broken chain already after slot 1. His chain went unbroken all the way to the last team Ireland and managed to score goal number two versus Pandaazuma in slot three were Pitinosato's ® Germany was up against Pandaazumas (n) Germany. That gives the current standing in Group B (Rank. Name | points | goal difference) 1. Chabonowaka | 3p | +3 2. Pitinosato | 3p | +2 3. XaioTan | 0p | -3 4. Pandaazuma | 0p | -1 PS. Dont forget to send your entries for round 2. I have already recived the entries for round 2 from Chabonowaka and Pandaazuma. Awaiting the selections from XaioTan and Pitinosato. EDIT: Changed Xaiotan - Chabonowaka result from 0 - 1 to 0 - 3 thanks to Achiyama watchfull eyes.

Haha, spot on. Dry to the level only a true brit can summon.

Your bitterness is leaking over again. :-P Germany had more goal scoring chances then Portugal aswell as decent controll over the match as a whole in my eyes atleast. Portugal did preform better then I myself had thought tho and there organisation was impressive.

Very intresting day of matches. In group B the Dutch loss made sure that Pitinosato beat Pandaazuma as the match is decided on the very first slot. (Russia vs the Netherlands) XaioTan is out and garanteed a 0 goal score with his ® team Netherlands in the first slot but can still draw the match if Italy upsets Spain tomorrow. (0-0 in such case thanks too Germany beeing removed for both players.)

What an upset from the Danes. An amazing preformance that really took me by suprise. Hats off!

That is correct. No need to excuse yourself, by all means help my players if you want an can. Its only a positive! :-) @ Pandaazuma Sorry for the harsh 1-4 loss. It could have been much closer with a bit more luck the Czech way.

Well that's the idea Chabonowaka. The ® team is a great risk/great reward kind of team. ;-)

Very entertaining first match in my eyes. Lots of drama! @ Achiyama I personally think your spreadsheet would be great as an "overall result" document, for the the whole tournament.

Haha alright, a bit of an overstatment Asashosakari. I admit it. ;)

The Czechs have been on a steady downsloap now for quite a while. All there topclass players have been getting old while there's a severe lack of new talent, atleast sofar. The roster they present this tourney looks like perhaps the weakest they have had in centuries.

Well spoken Andonishiki! Today it starts! And its gonna be grand! I'm giddy with expectations, I just hope "the beautiful game" will prevail and teams playing entertaining footboll will be rewarded for it. (Not like EURO '04 when Greece won. (Laughing...) ) Best of luck to everyone deserving of it! Ps. Achiyama - Those color filled tables were beautiful. Great idea, a shame they couldnt be easily imported to the forum.

Haha, its hard to stay calm when your rivalclub is grabbing the glory, no doubt! (To hell with Inter!) @ Chabonowaka American footboll is great (especially last season for us Giants fans! :D) but the loooong offseason gives alot of room for other sports Chabonowaka!

There are not a huge amount of important and really hard games among those "none-losses" tho. Altho it is still an intresting point, no doubt.

Due to the rules, I would suggest that this match *might* be decided by the Netherlands vs Denmark..... If the Netherlands win, XiaoTan is in the driver's seat, with a goal advantage.... If they lose or draw, his chain is broken, and Chabonowaka is looking good.... Despite the Netherlands impressive record of recent times (apparently they are number 2 in the world in the ELO ratings, after Spain), they might be thinking about their other two matches in the group... Denmark are a decent team, and could take advantage of any loss of concentration.... Yes, I am assuming a win for the Netherlands here. In my mind they are way to strong and sure to drop points to Denmark. I dont think there is any danger of Netherlands underestimating Denmark as they have been facing them with some regularity in several different qualifers and know there strength well.

Thank you very much! (Laughing...) Had to put some effort in when my players gave me so much "extra time". @ Andonishiki Mario Gomez should be good enough. (He is THE favourite among most bookeepers to score the most goals in the tournament after all) He has been putting up great numbers in every single competition he has gotten playtime in for years aswell.

Thanks to my quick, smart and strong players in group B we are first out with the lineups for round 1. First out we have XiaoTan vs Chabonowaka: XiaoTan 1. ® Netherlands 2. Germany 3. Italy 4. Ireland 5. Ukraine 6. Czech 7. © Greece XaioTan refrained from commenting on his round 1 match as he knows what the wrong words can do too the minds of the the delicate players. Chabonowaka 1.Netherlands 2.Germany 3.© Spain 4.Poland 5.Croatia 6.® Denmark 7.Italy In the pre-game interview Chabonowka tells the present media: "Well, i've examined my team versus that of XiaoTan, and overall,it seems i've got the better team. but he'll likely get the extra goal from his R in the first round, so i'll have to hold my chain longer. i'm not sure if i like Poland or Croatia better in their matches, but Poland seems less likely to outright lose, so i go with them on 4. hopefully i hold my chain two longer. or that's what the bookmakers told me to do, anyway. :)" Gyoji comment about the match: As Germany is removed and both players start with the strong Netherlands (Altho XaioTan got them as ®) this match will most likely be decided in how the outcome of Spain - Italy falls as the players have the opposing teams in the 2'nd slot. Second match out is Pitinosato vs Pandaazuma: Pitinosato 1. Russia 2. Poland 3. ® Germany 4. Croatia 5. France 6. Greece 7. © Ireland Pitinosato declined the pre-game interview with reference to an active and brutal cold. Pandaazuma 1. Netherlands 2. Czech Republic 3. Germany 4. Ukraine 5. Ireland 6. © Croatia 7. ® Portugal Pandaazuma gave a quick word to our big breasted journalist: "Fabulous start - representative team last, counterbalance team 6th. Congratulations on your easy win, Pitinosato!" Gyoji comment about the match: Interesting matchup. Even with Pandaazuma's carefull mentality he will be in good shape if his highly trusted Czech Republic could upset the favourite Russia in second match of the tournament. Our dedicated representativs from the cheat-checking institution would like to make clear that all the players have gone through rigid tests and have come out clean, white and shining. The Gyoji would also like to hand out a thanks to all group B's players for the early entries, it really makes the whole procedure a lot smoother.

I would play aswell. Altho not thrice over as Achiyama would! ;)

Group B - I will be your gyoji! You can send your lineups to my e-mail: Reawer51@hotmail.com or in a pm here on the forum. My deadline will be 1 hour before the start of the first game of each round. That makes the deadlines to send an accepted entry look as follows: Round 1: Friday 8th June, 16:00 (BST (British SummerTime)) Round 2: Tuesday 12th June, 16:00 (BST (British SummerTime)) Round 3: Saturday 16th June, 18:45 (BST (British SummerTime)) PS. I would prefer the lineups to be sent after the following standard(Altho I will ofcourse accept any correct entry, no matter the style): 1. Nation 2. Nation 3. ® Nation 4. Nation 5. © Nation 6, Nation 7. Nation <Witty, sharp and slightly aggressive comment> Thank you! PS. Wonderfull job with the rulepresentation Jejima. The simple tables are brilliant.

Great job in the drawing Jejima, this time around aswell! But I like you miss the 1's from the last draw.(1 would have given me Italy ^^) That said, I'm still very pleased with getting my 2nd choice, Russia. I have money on Russia making the final. They are a strong group this time around, and its a bit less intrasquad drama then usually. ;)

The FIFA/UEFA Rankings are soley based on numbers and old preformances. They are much more an indicator of how teams "has been doing" then an estimate to "how they will be doing". The FIFA/UEFA Rankings are also affected by how teams from the different national leauges preform in inter-league competitions. (Something that isnt really a good indicator of how strong a national team is, since the distrubution of topplayers are very centered to only a few leauges.) I can't imagine how you would calculate rankings on any other basis than achievements to date. To say "how they will be doing" would be akin to making Kisenosato a Yokozuna because he's a popular choice. Also,to say that the FIFA/UEFA national rankings are affected by teams from the different national leagues is a nonsense. Only the club co-efficients for the CL and Europa League are affected by league club performances. Refer to this link for confirmation http://en.wikipedia....EFA_coefficient Look at that, I were wrong in the thought that club preformance affected the FIFA ranking. Thanks for pointing it out. Its never to late to learn. :) That however does not change the fact that it is not as good an indicator as the bookmaker consencus. You cant make a direct parallel to sumo, it does not work the same. Keep in mind that sumo has a tournament every 2 months were all simularly ranked competitors face each other directly, thus making the ranking much more updated and true. But remember, even this "better" ranking isnt really the the best indicator of how the competitors will preform at the next basho. Look at at our last basho for an example, were Kyokutenho and Tochinoshin were among the top preformers (Kyokutenho even winning the whole thing) while beeing low on the banzuke. The ranking (banzuke) in this case were way off, especially compaired to the informed guesses of experts that saw both doing well the basho duh to them dropping in ranking. Even here does the ranking not try to estimate the competitors preformance but rather "reward" them in correlation to recent preformances. That said it still gives a better picture in sumo then in fotboll where compititions are far apart with so much happing strenght-wise in between them, aswell as the fact that the different teams does not face eachother with the same regularity at all as in sumo witch makes the ranking even more skewered. Thanks to the involvment of the national league players in constant club-matches tho, bookmakers and other experts have alot of information to go on to make "qualified guesses". And as I mentioned before, this isnt really up for discussion (wich one is more accurate) since the bookmaker odds has been showed atrackrecord of beeing head and shoulders above the ranking in estimating the outcome of the major tournaments, both club and national. Another valid point is the fact that these Teams have squads and the individual players both change and develope differently. Imagine if a banzukerank was tied to a shikona, who's reprasantative could be changed and inherited. The idiom "you can not compare apples and oranges" rings true in cases like these. You have to look at the individual situation, with football and its rankings beeing all it is.

The FIFA/UEFA Rankings are soley based on numbers and old preformances. They are much more an indicator of how teams "has been doing" then an estimate to "how they will be doing". The FIFA/UEFA Rankings are also affected by how teams from the different national leauges preform in inter-league competitions. (Something that isnt really a good indicator of how strong a national team is, since the distrubution of topplayers are very centered to only a few leauges.) Going by the general sence of a gathering of differnet bookmakers is very much the prefured way to set the ranks of teams here. It is not only logcial but have been showed to have vastly more correct estimates then rankings, every single tournament that I've experienced. (Both National and Club)