Tuesday 3 April 2012

Team Of The Weekend

Decided to give out some credit for some top performances this weekend with my first edition of team of the weekend.

GK: Jonah Gardikiotis (ROI) - Was in very tough against Sudan and was forced to deal with a lot of crosses. Made 2 huge saves at the end of the game to seal the victory for ROI.

Defender:  Jarvis H (Canada) - Scored 2 goals for Canada in a lopsided game. Jarvis was solid as ever though.

Defender: Dan (Jamaica) - All I know about him is he is one of the white guys on Jamaica. Scoring 2 goals is always impressive. Scoring 2 goals while playing on Jamaica is nearly impossible. Congrats!

Midfield: Johnny Aceto (Italy) - From the underdog team of the weekend comes an underdog player. Another 2 goal scorer managed to snag 2 incredibly important goals and put ES on the brink of elimination.

Midfield: Dwayne Gareau (ROI) - May not show up on the stat sheet but he gets the job done. Won a lot of headers and a lot of tackles especially in the Sudan game.

Midfield: Megan Cormier (Germany) - Don't know if I have ever really seen her play before but she bossed the midfield and Germany strolled to an easy win. It was impressive.

Midfield: Steve Irinici (Laos) - Worked tirelessly in the midfield and was rewarded with 2 goals. Set up 1 or 2 as well. Always looked dangerous with the ball at his feet and going forward.

Striker: Andrew Zerr (Germany) -  Pretty much had to go in alone up front for Germany and yet managed a hat trick. Came up big when it looked as though Germany could falter when they had 7 or so players not show up.

Striker: Leon Derks (France) - Leon is always tough to deal with and Sunday was no exception. Scored 2 nice goals and allowed France to win easily. Put in a lot of work as well.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Fortunate for DG that this list doesn't include off-pitch performance.

Nate

Anonymous said...

Collins why is Julio not on your list? All this talk about buddy, and he is not on your list. Julio can't be that great if Collins aint recognizing buddy skill which most of these bloggers claim.

Anonymous said...

Anonymous idiot, other than having to jump up and down all day vs Sudan... There was not much to do out there defensively. Good effort on trying to cause a reaction, but you just showed how little knowledge of the game you have.

Julio

Anonymous said...

Why does Jonah not play for Greece. After all he is Greek? It be nice to see the people with actual heritage play on the appropriate teams if they have a team in the tournament.

Anonymous said...

I agree with Anon 11:13. I'd love to see this tournament move to a you must play with the country you have the most heritage in unless they don't have a team, or unless you get cut from that team. would create more parity in a lot of teams and take away the ridiculous all starring.

Anonymous said...

put yourself on the list Collins.. Even though I hate you because you're good and funny looking.. Having a 90% goal ratio on set pieces is pretty crazy. Bravo

Anonymous said...

I am taking a lot of flack for saturday day/night's off field performance. In my defense to the Regina lounge scene getting the better of me I did put in a solid 9hour shift before falling victim ... a late lunch at OJ's at 2:00 followed by a move to the Keg at 5:00, followed by a move to Press Box at 9:00, followed by a long cab ride home at 11:00. Probably should have mixed some solid into my diet for supper, but instead went with a liquid diet of mixing any type of alcohol I could consume.

This Dan fellow for Jamaica seems to be a nice pick up for them. Scoring 2 goals in what appears to be his first appearance at WCP (I think?) is a nice way to start.

DG

Anonymous said...

Also,

In my make belief stat world, it would be interesting at the end of WCP tourney to see an actual stat of how many goals are scored off of someone kicking the ball into the roof inside their own penalty area.

I don't know how many times guys panic and just boot the ball into the roof. You might as well take an extra touch and potentially be dispossessed rather then kick it into the roof.

What do you guys feel is the best tactic to defending a direct kick from the top of the box in this tourney? I know Somolia's keeper standing directly behind his wall was a terrible tactic haha. (we scored 4 direct kicks from the top of the box on him).

This direct kick can become a very important game changer as we have seen in the past. Last year France was eliminated this way. Sudan lost this year against us largely in part to this.

I would think a larger amount of guys than normal in the wall would be the best tactical way to defend this. Put 6 guys in the wall and take away the largest area of the net forcing the keeper into making a save on his side. I don't think the ball is getting up and dipping over the wall in time from that short of a distance and therfore forcing the attacker to just try and rip the ball past the keeper.

Next time you are at a game that matters with a large number of people watching and you see a player kick the ball into the roof listen to the buzz of the crowd as they know that this is probably going to be a goal.

DG

Anonymous said...

one game and hes a hit??? I dont get it and worse of all it was aganist Colombia of all teams...ya give him some credit but lets see how he reacts to teams like Laos, and Canada.

Anonymous said...

You know DG you bring some solid points to the conversation about your off-field performance on Saturday... yet I would say that we need to look at other factors so people can see the full spectrum of why you were a dud that night.

Saturday you were with 3 other individuals... none who threw up, and all whom made it home no earlier that 2:30 am; I believe you made it home at 11:30, give or take.
Secondly, I remember you starting the day with a delicious looking pulled pork sandwich from OJ's, so you gave yourself some sort of a base.... whilst others in your company chose to have a liquid lunch that consisted of just booze... and I believe that same individual did last all night.
Finally, at around 5pm... you started to refuse beer as you felt bloated...I'll leave the readers to make their own verdict on that.

DG, had you been partying with light wieghts like Sanderson all night... then you would have had a solid outing... yet I did forget to mention that the first words that came out of your mouth Friday were 'Rest up boys... Tomorrow night is going be a long one'...

Is the flack deserved... I think the fact that you couldn't even make it to a 3pm lunch on Sunday says more than enough! As didn't you get over 12 hours of sleep that night?

Oh DG... such a beauty, I just hope that the following weekends you can in turn give other the flack that you have recieved.

Julio

Anonymous said...

Please add the entire Norway team as their decisive 1-0 win over Greece has sealed them a spot in the 1/4 final according to dufus. Everybody watch out!

Riggs

Anonymous said...

Dg it's pretty tough defending that free kick on top of the box because if u put six guys and leave the other sides open they might just slide the ball to other players and it's in the back of the net but sure butting your big guys on wall could help but as Collins figured I out already, his kicks were low and hard so u really just have to pray that the kicker hits it over the bar

Mike Collins said...

I couldn't put all ROI players. Make me seem like way too much of a homer.

There are 2 things I see a lot of players do which makes it really hard on their teams. One is they hit the roof and then make a 3 man wall. DG is right get at least 6 in there. Somalia didn't even bring back their strikers.

The second is they save the ball from going out for a corner and instead kick it out the sidelines. A corner is a lot easier to defend than a kick in from a better angle where all you need is a touch and the keeper is hung out to dry. It's something that is hard to get used to but would save a lot of teams some goals.

Anonymous said...

uggh I hear ya Riggs.. I would love to see norway not make it through. I hope France, es, and Italy crush them.

Anonymous said...

Mike,

Don't need to give away all your tactical secrets. You are such a nice guy!

Thanks

SS

Anonymous said...

I don't know if I like this trend of people posting with initials, as for the most part there have been to make fake names made... that I have very little faith that the anonymous people chirping and insulting will put their legit initials.

DB was the first to do it, and then DG decided to follow suit... and NR was just mocking DG, and I have no idea why JT went that route... but as far as I am concerned if your initials aren't obvious, it's still anonymous.

Julio

Anonymous said...

Give credit to that Botswana defender who tireless worked overtime agaisnt Team Sudan,the guy did not sub but he manage to contain that number 11 guy and number 6,though they lost handsomely but they actually scored themselves by deflections.

Anonymous said...

Breaking news:

Dufus has already planned and announced their parade for tomorrow throughout Regina. They couldn't find a flag pole, so they strapped one to dufus since they are the same size. Rumor has it that bartosz was called in to take a look as he is the pole expert. He oiled dufus up and slid up and down repeatedly and gave him the seal if approval. All things are a go, Norway beat Greece and has already clinched their 1/4 final berth while only having to score one goal, a feat never before accomplished.

Anibal is riding his 2 goal game and threatens to cancel the strip off for 2 reasons: first Collins neglected to mention him as team of the week candidate when every other player was there for scoring 2 goals, also as es's new superstar he doesn't want to pull anything and let the team down whereas Poland could care less if bartosz ever sees the pitch and give him full blessings to compete in the well publicized event.

SO, good points about the initials, I'm sure if you put in the type of off field performance as DG you would be happy to not have your actual name online. Sounds like DG is the Midas touch of the drinking/partying world.

Riggs

Anonymous said...

Riggs you must have a hard on for Husdal!

Mike Collins said...

Everyone else on the list who scored 2 goals played on a winning team. That's the first criteria.