Choosing the squad was like pulling teeth. I bought just three three vaguely reliable names and was immedietely left loading up on Iranians.

If Iran do well we'll be laughing. There's probably more chance of Rupert Murdoch turning out to be a lass...but there's a chance...

Sissoko will probably be used as a sub; Valbuena's a passer and costs the same. Small framed, but a starter.

I have lots of Algerians and Iranians, plus guys I have never heard of from Honduras.

I have not spent everything. There's an extra unit in case I feel the need to change all over again.

Iran could become a cult team cos of this. 1000s around the world quietly cheering them on.

As many as that?

I say bring on another Iran/U.S.A game.

Just looked again and was wrong. you can't transfer new players into your squad till the knockouts but you can switch players in and out of your starting xi ... i think.

yes yes-- thanks.

it's like this:

you're locked with your 23 during the group stage.

you choose 11 for every round. 3 rounds for group stage.

during each round, you can sub underperformers with those who haven't played in that round yet, but you lose any points with the subbed player.

the next round you choose your starting 11 again.

at the end of groups it's unlimited transfers, not sure at what cost, and prices won't change (a pity, cuz you could play them like the stock market).

i have created my team now, my login name is "slavoh", joined the SYG league too.

though, the rules seem curious to me. you have 100k Money and you need to book 23 players, not a player less.

no matter how I tried, I have to stick to 11 more or less top quality players, but ALL THE REST is just fillers from Algeria/Iran/Honduras. No good or even medium quality subs.

How can I then sub my players, if there's noone to sub?

This seems poorly done, compared to the Fantasy League of the last Euro cup.

i'm "juppjuppjupp"

The budget does make it really difficult but by limiting myself to just a couple of pretty big names I've managed to pick (hopefully) starters from the lower teams. Things'll get more fun once the group stage is over.

Trying to work out if there's a US player worth taking a punt on.

Slavo! Slavo! Slavo! Grrreat!

I don't see how anyone could do differently.
I'd say I have 3 good defenders, one who might be if the papers are right, and filler (2 starters I bet among the fillers)
My midfield is solid, with only 2 guys out of 8 who will seldom play, and 1 I have no idea...
1 filler only among the forwards, with a couple of low budget bets.



This rule I costly passed by during the latest tournament.
I'd say it should be taken into account when you hesitate between two players you're not particularly fond of.
Picking fodder from group A will not be risky. Let the guy play, gather nada, you'll replace him by some bloke from Germany later on.

My starters are thus not meant to stay there, unless something magic happens.
I don't think you can switch from 4-4-2 to 3-4-3 though.

Unfortunately, Iran, Algeria and Honduras don't play their games soon enough. Australians are too expensive (they got thrashed by France during a friendly, they were fed up with their coach and wanted a new one I guess).

Quote:

Originally Posted by !@#$%! i'm "juppjuppjupp"

How come this can be so articulate?

My fave American is too expensive.
His father used to be the national coach.

Anyone has clues regarding Bedoya?

Based on what I've read I don't think he's a guaranteed starter.

He's not. The US is not a fantasy team, they're like the NBA Spurs of international soccer, no glamor and no stat monsters, just team play. Like I mentioned in the basketball thread, I don't like fantasy leagues, I think it takes away from what I enjoy about watching a match or a game. I like to make predictions, but not live or die by stat based predictions. I'd rather just enjoy a match/game for what it is in that moment, and reflect on the stats afterward without necessarily having an predictions to stand by. Sure, I make predictions about stats, often they are spot on, the times they're not mean a player usually exploded so its a pleasant surprise. If a player shits the bed, it already is what it is, don't need further disappointment with a fantasy sabotage to boot.

http://youtu.be/5yyIFV4pilE

Some great stuff for the WC on the Zonal Marking site.

http://www.zonalmarking.net/

The guy seriously deserves a knighthood

Should've bloody used this for me fantasy football.

who else is taking Friday off from work to watch 3 matches back to back to baCK?

colombiano, plays for nantes, decent.

last time he was subbed at '60 by zusi when playing vs nigeria

i didn't really notice bedoya too much (bradley was indeed the star) but i thought the usa played better when bedoya was on. he had a part in jozy's first goal i think.

then again there were i think 3 substitutions at around '60. things got a bit sloppy after that.

here some fresh info:

http://prosoccertalk.nbcsports.com/2...united-states/

oh, and match info:

http://www.espnfc.com/gamecast/389009/gamecast.html

i'd suspect he'd be a starter vs. ghana since klinsmann prefers european vs mls players (zusi is mls).

but please first fact-check what i'm saying cuz it might not be 100% accurate.


what is this "work" you speak of??

ha!

It involves a lot of degradation and long hours of near-infinite boredom.

ha ha ha.

im gonna be working early mornings during el mundial. makes sense cuz i'm doing farm work right now, and after 10am it gets FUCKING HOT. and the flies will eat me alive-- the fuckers bite!

D'you know anything about Timmy Chandler? As in likely to start?

I'm on summer vacation, I am taking EVERY fucking day for the next 3 weeks off too watch at least some of every game. I do it every summer, with whatever tournament is going on. I also like to watch so many morning and early afternoon games, its is coffee instead of beer, its a great change of pace from the grind of night games during the NBA season and especially every night of the playoffs..

all i know is he is one of klinsmann's german imports--raised in germany, born from an american (soldier) father, like julian green or fabian johnson and jermaine jones or john brooks.

i think fabian johnson is a safer bet from what i saw on saturday-- people were commenting that this was the same lineup he'd bring to ghana. BUT-- maybe it was all a big fakeout. i barely followed the qualifiers but i know he's kept tinkering with the lineup. i really really don't know what klinsmann is planning--nobody does really, ha ha ha. midfield diamond or flat 4-4-2 or a diamond that looks like a 4-2-3-1, it's a crapshoot for the observers.

Ah, I've given up on any US players. They're either too expensive or likely not to start. Back to scouring Algeria for me.

!@#$%! you nailed it. I watched the WC Qualifiers and the Gold Cup and its become very clear that Klinnsman is a tinkerer with his line ups, especially substitutions. It has become predictable that around the 60th minute he will sub in a player who will within 5 minutes make a HUGE play, but what is beyond prediction is which player will that be? If anything, cutting Landon was the epitome of this. No line up or change would surprise me, and its definitely match to match.

i'm trying to fix a fuckup in my team and the thing won'tlet me transfer. what the fuck? is that fixed once you pick? last league you could fuck with it until start time.

ps it's fucking ridiculous that fifa DEMANDS you enter your gender when registering and it only gives you male/female option. they should learn from facefriend. anyway this reminded me of the devil (sepp blatter) and this very funny video. checkit: http://youtu.be/DlJEt2KU33I

Just onto 'transfers' and you can do it there.

Just tried and the transfers section is still working ok for me.

Some news just in that Yaya Toure might've picked up an injury. I had him in my line-up and quickly swapped him out, in case anyone's in the same boat.

WCs are always blighted by injury but this one seems especially so.

So when are we allowed to reveal who we've got on our squad?

I dunno if we'll be able to see each other's full squads but I imagine our starting XIs will be shown after tomorrow's transfer deadline.

i tried but it wouldn't let me so i nuked my account and opened a new one with the same username


ah shit, mine wasn't. don't know why. even with money left over. anyway please kick my older account out of the league-- it's a dud-- i mean it still seems to appear, it has a comoros flag. the new account has a st. kitts flag. lololol where is that no idea.

ANYWAY. sorry about that. i was trying to get rid of dzagoev. putin's curse im sure.

Are you playing two teams? There's two Juppjupps in the league?

no no. i NUKED (deleted account) of the first one. somehow its corpse is still floating there, with dzagoev in its belly.

the thing let me re-enter as jupp^3 because it was, officially, a non-existing username. but when i rejoined the league i saw 2 jupps. like bolivia in "fringe".

the new one (at the bottom) is the one i'll be playing furreals. please nuke league member #3 if you can (between bertrand & h8kurdt). sorry.

The Instigator is IN the SYG league bitches!!!!!!!!

Time to pick team!

It won't let me delete it. Don't worry, the dead one'll just naturally float to the bottom.

Rob too! Excellent!

it was a pretty good team i thought, i wanted to just sub a couple of midfielders.

but oh-- one of my last acts was to take EVERYONE off the pitch ha ha ha. yes, it will die.

ha ha ha-- i have a massive headache now. but thanks!

--

oh. it's the spread. i get it now. i didn't know what the +/- meant but now i do.

i'd put my $ on croatia for that spread. no way brazil will win with a 4-goal difference on an inaugural game.