FIFFSA 5-a-side World Cup Qualifying – Week 1

Team sheets are up on the Score Centre spreadsheet on the 'details' tab and the Score Centre scoreboards will be up shortly. As it stands there are 7 captains who are MIA without a teamsheet submitted, therefore the following nations will have their 6th man benched by default:

Croatia
England
Finland
Iceland
Israel
Sri Lanka
Tanzania

I hope everything is well within these teams, but I urge team members to get on their captain's case going forward.

Score Centre link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1kU-F2EmopAVZ2vh3hLSuLhqxdY9IMQ6q4Pz3WDIKn5c/edit?usp=sharing

Peru 0 Uruguay -4. The games has already begun.

So stoked to get this going. Good luck to all non-CONMEBOL teams and kudos again to the organizers.

Where is the sheet for all submitted teams for this gwk?

An old man, not unlike the many faceless old men you might see in any town or city around the world, slowly walks down a street. His origin as much of a mystery as his destination. His pace is slow, but his steps are assured. He draws near to a group of young men, draped in red and white, full of the type of confidence only youth can produce, only matched by the volume of the conversation and banter.

As the man draws closer to them he eyes them with equal curiosity and disdain. One of theore boisterous of the group breaks from the pack to avoid a playful punch from a fellow member of his herd. As he does so he causes the old man to momentarily like his footing and stumble. One knee and one hand on the floor to stabilize himself. The youth, now clearly recognizable draped in the red and white of Peru from head to toe looks at the old man and offers him his hand.

' I'm sorry anciano' the youth says whilst helping the old man to his feet. 'No harm was meant, we're just celebrating ahead of our victory this weekend against the Los Charrúas, they stand no chance' he states, 'Who are you? A red or a blue?'

The old man looks at the youth whilst wryly smiling, 'my dear fellow' he says, quietly but firmly. 'whomever wins this weekend is irrelevant, after all, as Rome wasn't built in one day neither is a legend formed after one battle'.

The youth looks at him, smiles, turns to his friends and says, 'Did you hear that? Even the opposition thinks they'll lose!' Looking at the old man he sneers, leaning closer in and says, with a smirk, 'You'll lose tomorrow all right, and every other match whilst we March onto history and victory!', 'What is your name old man, I want to remember this moment'

'i am not one, we are La Celeste. We do not need to boast and brag.' whilst lifting his shirt sleeve up to reveal two gold stars tattooed on his arm. 'Just like in lima in 1927, when your team was born, we simply produce time after time.'

A MESSAGE FROM THE URUGUAY TEAM.

We will never boast and brag, we will simply produce. Even if we falter in the odd group game we are La Garra Charrúa. We never give up, we always stand toe to toe and will fight to the end. Take us lightly at your own peril!

Hats off to the FIFFSA team. Even the FPL IDs in the sheet are hyperlinked and clickable.

You guys should really replace the jokers over at UEFA and FIFA. Brilliant work and thanks again.

Summary of the first pre-match Republic of Djibouti presser:
“The Egyptian roster is greener than Dublin on St. Paddy’s day, and just as unstable too. Perfect opening game.”

“My only worry in the game ahead is the lack of defensive Man Utd cover in this squad, the ratio between Egypt and Djibouti being Nemanja Vidic: Johnny Evans.”

“Seychelles is the team to beat in CAF, and they will be beaten.”

“I’d say more funny stuff, but it’s late and my brain just died.”

Hope you like the scorecard folks! 😀

Got to say the time and effort that has gone into this tournament is quite staggering to be honest..
Absolutely tremendous work from all involved in organising and thanks very much for doing so..

Cant wait to get going 🙂

Fabianski or cech in goal this week?

Ahem, just a heads up to the Colombians.

Not that it matters this week but looks like the highest team score in GW12 was by the Ecuadorians.

#justsaying

Ecuador bench Santa so close to Christmas crazy

just did KDB and Pelle > Tadic and Aguero for -4. COME ON AGUERO

also transferred payet for ozil a couple weeks back, as I had 2 FTs

Breaking News: Reuters :- 06.30 (Gmt) November 21 2015

North Korea v Bhutan (update)

Kim Jong-Un has been on national television to give a public message in support of the North Korean football team

" Give to your country what flows from your heart and the eagles shall see it all. Honour will be yours as sure as the rice will grow from our labours we did sow. Grant not the dragons from the mountains mercy for they would not to you. Kill the dragons with contempt but lay them down with grace.

Our blood still feeds the river and the river still feeds the sea"

No Mercy for the Dragons of the Himalayas.

Victory or death.

Good Luck Brothers!.

May the odds be ever in your favour.
Let the games begin.

Any updates on Vardy ?

Hats off to FIFFSA for that spreadsheet.
Already the best organised tournament i've ever seen on this site!

Reports in say a candid exchange of words occurred last night between the Argentinan and Bolivian captains ahead of their upcoming WC5ASIDE qualifier, although no video footage was recorded Adam Sadler playing the part of Dalemite Bolivian captain and Christopher McDonald as LeBron kindly agreed to reinact said exchange
https://youtu.be/wMAhCCZDwtU

Samuraaaaiiiiii!!!

We are going to lose to team that don't show up. Typical scotland

At the invitation of opposition captain Walsh, the Seychelles National Five-a-side Fantasy Football Scout team landed several days early in Abidjan for our opening World Cup qualify game. Relations were cordial between the two teams and we were looking forward to a fair contest against the Les Éléphants.

“Welcome friends,” said Walsh on greeting us at the airport, where we had arrived in President Jawain’s private jet. “You will enjoy kedjenou for dinner and we will party with zoblazo and zouglou music. Then you can relax on our glorious beaches before the game begins.”

The six of us turned to each other and shared a private smile at the mention of “glorious beaches”.
We didn’t need to insult our hosts. We came from the country with the world’s best beaches - we were one up already and the game hadn’t even begun! Five of us picked up our suitcases and Badger, who was still recovering from being marooned with just a cricket ball for company, picked up that ball, which he called Wilson, and we followed our hosts into town.

That night we partied with the Ivorians at Smarty Pants’ fancy pants home. It was amazing! There were screens everywhere displaying all sorts of Fantasy Premier League minutiae. Once screen displayed captain choices, another showed what proportion of players were starting that week and there was even a screen displaying how many FPL managers came from each country. Balders was in stats heaven and began babbling slightly incoherently, though that might have been from the booze we were also drinking.

Cheeseoid wandered off and returned a few minutes later with a map, which he laid out on a table.

“Diva, mate, we are going here! Look it’s written in the stars – hic – sorry, on the map. Diva, they have a place called Diva. How cool is that?”

As I turned the map to look, Impressive Tackle joined us at the table.

“Actually,” he said, “it’s called Divo, but it’s on the way to Tai Forest National Park where we planning to take you tomorrow so we can take a break there.”

We all agreed that was a fine plan and retired for the night. The following day we set off west, stopping in Divo for lunch before carrying on the national park. Aware of our Swiss origins, Emperical had kindly invited along Eva Carneiro, a top scientist from the Centre Suisse de Recherche Scientifique in Abidjan, which represents all Swiss scientists working in the country. As we travelled, she explained how the chimpanzees in the park used tools to crush rocks.

The following morning the Ivorians and Seychellians headed into the rainforest together in the hope of catching a glimpse of these clever primates themselves. We were deep into the rainforest when Badger, who was still learning to talk again after his ordeal, began hooting and hollering.

It was our captain, Blue Lion, who realised what was wrong.

“He’s dropped Wilson and he’s rolled down the valley,” he said. “Don’t worry, I’ll go down and get him.”

Blue Lion headed into the undergrowth and quickly disappeared from view behind the lush vegetation. A minute later here was a shout of anguish from below. Jawain, Cheesoid, Ryan, DesertBug, Smarty Pants and I all rushed forward to find out what was wrong.

At the bottom of the valley was a small river and Blue Lion was in it looking more green than blue.

“I found Wilson,” he said, holding the ball aloft. “But I think my leg is trapped. Can you help me out?”

We jumped in to free him and within seconds we were all shouting in pain. After a moment of collective panic, we calmed down and began to look around. There were several sets of eyes poking through the water, looking at us.

“Pygmy Hippos!” shouted Ryan. “Quick, get out!”

We scrambled to the shore, pulling Blue Lion with us, just as the others arrived.

Eva looked at our legs where the hippos had bitten us.

“You need to get that seen to,” she said. “The hippo bite isn’t poisonous, but it carries bacteria that can cause disease. That disease is called Payetitis and it’s not pleasant. It can lead to hits and all sorts of unpleasant treatments.”

We struggled back to the vehicles, where Walsh used a satellite phone to arrange our medical evacuation back to Abidjan.

Over the next 24 hours, all of us who were bitten by the pygmy hippos contract Payetitis. For some it was bad, for others it was worse. Cheeseoid rubbed Surman lotion in the wound, I suffered a hit, but our poor captain suffered two hits.

As the Seychelles team walked out to the five-a-side pitch at le Félicia to begin our World Cup qualifying campaign, Blue Lion was only fit enough for the bench. It was no place for our brave and fearless captain and we vowed to fight with everything we had to win the match for him.

I'd wager plenty that most of you couldn't even place Tahiti on a map.

But by the end of the FIFFSA experience, you won't be able to forget the mighty Tahiti.

Great things are stirring here.........

My country has 5 Rojos 🙁

Cue the national anthems - ours is definetley the jauntiest. 🙂

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIpfWORQWhU

Ugh, sat here with a horrendous hangover. Please don't make it any worse fpl and ffifsa 🙁

Reports are coming in from Mexico City that the travelling fans of Team USA are getting a bit grumpy in the run-up to their FIFSA 5-a-side opener with Mexico. Apparently it is harder to find enchiritos and chimichangas than they expected. "It would be OK if they could at least give us a Taco Supreme or something, but it's nothing but meat and beans and rice!" complained one visitor, sporting a fetching red, white and blue sombrero. Others expressed similar dismay at the lack of cheesecake. "I'm not asking for Black Forest or anything, just your basic New York style, is that asking so much?"

The US embassy is said to be in talks with the Mexican authorities over possible emergency supplies of stuffed-crust pizza and Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

The Italian team is going for a haka inspired chant in lieu of our national anthem vs. England.

Fee-fi-fo-fum
We smell the blood of Englishmen
Be they with Kun©, or a cheeky Bolasie punt
We'll grind their bones to make our pasta.

Forza Italia

Montenegro are gonna crush Wales today :]

unlucky boys

Allright then, listen up boys. Put your pints at the table, and get those lamb chops out of your beautiful beards. The time has come. Our journey begins.
After being humiliated in the Euros playoffs, not only once but twice, by a team with a 41-year-old goalie with sweatpants, our people are in shame. I’ll tell your right now guy, they don’t have high hopes in us. We’re the lowest scoring team in the whole tournament, and we’re only beaten my Egypt on lowest amount of seasons. We are indeed a massive underdog. But lads, we are Vikings! A 1000 years ago we plundered around all over Europe. Not because we had a massive population or the most developed technology, but because we were though and fearless, and we didn’t let anybody push us down!
Our journey to Thailand will be long and hard boys. We’ll probably stumble upon the likes of sheepshaggers, amigos, Nazis, patriotism, wannabe dwarfs and Vikings, and we’ll might even have to force our way through the sceneries of terrorism, but mark my words boys, we shall pass!
Let the games begin!

Ecuador has a Kun(c) !

Be afraid, Colombians, be very, very afraid!

Was late to submit teamsheet but our 6th player was being benched anyways so all good 🙂

Good luck to Thailand!!