It was a thrilling final round of matches in the group stage of the FIFFSA 5-a-side tournament, with qualification going right down to the wire for many sides. We now have only 16 teams remaining in the tournament as it moves on to the first knockout stage.
Final group stage review
Group A was a fascinating group. Indonesia had a 100% record through the stage, easily overpowering all of their opponents each week and they were the second highest scoring team overall in the group stage with 988 points. The rest of the group was intensely close with Belgium, Costa Rica and Norway each picking up a win. Belgium took the qualifying spot thanks to a superior points total over their opposition.
Group B was another group where the the group winners won through comfortably with three straight wins. This resulted in New Caledonia coming through and qualifying with the fourth highest points total (963). The second spot came down to a shoot-out between Egypt and Montenegro in the third match of qualifying, which Egypt won comfortably 324-294, taking them through as well. Mexico had a tough three matches and finished the group in bottom spot.
Group C was a much tighter affair where Australia (fifth highest scoring side) overtook Cuba to top the group in the third match of the stage. Cuba still qualified comfortably in second place in the group with two wins; Germany and Italy finish off the group with a win apiece. Italy can consider themselves hard done by as the highest scorers not to qualify with 933 points. Nine teams qualified for the knockout stages with fewer points than that.
Group D‘s table topper and third highest scoring side in the group stage, Djibouti, have been putting together an impressive run of results in the competition and have now chalked up nine straight wins in the competition, with yet another win against Peru. Bosnia qualified in second place after winning a straight fight against Malaysia 306-278, while Peru finish off the group bottom and winless.
Group E was the lowest scoring group with no teams scoring the average team score of 928. The leaders Argentina got through the group stage comfortably with three straight wins totalling only 868 points, which is the lowest scoring of all teams qualifying for the next round. Zambia are the other side through after securing a tight win against Israel (306-298) while Israel fell just short in their final match against Argentina. Northern Ireland finished the group bottom.
It was a tight affair in Group F. Jamaica secured top spot with a narrow victory over Columbia in their final match (309-300). Jamaica were the seventh highest scoring team overall. Colombia also qualified from the group in second place courtesy of Tahiti losing to Sri Lanka in their final match. Both finished the stage a win apiece and filled the bottom two slots.
Group G was dominated by Singapore, the group stage top scorers and the only side to break the 1000 point barrier (1003) over the course of the three games. They won all three games comfortably and will be amongst the favourites for the tournament. The rest of the group was too close to call as Portugal, India and Uruguay all finished with one win. It went down to points scored and only 29 points split the three sides with Portugal edging their way into the second qualifying spot ahead of India and Uruguay consecutively.
It all went down to the wire in Group H. Going down to the last match any side could qualify or fail to qualify. The ghost ship Iceland again proved how dangerous they are by putting in a good win against Finland 341 – 308, securing them top spot. The Seychelles beat Wales by 313-293 which meant they qualified ahead of Finland by only one point. This left the top scorers from the qualifiers, Wales, winless at the bottom of the table.
Group Award winners
The biggest score of the week was Indonesia with 348 points.
The luckiest team award goes to Argentina who managed to beat Israel with only 283 points, 23 beneath the average of 307.
The unluckiest team award goes to Belgium who lost having scored 326 points, 19 above average.
The worst benching decision goes to Sri Lanka who benched Smcelheron who went on to score a whopping 78 points, which would have been their highest score of the week.
The presser award for Group Stages Gameweek 3 goes to our very own Diva for his take on the Beach,
Keep the pressers up! There are so many excellent contributors which have yet to win awards. If you haven’t submitted one before why not submit one this week? it could be your last opportunity.
First Knockout Stage Preview
The last 16 Matches are:
Indonesia v Egypt
Australia v Bosnia & H.
Argentina v Colombia
Singapore v Seychelles
Belgium v New Caledonia
Cuba v Djibouti
Zambia v Jamaica
Portugal v Iceland
Ties of note are the two lowest scoring sides in the group stage, Argentina and Columbia, who play each other for the second time this tournament. In qualifying it was a very tight affair, with Colombia winning 304-300.
The highest scorers of the group stage, Singapore, play The Seychelles, who are very lucky to still be in the tournament.
Similarly, based upon group stage results you would expect wins for Indonesia, New Caledonia, Jamaica and Djibouti. But as Wales has shown on this tournament your past results count for nothing.
Further Information
A quick reminder of the format. Each Gameweek, teams will pick a team of five players to go head to head with their opposite nation. The match will then be decided by the aggregate score of each team’s Gameweek scores after hits have been accounted for.
As we are now in the knockout rounds, if there is a tie captains’ scores shall determine the winner, unless the captain is on the bench in which case it goes to second on the teamsheet. If it is still a tie, the match shall be taken to standard FPL H2H tiebreakers.
Captains are required to submit their team sheets to fiffsa.exec@gmail.com by 2300 (GMT) on Friday Feb 12th otherwise their sixth player will be automatically benched.
Live scorecards will be up shortly before the first kick-off on Saturday at the above spreadsheet
If you have any further queries, feel free to ask below in the comments or email us at fiffsa.exec@gmail.com
Enjoy the tournament; this is the FIFFSA 5-A-Side World Cup. Accept no imitations.
As a final request, please do try and keep FIFFSA 5-A-Side chat to the comment sections of our articles.
The FIFFSA Executive Committee – President Sepp Balders, VP BabyB, VP Jaffalicious!, VP Diva, VPBlue Lion and Secretary General Jerome Cheeseoid.
