Fiffsa 5-a-side – Quarter Finals Preview

There were lots of close matches and plenty of surprises during Gameweek 26’s Last 16 encounters. Here we take stock of all the action from the the first knockout stages and look ahead to next Gameweek’s quarter finals.

Last 16 Review

This week was carnage for previously high-scoring sides with the seven top-scoring sides from the group stages all going out, as previously high-scoring players such as Sergio Aguero, Romelu Lukaku and Riyad Mahrez all blanked in unison.

Indonesia  v Egypt

This was the lowest scoring tie of the round as Egypt comfortably moved past a poor Indonesian side 242 to 218, with a stronger defence and an ultimately unneeded bench boost. Indonesia, despite being the second highest scoring team in the group stages, delivered the lowest overall score for this Gameweek as they picked up only a single clean sheet from 20 goalkeepers and defenders.

Through to the quarter finals, this plucky band of Egyptians are navigating this tournament with aplomb when you consider they have never had a player ranked inside the top 500,000 of Fantasy Premier League (FPL) before this season. It will be exciting to see just how far they can go.

Australia v Bosnia & H.

This was a low-scoring affair that finished 233 – 245 as both captains left their second highest scoring player on the bench this week. Australian skipper Jeanz, who masterfully used his bench boost to beat Italy in the group stages, will be ruing his decision to bench Lukaku-less GeordieNUFC as he could have turned the tie in their favour with the right decision-making.

Despite Australia’s benching decisions, however, take nothing away from Bosnia & Herzegovina as Labud Ostojic’s 67 points was one of the highest scores of the last 16 and Zolakumara played his Wildcard well, bringing Diego Costa in as captain for 18 points. This proved crucial in a tie separated by 12 points. Australia’s exit means FIFFSA say goodbye to Tim Howard’s Beard, the tournament’s highest scorer, who takes his top 2,000 rank with him on his long journey back to the outback.

Argentina v Colombia

This was the second time these two teams have met. Argentina managed to get revenge for their earlier humiliation in the qualifying stage and brought home a 260-247 win. Of course, it could have been quite different if Colombia had submitted their bench player and they played their top-5,000-ranked star player Poccecinno (58 points) ahead of captain Ayew Serious, (35 points). This would have won the tie by 10.

Singapore v Seychelles

This game saw the highest scoring team from the group stage take on a middling Seychelles side. But the Seychelles upset Singapore by posting 306 – the highest score of the week – while Singapore recorded the second highest score of the week on 279. This was truly unlucky for Singapore as they would have beaten any of the other remaining sides.

Belgium v New Caledonia

New Caledonia were favourites coming into this match having topped their federation’s qualifying group and then won all three group games at the tournament proper, facing a lowly Belgium who scraped through their group stage with just a single win. Yet Belgium’s diversity in attack came to the rescue as their Costas and Vardys pulled off the fifth highest score of the week to surprise a Lukaku-laden New Caledonia 264-244.

Cuba v Djibouti

Djibouti came into this match on a nine-match unbeaten streak and were the highest scoring side over the whole tournament. But they came up short in the first knockout stage, scoring just 228. Cuba took the win by the largest margin of the week, rolling in with 258 points to win by 30.

Zambia v Jamaica

A hard-fought encounter where Zambia scraped home with a one-point win, 268 – 267. This game truly kept everyone guessing until the end. It eventually came down to Vardy only getting one bonus point, which left Jamaica a point short of making a comeback from their overnight deficit.

This tie was between the third and fourth highest scoring teams of the round so Jamaica can consider themselves rightly unlucky to go out at this stage, especially as the Caribbean outfit could have gone through had they selected their bench player differently.

Portugal v Iceland

This match was was the first draw of the tournament proper as both teams posted scores of 251 points, taking the tie to a captains’ tiebreaker. Despite being seemingly unaware they are still in the tournament, Iceland’s skipper SindriSeagal outscored Jose’s Magic Omelette 65 – 44, to knock Portugal out of the tournament. Will Zambia be the Icelandic ghost ship’s next victim?

Rankings and Awards

With so many high-profile casualties, Seychelles inherit the moniker of the highest scorers left in the tournament and hope to hold onto this title for another round. This is how the rest of the teams line up:

1    Seychelles    (3,241)
2    Cuba        (3,227)
3    Bosnia & H.    (3,213)
4    Belgium    (3,191)
5    Zambia        (3,179)
6    Argentina    (3,170)
7    Egypt        (3,136)
8    Iceland        (3,128)

• The Team of the Week Award was the Seychelles with 306 points, 27 points clear of their nearest opposition.
• The Player of the Week Award goes to the Seychelle’s fox in the box Jawain who scored 72 points this week
• The Luckiest Team Award goes to Egypt who won against Indonesia with only 242 points, 11 points below average.
• The Unluckiest Team Award goes to Singapore who were knocked out despite posting the second highest score of the week.
• The Worst Benching Decision goes Jamaica, who benched Acquafresca and his 63 points. If he had played ahead of 4 of the 5 other players in the side Jamaica would have been in the draw for the quarter finals.
• The Best Presser Award for the last 16 goes to Lateriser12 with his poem regarding the week’s match.

Second Knockout Stage Preview

The quarter final matches are:

Egypt v Bosnia & H.

Argentina v Seychelles

Belgium v Cuba

Zambia v  Iceland

There is significance in all the remaining matches and everything to play for. As we have seen again this week, history counts for nothing.

The Seychelles, the top scorers in the last 16, take on Argentina, The tournament’s second place scorers Cuba take on Belgium in fourth in a top of the table clash. Bosnia are in third spot overall and they face Egypt. Can Egypt provide another upset? Zambia will have to see if they can be the team who finally knock out Iceland. Both are towards the bottom on points scored but equally deadly on their day.

Remember, please keep up the pressers! It was great to see some new posters last week. We are down to eight teams remaining now so if you are still in, you have a great chance to win this tournament. Let yourselves be heard. We are still awaiting the first Iceland presser by the way.

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 2nd 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 26th 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.

Please see our Tournament Spreadsheet. All scores, player, fixture and tables information can be found here.

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.