FFS Uefa Hockey World Cup 2014 – Matchday 5

Here’s our regular update on the competition, featuring a look at the Matchday 4 games that took place over Gameweek 8. We also have some fun handing out some Matchday Awards and a look ahead to Matchday 5. Please use this article for all tournament chat.

MATCHDAY 4 RESULTS

The final Matchday 4 results have been updated in the Cup spreadsheet and we can reveal that after a hard-fought Matchday, England and New Zealand are atop Groups A and B respectively. Congratulations to all the victorious teams and commiserations to Malaysia and Korea.

MATCHDAY 4 AWARDS

Louis van Gaal Award for the best attack – New Zealand with a mammoth 1081 goals

A Rainy Night at Britannia award for the best defence – Argentina conceding just 857 goals

Salma Hayek Overnight Award for the player of the week – Djenzio with an incredible 123 goals

SAF Management Award – Zep with 98% manager rating

Jose Mourinho Award for the best press conference of the week – Lee Sha-Do  with latest TV coverage from Korea and Ellipsis (Argentina), who has now won 5 times in a row

Hot Urine Treatment for the highest point scorer on the bench – Seamy (South Africa) with 117 goals

Dalglish Differential for the worst team selection – 7 shades of smoke (India) with a record 86% rating

MATCHDAY 5 PREVIEW:

With the final matchday of the group stages about to be played in Gameweek 9, here are the fixtures

Group A

Australia vs India

Spain vs Malaysia

Belgium vs England

Group B

Argentina vs South Africa

Germany vs Korea

New Zealand vs Netherlands

Keep track of how your team progresses over the gameweek via the Live ScoreCast Tool

HOW CAN EACH TEAM QUALIFY FOR THE KNOCKOUTS?

As we head into the final matchday of the group stages, we still have 10 teams vying for 4 knockout spots, with no one team guaranteed qualification yet. It can’t get any closer. Here’s a rough take on the scenarios in each group.

Group A

Even though England are the only team with 9 points in Group A, it is closer than it seems because of everyone’s goal difference (GD) being so close (within 50 goals, which is barely anything). It is almost a must-win game for England, as a loss will likely see them below two other teams on GD. A win will see England qualify irrespective of goal difference.

Amongst the remaining teams on six points, Belgium are favorites in the group, as a win will likely see them through on Goal Difference. Spain face Malaysia and will also be confident of registering a win in another must-win clash for them. With heavyweights Australia and India going against each other, they are in the same predicament as they will need to register comfortable wins for either to qualify or hope that one of Spain or Belgium lose their games.

As you can see, it’s incredibly tough to call Group A at the moment with every one of the five teams needing a win to qualify.

Salma’s Predictions – Belgium narrowly defeat England and Spain defeat Malaysia, to go through on goal difference, with four teams ending up on 9 points.

Group B

In Group B, New Zealand sit at the top of the table as strong favorites to qualify. They are all but through, thanks to their remarkable GD. However, if Argentina win their game, NZ need to ensure they don’t lose to Netherlands by more than 63 goals. Argentina will want to win their final game or hope that Netherlands loses to NZ. Netherlands will have to defeat NZ to qualify and hope that Argentina lose their game. If Argentina win their clash, Netherlands will need to defeat NZ by more than 63 goals to oust NZ of the Cup.

South Africa’s best chance of qualification relies on NZ defeating Netherlands and South Africa defeating Argentina by more than 83 goals. Germany face an uphill task for qualification. Besides from just winning their clash against South Korea, they need to make up on their GD. With South Korea eliminated, rumors has it that they will give it their all for the cause of FFS teams in the final matchday.

Salma’s Predictions – Argentina top the group with a comfortable win against South Africa. NZ lose their games yet qualify on goal difference, with Netherlands coming really close to ousting them out of the cup.

LINE-UP SUBMISSION

All managers are requested to email me their four substitutes and their Fantasy Premier League IDs before the deadline of Friday, 24 Oct, 2359 BST. In case he or she fails to do so, the autosubs will be the last four players on the Squads Page.

Managers may also be likely to post any pressers on this article here. So be on the watch for latest team news, especially from your rivals. As previously, please keep all the match day banter on this thread.

Brace yourselves geezers, because it’s crunch time.