Gameweek 5 of the FIFFSA 5-a-side tournament saw our first confirmed qualifications and exits. However, for the vast majority of the teams, there is everything still left to play for.
We would like to remind everyone of the deadline for submitting in your substitutes. This week, it will be 23:00 GMT on Monday, Jan 11th. We are still receiving some emails after this time and those teams had their 6th player benched as stated in the article. Please email as early as possible as we have limited time to organise the team spreadsheets and update the score centre during Monday night/Tuesday.
Any teamsheets sent to us after 2300 GMT will not be accepted and your 6th player will be benched. No Exceptions!
Gameweek 5 Review
The average team score for this week was 340 points  and as with previous rounds there were some close ties. In particular, the ties between USA v Cayman Islands and Iran v Sri Lanka were decided by a single point.
The biggest win of the week was for Bosnia and Herzegovina, which defeated Russia by a massive 71 points in a match that ended 366 to 295.
With five games having being played, Tahiti remain the sole side with a 100% record and are secure for qualification. Thirteen other sides have won four of their first five matches and will expect to qualify although some still remain at risk depending on certain scenarios. In contrast, UAE and Ivory Coast, still maintain a 100% record of losing. Qualification may no longer be possible but I’m sure they will be looking to avoid a whitewash over the next two games.
The luckiest team award goes to France, who scraped a win with only 324 points (16 points below average).
The unluckiest team award goes to the Cayman Islands, who lost their tie against the USA despite scoring 357 points (17 points above average). This would have been enough to win all but 10 ties this week.
The worst benching decision goes to Iceland who benched Gilli Gold who scored 88 its, although it didn’t matter with Iceland edging out the Republic of Ireland.
The presser award for Gameweek 5 goes to Il Consiglieri Wasabi 196 of San Marino for getting the tournament into the christmas spirit. 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?
Gameweek 6 Preview
There are lots of exciting ties coming up this week and some teams should be able to secure their spots in the first round proper of the tournament.
A top of the table clash in AFC group B finds New Caledonia taking on Singapore. Both sides are level on 12 points at the top of the table along with Australia and will be crucial in deciding who tops this group. The winner will guarantee qualification while the loser may need a result in the final game depending on other results.
In the CAF group, four teams are currently on 12 points. Two of these, Zambia and Djibouti go head to head, again, the loser of the tie will then need a win in the final game to secure qualification.
A more detailed summary of this can be found on the player history tab which includes the rank history of every player in the tournament at our team sheets and tables spreadsheet.
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 teams’ gameweek scores after hits have been accounted for. This week’s games can be found here.
Captains are required to submit their team sheets to fiffsa.exec@gmail.com by 2300 (GMT) of Monday, Jan 11th otherwise their sixth player will be automatically benched.
Live scorecards will be up shortly before the kick-off on Tuesday evening at our score centre 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, VP Blue Lion and Secretary General Jerome Cheeseoid.
