Fifa 12

Another great competition starts. We decided to play a few Fifa's cups at the same time not to get bored with playing one game too much. As always we will pick best team from each league and play a grand tournament and of course international team will also have their own cup.

In Fifa 12 we have 22 leagues plus the Rest of the world. The final tournament will contain 24 teams so Rest of the World will give us two places. As we have 4 Greek teams in "ROTW" category this country will have a mini-tournament and an inside competition for 1 place and other teams will compete for the other slot.

There are also 42 international teams so the tournament will be a bit complicated. For now let's just say it will start with 3 rounds of qualifications. In the 1 Qualificating Round there will be 16 potentialy weakest teams in the game. We made the choice by our own intuition, knowlage and teams performances in the years 2008-2011. In the first round you will see - Norway, Bulgaria, Scotland, Cameroon, Slovenia, Chile, South Africa,  Peru, New Zeland, Switzerland, Ecuador, N.Ireland, Egypt, Austria, Finland, Hungary.

The first club tournament will take place in Irish league, then we go to Switzerland, so stay tooned...

Fifa 2001 Israel Clubs Qualifications

In Israel we got 12 teams so we divide them into two turnaments containing 8 and 4 teams. In the 8 team cup H.Haifa and M.Haifa looked good right from the beginig, so no wonder these two met in a small final making it a derby game. H.Haifa won 2:0 and we had ourselfs first team in the final. Other 4 teams were Netanya, Y.Tel-Aviv, M.Tel-Aviv and Rishon. Although M.Tel-Aviv were the obvious favourites, it was Netanya who smashed and crushed their way to the final. Two easy 4:0 wins and some brilliant performances by Vilner and Zohar has given them right to stand against H.Haifa. In the final game things were pretty tight and both teams seemed serious. Fans waited for 2 hours and still no goals came, so a series of penalties were needed to shut the case. Netanya shown bit more concentration and won 4:3 securing place in the play-offs against Galatasary.

Fifa 2001 SWEDEN CLUBS QUALIFICATIONS

"IFK Half Way There"
This is one off the three tournaments in Fifa 2001, that will no put the winner straight in the final tournament. Winner from Sweden still has to play one more play-off game with winner from Danmark. 14 teams started for that one place and two of them were already put in the final four.

From the begining Hammarby and GAIS shown winning potential, not only playing good football, but also grabing confident results. Hammarby knockedout Helsingborg and GAIS had no trouble with Norrkoping. In the next round GAIS again took an easy win against Orebro but Hammarby did not able to beat Hacken, who were pretty defencive side right from the begining and not lost a goal second time in a row.

Fifa 2001 Belgium Qualifications

"Rock Solid Defence"
Here we go! First qualification tournament took place in Belgium. No license for this league in the game so you won't see any logos and only plain t-shirts, but it will get better. 18 teams and a similar system as in Fifa 2003. Two 8 team tournaments and 1 team selected from each one to join Anderlecht (Brussels is the name in this game) and Club Brugge (Brugge) in the final four.

Lokeren, Lierse and Mouscron show a good football in the first round and further stages proven that those teams are really in good form. Actually Lokeren and Mouscron met in the "little" final for a place in final four and what a close game it was! For 120 minutes both teams kicking their anckles in the middle of the field and then a devastating penalty shootout. Players were scoring like machines and it took ten series to choose a better side, Lokeren won thanks to their keeper and advanced to final four. Battle for second place was between Beveren and Charleroi. Beveren so far got a bit lucky, wining two rounds in the shootout but this time it took them only 90 minutes to secure a two goal lead and a place in the four.

90 Minutes European Prime Goal CUP -

"Time for Corrida!"
14 teams in this tournament, all from Europe title sugests. 6 strongest teams goes straight to the quater finals, and 8 have to fight for the remaning two places. From that point it will be straight knockout.

First game betwen Norway and Ireland was a even one, but again Irish luck turned on right when the green side needed it and a single goal made the difference. Romania was strong favourite in the game against Scotland and they did their job well, winning confidently with two goal margin. Football fans sharpen their teeth for the clash against Sweden and Bulgaria, but in the end Bulgarian team did not really put on much of a fight and an easy go trough for "Vikings". In the last game of the first leg Wales show a lot potential eaisly beating Belgium. Though Ireland looked good, they were not good enough for Romania who again show a lot of confidence and discipline on the field. Second team who secured place in the last 8 was suprisingly Wales, who managed to knock Sweden with just a one goal difference.

"Germans play to the end" - Actua Soccer Cup Final

"Germans play to the end" - Final Summary

Well that old quote from Gary Lineker has proven to be right again. Germany didn't really have much competition in this cup and no matter who they played always looked a lot better than the other team. The key to winning the final and the whole tournament was great defence, briliant midfield and superstar attack. The final it slef was a bit one-sided. Sure Italy tired their best but rivals barely give them any chances to even creat a threat. Meanwhile Klinsmann was completing his art of destruction scoring easy two goals and taking the lead in the race for golden boot award. In the second half Riedle once again show his style and with 3:0 on the scoreboard Germany just waited for the final whistle.

FIFA 2001 CLUB CUP

Time to start with Fifa 2001. We got 17 playable leagues in the game plus the "Other" category wich contains only turkish Galatasaray. So basicly we will have 18 teams after the qualifications and we want 16, so we decided that winner from Israel will play agains Galatasaray for place in the final and winners from Sweden and Danmark will play each other for another one. 

We will play this one on PS2 since the version is more stabile then the PC, that runs weird on current systems, plus it was one of the starting titles for the console so it looks really nice on it. 

"Victoria!!!" - Actua Soccer Cup Semi Finals

"Victoria!!!" - Semi Finals Summary

Match betwen Germany and Holland may look like a clash between Klinsmann and Bergkamp but it was Stefan Effenberg who became the hero. Germany took control from the start and since Effenberg was really in the groove, it was not long before he scored two goals. Holland replied on the first one after a long shot from Witschge but still was behind after the first half. In second 45 minutes German was playing smart football, keeping the ball and defending high. As Holland must attack and uncover a bit, space was created for counter attacks. One of them made the final score 3:1.

Before semi finals Italy had trouble with scoring and ofen used to waste great chances. This time it was different. First of all I don't know what they had for breakfeast but "azzuri's" looked like they were on some serious power ups. English players were two steps behind all the time and we did not have to wait long for goals to came, as Zola shown great form. In the end he scored an hat-trick of amazing goals and the one that beat the keeper from over 30 meter whould probably become this tournament classic. Tough good bye for England.

"Tulip Thriller" - Actua Soccer Cup Quater Finals

"Tulip Thriller" - Quater Finals Summary

Irish luck is over, though you have to admit they put on quite a fight! Germany was one goal better but on the pitch it looked like a draw, so the "Green Island" should be proud of their boys. UK still has their team to cheer as England won another game. This time it was Bulgaria, who after beating France in last round became a true revelation of the tournamnet. England managed to keep it cool and after Ince and Cole goal they won 2:0

Another revelation of the competion - Colombia this time had to face Holland. It look like another great game by Asprilla and the boys as they were 2 goals in front on the half time. After they knock out Brazil and Argentina in the earlier games, the score made a lot of sense but Holland did not surrender till the end. "Oranje" started the second half well and came back to the game after Marc Overmars shown a bit of foxy skills in the penalty area. The thriller has rally started when Dennis Bergkamp made the score even after a great run and wonderful finish. With 15 minutes to go, Holland still had time to pull it off and they tried their best. Colombia looked tired and tried to defend draw, but Bergkamp again made the difference. Four European teams will meet in the semis and all of them look like winners.

"Cool as Colombia" - Actua Soccer Cup 2nd Round

Easy win for Germany, solid performance by England and some tough battles behind Holland and Italy. But it's three other team that supprised everyone making it to the quater finals. First of all Colombia. Shown potential agains Ivory Coast in qualifications, shown style agains Argentina in last round but this time what they did with Brazil was absolutely amazing! '94 World Cup winners did what they could to find a way to win but when they lost two goals in ten minutes they did not know what hit them and it was too late when they got back on the track with Zinho comeback goal.

France is not in the highest potential right know and Bulgaria has few great names on their side, so the score was not easy to predict in this one, but still what happened out ther was a total suprise. Emil Kostadinov had a game of his life and not only turned every chance into a goal but also all of them were outstandingly beautyful. Whole French team was somwhere else and they should be thankful it ended only on 5 goal difference.

Last but not least - Ireland. Doing another baby step to the final. First won with Switzerland after an own goal, then got lucky after a really strugle against Danmark and now they throw Spain out of the tournament. Team is not a pack of stars, but show as lot of heart on the field and that keeps paying off so far, will the Irish luck help them agains Germany?