Fifa 2001 MLS Qualifications

One of a few non-european leagues in the game so this is an important place in the final. Chicago Fire and DC United were I guess the major pretendents to that golden ticket and they did not dissapoint the fans. Only team that actually could bring a suprise was Miami Fusion, mainly thanks to their striker Lessiter who give the team a lot of confidence in their attacks and produce a key goals. But in the semi final Miami clashed with D.C. United and lost after a close game 1:2. In the final Fire was already waiting for their biggest rival but D.C. was stronger than they could possibly imagine. Chicago will remember this day for long, as D.C. provided them a lesson of counting, when goals kept coming one after another. It ended with four and that was far enough for D.C. to play in the finals.

Fifa 2001 Netherlands Qualifications

Ajax, PSV and Feyenoord. These three teams are always the strong favourites when it comes to Dutch football. In this tournamnet fans were also looking at Arnhem and Alkmaar wich are looking good lately. The tournament seemed to be interesting but who whould ever know that so many suprises will took place. Ajax and PSV lost in their first games! Utrecht took a confident 2:0 win against Amsterdam and Breda managed to pull of a stoppage time goal that give them a suprise win in Eindhoven. Arnhem lost with Heerenveen and Alkmaar had to admint Feyenoord was the better team after 1:2 lost. So basicly in the semi finals Feyenoord was the last man standing when it comes to the favourites and they did not stand long. Heerenveen took their chances and met in the grande finale, check out the highlights and see how it all went...

Fifa 2001 Scotland Qualifications

In Scotland the game plan is simple. It's always a fight against Celtic and Rangers and it whould be a huge suprise if any other team managed to secure a place in the finals. So who will it be this time? Celtic or Rangers? Defenetly not Celtic as they got an shocking result in their first game against Kilmarnock and were out of the tournament before it even started for them. But Kilmarnock were really on form and if you look from a wider perspective they deserved that win. Meanwhile Rangers were on the highway to the final and only team that could stopped them form playing in the finals was Kilmarnock. They didn't. It was all about Rangers, they played like they were from another dimension and took that tournament without even trying. Chceck out the highlights...

Fifa 2001 International Cup 2 Round Qualifications

Four new teams began to fight for glory in this round. We got Colombia, Japan, Norway and Russia joining the race for the final. All of them won their games eaisly. Norway had a tough battle against their neighbours from Finland who did well in the first round. This time Norway was better and after 2:0 win stayed in the competition. Russia considered themselfs lucky as they drawn Lebanon in this round but you never know, specialy since Japan won only 1:0 against the brave Mauritius. Well russians took no prisoners and Lebanon regreted joinin the cup in the first place as they lost 0:6 and were heavily knockedout from the tournament. Slovenia and Switzerland again shown a lot potential winnig cofidently against South Africa and Ireland. But the real test will came in the next round were Slovenia will play England and Switzerland will clash with France. Check out the rest of the scores and all the goals from this stage...

Fifa 2001 Brazil Qualifications

It's easy to find some great teams and big names in brazilian league, so fans were on their feet when the battle for a place in final tournament started here. Brazilian style always focused on attacking and scoring goals, this time it was no different so the goals kept coming. Fluminense won in the qualifications against Internacional but in the next game they were victims of Corinthians shootout, 7:0 and it looked like we have a favourites. But in this crazy goalfest nothing was sure. Botafago and Santos also looked sharp thanks to their super strikers Aranda and Almeida. Ofcourse we can't forget about the favourites Atletico Paranaense and Vasco da Gama. So who won in Brazil? Read more, watch the highlights and found out for yourself...

Fifa 2001 Korea Qualifications

They say that Korean league is not equal. Well we had some high flying teams in this one. For example Pusan Icons. These guys were demolishing every one and looked pretty sharp. But when it came to the decicive games Icons just could not bring it on. On the other side we got Suwan Bluewing, who struggle a bit, but consecvently were building they way into the final stage. They were the ones who beat Pusan in the semi final. But all in all when Anyang Cheetahs join the tournament in the semi finals, it was clear that they want the place in the final and they won't let it go. They looked like they were not even on their best form, but still managed to won the tournement easy. Chceck out the highlights from Korea...

Fifa 2001 Austria Qualifications

Austria Memphis was pretty angry it was them who had to start the turnament from day one while Sturm and Rapid were already in the Semi Finals. They decided to prove everyone was wrong and did pretty good in fact. Austrian international Mayrleb was scoring like crazy and Austria Memphis was in the final before they even know. In the "Clash of Titans" Sturm had a vary close battle with Rapid. The game went to penalties and Rapid had more cold blood. The final itself was not a big show. Austria must have put all they had in the past round as they were looking pretty shady out there. Rapid managed to score the only goal of the game and ironcly that one goal was all they needed to get the place in the finals. Check out the highlights from the tournament...

Fifa 2001 International Cup Round 1

32 teams started they road to the final in first round of qualifications. We already had some suprises, for example Australia, who were knocked out on their home ground by Slovenia. Cyprus lost against Mauritius and Lebanon beat Estonia. But most disapointing performances came from Greece and Poland. These two were named among the favourites for at least last 16, meanwhile both of them lost against Qatar and Kuwait.  So who did their homework? Defenetly Switzerland, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and Finland. All these teams won their games eaisly and although the rivals were not the strongest sides out there, a solid performance is always welcomed. Teams from Great Britain are also looking good. Wales took an away win against Egypt and Ireland won with South Korea. Make sure to check out the highlights with all the goals from the 1st Round...

Fifa 2001 Danmark Qualifications

In Danmark we have quite the situation from Israel as 12 teams arrived in the game. Again we divide those in  8 and 4 team mini-cups and winners meet in the final. Fifa 2001 seems to be harsh for the favourites, as again the main team goes out in the first game. Brondby was not easy to beat but Silkeborg made that one goal difference. In Norway Molde gain a lot confidence after defiting Rosenborg and in Danmark the same happened to Silkeborg when they won with Brondby. Another team to watch out for was Lyngby who won 2 first round with easy 3:0 scores. At the point no one seemed to notice another winner wannabe - FC Midtjylland, but that was the team that sneeked to the final beating Herfolge and Haderslev on the way and meeting with Silkeborg who managed to stop Lyngby in the semi final. In the last game the monster was finally unleashed and Midtjylland eaisly beat Silkeborg who many was already seeing as a winner. But that is not the end as Danmark champion will play in play-off games with winner from Sweden.

Fifa 2001 Norway Clubs Qualifications

14 teams in Norway make things a bit difficult. First we take 4 worst theam and ramaning 10 go to the next round automaticly. In the second round we have 2 teams form the first round plus we 6 worst of the 10 that had an auto qualification, remaining 4 go to the next round automaticly. In the 3rd round we have 4 teams form 2nd round and 4 with auto qualification. Moss and Byrne made it to the second round and it seems that playing form the begining was not that bad ideas since in the second round both teams again knockout their opponents. Bodo/Glimdt and Viking also made it to the last 8 were Rosenborg, Molde, Lillestrom and Valerenga were alrady waiting. Clash between Molde and Rosenborg was exicitng fans as both teams looked strong on the paper. Rosenborg was given more odds, but it was Molde who won on the pitch and started their march for glory. Bodo/Glimdt in the semis and Moss in the final were not able to put a serious fight agains Molde, who must looked like they must had gain a lot confidence after match against Rosenborg.

Fifa 2001 Greek Clubs Qualifications

16 teams in Greece so no problem at all with designing a suitable competition. Still as only 8 teams can be conroled by user in the game we have to made it two 8 teams turnaments. The obvious favourites were Olympiakos and Panathinaikos or rather O.Pireaus and Leoforos as the authors called them due the lack of official license for this league in the game. Well, Leoforos seemd to keep the plan going as they took an early lead against Kalamata, but then who knows what happened. Kalamata started scoring and when the dust gone down it was 5:1 on the scoreboard. Pireaus shown a bit better form, as they looked like a better side troughout the game against P.Thessaloniki but unlucky they lost after an own goal. In the next round we had to look for a new favourites and when it came to the semi finals you might have thought that P.Thessaloniki and A.Thessaloniki are the teams to fight for the glory. Wrong again! The final was a clash of Cinderellas as Kianerithri and Philadelfia were the only one left on the battleground. Chances were even - literally. The game went to penalties and after 12 series no one made a mistake. Finally keepers started to do their job and Atmatsidis from Philadelfia given his team a place in the finals after dening two shoots in a row.

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.