World Cup 2014 Fixtures Schedule
Following on from our World Cup group by group analysis we are delighted to present to you our fixture tracker for the group stages. Many thanks to Andy who kindly volunteered to provide us with this along with his take on how it will all pan out in the usual colour coded fashion, complete with a current form guide which will give you an idea of how each team is shaping up in preparation for the big day. Hopefully this will be of some help to you all as you plan your fantasy teams and their progression through the group stages. We shall endeavour to update this as the competition progresses to the knock out stages to keep you as well informed as possible.
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Form Guide Key
W – Wins
D – Draws
L – Losses
F- Goals For
A- Goals Against
CS- Clean sheets attained in last 10 games
Rather than taking results from the last 6 games as per the norm I’ve stretched it out to include the last 10 games to try and include as much competitive football as possible as persistent freindly games are sometimes not the best stats to gather information from, I think only the Koreans have not had a competitive game in their last 10 games. The quality of opposition also varies greatly across the board.
NB All stats are up to date to the 23/05/14, all teams still have either 2 or 3 friendlies left to play until the competition kicks off.
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Color Code Key
Purple – Not only do I think this team has a high chance of winning the game I also believe it may be possible for them to win by a fairly big margin.
Green – All green team games should be considered as favorites for this tie.
Yellow – All yellow team games should be considered, as it could possibly go either way.
Red – All red team games could see that team struggling in that corresponding fixture.
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Some of you will have registered already but if not the site that we are using for this years game is Mcdonalds Fantasy World Cup, you can register here. You can register now and begin to pick your squad from June 8th ahead of the big kick-off on June 12th. We will publish the FF247 league codes as soon as the league option is open on the site itself.
How many of us have given a thought to the formation of McD’s WC Fantasy if the rules stay the same? There is a chance that rules might change, but if they do not, it would be a massacre.
Every 2 balls delivered into penalty area (1)
Ball recovered (1)
Every save/blocked shot (1 for GK, 2 for others)
Now these rules are ridiculous and would go in favour of CBs mostly who are great on recovering balls and who occasionally send in crosses.
Taking example of Ramos here. I think he played 10 matches in Champions League. and the total number of recovered balls he recorded were 96, which would result in, lets make it 9 points per game. And that does not even account for the random goals he scores and the cleanie he maintains.
Now imagine we grab 5 defenders of that calibre in our WC squad and we would see roughly 50 points from our back 5.
Moreover, our usual defensive midfielders will love this scoring system too. Busquets, a fairly defensive midfielder played 7 or 8 matches in CL i think and racked 66 recovered balls. That is almost 8 points for a defensive mid per match just for the recovered balls, and that could be a really great score since an assist gets 3 points while a goal gets 5.
They way i see it, if rules stand like this, this is the ideal formation:
5 DEF
3 centre backs (Ramos type players)
2 attacking full backs (Zabaleta and Baines type who can throw in accurate crosses and have a fair chance at cleanie)
4 MIDS
Mostly defensive. Even Mikel would be a great purchase. YYT and Pirlo should do well too.
1 FWD
Messi. Arguably in the best group and is a no brainer for any team.
Wow, this was long. :hippo:
Pretty much what I’ve been thinking up until now, though far more concisely explained! Nice one.
B, no need to give it thought. I usually just wait for other people to inform me of what I should be doing. :hippo: #SamePointsLessWork
I just wanted to alert Chins and Elle. They both know they are in the group of death.
Thanks B, spot on analysis. It does ruin the point of the game somewhat though would you agree? We will be mainly sat cheering on defensive players for recoveries rather than goals or assists for attackers.
True that! But still it would be interesting and not totally hopeless. In FPL we usually want players to score or assist to make our day better, while in Yahoo FPL there are points for everything like fouls won and other activities.
But i think the RB points are too much. Maybe 1 point per 4 RBs would be okay. Or it would just shift our focus to defensive boring players.
Great analysis there B, spot on. A strong defence seems to be a must, that’s for sure. However, going with one striker is a bit of a clanger, in my opinion. 3 up top for me, 3 beasts at that.
Who are the 3 beasts up top? Ronaldo/Balotelli, Messi and Neymar?
Sure, but we do not know how expensive they will be. Getting all three is quite impractical and would only stop us from getting monster pricey defenders who should do well without even a cleanie or goal if the rules stay, such as Pepe and Ramos who have an awesome work rate on pitch in the recovered ball aspect.
Id prefer having Rooney up top in the McD’s game. Has a very slim chance of scoring but goes deep too.
Yeah, the values will determine everything pretty much, i’ll still go for 3 top forwards though. Ronaldo is a banker, 17 goals in the Champions League alone says it all, it wouldn’t surprise me one bit to see him fire Portugal to top spot in the group. An Argie forward is a must too, if Aguero is fit he’s a serious contender, he has the work rate and a shite group. After that, Neymar, Suarez (if fit), Lukaku, Costa (if fit) and van Persie are all serious contenders. Ideally Ronaldo-Messi-Suarez/van Persie.
Fancy having both Aguero/Higuain and Messi up top for first two GWs? Should be comfortable wins for Argentina.
That’s an interesting thought B, Aguero&Messi + Ronaldo..hmmm, interesting indeed.
Cheers B, I haven’t even read the rules yet
Any chance of a article ?
Not sure. Havent done much research yet. It is only restricted to UCL though and only on three players yet, Ramos, Pepe and Busquets which gives us a fair idea of recovered ball points that defenders and defensive mids can rack.
I had originally intended to have Lloris as my only playing keeper due to keepers getting 6 points for a CS, however looking at the scoring system and more precisely that a keeper gets one point for every save maybe it’s best to get keepers from the worst teams, as they will have the most shots at them? Think keepers like Mannone and Marshall, they would get 10-20+ points every match if they got a point for each save.
Thats true Tekno.
I always hate picking keepers. Im hoping to get Ospina (Columbia). Romero (Argentina) should also be a good pick, but then there is Zabaleta.
B if I ever said anything nice about you….I take it back.
Is Colombia not Columbia. :rant:
Columbia will top the group. 😉
Mexico 3-0 Israel
Mexico (5-3-2)
13 José Corona
22 Paul Aguilar
3 Carlos Salcido
2 Francisco Rodríguez
5 Diego Reyes
7 Miguel Layún
17 Isaac Brizuela
18 Andrés Guardado
8 Marco Fabián
10 Cuauhtémoc Blanco
19 Oribe Peralta
Goals by Layun (x2) and Fabian
I cant believe they’re still playing Blanco! He’s surely a fossil by this stage of the game.
Any idea where Guardado was playing? He is a LB right?
What a confusing team! Cant see the regular famous names there.
Guardado is an attacking mid.
Actually, he plays on the wing quite a bit too.
Thanks. Yes he is named as a midfielder in the Mexico’s announced squad. Just checked.
Evening all, hetes a tricky one to start with :- Which two members of Germany’s 2006 World Cup squad played in England at the time? :thumbup:
Didi Hamann?
*Evening elle.
I’m off to make my dinner, i’ll take a guess at Zeige but i think he was gone by then, cant think of anyone else haha, laters.
Huth
Huth is correct, Hamman is wrong.
Lehmann is the other one right?
Oooooh ! ! Teks is a googler. :big-lol:
Pfffft, my dad is an Arsenal fan so I saw many Arsenal matches around 2002-2006 as I was a kid then. Lehmann ain’t a player you’ll forget easily I tell ya. That’s why I knew it was him. Totally.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPbD34RE0JY
Rickie Lambert to Liverpool maybe? Good/Bad?
SOTON is practically selling everyone significant from the squad. Fans must be pissed.
But thats a good move from Liverpool. SaS can not play all the games in the coming season with so many competitions and Liverpool requires depth in squad right now.
Quall, sound move for us that, as long as Lallana comes with him.
Yeah, I agree, Lambert is good for us, and I would also like Lallana. Think its a strange one for Lambert as a player though. At 32 I thought he might want a more regular position in a team.
Also LFC put on a bid for Seville LB Alberto Moreno so they say on Sky.
If i was a Liverpool fan i’d be very happy with it.
Good depending on the price – if they overpay for him when liverpool have sturridge and suarez i think it’s a bad move considering the enforcement they need in defense!!
They do definitely need a deeper squad though
Lukasz Fabianski has left Arsenal? to join Swansea.
honestly, i think this is a good move for him but terrible for Arsenal – i always thought he was better than shezney and so was mannone too!!
Arsenal will regret this imo…
Theres nowt on the LFC website, but there is this :- LIVERPOOL have submitted offers for FIVE players as Brendan Rodgers’ summer overhaul gathers pace.
The Reds want to bring Southampton star Adam Lallana to Anfield, but are so far refusing to up their £20million offer to meet the south-coast club’s £30m asking price.
And as Tottenham emerge as rival suitors for the England midfielder, Liverpool have lined up a potential alternative in Bayern Munich’s £15m-rated Xherdan Shaqiri.
Shaqiri has revealed he is ready to quit Bayern after failing to break into Pep Guardiola’s side last season.
“It’s clear that I cannot continue like this,” he said. “If nothing changes, I will have to make some changes myself.
“I only want to play for a major club. The Champions League is important to me. We will see what happens.
“England would be an option. If I were to leave Bayern, it will be for a foreign club. But it will have to be a club challenging for the title.”
Express Sport understands Liverpool have lodged a £16m offer for Seville left-back Alberto Moreno.
Rodgers has also bid for Saints centre-back Dejan Lovren and Bayer Leverkusen dynamo Emre Can.