no more bedhead

Since it's World Cup time (yay!), I guess I should report on how Blue Albatross FC did this fantasy season.  If you'll recall the last time I reported on the status of the team's performance in the English Premier League, we were (temporarily) in first place.  True to form, we dropped back to third (gasp!) the following week.  There we sat for the next couple of weeks, although we managed to climb up into second place going into the final week of competition.  Surprise of all surprises, we pulled out of the week scrabbling up into the number one position, and that's where we finished this year's EPL campaign!
Now, as for the Champions League, and the Europa League, well, we didn't fare as well there.  Finished 6/23 in the Champions League (although only 13 points separated 4th and 7th places), and finished 2/7 in the Europa League.  I consider those to be pretty good, as I really don't have a good handle on who the decent players are in those leagues (especially the Europa League).  And, for the record, these rankings are for the leagues in which I was participating.  Overall, I finished thusly:

English Premier League: 491,826 out of 2,322,686 with 1,975 points
Champions League: 44,015 out of 349,293 with 543 points
Europa League: 1,232 out of 52,013 with 593 points

It was a good campaign, and I look forward to signing up again in the fall.

And, yes, Blue Albatross FC is represented in the FIFA World Cup Fantasy League.  Wish us well!!

I'm posting this because I don't think it will ever happen again, and I'm pretty excited about it.

I have made it to #1 overall in my English Premier League fantasy league.

I've bopped around the standings in this 20 team league, ranging squarely in the middle for most of the season.  I started to creep up recently, going back and forth between #3 and #4 for a few weeks.  All of a sudden, I jumped up.  I noticed, after the first round of games this gameweek, that I was sitting in #1 position, barely.  Keeping my fingers crossed, there was one game left - Man City vs. Wigan.  I have one player from Wigan in my reserves, and the #2 guy has one player from Man City on his team - Carlos Tevez - as his captain (double points).  I started the game yesterday ahead of him by 12 points.   I knew that if Tevez played the whole game that would be 2 points (4), and if he scored two goals that would be another 6 points (12), and I would be back in second place.

The first half went well, with a 0-0 draw.  Then the second half.  Long story short, Tevez scored three goals.  Oh well.  I spent the rest of the day figuring that I was back in second.

Plot twist - I had picked Didier Drogba to be my captain, but he didn't play.  That meant that the captaincy automatically shifted to the next highest value player.  That player - Frank Lampard.  Turns out Lampard scored 4 goals and an assist, for a total of 28 points.  Since he became my captain, those points got doubled to 56, and I am still sitting in first place!!! (By 5 points, but I'll take it!)

Aaaaaaaaalllllllllll-batross!!!!

Here's the proof:

High School Football in Massillon, as told by All Things Considered.

Gameweek 8 is about to begin in the English Premier League.  Hopefully I will do better this week than last.  I got creamed in Gameweek 7.  The average score was 52 and I scored 30.  I'm a little Chelsea heavy, and not only did they lose, but Petr Cech (GK) got red carded.  That hurt.  When your Goalkeeper has a -1 point total for the week, you know it's going to be a bad week.  The other players didn't have a spectacular week either.  Drogba was my best scoring player with 6 points.  My current rank is 1,934,446 out of 2,052,351.  (My disclaimer/rationalization is that I didn't start until GW5 so I'm already behind.  But still...)  I also dropped to 11th (out of 20) in my league.  I had been at 5 after GW6 (which is when the league formed).

So I made one transfer for the week.  I transferred out Upson, and replaced him with Dunne.  I also sat Cech, since he is suspended, bringing in Foster (ManUtd) off the bench. We'll see what happens. Here's my lineup for the weekend:



My team in the ESPN Premier League didn't do well either, but it was my first Gameweek for the ESPN league, so we'll see what happens.

However.....
The Champions League and the Europa League both competed this week.

In the Champions League, I rocked.  The average score was 51, and I scored 73.  That shot me up to 37,587 out of 273,855. And I jumped up to 4 in my league (Galaxy Two), out of 21 teams.  Having Christiano Ronaldo scoring 14 points and being my captain (doubling his points to 28) certainly helped!

My favorite stat is that for Matchweek 1 my rank was 152,678.  For Matchweek 2 my rank was 11,231. I improved 141,447 places.

In the Europa League (where I have absolutely no idea who any of these players are), I scored 53 points, with 42 being the average.  I rank 966/29,741.  In my league I am #1 out of 7.  But I'm only up by 13 points over #2.

All of this will probably change, so I am hoping for the best on the EPL front today and gloating over UCL/Europa for the next couple of weeks.

AAAAAAAAAAAAL-batross!

Pulled the plug on Shorey.  Added Abdoulaye Faye from Stoke City.

AAAAAAAAL-batross!!

Not to be outdone, UEFA Champions League also has a fantasy game.  I had to sign up for that too, of course.

Here's my lineup:

Goalkeeper: Cech (Chelsea)
Defender: O'Shea (Manchester United), Rolando (Porto), Gallas (Arsenal), Diakhate (Dynamo Kyiv)
Midfielder: Cristiano Ronaldo (Real Madrid), Fernando (Porto), Xabi Alonso (Real Madrid), Song (Arsenal)
Forward: Messi (Barcelona), Lisandro (Lyon)

Subs:
Goalkeeper: Rensing (Bayern)
Defender: Evra (Manchester United)
Midfielder: Ghioane (Dynamo Kyiv)
Forward: Bojan Krkic (Barcelona)

This time I got in in time for Matchday 1, which starts tomorrow.  I logged in today and I get a notification that Bojan Krkic is injured.  Try as I might, I cannot determine if he will be out for the game on Wednesday.  I know that he is out of the Spain Under-20 squad, but can't find any more information.  Unfortunately anyone I want to transfer for him is significantly lower in the standings, so I don't want to make a move if he's going to be okay for this game.  He's in my sub list, so I could leave him there as long as Messi and Lisandro play.  I just may take the chance.

Nevermind, while I was sitting here I pulled the plug on Krkic, and replaced him with Niang (Marseille).

Again, my club name: Blue Albatross FC.

AAAAAAAAAAL-batross!!

And by football, I mean real football.

The English Premiere League has a fantasy league, and I decided to join this year.  A little late.  In Matchweek 5, but hey, better late than never.  So, this is my lineup going into my first matchweek:

Goalkeeper: Cech (Chelsea)
Defender: Johnson (Liverpool), Upson (West Ham), Shorey (Aston Villa), Shawcross (Stoke City)
Midfielder: Lampard (Chelsea), Cattermole (Sunderland), Diaby (Arsenal), Bowyer (Birmingham)
Forward: Rooney (Manchester United), Drogba (Chelsea)

Subs:
Goalkeeper: Foster (Manchester United)
Defender: Bikey (Burnley)
Midfielder: Hunt (Hull City)
Forward: Keogh (Wolverhampton)

I hoped that this lineup was okay, except I noticed that Diaby scored an own goal in Matchweek 4.  Still, I stuck with this lineup through the week.  I didn't do too bad for not knowing who most of these players are.  I scored 49 points this week.  That has me at 11,864 out of 69,077 who signed up this week, and 1,907,607 overall out of 1,979,085.

My only concern this week is that Shorey didn't play this week, and looks like he has been relegated to the substitutes for Aston Villa.  So I may transfer him before Matchweek 6.  Looking at Ab Faye (Stoke City) to take his place.  I think it would be a good trade, and actually save me some payroll to boot.

My club name?  Blue Albatross FC.  I even get to design my own kit.  I chose solid blue shirt, with white sleeves, white shorts, and black socks.  I'll have to do up a graphic to add here.

So let's have a cheer, shall we?  AAAAAAAAAAL-batross!