Sorry harms, not been able to get online at all today. Can send it over in the next 30 minutes or so if you and skizzo are happy with that.
Behind the Curtain | Eastern European draft | The winner: Skizzo
- Thread starter harms
- Start date
Yeah, if Skizzo's okay with it I'll set it up
Quite sure he'd be fine with that as he expected the game today. Just a good delay I believe to start it now rather than a few hours ago, and I will be here for him too. Also @Gio take your time with the write up and don't feel stressed as Skizzo isn't here yet, but I think he'd want it up as soon as we can today as he's busy and dedicated some time for it.
Edit: Our write up is short anyhow so we can do the discussion in the thread.
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I'm around today and tomorrow, so whenever is fine.
Ok lads. Just on my phone now, will get it over shortly.
Just finished at work, will make a thread when I get home - I assume it's Gio's write-up in my inbox
Congratulations to our worthy winner and thank you all for participation.
All the information that you mind need later is accumulated in the first 4 posts:
1. Draft rules
2. Detailed player profiles
3. Links to all of the games
4. Squads for each round
The draft itself is officially over but there is a chance that anto will find time to host the awards ceremony
All the information that you mind need later is accumulated in the first 4 posts:
1. Draft rules
2. Detailed player profiles
3. Links to all of the games
4. Squads for each round
The draft itself is officially over but there is a chance that anto will find time to host the awards ceremony
cheers for running the draft harms, great job
Excellent tournament @harms. That was really well-run with barely any issues popping up in general.
My only disappointment was that I couldn't get myself more involved in the draft matches.
My only disappointment was that I couldn't get myself more involved in the draft matches.
And the winner is... @mazhar13 / @oneniltothearsenal
In a draft packed with players we didn't have the first clue about, the Awards Committee found the roles taking precedence over the names incredibly helpful.
Or maybe it was the names not worth highlighting. Nobody followed suit, mind.
In a draft packed with players we didn't have the first clue about, the Awards Committee found the roles taking precedence over the names incredibly helpful.
Or maybe it was the names not worth highlighting. Nobody followed suit, mind.
DAFT QUESTION AWARD
Finally, my award!
And the winner is... @Raees
The golden-haired diva also happens to be the steal of the draft: a 10th round non-goalkeeper pick starting in a semi and arguably suited to go all the way.
Raees said:
The golden-haired diva also happens to be the steal of the draft: a 10th round non-goalkeeper pick starting in a semi and arguably suited to go all the way.
And the winner is... @mazhar13 exposing the crapness of Tudor and Ivanovic by posting gifs not featuring either. Shame the chickens only came to roost in the semi.
Here you have Galic in space on the left with Tudor scrambling to come towards him. Galic plays the ball to Skoblar, who loses Rat with a good diagonal run inside:
Here you have Skoblar going to the left far post and making Ivanovic panic:
This is a guy who scored 44 goals in the 1970/71 league season (no one, not even Ibrahimovic with PSG, has bettered that total in Ligue 1), winning the Ligue 1 title 23 years after their last triumph and 4 years after being promoted from Ligue 2. Not only that, but the season after, he scored several vital goals (including a winner against Bastia at the Coupe de France final) to give Marseille their League and Cup double. Combine Skoblar with Galic, who scored 37 in 51 for Yugoslavia and 75 in 150 (both behind a striker), and our team is too deadly for Ivanovic, Tudor, and Rat to contain.
No award for me? Meh @antohan
Master of Deception! 
Mind you, that could be one of the reasons why I lost the match.
Mind you, that could be one of the reasons why I lost the match.
THE DOPPELGANGER AWARD
BOTD AWARD
And the winner is... NOBODY
It’s like Nasazzi’s baton, you can’t win it if the holder and triple champion of the draft world doesn’t participate
@Edgar Allan Pillow
It’s like Nasazzi’s baton, you can’t win it if the holder and triple champion of the draft world doesn’t participate
@Edgar Allan Pillow
EASTERN EUROPEAN DRAFT: A CHRONICLE
Game 1: Raees 14-12 Red Tiger
The tournament starts ominously for the overexcited researchers dissing modern players. @Red Tiger’s household names prompt a high turnout and would have walked it with a Shevchenko brace had he not snatched defeat from the jaws of victory by providing no tactics brief, starting Hagi as a side midfielder with Hamsik pulling the strings instead, and Mihajlovic somehow playing CB.
Game 2: MazharOneNil 7-8
The researchers strike back. An XI sporting Pjanic and 10 dudes manages a close score by simply stating clearly what each is supposed to be doing.
Game 3: Skizzo 11-5 Tuppet
Arguably the best pairing in the draft, Albert and Bene are let down by less high profile oldies and ultimately weren’t enough against Nedved-Deyna and Kanchelskis.
Game 4: Moby 9-6 Sjor
Act 1: Build a team around Nandor Hidegkuti as a false 9. Act 2: Draw a side built around Sammer. Act 3: Smash your bollocks with a hammer.
Game 5: Isotope 5-8 Pat Mustard
For once @Isotope could have done with one more creative genius, one by the name of Robert Prosinecki. The Czibor-Sarosi tandem won it for Pat instead.
Game 6: Boris 5-14 Gio
Ominous start from Team Gio as not even the drafters who always vote against Theon ™ vote against him.
Game 7: Enigma 11-1 Prath
Cracking start for a typically well-constructed side from Enigma vs. "the guy who found Sindelar was eligible and then decided to even the scales picking up Kolarov". Also, when will people learn it’s better to pack the pitch with players names in caps and even with full names? It seemed like Enigma had 2-3 more players on the pitch.
Game 8: Downcast 14-0 Jayvin
Jayvin’s team really wasn’t half bad, it’s just not fair when you open a gamethread and see the team on the left sporting Puskas upfront and look across to find… Bobek. Who?
QUARTER FINALS
A recurring theme starts emerging after the first reinforcement round: great spines, sensational frontlines, and unpronounceable aka terrible fullbacks.
Enigma seems to lose his balance in an effort to try overload the formidable double lock Gio has formed with Voronin and Pluskal.
While Gio uses the occasion to portray Sekularac as the dog’s bollocks, Enigma confuses the shit out of everyone claiming Stoichkov is no good on the right.
5-12 MOTM Vladimir Voronin, finally coming out of the shadow the crap Liverpool one used to cast over him
It was hyped up to be the Rumble in the Jungle, but ended up a drab affair as all the attention focused on Stoichkovgate. Two inspired reinforcements ultimately made all the difference: Nemanja Vidic and Andriy Shevchenko pounded Mustard mercilessly as he lay there spread-eagled yearning for Skizzo’s love.
3-14 MOTM Andriy Shevchenko, unplayable and exactly the upgrade needed on Berbatov
Unfortunately, while
could sport false logic at RB, Downcast didn’t have one. OK, fine, play a CB who does a defensive job ala Gentile/Burgnich… but it’s some fella called Dinu, and he is facing Dragan Dzajic. Game over.8-6 MOTM Dzajic, see above.
In the presence of great fullbacks, another angle starts to crop up: underrating admittedly bang average modern players and better marketed oldies no one ever saw feck up being a better recipe. Shesternyov and Vasovic works (although by all accounts I have them down as very similar players) while Subotic, well... doesn’t to put it mildly. Not at all really.
8-6 MOTM Raees with his gif showing how he could comfortably smother the efforts of five players with eleven of his. Undisputable logic.
SEMI-FINALS
No game pics, poor effort @harms :P
vs. SkizzoDzajic and Lato vs. Anchovy and Urban Chick, surely that’s what the game would be about? Maybe about Boniek and Nedved against Fahrudin and Falselogic?
Nope, the curse of the obscure fullback strikes again and instead of the crapshoot you would expect wingers get nullified. So we go back to what we know and
may as well have played a couple of ballerinas either side of Sammer instead of Igor Tudor and Branislav Ivanovic.3-14 MOTM Kazi Deyna, dragging Sammer to the midfield and then just systematically playing the through ball past the ballerinas for Shevchenko to run onto.
Raees vs. Gio
A game worthy of a final. Much like the Magyars in 1954, the two favourites meet in the semi and produce a beautiful game for the history books. If Raees’ exceptional creative engine clicked it would be unstoppable, while many questioned whether Gio had sufficient creativity in midfield to feed his forwards but acknowledged the clear balance and working of all channels.
7-8 MOTM Svatopluk Pluskal. Even if people bought into the theory of players getting in each other’s way, you would have to wonder what sort of super human it takes to simultaneously keep Puskas, Albert, Kubala and Masopust in check. Bargain of the draft reinforcement, hands down.
FINAL
18-15 MOTM Vladimir Jugovic. That midfield looked bereft of holding capabilities for a final, but with no clear fancy playmaker rodgering them, the voters were more enamoured with the slick passing and combination play with Netto and Nedved. Metronome.
Cheers, @antohan , a perfect ending for the draft!
@antohan awesome stuff
And the winner is... NOBODY
It’s like Nasazzi’s baton, you can’t win it if the holder and triple champion of the draft world doesn’t participate
@Edgar Allan Pillow
Ffs, people need to forget this!
Edit: And that's the wrong GIF.
Edit: And that's the wrong GIF.
I know, I noticed when it was posted, but had no idea where to find the original quickly.
Excellent work anto.
Thanks harms. Good run draft.
Congrats @Skizzo Hooking up with @Annahnomoss and breaking away from @Pat_Mustard seems to be paying dividends!
Congrats @Skizzo Hooking up with @Annahnomoss and breaking away from @Pat_Mustard seems to be paying dividends!
I actually feel cheated we can't see this play out in real life.Answering your question, @Raees
Probably something like this, awfully unbalanced like every all-star team should be. Agree with anto regarding fullbacks, although maybe one of Skizzo's guys should've made it just because they managed to somehow go under the radar for the whole tournament
Goalkeepers went missing yet again, with Yashin and Beara being eliminated early and Dasaev only reaching the semis but he was the leader and organizer of the best defensive unit in the tournament, so he gets in.
Sammer had that performance in the first round, arguably the best one in the draft alongside Dzajic's against Downcast. And I really think he transformed's side, even though he lost the game without any chance of winning. Weber was questioned throughout the tournament, yet he maintained his place in the runner uppers starting XI. Vidic proved to be a tournament-winning reinforcement for Skizzo, and their pairing with Popluhar meant that he could've ignored his fullback's issues.
Voronin would've been my player of the tournament if not for Gio's defeat in the final, when he relatively underperformed in the creative side of the game. Jugovic is the guy who I haven't expected to see in the final at all, yet he started all games for Skizzo (right?) and won the draft, a definite candidate if not for the best player than for the most impressive one. Pesek also joins as one of the steals of the draft, you've sold him quite well.
Nedved goes in as the star player for the winning team, and it was his versatility and workrate that allowed Skizzo to field him, Boniek and Dzajic in the same side and to improve the relatively shaky midfield two before facing Puskas. Dzajic gets in for his (very realistic) performance against an "early winner" Downcast, which started the most surprising trend - most of the Hungarian stars underperformed in this tournament, with Puskas' demise being absolutely legendary (he lost 3 games out of 4) - and a draft-winning side didn't have a single Hungarian in it!
And then we have the Ukranian duo upfront. Blokhin regained his place in the team even after the reinforcements, forcing Stoichkov to move on the right flank (@Enigma_87) and was consistently stellar throughout the tournament. Sheva didn't impress in the first game but after he joined Skizzo's side, replacing a slothful Berbatov upfront, he did what he does best - scored goals and won games for his new team, maybe without Puskas' chic but he turned out to be much more efficient.
Player of the tournament? I'd vote for Dzajic.
Probably something like this, awfully unbalanced like every all-star team should be. Agree with anto regarding fullbacks, although maybe one of Skizzo's guys should've made it just because they managed to somehow go under the radar for the whole tournament
Goalkeepers went missing yet again, with Yashin and Beara being eliminated early and Dasaev only reaching the semis but he was the leader and organizer of the best defensive unit in the tournament, so he gets in.
Sammer had that performance in the first round, arguably the best one in the draft alongside Dzajic's against Downcast. And I really think he transformed
's side, even though he lost the game without any chance of winning. Weber was questioned throughout the tournament, yet he maintained his place in the runner uppers starting XI. Vidic proved to be a tournament-winning reinforcement for Skizzo, and their pairing with Popluhar meant that he could've ignored his fullback's issues.Voronin would've been my player of the tournament if not for Gio's defeat in the final, when he relatively underperformed in the creative side of the game. Jugovic is the guy who I haven't expected to see in the final at all, yet he started all games for Skizzo (right?) and won the draft, a definite candidate if not for the best player than for the most impressive one. Pesek also joins as one of the steals of the draft, you've sold him quite well.
Nedved goes in as the star player for the winning team, and it was his versatility and workrate that allowed Skizzo to field him, Boniek and Dzajic in the same side and to improve the relatively shaky midfield two before facing Puskas. Dzajic gets in for his (very realistic) performance against an "early winner" Downcast, which started the most surprising trend - most of the Hungarian stars underperformed in this tournament, with Puskas' demise being absolutely legendary (he lost 3 games out of 4) - and a draft-winning side didn't have a single Hungarian in it!
And then we have the Ukranian duo upfront. Blokhin regained his place in the team even after the reinforcements, forcing Stoichkov to move on the right flank (@Enigma_87
) and was consistently stellar throughout the tournament. Sheva didn't impress in the first game but after he joined Skizzo's side, replacing a slothful Berbatov upfront, he did what he does best - scored goals and won games for his new team, maybe without Puskas' chic but he turned out to be much more efficient.Player of the tournament? I'd vote for Dzajic.
Thanks for the draft @harms . It's really fascinating. I can see that for future drafts, more of these Eastern Europe players will future in many teams.
Congrats to @Skizzo (and @Annahnomoss) for wining this Draft. Also congrats to THE Draft Guru @Gio (and @Theon) for reaching another Final. I didn't vote for the Final because I was in two mind. Skizzo's is so high quality and balanced, from the back to attack. But Gio's attack is so devastating, with quality defensive unit (DMs and back 4).
And, great closing ceremony @antohan .
Congrats to @Skizzo (and @Annahnomoss) for wining this Draft. Also congrats to THE Draft Guru @Gio (and @Theon) for reaching another Final. I didn't vote for the Final because I was in two mind. Skizzo's is so high quality and balanced, from the back to attack. But Gio's attack is so devastating, with quality defensive unit (DMs and back 4).
And, great closing ceremony @antohan .