Note: This is the report for the FFS Euro 2012 award only; there is a separate report for the FFS Friendly World Cup!

Well, you can’t say I didn’t warn you but in just our 2nd report of this Matchday, ENR has found himself dominating this award. He was the only manager brave enough to spend 8.0 on a German defender and got rewarded heavily when Lahm scored against the Greeks. Both he and In Like Flynn selected Khedira who scored his second ever international goal last night with a venomous volley. Both of these differentials are however dwarfed by ENR’s decision to pick (and allegedly captain) Greek forward Salpingidis. His goal and assist have left his owner delighted and no doubt left him confident of claiming his 2nd Order of Extreme Valour Award.

Looking towards tonight’s game, we can see a wide selection of French and Spanish differential players. From Les Bleus, Diarra(Sporting ABG), Cabye(Doosra, Ginkapo and Roscola), M’Villa(Gaz) and Koscielny(ENR and Ginkapo) have all been courageously chosen despite them facing the World Champions. As for the Spaniards, supersub Navas is Ginkapo’s 3rd player involved in this evening’s match. Ramos has been selected by that man again, ENR, Pique has found himself in Milanista’s squad while Drinky and Parmtree are valiantly hoping for a Spanish penalty with Alonso in their team

Stay tuned for our Day 3 report and preview of Day 4!

Written by the Light Knight - currently slugging it out in the cozy comforts of Afghanis.. scratch that Poland.
Reporter  - Do you copy?
Lightknight : Sir... yes sir, I've just gotten over with my meeting with the women of the seedy underbelly of Poland and hear's..
Reporter- Excuse me??!?? Did you say women of the seedy underbelly? What the F!*^& are you doing there?
LightKnight - ....  -.- Do you REALLY want me to describe that 'meeting' to you? Anyway's I've positioned them to spy on the teams and hear's what they reported... *whispers giggle giggle stop it sasha you naughty girl you* 
Reporter-  -.- You have a mike attached you dumbwit.
Lightknight - Errr... yes the report well so it goes.... 

Here we are at last. The knockout stages. A place where our brave managers can’t even choose a Portuguese super sub and expect to qualify for the Order of Extreme Valour Award. While it was a disappointing night for anyone with a punt or 4 ( I’m looking at you, Isacki) in the Czech team, CR7′s teammates provided much more joy. Portugal’s clean sheet pleased the courageous owners of their defenders, with ENR ( be prepared to see his name several times this week) and Mac ultimately deciding to go for Alves and Coentrao respectively. Mac however has stolen a march on the competition by selecting their midfielder Moutinho, whose assist has catapulted his owner to the front of the race for this Matchday’s award. Mark must also be applauded for valiantly choosing Meireles, and was rewarded with a 4 point haul.
With FFS rife with rumours of the German frontline being rested, those who went with the crowd and chose Gomez have been left sweating. In an equally awkward position are the owners (ENR, Childish Gambino and Doosra) who have given Tom Selleck an idea for a new sequel “3 men and a Muller” . ENR and In Like Fynn have also selected Khedira in the hope that he can add to his one international goal. No prizes for guessing who covered their bases with a German defender and Greek forward. Yep, ENR has cunningly chosen Lahm and Matchday 1 goalscorer Salpingidis.

Stay tuned for our Day 2 report and preview of Day 3!

Reporter - That sounds like someone's dog wrote it.Lightknight do you copy, lightknight are you there. Lightknight what are those pillow noises....

READ THIS FIRST: THIS IS THE AWARD FOR PLAYERS OF FFS EURO 2012 ONLY AND DOES NOT INCLUDE PEOPLE FROM FFS FRIENDLY WORLD CUP! THERE HAS BEEN A SEPARATE AWARD FOR THAT. KEEP UPRIGHT. CONTENTS MAY HAVE SETTLED DURING TRANSIT. THANK YOU.

This was the hardest decision yet. You guys could have made my life easier by not going for such ballsy captains, giving me a nasty shock when I went through your final teams. You could have done the sensible thing and not hope for clean sheets from Greece and Sweden. You could have kept your hands off JKisthe1′s Danish one-night-stand. But no, you had to make life hard for me, and that’s why you have extreme valour. There isn’t even really space to include everyone in the honourable mentions without turning it into some kind of messy free-for-all. Special commiserations to those who grabbed unexpected clean sheets – it would have taken a captaincy to get into contention points-wise. So, here goes…

I judged the award by the rules posted here (http://uefaffs.weebly.com/7/post/2012/06/the-order-of-extreme-valour.html).

To recap:

A “successful gamble” is defined as a single player choice that returns an unexpectedly high number of points. The awards will be given on these criteria:
- Underappreciation
- Overachievement
- Underdog team
- Captaincy

Honourable Mentions:

* In Like Flynn believed Sweden could score against France, and this belief led him to Ibrahimovic (6 points) who triggered a serious upset against the fancied French.
* Mark chose Greek keeper Sifakis (7 points) against the might of Russia. Sifakis won, Greece made the quarter-finals, and the rest is history. (Hopefully not, I could only live through Euro 2004 once).
* Doosra and Roscola captained Rooney (C) (6 x 2 points) against Ukraine and despite every tabloid building him up, he didn’t fall, scoring a headed winner. While there was an element of expectation here, they were the only managers here to pick him (along with ENR who didn’t captain him). Giving him the last captaincy of the matchday counts for something too.
* Jiracek (8 points) was chosen by that guy again, Mark. With goals from the Czechs hard to predict, this punt against a well-matched Poland paid off in style. 
* Ginkapo hit a bullseye against Germany with professional clean sheet destroyer Krohn-Dehli (8 points). For underdog value, overachievement and obscurity this punt takes some beating. The only box it didn’t tick was captaincy.

And now for the winner:

* ENR wins the award for captaining Jiracek (C) (8 x 2 points). While this was a close one, it was difficult to say no to this punt once I saw the captaincy on him. ENR’s punt yielded, after captaincy, 4 more points than the nearest differential, with a goal and clean sheet against the tournament hosts. He also resisted three chances to twist captaincy, although admittedly his points probably weren’t of concern to him.

I hope you appreciate how difficult it has been to select this award and join me in congratulating all concerned.

I am also pleased to announce that not only will we continue to award the Order of Extreme Valour for the knockout stages, but it will be issued to all managers whether they qualified or not. It’s the least we could do.

Stay tuned for our Day 1 Report and preview of Day 2!

So this is it. The final report of the group stage. The Order of Extreme Valour has seen blindingly obscure master-picks take fantasy football by storm. St Ledger. Kuba. Cabaye. Andersen. Torres. Krohn-Dehli. Krohn-Dehli. Krohn-Dehli. Sorry, I seem to have got stuck in a loop there…

Anyway, I’m looking forward to presenting the FFS Euro 2012 Matchday 3 award tomorrow (would prefer tonight but life, as usual, intervenes…). With Ginkapo the leader with a goal from that man Krohn-Dehli, the onus was on the challengers to produce an even bigger shock. Still, it couldn’t be upsets all the way, and wins to nil from Italy and Spain meant all the points went to the usual suspects in defence. Or should I say, all but one. Doosra was shockingly unlucky to lose Chiellini to a hamstring injury on 57 minutes, just 3 minutes short of the 60 minutes required for a clean sheet. ENR also gets credit for getting 5 points out of Balzaretti, who had not played a single minute until now. With this being one of the quieter nights, Ginkapo stays in the lead.

Onto the last night of the group stage and the last chance to wrest the trophy from Ginkapo’s brave, valorous, strong, rugged, beautiful…. *AHEM* hands. Yes. England v Ukraine and France v Sweden. First, let me describe what it was like reading through your squads.

Debuchy
Lescott
Benzema
Debuchy
Lescott
Benzema
Debuchy
Lescott
Benzema

Yes, with 14, 20 and 22 picks respectively, a lot of people seem fairly certain about those results! So who thought different tonight? First up we have two Swedish players: Jafalad has gone for J Olsson and In Like Flynn has interestingly picked Ibrahimovic to surprise the French. For France, in defence we have Lloris (Doosra, Drinky), uncertain starter Clichy (ENR’s Valour XV) and Mexes (In Like Flynn, Mark). Ribery is picked by surprisingly few players (The Light Knight, Roscola, Count of Monte Hristo). Out all alone like the shy (“fat”? Hmmm… I think I’d better stick with “shy”) kid at the school disco is ENR who has dropped a bombshell in going for Diarra.

In a surprisingly patriotic twist, only one person/traitor/cheese eating surrender monkey has gone for Ukraine and what a surprise, it is ex-French manager ENR who has backed keeper Pyatov to stop our brave, stupid boys! In a lovely end to the group stage campaign, English differentials abound. Hart is picked in goal by three (Ginkapo, Jafalad, Gaz Downright), while Count of Monte Hristo goes for Ashley Cole. Things really hot up though in attack, with supersub Walcott (ENR), Gerrard (Billy Ketsu, Count of Monte Hristo) and our cheeky chappy Welbeck (Ginkapo, Jafalad, China Mag). Last, but not least at all, we round up our differentials with Wayne Rooney, owned by ENR, Roscola and… fittingly, the ever brave Doosra.

Thank you all. This is the final report of Matchday 3. Stay tuned for the announcement of the winner of the FFS Euro 2012 Matchday 3 Order of Extreme Valour tomorrow!

Europe waited with bated breath to see if Group B’s climax would produce a shock of Greek proportions. While I will cut the story short by saying it didn’t, Denmark left us with one last beautiful memory from a wonderful tournament. Lightning struck twice. With Germany a goal up, Michael Krohn-Dehli (8 points) pounced to grab his second Euro 2012 goal and return richly-deserved reward to one of our hardest-working differential machines, Ginkapo – with his partner Doosra consistently making similarly superhuman efforts. In the process, the Dehli also destroyed multitudes of German clean sheets that had been expectantly lined up, so you know who to send your hate mail to. The other two valorous successes on the night both belonged to the conspicuously brave Chrissy Waddle, with Joao Pereira (5 points) and Mr Unreliable Luis Nani (5 points) both returning assists. Chrissy may wonder if he could have been a contender, as Nani wasted a glorious one-on-one opportunity early in the first half. Maxing out on the underdog factor and the obscurity factor, Ginkapo catapults into the lead.

​Could I also put it on the record that Rui Patricio is crap. Thank you.

​Tomorrow brings two clashes of interest both in fantasy terms and qualification terms. Italy play eliminated Ireland with the knowledge that Spain and Croatia could both qualify with a 2-2 draw. The majority of our differentials are the lower-profile members of the Spanish team. In defence, we have Casillas (The Light Knight), Sergio Ramos (In Like Flynn) and Arbeloa (TW, ENR). Milanista plumps for Fabregas, no doubt in anticipation of a center-forward spot, while In Like Flynn is the only person to pick midfield metronome Xavi. Up front we have Silva (Doosra, Pratik, In Like Flynn) with his goal against Ireland fresh in the memory. Who knows where the Spanish goals will come from? Only one person thought Croatia would score though – step up ENR who chose Croatian midfielder Perisic in his ‘Valour XV’.

​In the Italy – Ireland match the selections had a defensive flavour. TW punted on uncharacteristically hapless Ireland goalkeeper Given, while the Italian defenders chosen were Chiellini (Doosra) and Balzaretti (ENR again). Finally, Demented Flamingo showed romance wasn’t dead with his pick of Andrews. That boy might hit the target some day you know…

​Stay tuned for our Day 3 Report and preview of Day 4!

With the FFS Friendly World Cup grabbing recent headlines for a spate of outrageous differentials, the Empire of FFS Euro 2012 has very much struck back. Counting up the differentials this Matchday, defined as a player owned by 3 or fewer managers, we have exactly the same number as those in the Friendly World Cup last Matchday – 58!

In last night’s action Greece shocked Russia 1-0, seemingly disappointing pretty much every manager except Mark who bagged a totally improbable clean sheet and a save point from Sifakis (7 points). With the only goal coming from midfielder Karagounis, everyone who backed the Russian and Greek attacks, as well as those who picked Russian defenders, drew a blank. The Czech Republic also overcame Poland 1-0 and this produced slightly more joy. The Light Knight picked up a clean sheet from Cech (7 points), which was a brave gamble for anyone who had actually watched him play. The biggest winners of the round were ironically the already-eliminated duo of ENR and Mark who correctly predicted the goalscorer Jiracek (8 points). Quite a bullseye in that midfield, and you’d have to say Jiracek and Sifakis are pretty neck and neck for the lead. Good going ENR and Mark.

Tonight in Day 2 the titans clash in the Group of Death. Germany v Denmark is first up, with a German whitewash predicted –perhaps even more expected than the Russian win, mind you. German differentials include non-starting Klose (ENR – presumably going absolutely mental with the differentials this round??), Hummels (Jafalad, Camzy), Muller (Count of Monte Hristo, The Light Knight) and my favourite midfield choice Schweinsteiger (Doosra, Super Dunny). Going forward or going back, that man is a machine, and with that ringing endorsement the worst match of his career is inevitable. Did anyone go for the Danes? We are in the presence of players of extreme valour. Of course they did! None other than Doosra went for the harebrained option of Jacobsen, while his comrade-in-craziness Ginkapo has gone for fantasy legend Krohn-Dehli. Finally, the insanity continues with. Ginkapo, ENR and Gaz Downright choosing Poulsen.

In the tricky Netherlands v Portugal game, a few have grimly stuck to their guns and embraced Dutch strikers, who now are in the surprise position of differentials. Van Persie has been backed by only two (Mark and Demented Flamingo), while Huntelaar was picked up by Tommy Tour and ENR. One-man am-dram Robben has been backed to fire his selfish way to glory by Demented Flamingo, In Like Flynn and Jonty. Portuguese defenders and midfielders have been punted upon by a select few. It’s slightly unnerving that goalkeeper Rui Patricio has been picked only by me and sacked French manager ENR. Joao Pereira has been endorsed by Chrissy Waddle, rampaging fullback Coentrao by The Light Knight and Roscola, and midfielder Joao Moutinho by that man Ginkapo. Finally, we have Luis Almeida da Cunha – also known as Nani – owned by our adventurous Chrissy Waddle.

Stay tuned for our Day 2 Report and preview of Day 3!

(READ THIS FIRST: THIS IS THE AWARD FOR PLAYERS OF FFS EURO 2012 ONLY AND DOES NOT INCLUDE PEOPLE FROM THE FRIENDLY WORLD CUP! THERE WILL BE A SEPARATE AWARD FOR THAT. THANK YOU.)

In a week when much maligned, managerless strikers (Bendtner, Torres, Carroll) scored and only 4 clensheets occured, this Matchday’s bravest successful selections hailed from the midfield. Courageous picks such as Coentrao and Welbeck weren’t too far away in the end, but the expected superiority of their sides over their opposition ultimately held them back.

I judged the award by the rules posted here. 

To recap:

A “successful gamble” is defined as a single player choice that returns an unexpectedly high number of points. The awards will be given on these criteria:
- Underappreciation
- Overachievement
- Underdog team
- Captaincy

Honourable Mentions - A couple of decisions which were worthy of note if not the award:

- ENR and last week’s winner, Ginkapo, both chose popular Italian playmaker, Pirlo, but followed it up by handing him the captain’s armband. The midfield maestro lived up to their expectations and brought home 8 points with his deftly executed freekick.
-Ginkapo showed real steel, backing Krohn-Dehli to deliver for a second week in a row. His 5 point haul validated Ginkapo’s decision and earned his manager his second honourable mention of this Matchday.

And now for the winner:

Only 2 people saw the potential of the Polish captain against Matchday 1′s rampaging Russians. Only 1 of those showed the valour to hand the armband to Kuba and he was rewarded by a sweet left shot into the Russian net. This courageous owner then turned down the option of switching to favourites such as Robben, Iniesta and Ribery.. This pick ticks all of the boxes and it is my pleasure to announce that this week’s “Order of Extreme Valour” Award winner is the one and only Mark.

Sincere thanks to all managers who had a valiant go and tried to be original this Matchday. I would also like to move to quash any rumours that an offer of free FFS membership for next season in anyway influenced my decision. There has been no such offer ( although one would be appreciated  ).

Stay tuned for our Day 1 Report and preview of Day 2!

Note: This is the report for the FFS Euro 2012 award only; there is a separate report for the FFS Friendly World Cup!

Another pair of matches gone, another unowned FFS laughing stock scores a brace. Last night, it was Fernando Torres who took the plaudits for putting a brittle Irish defence to the sword. As far as selected differenials go, it is more a case of commending the brave rather than congratulating successful picks. Andrews(Camzy and Demented Flamingo), Xabi Alonso(Ginkapo) and Marchisio(The Light Knight, TommyTour and Sporting ABG) were courageous selections yet failed to deliver anything but 2 points. You know it wasn’t a great night for punts when Xavi’s 3 points was the best performance of the night, giving some crumb of comfort to In Like Flynn.

As far as tonight’s games go, many eyes turn towards the England team for a valorous choice to come off. Last week’s goalscorer Lescott is the widely selected defender so Terry and Cole have each found themselves a steely owner in Mark and Count of Monte Hristo respecively. The Count not just has one English differential but 2 (ah ha ha….) with set piece man Gerrard. Mexes is the alternative in the French defence chosen by ENR and In Like Flynn. From the 2 unfashionable teams in the group, Yarmolenko(In Like Flynn and TW) and Larsson(Sporting ABG) are a pair of plucky selections worthy of note.

This is the final report of Matchday 2. Stay tuned for the announcement of the winner of the FFS Euro 2012 Matchday 2 Order of Extreme Valour after Day 4′s action finishes!

Note: This is the report for the FFS Euro 2012 award only; there is a separate report for the FFS Friendly World Cup!

Bendtner and Gomez. 2 goals apiece last night yet not a single FFS Euro 2012 manager owned either. To put it bluntly, a massive opportunity for winning this Matchday’s award has been missed. I can understand people not choosing Gomez somewhat but FFS legend Bendtner’s lack of support was shocking. Many are no doubt kicking themselves now for questioning his ability, since he has on many occasions told us how good he is.

With every team conceding last night too, assists were the only source of comfort for the few valorous selectors. Krohn-Dehli and Jacobsen set up the world’s greatest striker against the Portuguese and delighted their respective owners, Ginkapo and Jafalad, at the same time. Nani compounded the misery of CR7 owners last night as the 2.5 cheaper forward beat his captain’s haul by 5 points and validated Childish Gambino and Chrissy Waddle’s brave selection of the United man. The other success of the night was Coentrao providing the cross for his nation’s winner against the Danish, giving Roscola and The Light Knight reason to be cheerful.

Tonight’s differentials of choice are all midfielders. Camzy and Demented Flamingo both own Andrews, no doubt hoping for numerous recovered balls against the Spanish. In Like Flynn solely has selected for the creative Xavi, while Ginkapo has taken a risk on penalty taker, Xabi Alonso. In the other match this evening, Marchisio has found himself with 3 noble managers, Sporting ABG, The Light Knight and TommyTour..

Say tuned for our Day 3 report and Day 4 preview!

Note: This is the report for the FFS Euro 2012 award only; there is a separate report for the FFS Friendly World Cup!

Brave FFS Euro 2012 managers have woken up today in a world where the rules to the Order of Extreme Valour are not as they once were. A player now selected by more than 3 people is no longer considered a differential pick. And on that bombshell, lets us review yesterday’s act of valour.

To highlight the turmoil caused by our new rule change, the numerous owners of Gebre Selassie and Pilar will find themselves out of the running, barring a captain’s armband being worn by one of those players. Former FFS favourite, Jakub “Kuba” Blaszczykowski, was only selected by 2 courageous managers, “FFS King” Mark and “Lord of the Teamsheets” Childish Gambino. Kuba’s 8 point haul proved to be the only genuinely succesful punt of the evening. The Light Knight (that’s right, I referred to myself in the third person) was left rueing his misfortune by Salpingidis’ yellow card and numerous offsides, while Roscola and SuperDunny managed to earn 3 points from their plucky selections of Boesnich and Katsouranis respectively.

Looking forward to tonight’s possible contenders, we see that following last week’s unexpected success, the Danes have become the brave manager’s team of choice. Starting off at the back, we see the noble selectors, Ginkapo and Jafalad, hoping for a repeat of last week’s impressive shut out by choosing Poulsen and Jacobsen respectively. Ginkapo has also gone for the the man who scored the only goal against the Dutch, Krohn-Dehli. We also see that Sporting ABG (much to the chagrin of his partner) continues with Christian Eriksen, while Doosra is joined by ENR in the valorous backing of mercurial forward, Dennis Rommedahl. Elsewhere in the group, we find that Childish Gambino and Chrissy Waddle have turned their backs on former FPL favourite, Ronaldo, in favour of his compatriot Nani.

Say tuned for our Day 2 report and Day 3 preview!

Catch the manager reactions here