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!

Due to real life concerns shamefully intervening, this report has been delayed and is being written at the rate of knots with the Spain v Ireland slaughter/upset about to kick off (head straight to the bottom if you can’t be bothered to read the rest of the report – THERE IS A BIG SURPRISE).

A quick overview of Day 2 first. The long and the short of it is that the hits just keep coming. Krohn-Dehli struck gold yet again with 5 points for Teddy… and presumably a pang of disappointment from his now famous/infamous (delete as appropriate) ex-owner JKisthe1. In the same game, Portugal fullback Fabio Coentrao nicked an assist for the winner to return 5 points for his owners Forca Inter and a very much cheered up JKisthe1.But there were still more hits, and even bigger ones at that. All were big names neglected due to their monster Germany v Netherlands fixture. BonZ and Kostja were rewarded for keeping faith with Van Persie, as he scored to give them a long-overdue 6 point return. Wesley Sneijder finally got some deserved attacking points with 5 points for his owners Porkie, Djerbil and Evs, and the biggest hit of all was German striker Mario Gomez whose acclaimed double struck 10 point gold for JKisthe1, Forca Inter and Eoin. Considering the fixture and his somewhat underappreciated reputation, this puts his owners very much in the lead at this halfway point. It may come down to who captained him!

In tonight’s matches the Italy v Croatia fixture has already been played out – and unfortunately our brave punts have not seen reward. These were Di Natale (Menly), Thiago Motta (Mull) and Marchisio (JKisthe1, Gargamel).

Spain v Ireland kicks off minutes after I post this. Defensive picks on the Spanish side are Casillas (BonZ) and Pique (Snowy84). Astoundingly, someone has picked Shay Given – take a bow, FC Borecelona. Does he know something we don’t?

Wait… what’s this… breaking news is coming in… FERNANDO TORRES is starting! Against Ireland! … and what’s this… JKisthe1 and Optimus have selected him! Scenes! Madness! The stadium is rocking! Hang on the Croatian fans are letting off fireworks… stop throwing that, FORCA INTER!! We have to interrupt this report! I’ll get back to you later!!

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

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

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

With a differential now clarified to be a player owned by 3 or fewer of the 32 managers, the field of contenders continued to be stunning. We've got off to another scorching start on Day 1 which has really laid down the gauntlet! Poland's 1 - 1 draw with Russia was the epicentre of the action. First up, Malafeev (Kostja) lost a clean sheet but made 6 saves to produce a respectable 4 point. Obraniak (FC Borecelona and Forca Inter) grabbed the assist for Poland's equalizer to return 5 points. The scorer, of course was no less than Blaszczykowski (James_Fitz, Teddy) whose awesome curling strike produced a smashing 8 point haul and put his owners at the head of the pack for the award. Czech Republic's 2 - 1 victory over Greece had Pilar scoring, but unfortunately he was an extremely popular cheap option with no less than 13 owners!

Day 2 brings Portugal v Denmark and Netherlands v Germany. Those with the bravery to select Danish players went for Granqvist (Goldstonemr), Zimling (Giggs Boson), Rommedahl (Archie) and Krohn-Dehli (Teddy), the latter especially likely to raise a smile to a certain player's lips in this tournament... Also up was Portuguese goalkeeper Rui Patricio (ILA) and fullback Coentrao (JKisthe1, Forca Inter). 

Netherlands v Germany was a dilemma for many managers - with clashes between heavyweights producing so few goals, most FFS managers chose to stay away from the premium options in their squads, reducing familiar players to relative differentials this Matchday. For Germany, these included Hummels (Teddy), Podolski (Kostja), Muller (Porkie, Djerbil, Messimerized) and Gomez (JKisthe1, Forca Inter, Eoin). Notable also is the pick of Khedira (Snowy84, Shipstontrev). For Netherlands, the chosen defenders were Vlaar (Djerbil) and Willems (Aatish) against what is thought to be one of the best attacks of the tournament. Attackers chosen were limited to Afellay (BonZ, Messimerized) and our old friend Van Persie (BonZ, Kostja).

Who will be tonight's top Pila-yer? Who's getting Hummeled tonight?

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

It's reflective of the very high bravery of our managers that there have been difficulties in determining exactly what is a differential, because so many of our managers are picking players with low ownership. This would leave us with a very large number of players to consider. At the same time, we recognize that certain players unknown to the public become FFS bandwagons and thus cease to be differentials. 

To clarify what a differential is, we are introducing a rule that we will consider for the award only players owned by a maximum of 10% (3/32) managers in the competition.

This wouldn't have affected any of the awards given to date, which were owned by 1 and 2 managers.

Thanks all and enjoy the tournament.

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

What a kick off to the tournament! We have been treated to some decent football and some brave selections that would make Doosra himself proud. While a few didn’t quite come off, there were enough successes to highlight the importance of being different. This award, however, is only deserved by the bravest of the brave, the noblest of the noble and, quite possibly, the craziest of the crazy.

I judged the award by the rules posted here earlier. 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:

-Wazzagoal, Teddy, Goldsternmr, and Catmac. took a gamble on Danish keeper Anderson and it paid off handsomely with a cleansheet, 6 saves and an 8 point haul
-ILA, Aatish and JKisthe1′s selections of Lescott in the face of an imposing French attack were courageous and also rewarded by his powerful header into the French net

And now for the winner:

Ladies and gentlemen, please offer your congratulations to JKisthe1. His truly valorous pick of Krohn-Dehli has been the frontrunner for this award since the Dane’s shot went through Stekelenberg’s legs and into the net on Saturday evening and nothing was able to overtake it, with a couple of JK’s other attemps being among the closest.

And now leaving Matchday 1 behind with mostly fond memories, Matchday 2 approaches with plenty of opportunities to make an unforgettable, unique and brave selection that could earn you an Order of Extreme Valour Award.

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

(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.)

After 4 days and countless feats of valour it’s come down to this. Who made the bravest pick of Matchday 1? Let me start by applauding the great bravery of our Euro 2012 managers. The field was littered with mad picks, and to my delight a proper handful paid off. So successful were the picks that I could not consider many unfancied differentials who returned assists – these include McGeady, Konoplyanka and Yarmolenko. It’s a tricky task judging from so many genuine contenders, but I hope you’ll agree I made the fairest choice!

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

Since the award was very close, I will make honorary mentions to the following first:
* Mark and TommyTour for selecting Danish keeper Andersen (7 points, 4.9%) who in true underdog spirit kept a clean sheet and 5 saves against the heavily fancied Dutch.
* Mark & Doosra for selecting English defender Joleon Lescott (8 points, 9.5%). While he undoubtedly picked him in hope of a clean sheet and some recovered balls, what Joleon actually delivered was a firm header to give England the lead and a very tasty payoff.

And now for the winner…

* The winner is Ginkapo for selecting and captaining Irish defender Sean St Ledger (8 x 2 points, 1.1%) who headed Ireland’s equalizer against Croatia. Not only a huge differential, not only an underdog, but a 16 point captain.

Ginkapo, savour your moment of glory. Don’t switch off though – the race for the Matchday 2 award begins tomorrow!

Thank you all for your valiant efforts in making this a very special Matchday 1. May these shining heroes inspire you to feats of risky valour in Matchday 2! 

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

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

” You’ll never beat the Irish”, a phrase many of our courageous selectors seemed to have based their decisions on for yesterday’s match. However, the Boys in Green failed to deliver and their 3-1 defeat to the Croatians left the honourable owners of Andrews (Kostja, Mull, BonZ and Djerbil), Dunne (Catmac and Optimus) and Keane(Shipstontrev) with another disappointing 2 pointer. However, the unlikely goalscorer that is St.Ledger proved what is possible by showing guts with an 8 point haul that no doubt pleased Menly, Aatish and Wazzagoal. A mention must also go to Sleep Talk, whose distinctive choice of McGeady, while not a resounding success, would have given some feeling of satisfaction with an assist. We also salute those who, despite their admirable attempts, did not find success from outside the Irish team. Alonso had no penalty to reward Mull and Menly, Bonucci failed to deny the Spanish attack for Teddy and Eoin was frustrated by Vida’s no show . On a more positive note, Di Natale’s goal from the bench gave Menly his second success of the evening from 3 valorous attempts.

Looking ahead to tonight’s fixtures, the Ukrainian attack has been viewed as a good potential source of points against the Swedish backline on FFS. Initially, Yarmolenko was seen as the differential of choice, but his new found popularity coupled with an injury scare last week led some brave managers to find a differential to the original differential. Step forward Mr. Konoplyanka and your band of steely owners: Gargamel, Catmac, Mull, Snowy, Forca and JK. Elsewhere in the group, the England-France match yields 3 choices of interest. ILA has faith in the English rearguard, namely Lescott, to keep the French onslaught at bay while Snowy believes Young will have a major hand in any goals at the other end. Djerbil alone has gone with a surprising French player, Toon passmaster Cabaye .

This is the final report of Matchday 1. Stay tuned for the announcement of the winner of the FFS Friendly World Cup Matchday 1 Order of Extreme Valour after Day 4′s action finishes!

Catch the manager reactions here

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

It is a shame to start a column with the word “sadly”, but sadly the failure of the Irish and Italians to keep clean sheets disappointed most of our brave managers on Day 3 – although of course the teams did so in rather different ways. While an Italian did score it was not Antonio Cassano, as another brave Doosra punt went unrewarded. However, as you doubtless will have heard there was a goal from a most unexpected Irishman – St Ledger tremendously bagged a header on his way to an 8 point haul. His owners were Isacki and Ginkapo – with the word on the street that Ginkapo captained him. I know I didn’t! If he did captain him then Ginkapo is the current frontrunner for this Matchday’s award. Credit also to Daniel and ENR who owned Aiden McGeady – he took 4 points from the match with the assist for St Ledger’s header.

So here comes Day 4 of Matchday 1 and the last chance to prove one’s valour. Ukraine and Sweden have provided the chance for a few differentials, mainly in attack. Ukrainian midfielder Yarmolenko (4.4%) was tipped by a few on FFS boards, though his subsequent bout of food poisoning and injury worries put many off. Gallantly undeterred, Jonty has stuck with him to spring a surprise against Sweden. Seen by many as the “cheaper Yarmolenko”, and owned by even fewer, Konoplyanka (0.9%) was an extremely late Ukrainian midfield tip on the FFS boards and has been taken up by Billy Ketsu, Isacki and The Light Knight. Looking to the Swedish, Drinky has taken up unfancied Swedish keeper Isaksson (4.5%), while China Mag and SuperDunny have made the valorous pick of midfielder-slash-tree Elm (2.6%), who is largely unheard of to FFScouters. Finally, The Light Knight produced a pick out of nowhere – bravely spurning the open arms of Zlatan to take Swedish forward Toivonen (1.2%)

We also take note of two picks that have flown under the FFS radar somewhat: Mark patriotically plumped for Lescott (8.5%) while Milanista, in keeping with an attitude more representative of the English people, went for Nasri (6.3%).

This is the final report of Matchday 1. Stay tuned for the announcement of the winner of the FFS Euro 2012 Matchday 1 Order of Extreme Valour after Day 4′s action finishes!

Catch some reactions from managers here

Welcome, brave World Cup managers, to the report on how your courageous selections fared in the 2nd day of Euro 2012.

Yesterday’s choices of valour all hailed from the glorious nation of Denmark, a surprise package in both real and fantasy Uefa competitons. Only one man thought that Michael Krohn-Dehli would perform against the Dutch, and just in case you haven’t seen him mention it on FFS already, I will tell you that JK was the one. A flair pick of epic proportions, his display of valour is worthy of congratulations and certainly entitles him to a bit of gloating. The budget Danish shot stopper, Anderson, surprised many wih his clean sheet and must have delighted his 4 noble owners: Catmac, Wazzagoal, Teddy and Goldstonemr. We also tip our hats to BonZ and Teddy, for their plucky selection of Christian Eriksen, which unfortunately failed to come off.

As for tonight matches, the seemingly universal affection for the Irish has led to numerous valorous selections from their squad. With a few managers bravely choosing players such as Dunne(Catmac and Optimus), St. Ledger( Menly,Wazzagoal and Aatish) and Andrews( Kostja, Mull, Bonz and Djerbil), both Shipstontrev and Sleep Talk are on their own with their respective choices of McGeady and Keane. Elsewhere tonight, we find Mull and Menly praying for a Spanish penalty with Xabi Alonso in their squads, Teddy shows his nerves of steel by picking Italian defender Bonucci while Eoin has gone against the grain (and Forca’s predicted line-up) with the Croatian Vida.

Catch the manager reactions here