Draft: Group A (cgf, Foye, Massimo, nmabdi28)

[5DOM]

Winner of this group faces the runner-up in Group B
Runner-up in this group faces the winner of Group B

Please select two teams to advance

[MaliBrah]

FC Pirates

[Massimo]

It can be 3-5-2, 4-2-3-1, 4-3-3, 4-3-2-1, 3-4-3 based on my opponent.

[Foye]

Even with this park the bus strategy there should be enough opportunities for Falcao from counter attacks and set pieces. And the cupboards in my team should be able to create havoc on set pieces.

2nd half when opponent is growing tired from failing to break down my wall, Michu/Vucinic and Arda/Farfan will look to add more firepower to the offense.

Also with Draxler and David Luiz I got two excellent long distance threats.

[cgf]

I'm travelling this week, but I'll try and get some this11 pics up later today. Anyway we will exhaust teams with our pressing that floods the midfield and area right infront of the backline. With Hummels and Ilkay launching our counters Hamsik, El Sha, Lamela and Rossi/Doumbia will tear through teams any time they dare to bring the ball into my half. With my fullbacks freeing Lamela and El Sha to come inside, and Dembele's driving runs from midfield we also have the personnel to break down even staunchly parked busses especially with how many different goal scorers we have in the lineup. With Dzagoev and Doumbia on the bench we have some wonderful fire power to go with the grit and sefensive organization that Denisov and Jones can bring. Our alternate formations are. 442 diamon with Dzagoev starting in place of Rossi, and the more defensive 433 with Denisov or jones stepping in next to Moussa and Ilkay.



FW - Stephan El Sharaawy
FW - Erik Lamela
FW - Giuseppe Rossi

MF - Marek Hamsik
MF - Moussa Dembele
MF - Ilkay Gundogan

LB - David Alaba
CB - Mats Hummels
CB - Angelo Ogbonna
RB - Rafael

GK - Roman Weidenfeller

BENCH:
FW - Seydou Doumbia
MF - Alan Dzagoev
MF - Igor Denisov
LB/LW - Dmitri Kombarov
DM/CB/FB/human-swiss-army-knife - Phil Jones

Coach - Andres Villas Boas

[J-Mezzy]

Voting is now open.

[5DOM]

Huge fan of Foye's team though I would personally move Luiz to CB, Modric to CM and play Turan or Michu in the hole. Luiz is the better and more experienced CB than Sakho, and Modric complements Matic better IMO.

[El Turco]

lack of trash talking concerns me

[J-Mezzy]

Massimo and CFG need to step it up and defend their squad if they want to survive. It is not looking good for either one of them.

[Foye]

Huge fan of Foye's team though I would personally move Luiz to CB, Modric to CM and play Turan or Michu in the hole. Luiz is the better and more experienced CB than Sakho, and Modric complements Matic better IMO.

I completely agree with you but I opted for the park the bus strategy because there are some good midfields in this group.

Ideally, of course Modric next to Matic (Croatian/Serbian defensive midfield can that work? oO ), Luiz CB, and Michu/Vucinic or Arda in for Sakho.

lack of trash talking concerns me

I still have my vote so maybe I should give it to Massimo and cgf to make this a little closer?

[ardee]

Gonna go with Foye and nmabdi28.

Massimo IMO has a team with potential but one that is very unbalanced. Some very aged players in Terry, Buffon and Drogba. Pique has been woeful this year. The defensive midfield is decent but the creativity is lacking, Wilshere and Iniesta will have to drop deep to collect the ball. Joaquin will have a big workload because he'll basically have to stretch the play by himself, he's the only player who can provide any width. And Drogba and Neymar could be a good partnership but Neymar isn't really a no. 10, he's best cutting inside from the left.

I would bench Melo, move Wilshere back, put Iniesta in the middle, bring Pastore on as a no. 10, and move Neymar to the left and run with a 3-5-1-1. Lack of width still hurts them like crazy though.

Foye's team is basically perfect, should be one of the tournament favorites. Nmabdi28 could use some formation tweaks, basically Ozil is worthless playing in a deeper role, but that can be figured out.

Cgf has the most exciting looking team tactically but I think his strikers will let him down.

[J-Mezzy]

Foye's team is tough. Can't ever go wrong with Falcao. I think Massimo has a strong midfield. CFG has the constant pressure and work rate. Arsenal man has a lethal attack. This group is also very tough, don't understand the huge gap in voting.

[Foye]

I don't understand the runaway victory either but I'll take it.

Anyway, I wish we could see how teams do in reality. I always feel like a tough, hard-nosed team would do very well...that's why I chose to select a lot of cupboards...that are also relatively skilled on the ball at the same time.

[Le Roi]

Foye's team and nmabdi team get my vote. There could be some tension between Matic and Modric in real life don't know how well they would link up if they ever did play together and I would move Luiz to CB .Defensively Foye's team looks sound and the attack looks super exciting on paper. Massimo's and CGF's team look very good as well don't know why the voting is so one sided, I guess their teams look a little more inconsistent in some aspects compared to Foye's and nmadbi's team.

[cgf]

Yeah, if I had snagged Eto'o and Dzeko instead of waiting another round I think peeps would like my team a lot more. But I still love it. I think in really life it would be nearly impossible for teams to hold the ball against my side and with the variety of goals offers throughout my side I don't think my strikers underachieving would be an issue. Hamsik is a regular 10 goal scorer in Serie A as a playmaker because he has a great understanding of the game and strong shot when he's given space. El Sha and Lamela are both awesome and coming off great seasons, which brings me to three guys who'll kill you if you give them just a little space. With dzagoev's special ability to get his head onto crosses with runs from deep and shot, he'd score a lot to, and finally coming from way back Ilkay and Hummels contribute key goals to, Mats with his headers on standards and Ilkay with his strong shot when he arrives late in the box. With each and every one of those guys also being excellent playmakers and our dominance in possession somebody's gunna get free, and that's assuming you can keep us from catching you on the counter.

[cgf]

Foye and nmabdi's teams are a lot more in line with the way most big teams play now a days, with star lone striker leading the attacks as both RvP and Falcao where guys I wanted in the first round. Still though, I'm not too in love with Foye's defense in front of Courtois, and I trust my boys to take advantage of that back 4 more than vice versa unless Falcao goes into Lewa-against-Real-1st-leg mode given the possession disparate our teams would have. And I think nmabdi's team can be had over the wings, especially if Muslera adds a couple poorly timed Muslera-moments. Although that Boa-Dante pairing is really strong and an Ozil-Busquets-Cesc midfield just might out possess my boys. Would be really cool to see how this played out in real life cause I think the games would be facinating to watch.

[J-Mezzy]

CFG's would be fun to watch on real life. I like the premise on which he built this team and tbh, I was hoping not to run into it. I think the reason why his team is not getting too much love is for lack of star power. All the guys on his team are respected up and coming guys, but not really household names. Still, didn't think the voting would be this unbalanced.

[cgf]

Thanks man, these things are always about playing with tactics for me and trying to build teams that work well against the modern style, thus the heavy emphasis on guys who pass and press exceptionally well, and the focus on guys who can swap spots and share the goal scoring burden so there's no one to key on to disrupt my passing game the way you can attack and isolate Xabi and Pirlo when you face Real and Juve in real life. I totally don't have the star power, but with how well can stop other teams from playing how the want to and forcing them to play our way, and how hard it is to stop my team from playing how they want to I think we'd do really really well if these games ever got played out IRL.

[Massimo]

Well maybe not most of the voters but certainly some of them are biased towards some users on the forum I think, it effects the voting too. Like if Foye and CGF were racing with Slava and 5DOM, no matter what I think about the teams, I would vote for Slava and 5DOM. I don't think that there is a huge gap between teams. Yesterday, I created mabdi's team and mine on Fifa13 and had 2 games. One of them was 0-2 Mabdi won. The other one my team won 3-1. I didn't have time to do others but I predicted this would happen before the voting. That's why I said I give more credibility to FIFA13 simulation.

[cgf]

Nah man their teams are a lot more standard than ours and have star strikers leading the line, that's why polling has gone the way it has, not how abrasively we post elsewhere. Still think that my team would match up very well against them though.

...well it's either that or they just be hatin on us Knicks fans :-p