World Cup 2010 South Africa Fantasy Football Xtravaganza

[Kitschum]

Although having been temporarily thwarted by the fascist oppressor Apolyton server, the 12 hours are long up and the thread/t has to be carried out!

It's been four years since last time and arguably the biggest sporting event in the world, the FIFA World Cup, is soon upon us. The spectacle officially kicks off on June 11, when South Africa takes on Mexico in Johannesburg. The group stage ends June 25 and is followed by the knockout stage which comes to a conclusion with the final on July 11.

Now the raison d'etre for this thread is the fantasy league that duke o' york set up and that you are all invited to join, whether you think you know anything about the sport or not, so please do! We're feeling very lonely at the moment:

http://worldfantasyfootball.skysports.com/Index.aspx

the league is called
Asher's Straight Mate
, and you need the pin 27616 in order to join.

http://apolyton.net/forums/showpost.php?p=5803972&postcount=185

Here are some other links you might (or not) find useful:

http://www.fifa.com/index.html (official site)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_FIFA_World_Cup

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010_FIFA_World_Cup_squads (lists all players)

The nerdy and unnecessary stuff:

http://www.fifa.com/worldfootball/ranking/index.html (the much maligned official rankings)
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/spi/ran...739&ver=global (ESPN power index)
http://www.eloratings.net/ (rankings using the Elo system originally developed for chess)
http://www.footballdatabase.eu/ (stats database)
http://www.soccerway.com/international/ (another database)
http://fussball.wettpoint.com/en/international.html (and another)
http://www.odds-comparison.co.uk/ (odds comparison)
http://www.oddsportal.com/soccer/world/world-cup-2010/ (more odds)
http://www.betexplorer.com/soccer/in...-south-africa/ (yet more odds)
http://livescore.com/ (live scores)
http://www.flashscore.com/ (more scores)

Schedule and result calculators:

http://exceltemplate.net/sports/worl...nd-scoresheet/ (minimalistic .xls file)
http://www.en.excel-soccer-2010.de/ (a lot more bells and whistles; disclaimer: haven't tried it)


Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

[duke o' york]

This thread needs a vuvuzela sound file, with the promise you'll remove it once lots of people have joined.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Good OP

[MikeH]

I missed this one. I'm doing the one in the other thread anyway.

[ColdWizard]

Edit your league info into the OP.

[Frozzy]

Signed up, lacks match fitness

[duke o' york]

I missed this one. I'm doing the one in the other thread anyway.

We'll join yours if you join ours.

Our, and my dad is definitely bigger than your dad.

Quick pointer to whomever it is who has chosen Rio Ferdinand in their team - you get infinite free transfers until the first game kicks off.

[ColdWizard]

And Drogba...

[duke o' york]

Or Essien (Guess who got Ghana in their work sweepstake), but I didn't notice either of the above players in anyone's team.

[ColdWizard]

Well, I had Drogba in the other one, so I thought I'd mention him out of bitterness of having to change one of my teams.

[duke o' york]

I punted Torres for Villa (but will change back if he seems guaranteed to start), and Tevez for that incredibly promising bloke from Uruguay (forget his name), most likely to be replaced once Uruguay lose in the eighth round.

[Kitschum]

Quick pointer to whomever it is who has chosen Rio Ferdinand in their team - you get infinite free transfers until the first game kicks off.

Thanks, I'm on it. I guess I should have checked up on this thread more often.

Other players who are likely outs:

Pirlo (?)
Iniesta (?)
Nani
John Obi Mikel (Nigeria)

Robben will probably be available for Denmark, and Humberto Suazo (Chile) had a minor injury but is supposed to be fit.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Can't listen or watch (I'm at work), but have a play-by-play text up from the NYTimes and BBCSport to follow along.

Mexico looking overwhelming so far it seems over SA.

[Imran Siddiqui]

South Africa SCORES! Even after being outplayed the entire 1st half!

[Imran Siddiqui]

1-1! And in the waning minutes, SA hit the post. Wow. Sounded like it was a great game.