Always felt my 50s Final side was hard done by. fecking asymmmetryphobiacs
It isn't perfect, I would tinker a bit with it, but you have to remember we could only take from the spoils of battle so the likelihood of nailing every single player being perfect was pretty low.
It gave me a lot of enjoyment in discussing about it, researching about it and building it all the way, changing the systems yet remaining a quality team to watch. However...
This one cannot be beaten. It's weird because this one included a couple of sad feckups and that were visible right till the final where I got thrashed by Theon. But those couple of minor flaws aside, I loved every bit of it. Some of my absolute favourites : Gullit, Zico, Scirea, Vidic and Thuram along with some quality players and a style of play I'd implement with pride. It still plays so seamlessly in my head, every single part. If only I hadn't wasted early picks on someone like Hansen (quality player, but this is Redcafe) I maybe had a better chance of winning the final. Or maybe had I listened to Theon and gone for Garrincha and Matthaus when I had the chance and got a few more votes .. nah not a chance Ruud was being benched, the man who embodied the spirit of the whole team!
Edit : Honorable mention for this, surely my best "first round" team and I am still mad that I lost because I was sleeping when people were crying out for me to make a sub!
I think my World Cup draft team was my best side. Creating a flawless total football team within all those crazy restrcitions was difficult and I didn't expect to get through the first round, let alone make it to the semifinals. And when everyone else just picked superstars like Pele or Ronaldo, I added the last missing pieces to finish the job (but then of course lost).
It was a shame that I had to bench Meazza as an inside left though, then it would have been perfect. But Kempes had to start to fill the minimum 5 Southamerican players rule.
An honourable mention to my Guttmann homage though, all three sides were brilliant and fun to research, especially because of Pedro's help, and the Puskas - Eusebio partnership upfront was beautiful:
I think the restrictions played a huge role in it, Post-72 WC winning players were available in abundance, so many looked at the quality pre-72 players or non-winners in the earlier rounds. Still, he was definitely a steal in the 5th round. Didn't help you all that much, but I loved him as an upgrade on Ceulemans for that goalscoring AM behind Cruyff .
I think the restrictions played a huge role in it, Post-72 WC winning players were available in abundance, so many looked at the quality pre-72 or non-winners in the earlier rounds. Still, he was definitely a steal in the 5th round. Didn't help you all that much, but I loved him as an upgrade on Ceulemans for that goalscoring AM behind Cruyff .
You were the first Garrincha being useless against Maldini victim, right? That was beyond ridiculous throughout the draft and happened in the quarterfinal again, until Maldini-gate happened before the semifinals and he became a right centerback .
yes. But I lost mainly because of starting Hidegkuti and pushing back Ballack to CM (cough, cough, a particular German poster on here suggested me to do that... ). Still lost by 3 votes against Mardona in a WC draft with a few shouting they would've voted for me had I brought on Stiles earlier. Shame.
But I lost mainly because of starting Hidegkuti and pushing back Ballack to CM (cough, cough, a particular German poster on here suggested me to do that... ).
I love Hidegkuti and rate Ballack in CM higher than most . I still think he played an overall better WC in 2006 than in 2002 with great performances against signficantly stronger teams, unless you mainly judge him on scoring game-winning goals against mighty teams like USA and South Korea. And I did vote for you .
No regrets buddy. The main reason to go with Hidegkuti was I was up against Maldini and my first pick was Garrincha, which screwed me badly so I needed more fire power.
Lol @Annahnomoss my favorite team was also the British Irish team, though the one I played Skizzo and MJJ. When I played you I was in transition and scrapped through because of the goofup between you and @antohan
I primarily liked my team because of the player quality, never had such a superior player quality in a draft before or after that. Keane-Blanchflower, Matthews-Best with Mortensen being the perfect partner up front and hard to upgrade and then Slater as the player of the year destroyer.
What was the team you ended up with in the end that you liked a lot?
A 14-15 draft would be interesting, I reckon. Completely different game to arguing about past players.
Another possibility is to do a draft with a, say, 2010-present pool (adding a couple of interesting players who have recently retired – and who could still cut it when their careers drew to an end), and then restrict the managers in one way or another. Criteria, limitations, etc.
We did a 12/13 draft in the newbs and it was pretty good. 1 player per club was the other restriction and I'd make it players who played in the European leagues only for a bit of consistency across seasons.
That team was fantastic. I really loved the Koeman-Guardiola partnership with wingers in the team around Platini which was a nice twist on a Platini team. Not ideal for Platini himself of course, but somehow justified by mixing some dream team threat in there.
Very much a dream team that if it worked would have been more or less the flawless creation.
Not a draft but what would people think to a short competition between the 50s, 60s, 70s and modern players draft winners. We can then "finally" put to bed the highest quality period in football's history
Guys I like the idea of the only allowed players from premiership.. maybe use the premiership last season and base it on there form last season.. 20 squads to choose from and it could be fun with people trying to argue for what would normally be a sheep??
Not a draft but what would people think to a short competition between the 50s, 60s, 70s and modern players draft winners. We can then "finally" put to bed the highest quality period in football's history
3 out of 4 of those managers aren't playing or following drafts any more.
It would be a bit harsh to base it on the final winners anyway as they were far from perfect in some cases (have I mentioned Gary Kelly?) given the different ways upgrades worked. There was even a proviso in the 60s draft "All players born in the 60s except Maradona"
Off the top of my head, the 60s would shit on any of the others, 50s vs. 70s would be close and modern would just lose all three games IMO.
Would be happy to have a four-way league being able to pick a squad from scratch. No draft, no telling who is playing, just show up and see what each manager picked.
Cracking pair though, I really liked that team. The scoreline wasn't even close though. I'm not exactly sure how, but Cutch won by a wide margin (19-10).
Cracking pair though, I really liked that team. The scoreline wasn't even close though. I'm not exactly sure how, but Cutch won by a wide margin (19-10).
And I know it for a fact, Crespo is simply not rated at all in the caf. The duo of him and Batigol was never going to impress the caf, no matter what support they received, and score against Desailly-Passarella-Nesta. Moreoever, it's really hard winning with 4-4-2 against 4-3-3 here
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