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July 03 Thanks WalesMeeting up with the Wales team was a a great addition to the long weekend. With both teams having been cruelly evicted from the tournament both teams bonded for the rest of the weekend. A great time was had by all and it was really sad to say goobye to everybody when we landed at Heathrow. Id like to say Thanks to all the following:
Maria (Chaparone)
Dennis (Chaparone) Mark (Wales) Hayley (Wales) Dwayne (Wales) Stacey (Wales) Gerard (Wales) Gareth (Wales) Chris Bullard (England) Tony Bullard (England) Little Chris (England) Will (England) Sandra (My Wife) By the way - dont forget to add me to your friends list - my gamertag is largey.
Cheers All
Dave and Sandra June 30 England are out... damn those rulesEngland with the two Chris's started well against Italy going 1-0 up early on and dominating the game. Italy managed to break through on a rare attack and scored with a chip over the goalkeeper. Start of the second half carried on in the same way with England dominating but not managing to put the ball in the back of the net. Italy broke though again. England 1-Italy 2. England were unlucky not to score in the 90th minuted when through but it was not to be. Depite Englands dominance they were unable to pull it back. Still having played so well the team was still confident of getting through.
The Big one - England v USA (the one we feared)
England start well with a goal early on with Rooney putting them ahead with an unselfish pass from Owen. We are soon 2-0 on and coasting with a goal from Owen. 2nd half is a totaly different game with the USA pulling a goal back and now dominating the game in midfield. Soon its 2-2 and not looking good for England with the USA coming close to taking the lead when clean through, but a last minute sliding tackle taking the USA striker down just outside the area. We all expected a red card but the referee showed leniency and didnt even show a yellow.
The game ended 2-2 but England still have a chance of going through.
England v Austria
Knowing the Austrians were all ready through and beating the USA 3-0 we knew it would be a tough game. Once again England dominate from start but still having a problem converting their chances until a wonder goal from Chris Bullard (sorry cant remember the player!) with a 30 yard dribble taking it pass 4 or 5 players before scoring. Surely the goal of the tournament showing how skillfull this England team is. Chances were few and far between but England manage to hold on. We then turn our attention to the result of the USA v Italy to see if we are through or not. USA have beated Italy and having a better goal difference we are through.....
We should be through....or are we....Jubilation turns to dissapointment.....
It appears that the rules have been modified for this particular tournament(written by Americans what they know about football - they think it should be played with a ruby ball). Normally having a superior goal difference would have taken us through(like any other football tournament in the world including any computer football game) but with the USA having scored more goals they have gone through instead. What's more annoying is the FACT that after each game the tables were on the screen wth the teams placed using goal difference rather than goals scored. If the rules was goals scored why was that not used to place the teams in the groups standings? Before our last game we played with the tactics that we had a better goal difference than the Americans (they lost 3-0 to Austria) so as long as we has a better goal difference we were through. I believe the organisers did not even realise themselves that they had put goals scored instead of goal difference otherwise what would be the point of designing a group table that shows incorrect team positions. I think the terms brewery and some king of yellow stream of liquid comes into it somewhere...
Gutted- especially for the two Chris's who having played so well are dumped out of the tournament unexpectedly
At least we can now cheer on the Wales team who have gone through......I cant believe it the same thing has happened to them...
Damn those rules June 29 There's a monster coming over the hill....Ok so I got about an hours kip last night/morning. A combination of excitement, and my old man using the shower at 1am this morning which seems to be connected to the house's foundations (measured 6.8 on the rictor scale) meant I got very little sleep. Feeling somewhat grumpy. I wont bother putting my contacts in this morning - can barely open my eyes. Hopefully the excitement should counter act the lack of sleep or I might have to buy a crate of red bull.... June 28 The Journey has started....Ok the moment has finally arrived - the journey started at 2.20 when the taxi driver knocked on the door. Arrived at Plymouth train station at 2.40. Looked up at the departure board and saw that our train had been cancelled. Not a good start - hope its not a start of things to come! After moaning to my wife Sandra for the next half an hour and cursing the train, I finally accepted the fact I couldnt do anything about it. Arrived at Reading about 7pm, ready for the overnight stay - hope I can get some sleep at my parents - its normally very difficult to get a good nights kip there, my dad gets up at some silly hour to make himself a cup of tea and is incapable of doing it quietely. Be even worse, just found out he needs to get to Dover for 3am - so looks likely we wont get any sleep...im not so good when i dont have my kip, Sandra will back me up on that..... June 16 Winning the Fan CompetionsIt all started back in April when my brother sent me a link to the xboxcup.com competition. Of course I had to have a go at stopping a multi coloured bar going across the screen, I mean how difficult could it be. Well after an hour or so and suffering from RSI I managed to put up a reasonable score and get into the top 360. At this time I was happy thinking I had the chance of winning fifa 2006 for the 360. I couldn’t wait though so I went out and bought it the next day. Over the next few days when I had the chance I would be playing on the website trying to increase my score, and I eventually got into the top 10. Once I had got this high I didn’t want to stop as I felt I had a chance of winning. I carried on playing when I finally got to the top, where I stayed until the final day of the competition. I woke up on the 24th of May( the last day of the comp) expecting to still be top and low and behold someone was beating me. I was gutted (not quite as much as when the Hammers lost the cup to Mr G!) I couldn’t stop thinking all day at work at how close I came as I didn’t think I could beat the top score. Anyway I left work a bit earlier that day to try my best to win. I think I must of played it for a few hours before thinking that I was never going to win. I stopped for tea and feeling rejuvenated I gave it one last shot - and at about 11:45pm (the competition closed at 23:59) I managed to climb to the top of the leaderboard. I couldn’t believe my luck. I convinced myself I had won and the clock passed Midnight. I then realised the competition close at 23:59 GMT not BST so I waited up to 1am to see if I had won. Next Day I couldn’t contain myself, I was sure I was off to Germany. I was due to hear about the competition on or around the 30th of May but I didn’t get my confirmation until the 1st of June - I was worried that I had missed the email as you only had 48hrs to respond and my email had been playing up at the time. Still my worries turned to excitement once the email came through and I have been counting down the weeks to the competition. Its amazing how many new friends you have when you tell them you are going off to Germany for the World Cup. Luckily the misses is a big football fan (unfortunately Arsenal) so she is as excited as me, though im not sure she will be that interested in the xboxcup unless she gets the chance to play Zuma. Since then I have had many forms to fill in which I didn’t understand - im not sure what I have signed up for! Also I have had a call from Stuart at Extreme Sports Channel to ask me a few questions and telling me there is a possibility Radio 1 might be there. I think me and the misses might feel a bit old when we're there compared to all the younger gamers and fans but Im just going lap it all up - should be great fun and I cant wait….. |
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