Euro 2012 Fantasy Player Pool - Day 4 Roundup

A couple of memories came back to me this morning as I thought about yesterday's player pool action. 


The first was from a few years ago: an overmatched, out of place, past his prime star trying to dupe the world into believing he could be an elite Premier League striker. 


The second was from a few days ago: my good buddy Mike S. submitting his lineup for the player pool, and me responding with a text asking him if he was actually serious about selecting Andre Schevchenko.




In all fairness it's not like Sheva was total rubbish at Chelsea, but he did cost them more than a million pounds per goal he scored, to go along with inspiring at least one vengeful Urban Dictionary user.  With so many people seeing the name Shevchenko as a synonym for failure, you understand my surprise seeing it show up on a fantasy roster.


But Mike S. turned out not to be alone in his faith that the Ukrainian star could shine on home soil despite being a couple years past "washed up" status. Four others had similar foresight and got a big boost to their pool chances to show for it.  As Derek Rae might say, you gentlemen have clearly come up trumps.

Looking at the distribution of Ukrainians in the pool it's clear this team was an afterthought for many of us.  12 different Ukrainians found their way onto fantasy rosters, including a couple of total randos. The group as a whole took 5 Fantasy DNPs, much more than we've seen with any other Euro squad so far.  


Sadly for the Koval, Butko, Shevchuk, and Aliyev owners amongst us, I don't think you'll be getting much of anything from those guys the rest of the way. Even sadder, Ukrainian fantasy players are now a serious threat to get an extra game or two at the expense of a star English or Frenchman.  But of course, we're still a week away from that phase of the game.


For now, we celebrate the success of Dan P., who's massive day (Hart, Ribery, Zlatan, Sheva) vaulted him up to the top 3 of the standings, where less than 2 full points actually separate 1st from 3rd.  And we ponder the mysterious choices of Tyson G., who managed to find a spot for Arshavin and wisely gave his Captain's armband to Gomez, but who also became the only one in the pool to take a DNP from someone on his roster on each of the first four Matchdays.  Tyson's 7.3 pts gave him Day 4's biggest drop in the standings.

"Shh" gesture or sneaky nose pick? You make the call!

On the whole, after one round of Group matches, there's a big group bunched well within striking distance, while those of us near the bottom are starting to sweat a little bit. No doubt we're the folks that the unowned Samir Nasri was telling to "shut the F up" with his goal celebration yesterday, eh?  It's a little strange to think that no one at all picked the little dribbling wizard.  I for one am just harboring a massive Arsenal-based grudge...what's y'all's excuse???


Today's action brings Group A back around for the second time.  This was the lowest scoring group, fantasy wise, the first trip through, thanks especially to those two red cards.  Can the Russians continue to deliver big numbers vs. a backup keeper and a desperate host nation? Can Petr Cech earn back the trust of the huge group of fantasy owners that put him in goal?? Will Greece even be a country by the time this tournament ends???   


I'm gonna say Yes, Yes, and Yes....but then again I'm just a few points out of last  place in this pool, so maybe I'm not the best source to be listening to for prognostication purposes.  After all, I never even considered choosing Andre Shevchenko.