Euro 2012 Fantasy Player Pool - Qtr #2 Roundup

Well, Gentlemen, we officially have a fight on our hands. After more than a week of running away from the field, Andrew L. finally gave back major ground today. 


Back on Day 9 of the Group Stage, I focused my recap on the contrast between a lot of high scores and a lot of low ones. But that was nothing. Today the same theme played out even stronger, with several contenders taking goose eggs on the day and others scraping for a single, solitary point. Meanwhile a few people rode big gains to reshape their destinies in this pool.


You know, you watch the Group Stage matches, you read the postgame quotes, you study the expert analysis, and you think you have these tournaments figured out...sadly the managers never make it that easy.

"Jogi, you know I lead this tournament in scoring, ja?"

Joachim Loew is by all accounts a rational, sane man.  So you couldn't call him crazy for starting off the Euro Quarterfinals by benching the only three players who had scored for Germany so far.  But it sure seemed nuts at the time. 


Looking back on a 4-2 win, of course, it's easy to see what inspired Loew's confidence in fielding a "backup" eleven vs. Greece. I mean, as a soccer fan, you probably come away even more impressed with the way Jogi runs his team.


The difference between a soccer fan and a fantasy owner, though, is a mighty one indeed. Messing around with a working formula is not really something a fantasy owner enjoys or even feels compelled to do. "Go with what's working" is a strategy no less effective for its simplicity.  For Andrew L. and Scott W., our two leaders entering the day, it must've seriously stung to hear the opening whistle go off and see Mario Gomez standing helplessly on the sideline. 


Loew's lineup shuffle played out even worse for fringe contender and Coldplay connoisseur Tyson G. Counting on a big day from Captain Gomez to lead him back into the group of elite contenders, Tyson instead dropped behind an emergent group of Lahm owners that zoomed up up from the middle of the pack.  Hey, nobody said it was easy.


Neuer and Lahm owners always stood to gain the most from Mario's no-show, but Neuer couldn't keep the clean sheet (or save the penalty), so really it was only the four Phillipians among us who capitalized the most.  Even though only 14% of the pool chose Lahm, half of those who did pick him also made him their captain. 


Of those two big winners today, Ryan W. utilized Lahm's laser to make a huge jump back into the Top 2, just 5.5 points back of Andrew L.  Meanwhile Brian C., written off for dead after a disastrous Day 8, came out of nowhere and suddenly sits in 8th place, 22.5 points out of first.  Brian's big problem is that outside of Lahm, the only other actual "unique" players he have are the Group D schlubs that put him in such a deep hole (Cole & M'Villa).  He'll need at least one more REALLY good day like today to be a serious threat.

George, will anyone even GET this reference???

The other Good German to have on your squad today was the man who seemed to dominate the play more than anyone else even though he fell frustratingly short on two late chances to score from point blank: Mezut Ozil. 


Three Ozil owners joined Ryan W. in making jumps to displace Scott W. from the Top 5. One of that trio, John M., is the highest-ranked owner to have Ozil as his captain, which bodes well for his chances going forward. 


While owners of reliable German veterans like  Schweinsteiger and Muller ended up disappointed with today's tallies, one guy who took a shot in the dark and ended up with a rising Deutsche star finally saw that blind risk pay off today.  Naturally Marco Reus's breakout game in Euro 2012 came immediately after I called him out in this space.  The outstanding effort, which included an ultra-energetic first half topped off by a sick second half strike, means he might've found his way into Loew's future plans next week.


Rob M. I apologize for doubting you, but really you should be happy that I bashed your boy....what's the opposite of the "Kiss of Death"? It seems like, this entire tournament, whenever I  have tried to call someone out, they usually end up proving me wrong in a big way. I'm currently taking requests, and bribes, for future rant subjects.  Sergio Ramos owners, get in while the getting is good.


On the Greek side of things, we got the same parade of zeroes on the fantasy scoresheet that we'd seen the entire Group Stage from the Hellas crew. But much love goes out to my man Dan H., who really aced us all out with his selection of Salpigidis as his Greek representative. Pretty crazy to see Salpa end up outscoring Bendtner, Arshavin, and Zlatan, among other big names.  Dan lamented over e-mail that the huge effort is doomed to go to waste, but Captain Schweiny may still have yet to weigh in on that question, who knows?  You're only 33.2 points away, brother!

These four will determine our leaders' fates manana. Ribery looks ready.

Looking ahead, our new Top 2 will generally rise and fall together tomorrow - Andrew and Ryan both feature Benzema and Casillas (though Andrew has him as Captain so he'll see a little more dramatic effect from whatever Iker does). 


Dan P. in 3rd has fairly unique scoring options, so he'll at least have the potential for gaining a lot of ground. It's up to Ribery and Iniesta to decide just how kinetic they want to be. 


Steve J. sits very uneasily in 4th...he's less than 7 points ahead of the next 5 owners on the board and hasn't seen Patrice Evra take the field since France's opening match. But with Ramos wearing an armband, anything is of course possible.


Mike S. can still make a nice move, but his chances remain subject to the whims of Vicente Del Bosque. Cesc, we've hardly known ya, but we're certain you deserve better.


Finally, a salute to the fighting spirit of Kyle S., who's hopefully left the "relegation zone" of our leaderboard for good after today.  You may remember Kyle as the guy who took two red cards on Day 1 of the tourney, still the only negative daily total any owner has suffered so far.  Fifty points off the leader's pace, Kyle is down and he is also out, but he is not dead. Thanks to double points from Ozil, he begins tomorrow just a well-timed Karim Benzema goal away from the Top 20, good luck sir.