Euro 2012 Fantasy Player Pool - Final Report

The last ball has been kicked in Kiev, and the biggest question in world soccer has evolved from "Who will be European Champion?" to "Is Spain the greatest dynasty in the history of the sport?"


There are of course a few other answers out there still to search for: What was Jogi Loew thinking? Who the hell is Jordi Alba?? And why did it take me a week to finish this final writeup???

You can chalk that last one up to a road trip, a holiday, and the lingering laziness from a happy reunion with the two girls I love most in this world.  The second query is one that I imagine fewer and fewer people will be asking over the next year. As for the mental processes of the sports world's preeminent booger eater, well, we may never know.


But for fantasy purposes, my friends, there are no questions left at all. Andrew L., runaway leader since Day 6 of the Group Stage, jusssssst held on to win the whole damn shooting match. In doing so, he survived a strong push from the aforementioned Señor Alba (who's cracking goal sealed the title for Spain and also decided the Fantasy MVP Race), as well as a cheeky near-miss from Sergio Ramos.

The backheel attempt that *would* have knocked Andrew L. off his perch had it found the net

Andrew's lucrative victory over the other 28 of us depended on many factors, but the most important one came into play last Sunday: the correct choice of captain. Iker Casillas ended up as the second highest fantasy scorer in all of Euro 2012, and getting double points from him was a surefire ticket to success (almost...Nathan L. rode Captain Casillas all the way to 19th place. Clasificacion decepcionante, no?).


Andrew dominated the Group Stage, averaging almost 2 full points per day higher than his next-closest competitor. But the challengers came hard and fast in the Knockout, with 11 owners turning in a higher daily average than our eventual champion over those final 7 matches.


Unsurprisingly, the two owners with the biggest fantasy output in the Knockout round ended up in 2nd and 3rd of the pool, overall.  Proper armband assignation also worked to benefit Steve J., who used Ramos's captaincy to stay in front of Andrew K. and the Jordi Alba Express.  Meanwhile Michael L., who earned the most points (among contenders) from the actual Final match itself, finished in a strong 4th place but was actually closer to 8th than he was to 3rd.

Two men you'll never see in the same place at the same time

The Final also made a big impact on the bottom half of the standings.  Remember when I called out all the guys who made Xavi their captain? Well the world's greatest guitar rockin' midfield player served up one last giant helping of the Bramlette Reverse Jinx, saving his best match of the tournament for last.  In doing so, he vaulted previously bottom-feeding owners like Jeff R. and Rob M. into relatively respectable Top 20 finishes, while also getting Brian E. out of the cellar that I believe he'd just finished redecorating. 


Xavi's two assists were sublime, as worthy of non-existent bonus fantasy points as any other great moment of magic from the entire three weeks. The big day finally helped him pass his midfield compatriots Iniesta and Fabregas in the MVP rankings, but still failed to get him anywhere near the Fantasy XI:

• GK - ENG - Hart - 27.1
• GK - UKR - Pyatov 11.2
• DEF - ESP - Alba - 47 (Captain)
• DEF - FRA - Mexes - 8.5
• DEF - CZE - Gebre-Selassie - 15
• DEF - IRE - Dunne - 4.5
• DEF - GRE - Torsidis - 10.5
• MID - ITA - Pirlo - 36
• MID - GER - Ozil - 31
• MID - DEN - Krohn-Delhi - 25
• MID - RUS - Dzagoev - 25
• MID - SWE - Larsson - 22
• FWD - CRO - Mandzukic - 20
• FWD - NED - van Persie - 12
• FWD - POR - Ronaldo - 30
• WC - POL - Blaszczykowski - 17

Again, as with the team I put together after the Groups, these aren't the highest scorers for each team, just the highest scoring lineup I could put together within our "one player per country" rule. This squad would've scored 388.8 total points and made you the runaway winner of the pool, if you'd had the foresight to assemble it.  As it is, two members of this "Dream Team" weren't owned by anyone , and several had just one or a handful of owners.


Overall it was a great tournament, and I really enjoyed doing the calculations and figuring out the scenarios and what not. I learned a lot, and even though I complained about the scoring system several times, I think ultimately you have to say it was well balanced, if not quite diverse enough. In future pools I think I'll keep the same basic structure but add some .3 categories for the outfield players to match the Saves that only goalkeepers can get.  I'm thinking things like Shots on Target, Fouls Drawn, and Successful Tackles...just little things to help differentiate players from each other and prevent another situation where it almost didn't even matter which Dutch player you took.  We'll work out the details in time for the 2013 Confederations Cup, hope to see y'all there!