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Zygalski said:
AN XBOX FOR EVERY FINALIST!
30 Jun 04 - 14:25
You won't believe this, but we swear it's true: Microsoft is giving each one of the 40 PESLeague finalists an Xbox just for showing up at Stamford Bridge on 7 August!
In case you didn't know, PES 4 has been confirmed for release on Xbox this year. It could well be the best version of the game yet, so we guess Microsoft is making sure the UK's best players get to enjoy it.
If you finished in the top four of your league this season you can expect to receive PESLeague Grand Final details in the post soon. Meantime, rest assured Konami is covering transport and accommodation costs for every finalist plus a friend. But before you ask, it's only the finalist that gets the Xbox... although we'd like to hope they'll share!
We'll be posting more info on the rest of the prizes to be given away soon, plus the general run of play on the day itself. So stay tuned and keep smiling.
It was good meeting everyone Zesh, Femi, Peter Willis briefly. Bearing in mind I was England and most the others were France No excuse though, he scored more goals than me.
FEMI'S FRANCE GIVES SAMME A SHOEING
A thrilling France v France showdown brought the PESLeague Grand Finals to a close, around party time on Saturday evening. However the only guy who felt like dancing was Femi Paul, who beat Tim Samme 2-1 to claim the trophy.
The Millennium Suite at Chelsea's Stamford Bridge was buzzing by midday. Folks had arrived from as far away as Scotland and Newcastle, and were busy stoking up on Chelski Cola to kick-start their PES mojos. The atmosphere was friendly and upbeat, and we caught a few of the 'top' players introducing themselves, having recognised each other from profiles online. No matter how tense it got throughout the afternoon, the positive spirit carried through. And, boy, was it ever tense.
There was even drama before the tournament got underway: Bade Ade and his brother Tim were drawn in the same Group, which would've been desperately cruel. Credit to the organising staff for sorting this out with no fuss. One thing that couldn't be changed was the 'Group of Death' - Group A. The top-placed players from Harrow, Liverpool, London E4, Bath, and Birmingham had to play each other for the one place that would get them through to the next round. Although it all came down to Shui v Khalid El-Awel, in which a win or draw from Shui would see him through and put Oz out of the championship, we think it was Shui's 3-1 against Oz that made the difference. It was Oz's first loss of the season, and must've shaken him deep down.
Tach Hamthanon held onto his unbeaten run all the way through Group B, beating Stu Cronin, Jonathan Francis, Rich Crossman and Chris Ogirri with apparently little effort - although he left it until the 84 minute to score against Chris, the first time Tach revealed his nerves by punching the air. Tach had told us how much formations played a role in his games, and used up all his allotted time setting things up before each game. Obviously it paid off. Against Stu Cronin, France v France, we stopped to watch how Tach was doing all this... lots of runs down the wings and perfect crosses into the area. Stu, meanwhile, attempted more of a midfield strategy, and was stopped several times, unluckily, right on the edge of the area.
At least Stu went on to win the Doubles Tourney alongside fellow Scot Ian Wilson. Well done you lads for that!
By the time we caught up with Femi Paul, he and Shaun Oliver had found a couple of chairs to relax into the deciding game of Group C. If Femi had lost, he would've handed his place to Zahrin Nadzimuddin. "No pressure" Femi smiled. Anyway, he did it - laughing all the way, and apologising to Shaun for scoring the winning goal. All the laughs in the world couldn't have cheered Keith Wheeler who was having a mare of an afternoon, and didn't take too kindly to guys time wasting when the results were close.
Must admit to routing for little Nic Padamsee from Southend in Group D. We watched his lose 3-4 in a game that at one stage was 3-2 in his favour having been level at 2-2 for a while. There were lots of games yo-yoing back and forth like that on Saturday, the 30-yard shot that finished this one off was a screamer straight to the heart. Unlucky Nic wound up in second to Jon Ferdenzi (happy to be at The Bridge as a Chelsea supporter) based on goal difference. The exact same thing happened to him at the North v South Derby earlier in the year. "Next time. There's always next time" smiled Nic, happy to see Jon go through. Our sincere commiserations to Stephen Canty, Ho Yan Cheung and Matt Holmes who all had quite a journey to make. Glad to see Ho Yen smiling for the rest of the afternoon, soaking up the skills from rivals across the UK.
Dwaine Parkes stormed through group E, taking the biggest scalp of the tournament along the way. He beat David Sefah - last year's champ. That pretty much says it all, for Dwaine and David, David looked shell-shocked but it's like we said all along before this tournament: there would be some challengers that the London players just wouldn't see coming. Dwaine became our man to prove it, Zesh bore the most bruises finishing last in the group, and Mike Wheeler did well to get three points because he was full of 'Chelski Cheer' shall we say, before things got started. Stephen Minghella must have surprised himself, and gone home happy.
At one stage we would have put money on Mark Raffiee to reach the finals. He cleared group F without too much fuss, although Ian Wilson made a dramatic comeback from 0-2 at half time to square it 2-2. First from a 56th minute corner, then on the hour mark, a great shot from inside the 18-yard box. Mark eventually won in the very last minute 3-2... "I think I had a player sent off". Didn't have a clue where he was. We got the impression Vivek, Debo and Tom didn't expect to take anything home apart from their Xbox at the end of the day, so were fairly chilled. Ian Wilson joined Stu Cronin in the Doubles, and we already congratulated him. So, moving swiftly along...
Group G was the tightest of them all, eventually requiring either Stephen Robinson or Vishnu Papineri to take all three points from their encounter to top the group, or see Tim Samme win. Tim Samme won. Vishnu went outside to watch the guys clean the terraces and watch rainbows form in the sprinklers. We lost track of Stephen Robinson for the afternoon. Wonder what would've happened to Bade if he'd remained in the same group as his brother, instead winding up last. At least Azhan Anuar could say he placed above one of London's top players...
As for Tim, it came down to a hard fought 3-4 loss against Edinburgh's Ross Forsyth in Group F. It was the only game Tim lost, but it cost him the tournament. Must've given young Ross a run for his money, because the Scot emerged sweating and staggering from behind the PlayStation pod, looking like he'd faced God himself and been given a new lease on life. Newcastle's Jon Lee obviously couldn't rely on his favourite formation for the day, and we'd put a lot of his difficulties down to tiredness. It was good to see Jamie Cottage taking an interest in every stage beyond the Groups. Poor Joseph McMullen took nothing home but a bruised ego to be nursed by his free Xbox.
The Quarter-Finals were drawn Shui v Femi, Tim v Ross, Mark v Dwaine, and Jon v Tach. Femi had Shui beat after the Liver-lad got a man sent off at 1-0 up. Their game ended 2-1 to Femi. It was hard to watch Mark v Dwaine after the game entered the second half of extra time at 2-2. You know how quickly time goes in a 10-minute session, well Dwaine went 3-2 up and immediately paused the game to change to a more defensive formation - all the arrows pointing back toward his area! Mark just stood there rubbing his head, half-tired, half stressed to the hilt. It really was all over... until Mark scored the equaliser. Dwaine was whirling around in disbelief, laughing and screaming at the same time. Apparently he'd missed a sitter in the first half, but now it had come to this - penalties. Mark converted his first five cleanly. Dwaine had Adriano's bounce off the post, and Rivaldo's saved. And that, was that.
More QF drama ensued over at the Tim Samme and Ross Forsyth game. In the very last second of the game, on 90'', Tim made it 4-3 with Zidane despite Ross scoring from a scorching free kick to level the playing field seconds earlier 3-3.
(Note: We're waiting to find out what happened between Tach and Jon, as we were unable to watch all the QFs at once. Really sorry about that, but we'll update again once we know guys!).
Mark went out to Tim. Femi... well he knocked out either Tach or Jon but like we just mentioned, lost track of everything there for a while. Gosh... So once the eternal Doubles Tournament had ended, two hours later than scheduled, we finally got down to the final. Meantime Mark was in pub watching Sunderland get beaten 2-0 at Coventry...
THE FINAL!!!
The inevitable crowd gathered around the giant plasma screen for the Grand Final: Femi Paul v Tim Samme. Support was noisiest for the London boy, but behind all the shouting there were murmurs of admiration for 'Southend Samme'.
Femi was on the back foot for the first 10 minutes on the clock, bracing himself as Tim fired wide of the left post on four minutes, then seconds later just wide of the right evenly across the park. Both guys were playing a blistering passing game, occasionally calmed with incisive use of Zidane in the midfield.
Very soon after Tim's second chance went wide, Femi won himself a corner. It wasn't converted, but Tim's hasty clearance gave the ball back to Femi who crossed the ball into the box for the first goal of the game off Henry's head.
Femi was from this point feeling more confident, and on 25 minutes got a clean shot on goal with Henry and only just fired wide. Femi was no longer smiling, and visibly tense, perhaps hoping to capitalise on a temporarily dishevelled defensive display from Tim. It was no surprise that a foul went against Femi in the 29th minute, within scoring range for Henry but it soared skyward and that was that.
Tim turned up the heat with a chance in the 35th minute. Henry was proving useless for both players, missing yet again to 'whoos' and 'whaaaas' from the crowd. The last chance of the half fell to Femi, another header from close range putting Barthez to the test.
Both players got straight back into the game for the second half, not caring to adjust formations. Femi was awarded a Penalty almost straightaway in the 52nd minute, resulting in a red card for Tim's Thuram. Incredibly this was saved. It was still very, very close. A masterful free kick from Tim's Henry gave him a way back into the game with the scoreline at 1-1 - evidently Samme had been practicing set pieces.
The valiant, and still impressive Tim looked like holding on to 1-1 by keeping the ball in the centre of the park with a strong midfield passing game. But Femi broke the stranglehold on 79 minutes, making it 2-1, at which point even Tim's biggest supporters considered it to be all over. Tim was shaken, and a hair-raising example of Barthez going walkies presented Femi with an open goal which should've nailed it but Tim managed to clear with another player.
And that's how it ended. Femi Paul has surived an entire season, and then the championship unbeaten. This is going to be a PESLeague record that's hard to beat!
At the close of the day, Femi was awarded the PESLeague Cup, to huge applause. He also got to stay the night in Chelsea Village, where he could listen to his new iPod - also a prize. Most glamorous of all, Femi will be joining North v South winner Iz Idris on a trip to the south of France for the Euro PESLeague finals.
Plucky runner-up Tim Samme also claimed an iPod. And all of the 40 finalists were handed an Xbox, courtesy of Microsoft, on their way out and into the night...
We'd say it was quite a success. See you next year then!
