Hey!  Where did everybody go?  Footballers are jumping on planes all over the place to fly to the four corners of the world.  Aha! It’s another FIFA International week.  Don’t worry; your “Special One” will not abandon you in your time of need as you reach for your Fantasy Football Fix.  We can get through this down time together and instead of focusing on our Premiership withdrawal; let’s root on those national teams as they strive for victory and patriotic glory.  So buck up and say…”Who’s Cape Verde Islands playing this week?”.

As usual; our “Fantasy Zolo” league code is 694916-134116 to join our private league.  Select “Leagues” under your Fantasy Menu and then enter the code and you are good to go.  We have gotten new members in the past few weeks so let’s recognize them here.

Welcome to Philly Union squad & manager Jay Ziminsky who just joined the game and our league.  A proud SoB, our “Jay Z” may not be a rap mogul better known for being known as “Mr. Beyonce”, but he is one of our most thoughtful & insightful commentators/posters over at our Big Soccer.com message boards.  So the next time you are over there give Zman Gunner some well deserved rep.

A tip of the “Special One” chapeau to Zombie Gaz FC & manager Gary Hunt who joined this past week.  Gary was able to jump into 20^th place straightaway based on his quality play in the fantasy game thus far.  He dominates the Delmar Premier league already (although click on that league table and you’ll get a smile).  Just when the “Special One” thought 50 points this past week was very good; here comes newbie Zombie Gaz FC with 57 in their debut.  To that the “Special One” can only say, “Shut up, Zombie Gaz.”

Thoughts on last week

Another week that showed the massive reverse psychology/inspirational power of the “Special One”.  After 2 weeks of berating Fulham for their poor performances at home, especially vs. ManU in the FA Cup, what do they do?  They physically & mentally demolish European champion ManU at home.  Very Nice! 

It is obvious that Fulham is reading this, motivated by my comments, and hanging on my every word.  After that quality performance, to Fulham I now say, “Do it!  Be eighth place!”.

Also Liverpool embarrasses Aston Villa and makes it a race for the Premiership title again.  The unintelligible Stephen Gerrard scores the world’s ugliest hat-trick and made a lot of managers happy with twenty points from his 3 goals.   At the other end of the scale was the petulant Wayne Rooney who got a suspension for next week after being sent off at Craven Cottage (punching a corner flag on his way).  The one time the ”Special One” shows faith in “the boy” to add him to the special squad and this is how I get rewarded?  Wayne, go stand in the corner, without a corner flag.  “Meester Alex”, have a word with “the boy”.  Moving on…

This week (there isn’t any)

So what to do?  We have been at this for several weeks, so let’s take a look back at some of the selections of your humble writer.  The best way is too look at them though the traditional English measuring stick of “Form” (how you have fared over the last six matches).  The game has it set up as a very useful tool on the right side of the screen on a drop down menu that can be accessed from the “Transfers” page under the “Fantasy Menu”.  If you haven’t been using it yet, you should now or at least get familiar with it for next season.

So for winning selections through form:

My form champions:

• Maynor Figueroa:  Wigan defender has a Form (average points over 6 weeks) of 4.  Not bad for a very cheap solid defender week in and week out with 3 clean sheets during the period.  Very nice.
• Matt Taylor:  Form of 5.6 for the Bolton midfielder.  He had a very big match last week to show the genius of the Special One.  He has jumped up .3£m since I recommended him. 
• Jonathan Woodgate:  Form of 6 for this Spurs defender with 2 clean sheets in the last 4 weeks.  Still very affordable at 5.2£m.
• Leighton Baines:  You know that I would mention this one.  Form of 7 with 11 points in the last 2 weeks for my latest spectacular pick.  With his 1^st goal for Everton last week, I have worked my humble magic again.

My form anti-champions:

·        Nemanja Vidic:  He was on fire when I referred him but his fiery aggression led his sending off & red card suspension.  Although I did warn you by saying “…he comes from Serbia…looks like he’ll murder ya…”, so could I really be wrong? 

·        Craig Bellamy:  His price was rising when I singled him out for recommendation.  He returned to the hoodlum ways of his youth by stealing thousands of pounds.  Unfortunately, this time he has stolen it from himself in his declining value to due lack of goals and injury, down 300,000 pounds from his height.  Well, well, well.

·        Roque Santa Cruz :  I said he was worth a gamble but he came up snake eyes.  When I threw the dice at him, he broke.  Who knew he was a China doll?.  So was I really wrong?  How much are you paying for this advice anyway?

Next week:

We wait to see the aftermath of an international break and see who may get added to the injury list.  The “Special One’s” fearless prediction for this week is for 4 points from 2 matches for the USMNT.  Now let’s get out there Lesotho, Burkina Faso, and Moldova and for just one week…Be Champions! 

Thanks for reading…Be Good.