7th Place!

Since Klaus decided his 6-0 drubbing of my b-squad was good enough without returning the favor and coming to Brooklyn, I think the Brooklyn Wind have won 7th place by default!!
Go Wind!

(I logged on today to find that he had already arranged another friendly, that bastard! I guess he's tired of playing me.)

Blink, blink...

I haven't seen that much action in three minutes since my wedding night, and never in a hattrick match.



In a note about the actual "Brooklyn Cup"...........classic, Jay, classic.

Don't blink!

So in my match against Jay last night, in the final three minutes we had three goals and three cards. Has anybody seen that much activity at the very end of a match before?

Bah!

Okay, I admit it, I fell for that link hook, line and sinker! After looking at the site my only comment is... "why?"

Even one of the testimonials advocates alternate uses for the device! Sounds like a waste o cash if you ask me :P

Still... very funny ;)

B-Cup

I'd like to see Ratz win, so I can claim I got beat 3 times (at least?) by the champ.
But I'm pulling for BFC to bring the Cup home...and so it won't have as far to travel to California next year. ;-)

Prediction: BFC 5 - Ratz 4 (aggregate)

btw- does an actual "Brooklyn Cup" trophy exist? Googling for "cup", I found this one...probably awarded to the winner of another Cup federation:
http://www.flabber.nl/img/camel.toe.cup.large.jpg

My Apologies

I didn't properly scout out your opponent. I just figured you'd draw a tough one. Not so, really.

But now I have to revise my B-Cup Final pick.
Ratz 5-BFC 7!!!!!
(Did you see how I won my league by the way. AMAZING!!)

The Wop wishes both sides a good match with NO injurues.

Ratz can't win? Does not compute!

Firstly, congRatz on the title win!

Secondly, I think J-Wop has it right with a 6-4 aggregate win to me ;)

Thirdly, Whaddya mean Ratz can't win their qualifier? Not only am I going to whoop his sorry ass but I am going to do it in style with a scoreline about 6-0 :P~~~~

Of course, I could just be a little too ambitious (as per usual!)

The Wop and the Finals

The Dirty Ratz vs Brooklyn FC - The Finals
(First of all, let me just say how proud of my Wind for taking to the Ogalalla Plainsmen. It was an astonishing win for a team that looked just recently as though Div V was going to be the reality for next season. Not only did we win, we kicked ass and and are on our way to autopromotion. We made it clear to the Planinsmen that we weren't the team we played in Week 1. However they very much were.)

The Brooklyn International Cup finally sees a matchup that we all wanted. Nothing against any other teams, but these guys started it and manage it and its more than appopriate that they represent the first transatlantic Final in B-Cup history. Anyway, did I TELL YOU GUYS ABOUT MY TEAM WINNING THE SERIES ON THE LAST DAY OF THE SEASON IN A DRUBBING OF A HEAVILY FAVORED TEAM 6-1 THEREBY qualifying for DIVISION IV. AMAZING!!! Oh wait, I'm handicapping a match here aren't I. The Ratz face a qualifier they know they can't win, BFC faces a qualifier they HAVE to win.
WOPS Pick - Ratz 6, BFC 4 (Aggregate)

Semifinals final Update

All stats have now been updated.

I have included another 'special interest' page... team TSIs!

I have also trawled through every seasons stats and found (I hope!) the name of every player that has ever earned a point of fame in the brooklyn cup but now is gone. For the sake of completeness I have also included Idali and Das Quakes. Other teams that have left us have not been included as otherwise things could get silly :P

Unfortunately I have already deleted all the players that left in season XXII, and their fame points; players prior to season XXII had stats recorded differently. Due to this I have had to list the real oldies differently to the 'noob' players ;)

Enjoy!

Update, Semifinals

The tables have been updated and the new fixtures set (I hope they are all right this time ;))

The order of the finals home/away legs is not particularly significant... play them whichever way you like!

Just remember that they should be 'normal' rules and away goals count double in ties ;)

Good luck to all... even Scott ;P

Hard Cheddar, Peter.

Tough break to get an ass thrashing from BFC, matey! Especially as I wanted to have that honour ;)

Personally I can't wait to see J-Wop's odds on the final... I may even have a little flutter ;)

It cannot be possible

Ohhnooo what a cruel world. I was so confident on winning the game I didnt even bother to play with my first team goalie Ljungby. Maybe over confident, what other explanation is there. Please help me understand this outcome!?!

I cant wait till the next cup edition, so i can have my revenge.!


Oaahhhaaaaaaaa!!!!


See ya guys again next season and may the best team (BFC) win the final.

Coming Soon

Of course I will have to handicap this Titanic struggle in due course.

The Wop is still trying to figure out how exactly he missed calling the spanking of Le Tigre by BFC. Way to go Scotty.

Wow.

And So It Begins.....

The die is cast and the final is set....

BFC v Ratz

A titanic clash with only one possible winner.... me!

C'mon, Scotty Boy! Put up yer dukes! ;)

Tom Hanks

THanks for giving me a life again, or at least some posted odds. I needed them for posterity--so my kids will one day see that I once really did qualify for the BCup Invitational. Really I did!

Saltopus is promoting to V next season and I'm moving my good players back to the 1st team, so next season will be a good time to have me on your friendly schedule.

Couldn't Wait!

Seeing as how J-Wop has decided to update his picks for the semis, I decided to update the page.

I have spent a little more time sorting it out and have found the 'missing' Pus odds too ;)

Notes from The Wop

Jeff-
Thanks for recognizing the effort and immortalizing Johnny the Wop. I'll try and make it semi-permanent. Perhaps a Group Handicap at the beginning of the Cup and another handicap before the 2nd Round.

Remember, all picks are made for gambling purposes only. This site -and Johnny the Wop himself - does not the condone the practice of handicapping for entertainment only.

Quick notes on upcoming quarters in case you were interested:

Ratz v Ellwood
You know, for all he does for The Cup, the fact that he's a new father, you would think that I'd pull for this guy, but I'm sick and tired of the Ratz winning. Could you please beat him Elwood? No, I didn't think so. Pick: Ratz, 3-1.

Le Tigre v BFC
Scott's been out of town in California for almost two weeks now, while I've been taking care of his house and cats. He's going to see his lovely girlfriend Shannon for the first time tonight in over a month. I predict Scott actually forgets to put orders in for this match, because he won't be coming up for air in the next two days. And really, the question we all really want to ask is, "Does it really matter"? No. Pick: Le Tigre 3-2. (Actually, the truth is Scott will be 'Hey baby, nice to see you, hang on for a sec sweetheart, I need to check my Hattrick.)

Gives us yet another Ratz-Tigre Final. Goddam it.

The Brooklyn International Cup

200-1 The 'Pus (who is acting like a Pus right now)
Likely to face Ratz. Likely to go down like Boyd's Mom in a truck stop. Hey guys, don't forget CUP RULES!!! That would be ironic, and great for System, if they played to a draw again."

I was in fact, correct. Of course

Two points

1) I did actually put the entire J-Wop odds on the page but it does indeed appear that the #8 position has dropped off the bottom somehow... I will look into it more closely at the next update.

2) Scott's original newsletter did, indeed, have a different fixture list to the one posted on here. I am not sure exactly why he didn't go with the seedings but I will alter the fixtures on this site when the next update occurs. In all circumstances go with Scott's fixtures rather than mine as all I do is report what he has said (and I sometimes get it wrong ;)). In this case I put up the fixtures based on the QF results and neglected to cross reference these with Scott's fixtures before uploading them. Apologies to all affected.

Yo Jay

In defense of Mr Sic, even though The 'Pus does not show up on the J-Wop page, I believe that in his actual post below, he included odds for the "#8 team" which he stated could be Saltopus.

However, I'm thinking that you are right about the scheduling error. Sic and I booked one another as well based on the HT mail that Scott sent, but I'm thinking that the way Jeff has it listed on the Finals page is in fact the way it should have been done based on seeding. That's too bad, I would have liked a chance to annoy Claus with yet another 1-goal win by the Bonafide... ;-)

J-Wop

I will not rest until Saltopus shows up in your odds for the Brook Invit. Cup--even at 1M to 1, since I already lost.

BTW- either the playoff schedule is wrong, or I made the wrong challenge for 5th place. I swear the schedule by mail/message said versus the Avs.

Ta, mate!

I am real glad you like the new stats... I was toying with the idea of compiling retrospective lists of ex-players but the thought of all that legwork put the fear of God, Allah, Budda and the entire Greek Pantheon into me! However, as it seems to be a hit with at least one person (other than myself) I will look into doing just that ;)

I have recently quit playing another internet game (It's one of those 'empire building' type games that I had won twice before anyway ;)) so that I can ensure that my time dedicated to Hattrick is not eaten into too much by all the other stuff going on. Consequently I have found time this weekend to have a go at a couple of the special projects that I have been itching to do.

Who is the man?

Jeff Beck is clearly the man. Here I have this notion that he must be struggling to keep up with this pain-in-the-ass blog and all his stats while fighting sleep deprivation as a result of his progeny. Instead, what is he doing? The man is still doing excellent updates and then he actually GOES AND ADDS NEW STATS.

Hats off to Jeff. Seriously.

And for my part, I think the Dead Player's Society is an outstanding idea. Well done.

QF Update

All stats and results have been updated and the semifinal fixtures have been posted on the finals page. I have also created a new 'special interest' menu and included two new pages of stats with which to try and satisfy your statistical needs :)

I hope they are of interest and if you can think of any other 'special interest' pages (or wish to submit your own) then let me know.

Good luck to all still in the cup... ('cept Ellwood ;D)

In Fairness......

As 'soccer' is a derivation of 'Association Football' and 'Rugby' is a derivation of 'Rugby Football' maybe we should use a derivation of 'American Football' to keep it fair?

I suggest 'mecca' :D

"Football"

Thunder- You mean HatTrick is actually a SOCCER game?! Geez...I thought it was like NFL Europe. ;-)

Seriously, sorry for the confusion. I meant to put "football" in quotes to clarify the Americanism.

Hey-- this is from our last match, Ratz v. Saltopus:
"Dominic Winter was caught napping a bit later as Amolik Tripathi lifted a ball over him after a free kick, but the ball hit the bar, rebounding into the keepers arms."

Nice catch! This was the first time Ratz or I had seen this written in HT. Funny thing is, the same thing happened to my son (age 9) in his soccer game last weekend, only off the side bar. Isn't it amazing how HT mirrors the events of real life?

That's American football that Jay is talking about for those European folks who bewilderingly refer to soccer as "football". ;-)

Anyway, Jay........is that you that I'm up against this week in "american football"?? If it is you better watch out. Did you see how I nearly destroyed the Rusty Trombones.

Anyone notice how I forgot to set up my lineup this week and ended up playing with 10 men. I was lucky to advance. Who's next on thunder's chopping block?

I had my 3 kids (well, technically my wifey "had" them)...and only THEN did I begin with Hattrick. And perhaps only then was I ready for owning a team: late nights awake with my crying goalkeepers, obsession with my trainees' every habits, and huge smile whenever they crush the opponents in a friendly.

Johnny - I felt incredibly left out by your Playoff odds which apparently list only 7 teams. I was hoping to raise a fuss, by example, with a huge upset this week, but Ratz are too skilled and too sharp to let their guards down. I will just have to pay you back in football. Which I did.

Number 5 on the way?

Mrs Rat has given me the all clear to sire another sprog! Looks like the long winter nights may just get interesting again ;)

Seriously though, I suppose it's not too surprising that we have such a high percentage of rug-ratz (did you see what I did there?) as we are mostly the right kind of age for kid production.

Big question is... who's next? My money is on Claus... he's going to get 'broody' again and start another litter of Nielsens ;)

At Home With The Nielsens

RE:Progeny

Well,

I became a proud father to a beautiful baby sept 23 2003. And that is one of the reasons for my not so frequent appearence in this blog. Although I follow it as often I can, but not to good in posting any text.

But maybe I will someday find the time

Progeny

OK, so exactly how many children have been born since we started this whole venture? Tom had Aidan first, I think. Then I had Lily, Jeff had Jonas and Mr Two had Edan. Is that the full count, or am I missing someone?

Or does anyone else have suspicious "news" to share?

(Apologies, Mr Two. I don't think I know your actual name...)

Update Week 6

All stats updated and finals page is back up and running.

You may have noticed the new page I have added? No?!? Well I loved 'Johnny the Wop' so I have immortalised him... I hope you like it ;)

Johnny The Wop - Das Losers Odds Below

Below.........

Stones (3-1)
I swept the Stones this year in Group play. But they are still good. They drew a Series match with Ratz a couple weeks ago. If they want it, it's theirs.

Direwolf (3-1)
They lost to Le Tigre by a total of 4 goals to 2 and are the team directly responsible for me sitting in the 2 seed in the Championship round. Thank you Direwolf.

System (4-1)
What happened to the once-feared System? How far must they fall before they redeem themselves?

Thunder (4-1)
The thunder were roped into a Group that they just couldn't hang with. The Wind and Thunder are teams with similar styles and history. I've got a hunch they'll be in the finals and looking for more.

Delta (8-1)
Seriously bad Group play is landing this squad in the midst of a B-Cup to forget. Delta gets knocked out by Direwolf from the get go.

KCU (10-1)
I know nothing about this team but they lost to the 'Pus 0-5 in the last match of their group with a trip to the finals on the line. No heart.

Freaks (20-1)
I love the Freaks but they will get bounced in the first round by Stones.

Presidents (100,000-1)
This is President Bush. Das Loser of Das Losers. Might have a hard time scheduling the debate.

what?!?!

damn you Jeff! Where are your priorities?!?!?!

just kidding. great job with the updates as usual.

Week 6 Results

Tables and results updated. I have also updated the rules according to Scott's introduction of deadlines. All updated text is written in blue for ease of locating.

I have processed all the games for this week and collated the stats. All I have to do now is put them all together on this site... too tired right now but I will finish them off tomorrow and update the finals page then as well.

After next thursday I will be working evenings again (adult education class) so updates will probably not get done on thursday nights... apologies for the inconvenience :P

weird part 2

I don't see any highlighted words now either. I guess it was just my machine. I was at home so I'll have to check that out. Thanks.

Finals

Hey Tom, I don't actually see the word "money" highlighted or get any kind of link there. Does anyone else? Maybe it's just your machine.

Anyhoo, Scotty's on the road in California and has no access to the blog at the moment, so I am re-posting the finals fixtures here from his newsletter for convenience (as always, home team listed first), and don't forget CUP RULES:

Finals:
Ratz v. Saltopus
Wind v. Ellwood
Tigers v. Bonafide
BFC v. Avalanche

Das Losers Invitational:
Thunder v. Presidents
Stones v. Freaks
System v. KCU
Direwolf v. Delta

weird...

ok, I have no clue why the word "money" is highlighted in my last post, but unless you want to go to Yahoo Hot Jobs, don't click it. I tried to change the wording in hopes that it would go away but it only highlighted another word.

Any ideas???

Hey Johnny, nice odds. I had no idea there were more Swedish Hattrick players than there are Swedes. You learn something new everyday. Now how about setting the odds for the Das Losers Invitational? My money is on the the young Cinderella team out of San Mateo, California, who fought valiantly against great odds. Who fought against a couple of teams who cheated so bad that they beat our little hometown favorites, but that's neither here nor there. We tried everything to beat them. We even sent gifts, but we found out that BFC are a bunch of lushes because those cases of Courvoisier didn't seem to have any effect. In fact if anything it seemed to help their cause. That's the last time I try to get a bunch of drunks drunk. At least we had our way with Bonafide for our home leg. That was nice, and it sets up a nice tie breaker for post cup play. Two legs, aggregate, Boyd??

here's mine!

I think I see a little Jeff in there. Congrats again Jeff!

This is Aidan



aint he cuuute

Baby_Rat

For those of you that wanted to see him... here he is:

My son!



This piccy was taken on the mum-in-law's sofa and is my favourite of him so far.

Incidentally, if anyone else has a photo they would like to put in a post but cannot host it, please email it to me and I will host it for you and send you the url.

Week 5 Update

Apologies for the lateness of this update to the stats. My only excuse is that I am now back to work after the long holiday and with my son refusing point blank to sleep at night I have had problems keeping my eyes open let alone get anything done!

Still, last week's stats are now complete... all I have to do now is plan my lessons for tomorrow ;)

Oh yeah... and beat Brett ;)

whoops

I accidentaly hit enter before I even typed anything. Anyway, Jeff that's quite a personality you have there. I hope I can count myself as one of your friends and not your enemy.

Thanks for that excellent explanation about the different titles and flags. Everything is now crystal clear. hahaha. You really did your homework. Even a yank got into the explanation. ;-) Nice research Boyd.

Great picture of the Brooklyn Brigade, but who is who?

huh?

My Personality!

What Famous Leader Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

It appears that I am most similar to this guy!! Dang! :(

Odds

Wales aren't a proper country anyway... so don't deserve to be on the Union Jack ;)

(Ducks to avoid low flying sheep)

Any chance of a quid or two on wind? 100-1 odds sounds pretty darn good if you ask me :)

Flags

Thanks Jeff. I never knew that about St Patty's cross. Very interesting. So I guess the Welsh kind of get the shaft with respect to the whole Union Jack thing, eh??

Geography Lessons and Odds

All I wanted to find out is how Antonio Zedillo is doing in the "Man of the Match" race, and I get a full on geo-historical-politico lesson on the UK. Interesting shit. I never knew this Federation could educate me in so many ways.

Getting back to virtual footy here's Johnny the Wop's handicap to win this thing.

Tigers: 3-2
Is there a chance in hell someone can beat Le Tigre? Direwolf made a great at them last week. Tough series situation. Not totally invincible as he was last year.

Ratz: 3-1
Head Rat wants to have his cake and eat it too. But he's always been more interested in the B-Cup than series competition. And who can blame him? He's gonna fight to win his series, but with autopromotion a little out of reach, even harder in the Cup. Staring down top seed position.

BFC: 12-1
BFC is going to make a run. He HAS too. He'll likely face an easy qualifier to stay in his series and be afforded the luxury of playing a few studs. It's ironic that Scott - the ulitmate wing man - is training wingers. But that's beside the point.

FCB: 12-1
I personally hate this team with every ounce and shred of my body and so does each and every byte of each and every faux player on my squad. Problem is, Boyd has made some improvements that make his team scary. God damn it.

Ellwood: 12-1
Having safely landed in the upper tier of series play, Elwood is safe to make a run at this thing. Watch out for the upset from Wales, a country unto itself, in the Kingdon, on the Island of Britain. What I want to know, has anyone actually seen a hot Welsh chick?

Avs: 15-1
It's a little known fact that there are more Swedish Hattrick players than there are Swedes. No shit. I can't figure out the promotion or cup thing in Sweden since there are so many teams. Without that line in his series standings, does that mean there aren't qualifiers for 5 and 6? Whatever the case, my squad is looking forward to getting over to Stockholm next week and chasing skirt.

Wind: 100-1
This team is staring down a winner-take-all series finale of the ages. Plus, I'm sure to fuck this thing up. Some way, some how. It would be ironic if Wind actually garnered the top seed. This team has other priorities at the moment, unless we face the hated BFC.

No 8 Spot: 200-1
Likely to be Kings or The 'Pus. Likely to face Ratz. Likely to go down like Boyd's Mom in a truck stop. Hey guys, don't forget CUP RULES!!! That would be ironic, and great for System, if they played to a draw again.

Any takers?
Sic

St Patricks Cross

On the Union Jack you will see the Red Cross of St George (edged in white), the white diagonal cross of st Andrew and the red diagonal cross of st Patrick. St Patrick's cross does not appear on either the Northern Irish flag nor the Eire flag, interestingly enough. The Union Jack heralds from a time when both Britain and Ireland were united and remained the same even when most of Ireland became independent in 1921.

You are quite correct about Belize... Britain simply has a small military presence there nowadays (presumably due to Guatemalan disputes over territory and maybe due to the Queen still being the head of state?) and it is no longer a dependent.

Fun trivia!

* Tom, I will send you the photo with some caveats.

* Jeff, can you clarify exactly how the flag of St Patrick is incorporated? That's a surprise to me.

* "Limey" is indeed still in use, at least on this side of the pond, although my understanding is that it's used in a vaguely playful and teasing way, much as the word "yank" is used, i.e.: no Brit would refer to another Brit as a limey, and no American would refer to another American as a yank.

* Belize, formerly "British Honduras" has been independent of the crown for some time.

* Isle of Man is under sovereignty of the British crown but lacks the standing of Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland. It is also an international tax haven, just behind although not used quite as much as the Caymans, Jersey or Guernsey.

But then I've already said too much... ;-)

Anyone feeling the need to sing "Three Lions" should now do so.

Slight Error!

As I couldn't really explain the Isle of Man's involvement in the UK very well I decided to do a little research... and this is what I dug up:

Nuts... can't copy and paste! grrrrrrrrr

Here's the link if you are interested ;)

http://www.iomguide.com/government.php

Basically it says that Man is NOT a part of the UK and is totally independant (where was their olympic team then? :P)

However, The Isle of Man is a 'dependancy' in the same way that Anguilla, Bermuda, British Indian Ocean Territory, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Falkland Islands, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Jersey, Montserrat, Pitcairn Islands, Saint Helena, South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands are all dependancies.

And to clarify on the flag issue, Tom, St Georges cross is the national flag of England. The Union Jack is the flag of the UK (it is made up of the flags of St George (England), St Andrew (Scotland) and St Patrick (Ireland) to symbolise the union of these three countries)

Cheers Tom :)

And hard luck in your game... I think James is a little gutted too ;)

On the subject of the Motherland here is UK:101 for youse colonials ;P

• England is a country.
  
• Britain is the island that consists of England, Wales and Scotland.
• Great Britain is the group of islands that consists of Britain and a whole bunch of other little islands (eg Anglesea, Shetlands, Skye, Man etc etc).
• The United Kingdom (or UK) is a shortened version of 'The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland'.

I am sure one of my fellow 'Limeys' (is that term even used anymore?) will correct anything I have gotten wrong in my sleep-deprived state ;)

Basically (This may not be 100% accurate as there is soooo much history behind these relationships) the UK is made up of four (maybe more) countries (England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Isle of Man... although how Man exactly relates to the rest of the UK I am not entirely sure :P), one principality (Wales) and a host of semi-independent Islands (eg Jersey and Guernsey).

The UK also acts as Protectorate (i think that is the right term) of several (Puppet?) states around the world, The Falklands and Belize being just two.

Essentially the UK is governed from one administrative body in Westminster (a city in it's own right inside London) but each of the different 'states' has limited administrative powers and legislative bodies.

As an aside the country of Eire (Southern Ireland) is not included in any of the terms used above as it is totally independent of the UK.

great looking tables Jeff!

I like the new look Jeff. The flags are great. Unless something else changed, in which case I'm a total idiot.

I have a question for the UK people out there. I hope you don't think me as ignorant or anything , but I was just hoping that you could explain something to me. I'm also hoping that as a fellow Brooky Cupper you will lend me a little slack in my ignorance. :-)

I would like to know the difference between England, the United Kingdom, and Great Brittan. And also the difference between the King Georges cross flag and the Union Jack. I'm pretty sure I understand the England, UK difference, but where does Great Brittan fall in there?

Thanks for helping out a brother from across the pond in clarifying a long time burning question.

Week 5 Results

Results and tables have been updated. There is a slight modification to the tables... don't they look pretty now? ;)

Noooooooooo!

It looks like another appointment to the Das Losers Invitational. Scott, you are absolutely right.......I should have won that match. ;-) How much did you line the referee's pockets with??

Next week should be another good one. Of course because you beat me twice Scott I must root against you and your evil cartel. Boyd......I'm counting on you. Now the word is that you need to get those players good and drunk so you distract the team and I'll slip a dozen or so ruffies into their Gatorade. That ought to do it.

Mike, you can't tease that picture of the Brooklyn Brigade and not expect me to bite. Of course I want to see. tnatusch@hotmail.com