Friday
Although the world cup in Athens was a great experience for me socially, my performance was quite disappointing. I was particularly shocked to see how easy it was for many players to defend against me. I went from a 6.5 goal average in 14 World Cups to a lousy 4.13 in 2022. It was obvious to me that the game had evolved, and I felt like I needed to change something if I wanted to knock on the elite group's door ever again. It was time for some tough decisions, and the first one was to change my main formation to 4-2-4. The oversimplified reasoning behind this decision was that I'd rather lose matches by 7-6 than by 5-2. Of course, just changing formation will not take you far. I also decided to practice, and study the gameplay of my strongest opponents to try and copy some of their moves. I knew I could never play like Gianni or Thor, so I chose Fabio as the man to copy as his tactical approach amazes me. I particularly studied his moves whenever he attacks after a goal kick or the ball is in his keeper's hands, as he scores a ridiculous amount of goals then. Oh, and his kick off lob! So, I went to this World Cup with a PLAN (I made the mistake of describing it to Robert, which of course set me up for him taking the piss for the whole weekend) and hopes for some improvement.
I had been talking to my friends like my World Cup attendance was certain throughout the year, but the truth is I was only able to confirm rather late. The reason was that November was a very busy month at work, and I needed to be sure that taking time off would not cause any problems. That was the reason I did not book my arrival for earlier than Friday. I chose a layover in Istanbul, as that was the most convenient one in terms of arrival/departure times and costs at the time I booked the tickets. It took me forever to go through with the online check-in, as the website of Turkish Airlines did not appear to work correctly. Nikos had different times so I traveled alone. The departure was delayed by 20 minutes, I didn't think it would cause me any trouble as the layover was an hour and a half. And sure enough, we landed with no further delay. But then for some reason -I guess the airport was too busy- it took us 40 additional minutes to get off the plane. I talked to the flight attendants to let them know that I had a connect flight to Malaga, they assured me that it wouldn't be a problem. There was no one waiting to take people who had connect flights to their gates as per usual procedure. The distance between the gates was too long, Murphy's law made it so I had to run to the other end of an extremely large airport. Just as I had my gate in sight and thought I was going to make it, I looked up at the board and saw "Last Call" change to "Gate Closed". 5 seconds later I was there but of course, nothing could be done. I had missed my flight.
A lady who barely spoke any English pointed me to the general direction of the desk where I could go find out what would happen next. I got there and texted Rodolfo to let him know what had happened while waiting in queue. As I'm sure you can imagine, I was worried sick as I felt that my World Cup attendance was in jeopardy. What if there were no other flights to Malaga in the next 24 hours? Would I need to travel to another Spanish city and then maybe take a bus? Would they even allow me to pick such a flight? The only good news was that I only had carry-ons on me, so no lost luggage to additionally worry about. Eventually, they put me on a Saturday morning flight to Malaga. I asked the clerk what time the flight would arrive to Spain, literally holding my breath for the answer. When the reply was "11:30" the relief I felt was beyond words. I missed Friday evening fun but I would be in Torremolinos in time for the games. The worst had been avoided, I could relax. There was a very long bus ride to the hotel in Istanbul, I met some nice Serbian guys who had missed their flight to Belgrade and even had dinner with them later on, chatting mostly about 90s basketball. The complimentary buffet was awful, but luckily you could order some decent food at very low prices. I spent the rest of the evening watching a couple of movies and feeling jealous over pictures of the rest of the KOAers getting together.
Saturday
I had to wake up very early, as the shuttle that would carry all the people who had missed their flights left at 5 am. There was heavy rain during the 1h+ ride, and I couldn't help but notice lightnings in the northwest. Would my flight be extremely bumpy, or even cancelled entirely? I arrived at the airport and saw that sure enough, flights were being cancelled left and right:
I was gutted to see that my new friends would not get to travel to Belgrade after all. Of course, now that I had three hours until my flight, the gate I needed to reach was the closest of all. Luckily, the skies cleared in the meantime and the flight was lovely. I watched Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny expecting it to be crap and me to fall asleep, but it was actually quite good! I took a taxi from Malaga airport to the Moon Dreams hotel, checked in and gathered my stuff for the short walk to the Amaragua. I noticed with some amusement that I had forgotten to pack my Crystal Palace shirt, given to me by Steve Screech, which I always bring during world cups to wear in case I make it to the final. The thought never occured to me, as I was obviously not kidding myself any more. I arrived at the venue and registered, then said quick hellos to people left and right. I had made it even in time for the very original card draw. All was right with the world again.
Fabien S - Alkis P 2-7
Meeting new people: Something I am never too happy to do, unless it's in Kick Off 2 World Cups! Especially when they give me the opportunity to speak French, something I rarely get to do. Incidentally, I also spoke French to Frederic, happy to finally see a Belgian player for the first time ever. Frederic at some point was saying something to me about a line, which I couldn't understand. What was that line about? He was asking me whether I ever played on line ("en ligne"), an expression that did not exist when I was living in Brussels as a teenager, and so I could not decipher!
Michele L - Alkis P 3-9
In his 10th consecutive World Cup, Michele is the definition of loyalty. We all love his devotion and attitude towards the game.
Rodolfo M - Alkis P 1-6
Next was the host, and I can't believe I am even writing the words Rodolfo and World Cup host in the same sentence! Once the loneliest traveler, now a part of a four-team organizing committee of a Spanish World Cup, I bet it felt surreal to him as well.
Alkis P - Grzegorz P 3-2
Steve Camber later asked me what the hell happened in this game, how did I get so close to losing points to a player who ended up in the Game of Shame? I could say that I played like crap, but that would be unfair to Grzegorz. He actually gave me an excellent game, the closer to the end we got the more confident he became that he could get a result.
Alkis P - Mark W 5-2
Just like Rodolfo, Mark is one of my oldest friends in the KOA. He was underperforming but for the second game in a row, I felt that my offense was not working again.
Christopher D - Alkis P 5-3
Now for the big guns, time to see if the PLAN had any chance of working. And although I did not score that well, I gave Chris a good game. I think it was a draw at half time and 4-3 for a long time.
Alkis P - Fabio F 3-9
A game I was really looking forward to, the one against the player I had studied more than anyone. The student against the unknowing teacher! And it was a disaster. Fabio scored on pretty much every attack. The only satisfaction I had was scoring his own kick off lob routine against him.
Alkis P - Klaus L 7-2
One of the handful or survivors of Dartford 2001, Klaus is the second foreigner I ever played Kick Off 2 against, in a hotel room a day before the first official KOA tournament was even held. I'm glad we're still around!
I took a look at the other groups. 3 Spanish made it to the top 16, but Nikos and Robert didn't. Frederic looked like a very strong newcomer. After a very entertaining Game of Shame, it was time to regroup and go out for dinner. Two large KOA groups took over the same narrow street, the guy I ordered my arrabbiata from apparently heard "extra spicy" instead of "not too spicy" but other than that, it was a fantastic evening. I should point out that it felt great to meet David for the first time after e-knowing him for 20 years, as well as Rodolfo's nieces. Rodolfo used to tell me that he played Dyna Blaster with them on the Amiga when they were little, something I now do with my daughter, and here they were writing down our scores as young women. And, of course, I should not forget to mention Rusa, we teased Rodolfo a lot about her insinuating that she was imaginary before we were able to confirm that she was indeed flesh and blood.
Sunday
I had a very hard group in front of me, with several people who had defeated me the year before against whom I needed to seek 'revenge'.
Mario F - Alkis P 9-3
The elder Fichera brother effortlessly swept me away, as easily as Fabio had. I was gutted.
Alkis P- Alessandro V 9-5
Alessandro and I ignored all modern trends about constant tactic changes and clinical passing, and had a good old-fashioned lobfest.
Samuel G - Alkis P 2-3
A very tough game against Samu, who had defeated me in Athens. I was very nervous and even missed a penalty kick at the end of the first half, but I managed to get that win and maintain my hopes for a place in the group's top four.
Alkis P - Christopher D 3-6
Another tough match, similar to the one we had on Saturday but again Chris defended very well and beat me a little more easily than in the first round.
Alkis P - Frank 6-2
I was very focused in the match against Frank, right before the most crucial games.
Thor S - Alkis P 3-2
I was desperate for a win against Thor, who had already secured the first place of the group. I gave him everything I had in what was probably my best match in Malaga, but I still couldn't get the necessary goals I needed. He looked bored, but kind enough to notice that I had changed my style.
Lorenzo L - Alkis P 5-2
Mario's win against Chris meant that my last game against Lorenzo was of no importance, as I could not qualify even with a win. I still tried my best, but again, only scored twice against a very difficult opponent who was still undefeated at that point.
Steve B - Alkis P 4-6
Alkis Steve B 6-5
My third consecutive 9th place final featured two very close games against Steve Baker, who had considerably improved since Athens with some outlandish results such as 8-8 versus Thor and 6-6 versus Andy. So, here I was, out of the quarter finals for three World Cups in a row, after being in them in my first 13 competitions. The PLAN had failed miserably; compared to 2022, my offense barely improved (4.88 instead of 4.13) while my defense clearly suffered (3.94 compared to 2.63). I made the Norwegians sweat for their wins, but my 4-0 / 4-4 against the Ficheras became two heavy 9-3 losses. And I can understand that. You don't turn into Dagh overnight just by switching to 4-2-4. Overall, my performance in Malaga was boring, completely devoid of excitement, the absolute PAR. I was seeded 9th and finished 9th. I beat every player who was seeded below me and lost to every player who was seeded above me. Even my ranking points were just 1.05 points. Will I stick to this formation in the future? Probably, I have not decided yet.
Speaking of the seedings, this year they were amazingly accurate. For the first time ever, the top 8 seeded players were in the quarter finals and the top 4 were in the semi finals. The biggest mistake was Mark, who performed way differently than his seeding but regulars may remember that he does it every time. In the next competition, we will put him in the 6th seeding group and he will beat me in the 9th place final, just wait and see. Some people after the end of the 1st round pointed out that we had placed Fran and Samu too low in the 5th seed, but considering that they ended up 14th and 16th respectively, it couldn't have been that wrong. It seems that we have a great number of players of similar strength for positions 9-20 who are very hard to rate, and will get different results each time they play against each other. Would it have been more accurate to seed Robert and Nikos in the 5th group?
I watched the final matches of the Silver Cup groups with great interest. The finalists were decided in the final seconds of the final matches of each group, with Jorn and Nikos losing their place by an inch. In the final, Frederic came very close to repeating the exact same performance Gabriele had the year before, winning the best defense trophy and the Silver Cup, but Robert exhibited cold blood in a way that I would have thought impossible a few years back, came back from trailing 0-3 to win it on extra time.
The final four was played at a level I can only dream of, especially the matchup between Andy and Thor was absolutely amazing. In the end, Thor prevailed in one more final and won his third gold medal. Then it was time for the ending ceremony, and I was happy to see Oliver receive his award, always an emotional moment for even the toughest bastards of us.
Sunday dinner was fantastic as expected. Somehow the word got out that I was the person who had initiated the "no alcohol in the tournament room" rule in the last two world cups, as three different people approached me to politely express their disagreement. Although I still think it's a good idea, it does seem to go against what the majority wants so I will not insist.
Monday
Tourism day! We visited Malaga with Rodolfo, Rusa, Cornelius, Alessandro, Robert and Gianni. It's not often that we get to walk around in short sleeves in world cups, I'm so glad we got to do it for two years in a row. We visited the castle and took some great pictures. Overall, it was a fantastic event. Even when things went wrong, like the software glitch, they were very quick and efficient to react. Rodolfo, Fran, Samu, Luis, Rusa, Clara and Elisa have every reason to feel proud and I thank them for their hospitality.
On Friday we had a very early plane from Milan and I left Teviso in the morning . Luckily Alessandro offered me a splendidly warm and welcoming bed in his sweet home and with his splendid family. I couldn't have started the trip better. Now the toxins of work were starting to pass. At 4:18 we picked up the Champion. I knew that we would be on the road for the last time Champion and Vice (but I didn't imagine, unfortunately for him).
. My last 2 games were an honor to play against Rodolfo, he had a great first game 8-3 and in the second game I was one goal short of tying, it ended 5-1, 9-8 overall. 
